Sony HDR-FX1: Consumer High Definition Camcorder

Those of you who are of the mentality that smaller is better, may want to rethink that philosophy - at least as it pertains to camcorders. We all know that high definition is where it's at in terms of jaw-dropping visual quality. How nice would it be to be able to record our home movies in the same vein? Sony has just introduced the world to the HDR-FX1 High Definition Camcorder. Why should you care? Put simply, it enters another consumer level high def recorder into the market, and that brings prices down. This bad boy records in 1080i, and when compared to a regular camcorder, the difference is immediately apparent. A test recording of written text from a book showed that even the fine print was legible on the HDR-FX1 in comparison to the same recording on a normal camcorder where the text was blurry and illegible.

The HDR-FX1 weighs a good 4.4 pounds, and is set to go on sale next month in Japan for about 400,000 yen. That equates to roughly $3,600 USD. The recorder should be available in the States by the end of 2004.