There are three types of people out there: people that just want a camcorder to point and shoot with, people that want that and a bit more, and professionals. The Sony Handycam HDR-TG7VE is definitely not a camcorder for the professional looking to catch some great video action but rather for the two other types of users that want something to be done quick and good without too much hassle.

As you pretty much know, the Sony brand is famous for producing high quality multimedia devices from VCR's to the Blu-ray playing PlayStation 3 and its series of cameras and camcorders. The Sony Handycam HDR-TG7VE ultra-compact HD camcorder was first announced somewhere around April 2, 2009 and it goes without saying that it created a bit of a hype when it was presented by the maker.

I mean, a 16GB internal memory camcorder with up to six hours of Full HD recording, the possibility of expanding its memory with Sony's (proprietary) Memory Stick cards, a 4-megapixel CMOS sensor and GPS that does automatic geotagging. Even I that consider myself pretty much of a professional in the matter of video recording slash editing thought “Hey! This might be a... handy cam to have around!”

Well, now it is time to put it through some serious testing and see how its 4-megapixel CMOS sensor and Carl Zeiss lens fare when faced with a user that wants to squeeze the best out of it. Because when you buy a device, you usually expect to get a lot more from it and you test every option, fiddle with every setting and try out every option that you see in the menu. No matter whether you're a light user, medium-skilled video recording aficionado or professional, human curiosity always gets the best of you when trying out a new device.

The lowest price I could find for the Sony Handycam HDR-TG7VE is about 572 pounds (around 934 USD), should you decide to purchase it upon reading the entire review. Speaking about the entire review... time go onward to the Design and Aesthetics category.