Sony’s new HDV camcorders, promised for February, are indeed shipping and arriving in people’s hands. This is excellent news as these new camcorders elevate HDV and give us HDV-quality video on readily available and cheap compact flash cards.
One of the best ways to find out about every nook and cranny of these camcorders is to actually RTFM. Well, I’ve got that for you… plus a recap of all seven of the camcorder’s on-screen menus…. and more!
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First off, here’s the 143 page user manual. (pdf)
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The Camera menu:
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The Audio menu:
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The Display menu:
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The Time Code / User Bit menu:
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The Memory Menu:
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The IN / OUT menu:
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and the Others menu:
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The focus ring pops in and out of auto focus. IMHO somewhat more cumbersome than a single small button, but this way, your fingers never leave the focus ring. The focus ring features distance markings. The zoom ring features markings as well. Both lenses offer dependable, repeatable focus and zoom control based on the markings on the lens. Be sure to check out my videos because it is a completely new way (aside from the EX1) of moving between manual and auto focus.
Also, the zoom lens can me made to work in a truly manual-feeling way. Here you can see not only how whip-zooms are possible, but also how they look through the camcorder.
Lastly, if you are interested in these camcorders, and haven’t watched the Sony presentation I posted here on TechThoughts.org in November, then a) shame on you and, b) go there now. You owe it to yourself. Their slides and description are augmented by my own photos and close-up shots to help illustrate what they are describing.
IEBA Presents: Sony Seminar: HVR-S270 & HVR-Z7U
I’ll have a boatload of detailed shots of the HVR-S270 coming up next week.
Enjoy!
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I E B A Tech Thoughts 
The videos of the menus are from an HVR-S270, not a Z7…
Yes, thanks for the clarification. The manual is from th HVR-Z7U but the menus were photographed on a HVR-S270U so they are in English, only feature 60Hz, show four channels of audio and have other small differences.
However, the vast majority of the menus are going to be the same as these camcorders have the same lens, same chips, same processing, etc.
The shots of the lens itself and of the LCD screen showing the zoom functionality are also on the HVR-S270U.
Anthony