Sony usually does a solid job with its cameras–camcorders included–so it won’t come as a surprise for most of you for me to tell you that the Sony XR500V is very much a solid job.

The Sony XR500v is a twelve megapixel camcorder with a built in one hundred and twenty gig hard drive capable of storing as much as–get this–forty eight hours of high definition video. That is a LOT of video.  But it also features a Bionz image processor, a 3.2 inch LCD display with color viewfinder, face detection systems, Smile Shutter technology, image stabilization and a 12x optical zoom.

From an aesthetic point of view this thing is a complete failure, unless you like the thought of carrying around a camcorder that looks like you might well have seen its much larger cousin go up in a space shuttle launch back before the Challenger disaster.

But there’s not a bit of doubt that it works, and works well.  Admittedly, the range is not as long as some camcorders I’ve encountered, the picture it returns even at longer range is vivid and starkly clear.

It’s a fantastic camcorder, and it should be considering that it retails for about fourteen hundred bucks.  But clearly, the Sony XR500V is a terrific camcorder and if you’re willing to shell out that kind of cash you should be very happy with it.