This camcorder performed like a champ under tough conditions. It's no surprise then that the HDR-PJ760V aced our lab- and home-based tests. For the full-light video tests, I shot in late afternoon with the sun behind me, shooting in AVCHD 1080/60i at 17Mbps. Video was very sharp and colors remarkably realistic--rich but without a trace of oversaturation--and I got very little blurring even when I panned quickly. Audio was similarly outstanding, full and clear sound with no tininess and almost no wind noise. Another nice surprise: I could keep shooting while tapping menu items to adjust settings on the fly.
In the low-light tests, video remained remarkably crisp, color accuracy stayed spot-on, and auto-focus struggled only occasionally. Photos were impressive, too--very sharp and with warm but not oversaturated colors. These shots are as good as, or even better than what I've seen on most dedicated still-shot cameras. This is not surprising given that you can shoot pictures up to a whopping 24.1MP of resolution, where the colors looked much warmer and richer than at the 12.3 and 2.1MP settings.
At 1.4 pounds and 5.3-by-3-by-2.8 inches, the HDR-PJ760V is too heavy and bulky to serve as a pocket grab 'n go camcorder. Even so, it's remarkable how much Sony squeezed into this very solid compact case and, with a few exceptions, how well Sony implemented everything. Along with the goodies discussed above, it comes with loads of shooting modes (including four levels of AVCHD 1080/60i, AVCHD 1080/60p, and two levels of 24p "film" mode), extensive night-shooting features (video light, flash, and NightShot infrared), a step-down lens ring that allows more lens attachments, and a monstrous amount of internal memory (96GB). Remember viewfinders? The HDR-PJ760V has one, pivotable and in color. The viewfinder lets you shoot with the LCD panel closed, saving battery power and letting you wrap your hands fully around the camcorder body for a better grip.
The HDR-PJ760V comes with too many features to cover in detail here, but three deserve special mention: the powerful on-board mini-projector, very good manual settings, and the on-board Global Positioning System (GPS) functions.