Sony goes high and low end with new camcorders

Sony Handycam
Golfers rejoice - Sony is here to fix your swing

Sony has unveiled a number of additions to its camcorder range, with 15 new models to its Handycam range and a new model for capturing day to day footage.

The Handycam range includes both HDD and Flash memory-based models, as well as a dual memory cards slots on the HDR-AX2000E, a professional camera that can be bought in both SD and Memory Stick formats.

This means the heavyweight machine can keep shooting footage even when one of the cards is used up, and a large 3.2-inch LCD screen to check out your footage.

The more mainstream Handycam range includes the CX550V, XR550V, CX350V, XR350V, CX305 models, which offer double the angle capability for wider scene capture.

Menage a camcorder

Sony is also claiming that its mid-to-high-end HD camcorders will also be more stable, thanks to combining optical and electrical image stabilisation in a '3-way' (come on, don't be immature) anti-shake performance.

Although the range comprises of both SD and HD capable models, each one (apart from the lower level SD models) will be using Sony's Exmor R CMOS Sensor with 2x increase in sensitivity, with an increase in light sensitivity.

All the HD models capture to AVCHD and record in 24fps, thus offering the smoothest playback available on the format.

And to top it all off, Sony has added in Golf Mode – yes, now you can check your swing frame-by-frame, with a series of hi-res images recorded at 200fps, with a slow motion video highlighting how badly you shanked the ball into the rough.

All these lovely new camcorders from Sony will be available from February 2010.

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Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.