Gadgetory

what's up prized by fans it's time for tech showdown throwdown I'm Brian Tong and we're here to find out who reigns supreme in the battle between flash based high-definition camcorders in this week's prize fight it's a face-off between canons Vixia HF 10 and Sony's handycam HDR cx-7 let's get right to it with round 1 we're talking design both of these cameras feature a sleek and shiny black chassis that are drool worthy but when it comes to operation that's a different story canons hf 10 features a joystick based control on the side of the LCD and its physical buttons are larger and easy to press Sony's cx-7 uses a touchscreen interface that is cool in concept but it's just not as easy to use and it's buttons or smaller targets to hit the H f10 takes it this round with a 4 um and the cx-7 gets a 3 next up features the H f10 brings all the connections you can think of without the use of a dock a key feature is the mic input that many cameras at this level ignore and it also has manual controls and a longer 12x zoom lens the cx-7 touts XV color technology but it's not a big enough difference to make up for a lack of mic input and headphone jack also it says full HD but this camera only records at 1440 by 1080 resolution and not the full 1920 by 1080 high-definition to dock for additional connections that are built in to the hf 10 Canon hit Sony Boone in the chin in this round the hf 10 hum gets a 4 and the cx-7 gets a 2 cannons up by 3 it's gut check time for Sony next round is about performance flash-based cameras are snappy when it comes to starting up and start step execution but autofocus exposure and image stabilization are the real indicators the H f10 has some of the best focused characteristics in a consumer camera that we've ever seen and it has a solid fast focus and image stabilization that works all the way out to its 12x oom the CX 7 is just as good it has a snappy autofocus with great auto exposure its Zeiss T star coated lens is superb and it has image stabilization that covers the entire lens range as well both of these cameras bring excellent performance to the table and we're handing out huh fours to everybody it's still a three point lead for the HF 10 and next round is about compatibility both of these cameras support AVC HD so how compatible are they to work with well the hf 10 was able to handle plane and editing at both the full high def and 1440 by 1080 resolutions it also uses the more common SDHC cards to record media now with the cx-7 we had no issues with plane or editing in its files but the main bummer is that it still uses Sony's proprietary and more expensive memory stick duo Pro cards no surprise there with these two cameras it's the media format that makes a difference the hf 10 um gets a 4 and the cx-7 gets a 3 the hf 10 leads by 4 going into the final round it will take a miraculous comeback for Sony to take the lead but it's still not too late for a knockout punch the final round is about what we care about with our camcorders video quality camcorders of this caliber look great no matter what but it's little things that make the difference the hf 10s video quality is very good in bright and low-light conditions but its inconsistencies in photo versus video wipeouts make it lag behind the cx-7 the CX sevens clear vid sensor produces great sharp images as well but Sony's attention to still image quality gives it the slight edge over the hf 10 in the final round we're giving the hf 10 a 3 and the CX 700 for the hf 10 is crowned champion 19 to 16 i'm bryan song and we'll catch you guys next time on another prize fight