Sony DCR-DVD708E Handycam (REVIEW)

kinshuk99 · 08-06-2007, 06:59 PM

With so many camcorders, formats and makes, to choose from, there's always a certain uncertainty whether the camera you picked up is better than the others available in the market. Sony, with it's majority share of the market is generally considered a safe bet - partly because of the attention that its brand name commands and even due to the simple fact that they do seem to provide quite a bang for your buck.

Do their DVD camcorders live up to their reputation? Only one way to find out.

The 708E is kinda big, considering the camcorders we've reviewed before, but I guess that comes with being a DVD camcorder. But since the DVD part comes right where your handgrip is, it gets a bit uncomfortable to hold for long periods. Not something that's a big issue though, but it still needs to be mentioned.

The thing about Sony handycams is that the interface is pretty much identical in all their models, and the same applies here. There's the trusty touchscreen interface that manages to pack in a lot more than most other uncomfortable button interfaces that I've seen in mid-range camcorders. You can use the interface for just about every function of the camera and it feels a lot more natural too than using something hidden behind the screen flap.

As one can expect, you have the option to shoot videos in widescreen (16:9) or fullscreen (4:3) aspect ratio. As appealing as it may seem, if you use a fullscreen TV at home, then I would strongly advise against shooting in widescreen mode as the anamorphic widescreen video simply stretches itself to fit itself to all the edges of the display. On a 4:3 regular TV, this results in everything appearing vertically stretched.

The mic on top of the camera is capable of recording full 5.1 channel audio, which is very impressive. The problem i have with the front microphone system on camcorders is that they usually fail to capture the voice of the person shooting the video very clearly, but here, the sound from all channels was very clear, even when the output was in stereo. Impressive!

A standard 80 mm 1.4 GB DVD is what the 708E uses for storage, so you can expect around 30 minutes of high quality video from that. Needless to say, if you are going on a vacation with this cam, you better be packing a whole lot of these DVDs. Luckily, these discs are not hard to find in most tourist friendly places around the world.

If you want to get really adventurous, there's also Sony's Night Shot mode, which shoots using the infrared light for lighting up even the most pitch dark environments. Of course the video will appear green when shooting in this mode but it's something that works a lot better than having a little flash on the camcorder.

Having said that, I do believe that the package would have been complete if Sony'd included a flash in the 708E. Firstly it would have greatly helped when shooting still images. Secondly, not everyone may appreciate the idea of appearing ghost-like in the infra-red mode. Still, there is a mount on top for adding a flash, if you feel the need.

So after all that hype that's been created in recent times with DVD camcorders, it's time to get a few things out in the clear. The biggest advantage you'll have is that you can you burn your footage directly to the DVD, which you can use in any DVD player without the involvement of a PC in between. It does NOT mean that you will get better quality video than what you would otherwise get from say Mini DV or Hard drive based camcorders.

That said, I found the overall video quality in the 708E pretty good. There were those incredibly annoying scanlines that you normally get from the interlaced videos on standard definition camcorders, but that aside, the camcorder made exceptional use of the available lighting in every environment to get the right exposure levels. This resulted in all the colors being brought out to their full capacity, resulting in a rich and crisp video quality.

The part I especially appreciated was that it adapted itself very well to most indoor lighting conditions. Where most other camcorders, that I've tested, gave me the typical green tinge in florescent lighting and the excess yellow in tungsten, but the white balance in 708E was quick to adapt to these conditions.

Detail levels didn't leave much to complain about either. Zooming into objects produced all the minute details pretty clearly as long as my hand stayed still.

In the end, there isn't much I can complain about in the Sony 708E handycam, especially considering that the results were just about as good as it gets from a camcorder at a price tag of Rs. 24,999.
8) 8) 8) 8)

Original source of this review is http://www.tech2.com