The Sony VX1000 was among the first 'prosumer' camcorders to be employed professionally. Sony followed it years later with the VX2000 series. The secret to success in both cases was the following recipe: a handheld camera that, although expensive in consumer terms, cost peanuts to professional outfits.

In a climate where fly-on-the-wall documentary flourished, the VX series of camcorders were perfectly poised to go places where shoulder mounted cameras simply couldn't - and at a fraction of the price.

Naturally, nowadays this market segment attracts all the big manufacturers. The closest competition to the FX7 is perhaps the Panasonic AVG-100B. However, the FX7 seemingly trumps that model in one very important area: it provides HDV recording.

The FX7 looks very similar to a VX camera. Users familiar with those models will feel immediately at ease with the FX7. Sony has wisely adopted a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' policy. Everything on the camcorder is placed exactly as one might expect.

The front of the FX7 features a Carl Zeiss 20x (optical) zoom lens. This can be guarded by the supplied, but removable, lens hood. This hood also features a built-in lens cover so there are never 'where have I put the lens cap' moments.

Freewheeling focus and zoom rings sit behind the lens, with a push button autofocus and exposure/iris button with adjustment wheel also here. Just before the LCD is a switchable off/1/2 neutral density filter and three programmable Assign buttons.

Beneath the LCD are expanded focus and focus buttons, a MemoryStick Pro, USB, HDMI and earphones port, and picture profile and status check buttons. The 3.5in LCD is a 16:9 ratio display, accompanied by the usual transport controls. In addition is a Zebra off/70/100 slider switch.

Three Assign buttons here also double as MemoryStick play, index and delete controls. Gain, shutter speed, white balance and menu changes are all initiated by pressing the relevant push button at the rear of the camera and then altered using the push-button dial wheel beneath.

More socketry at the rear, to the right of the battery, includes componentout, AV-out and DV/HDV. The DC socket sits below these. The only addition to the usual grip and zoom rocker affair on the right of the camera is the LANC socket.

It is all carried about by a sturdy handle at the top of the camcorder with an accessory shoe, record button, zoom rocker and microphone jack. It's a camcorder that looks purposeful and has a nice sturdy feel in the hand. The weight of the camcorder is balanced well. It remains comfy to shoot handheld for longer than expected.

A final point worthy of praise is the inclusion of an additional full-size eyecup. This is included as standard, rather than an upgrade.

The FX7 features six image-processing settings known as Picture Presets. Two are fully user programmable, the remaining four are pre-defined. The existing Picture Presets are: Portrait, Cinema, Sunset and Monotone. Each facilitates a good degree of tweaking.

It's possible to alter colour level and phase, sharpness, skin tone, white balance shift and cinema tone gamma (on or off). It's then possible to name and save the preset as desired.

Another handy feature is the SMTH SLW REC feature. As one might imagine, this stands for Smooth Slow Recording and allows a burst of frames to be captured, minus sound, to produce a slow motion effect.