Handycam Top Model - Hi8 CCD-TR700

King of the Hill

Sony's latest camcorder, the Hi8 CCD-TR700, reigns as new king of the Handycam line. And rightly so: this little unit boasts numerous niceties, including a 10x multispeed zoom lens, color viewfinder, optical image stabilization, a full complement of manual controls and rewriteable consumer (RC) time code support.

The TR700's lens offers all the control of an outer focus design with the reduced size of an inner focus system. A large, knurled focus ring sits right where you'd expect it, around the lens. It's as smooth and responsive as any focus system--you can even zoom in tight to focus, backing out to frame the shot. Most inner focus systems don't allow this focusing technique.

Full-range autofocus works without a hitch from infinity to about 1/4-inch. It locks in fast, with almost no autofocus shimmer. You can shoot subjects just three feet away with full telephoto, giving a compressed, distant look to small objects. If only all inner focus lenses were so well designed.

The Sony has two zoom speeds, one nice and slow and the other quite fast. The rocker has two very distinct positions; so it's easy to select and stay on a given speed. Both are very usable, though I can't help wonder why Sony didn't opt for more speeds on the TR700. Steady Shot optical image stabilization moves a portion of the lens assembly to actually steer the incoming light. The Sony system works extremely well, canceling out even severe camera shake with no loss of resolution. It's amazing how much easier it is to manual focus on a subject that's not shaking all around the frame. It seems Sony's improved Steady Shot since its introduction; it now does a better job with quick jitters or vibrations. The Sony's LCD color viewfinder is plenty sharp for consistent manual focus, delivering about 250 lines of horizontal resolution. Colors are rich and natural; you forget almost instantly that you're looking through a viewfinder, much more so than with a monochrome display. Underneath the viewfinder are recessed controls for hue, color and brightness.

Another big bonus of color viewfinders is the ability to check white balance at a glance. If you must make adjustments, you'll know right away.

Behind Door Number One

A sliding door on the left side of the TR700 covers buttons for manual focus, manual iris, program auto exposure modes and white balance. Manual iris is absolute, meaning it holds one iris setting regardless of changes in lighting conditions. A knurled ring near the sliding door adjusts iris, with an indicator in the viewfinder showing its position. This is as good a manual iris system you'll find on any compact camcorder. The Sony's four auto exposure modes set shutter speed to control image sharpness and depth of field. Portrait mode varies shutter speed up to 1/2000th of a second; sports goes as high as 1/500th. High speed shutter locks exposure at 1/4000th for freezing fast action. What does twilight mode do? As near as I can tell, it simply reduces the iris in low light situations to reduce gain noise--shutter speed stays locked at 1/60th. White balance modes include continuous auto, hold, indoor and outdoor. Like iris and exposure, white balance returns to auto mode when you close the sliding door. Other controls fall outside the sliding door, on the infrared remote, or in the Sony's on-screen menu.

The CCD-TR700 has two fade modes, both linked to the record trigger. One is the traditional black, the other mosaic. Both fade audio as well as video. You can't hold down fade to record black, but you can achieve the same effect by manually closing the iris down. The infrared remote is the key to the Sony's advanced transport modes, as many of the buttons fall on the remote only. These include forward/reverse frame advance and forward/reverse 2x play. The TR700 is unique in that it allows you to hear audio in the 2x forward play mode. The result is a bit garbled, but it can help you locate edit points based on the audio program.

An audible beep sounds when you start or stop recording, helping to avoid that embarrassing "I didn't know it was recording" footage. You can disable the beep with the Sony's menu system, but I found it useful enough to leave on. The sound is not recorded onto tape.

It's About Time

Everyone knows that time code is necessary for accurate editing; what no one can figure out is why so few domestic camcorders support it. Thankfully, the TR700 breaks Sony's recent trend to leave RCTC support off its camcorders. The unit offers the ability to read and write RC time code, as well as stripe pre-recorded tapes. The button for the latter function, Time Code Write, exists only on the remote.

The TR700 will also record, erase and locate index marks. This makes it easier to find specific sections on tape, but there's a catch. Turns out the index information resides in the same area as the time code. When you record or erase an index mark, you kill the RCTC in that section. A Counter/TC switch controls whether the TR700 displays normal real-time counter information or time code. The Sony records data code as well; this allows you to view the date you actually shot the footage when you play it back. This beats recording the date onto your footage permanently, and avoids the risk of forgetting to shut time/date stamp off.