Sony HDR-SR8

Sony's latest sets a new standard for HD.

Hi-Def isn't just about boosting resolution, you know. Sony's new 100GB camcorder also uses the latest x.v.Colour technology to deliver eye-bleedingly bright colours that make earlier HD cams look as though they were shooting through pre-smoking-ban pub smog.

The SR8 is a class act from top to tail. It's fronted by a pin-sharp, 10x Carl Zeiss zoom that can resolve the knackers on a nit at 100 paces, stores over 13 hours of top-quality, 1080i HD footage (38 hours at long play quality) on its 100GB hard drive, and is built to last from black ABS.

All your favourite Sony features are here: Super SteadyShot optical stabilisation, Super NightShot for infrared, night-time filming and a punchy 2.7-inch touchscreen - sadly not called Super ScreenyThing - to control it all.

A dial on the lens lets you manually adjust focus, white balance or exposure, although shutter speed and iris values remain beyond your greedy grasp. Sound is recorded directly into Dolby Digital 5.1.

Full HD movies are supremely confident, bursting with detail and luxuriating in those sumptuous colours. Low-light shooting is perhaps the SR8's only weakness, as the autofocus slows down and noise creeps into normally pristine visuals. Six-meg stills aren't amazing, but then they're not why you're buying this.

The SR8 has HDMI output, but you don't get an HDMI cable - especially annoying as it uses a non-standard mini socket. You'll also need a second battery if you want more than 95 minutes of recording.

But these are niggles so minor, we almost feel guilty making them about such a beautiful device. This is the new benchmark for HD camcorders.