Sony comes out with another in its long line of camcorders with the Sony SX41, a sub-par model that’s good with the basics but falls apart where it counts.

The Sony SX41 offers a 60x optical zoom (2000x digital zoom), eight gig of onboard memory, a 2.7 inch touchscreen display, compatibility with Sony Memory Stick media, and a stereo microphone.

Admittedly, there aren’t a whole lot of exciting features involved with the Sony SX41, and frankly, the zoom isn’t worth writing home about.  It can say “60x optical” until it’s blue in the face but I couldn’t get small print to show up at anything much over sixty feet.  And that, as far as I’m concerned, is a pretty bad sign, especially given the fact that this thing retails for three hundred and sixteen bucks.  Now, granted, that’s strictly the MSRP–I found one of these available refurbished for a hundred and sixty three, and that’s a pretty good price for a camcorder of this quality, and frankly, that’s about where retail probably should have begun.

But all things considered, if you already bought a Sony SX41, you’re probably not too disappointed.  But if you’re in the market, I’d suggest you pass this one up.