Length:: 5:58 Mins

Pure AWESOMENESS:
(1) 26.3mm wide angle lens. You don't need a wide angle adapter anymore, this lens is beautiful at 26.3mm and does not have noticeable lens distortion.

(2) True 24p frame rate. Not 24 fake frames in a 60i wrapper, but actual 23.98 progressive. Perfect for filmmakers, especially combined with Sony's Cinema Tone color preset. I believe this is first consumer Sony Handycam that shoots 24p.

(3) 1080/60p at 28Mbps. Image quality looks more real than real. You can also get fantastic slow motion out of 1080p - most cameras shoot 60p at 720 not 1080.

(4) 96GB of internal flash storage. More than I'll ever need and with the ability to transfer my footage directly to an external hard drive without using a computer. At first I thought the extra USB cable that comes out of the camera will get in the way of shooting, but it tucks nicely into it's own plastic holder on the strap.

(5) Great in low light. I compared this to my previously owned Canon HFS200 and Panasonic HMC40 and the CX700 is sees more with better clarity and color rendition. And when low light ain't low enough for you, the NIGHT VISION mode sees in the dark. It makes me want to do bad things with it, but in a good way.

(6) The peaking functions make focus simple and easy with three colors to choose from (white, red, or yellow).

Kind of ANNOYING, but I could live with it:
(1) The control dial is too sensitive. The control wheel on the Canon HFS200/20/21 has more accurate functionality.

(2) The placement of the hot shoe, mic, and headphone inputs get in the way of actually holding the camera. Also, the hot shoe is propriety to Sony, so you will need to purchase an adapter if you are using third party hardware.

(3) Most of the functions are buried within the touch screen menu system. So ever single time you want to adjust a setting, you need to dig through the menu list. This wastes a lot of time.

(4) Although, the Geotagging is a cool idea, you need Sony software in order to view your GPS locations in each clip. You cannot see this info in Quicktime.

The DEALBREAKER:
(666) You cannot control Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Exposure at the same time! The control dial lets you select ONE setting and then all other settings are automatic. So if you set your shutter speed to 1/48 and then want to lock your exposure, the minute you switch in the menu, the shutter speed goes into auto mode. And worst of all, you cannot view the Aperture, Shutter Speed, and Exposure values on the LCD display at the same time. You really have no idea what 2 out of the 3 you are controlling.

When I had a Canon HV20, there used to be a trick to set and lock the Aperture, Shutter, and Exposure - [...]. With the CX700, you can't do that. And even if you CAN, Sony does not make it very intuitive to do because I searched through the manual and played with the camera menu for hours and couldn't find a solution. But hey, I might be retarded, so if anyone can figure this out please let me know. I guess if you want full manual control, you need to step up to Sony's Prosumer cameras.

All in all, this is a fantastic step forward for Sony handycams, but one giant leap backward.

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P.S. --- I imported the footage into Final Cut Pro 7 and the LOG AND TRANSFER does not recognize the 1080/60p footage. I am not sure if Apple will release an update OR if Sony wants to force you to use Vegas or their own transcoding software.