Small, stylish and simple, Sony's new HDR-TG3E camcorder has a lot to offer.  If it delivers as much in terms of performance as it looks in the looks department, then Sony could well come away with the title camcorder of the year.

Handling

This camcorder looks radically different from Sony's other card-based offerings.  Rather than using a horizontal structure like the HDR-CX11 or CX6, the TG3 has a tall, slim, stripped-down form factor.

A successful marriage between titanium and plastic gives the case a very sleek exterior, and, although it's a lot larger than a regular digital compact camera, it's still small enough to slide easily into a pocket.

Although it's quite heavy, we would agree with Sony that this is a 'pocket' camcorder: the extra weight gives it a solid feel rather than being a nuisance.

There's a power button, which will get you going in under five seconds, but the camera switches on automatically as soon as you open the LCD screen.

As with the rest of Sony's camcorders, the selection of controls is fairly minimalist: there's a rocker to control the zoom, a switch to flick between photo and video mode, and two large buttons--one to take still shots and one to start and stop video recording.

To control everything else, you'll need to use the 2.7'' LCD screen, which offers a touch screen interface, although the menus themselves are confusing.  There are too many ways into the menu, and too many useless options.

Once you've opened the screen and configured a few basic settings, holding the TG3 in one hand feels natural and easy, despite the unusual form factor.

The camcorder comes with a docking station for recharging and importing your video onto a computer for editing--there's no separate USB or FireWire port on the machine itself.

You'll get around one hour in between charges if you're recording at 16 Mbit/s, but the 4 GB memory card that's bundled can only hold around twenty-five minutes of data at this bit-rate.

As is all too often the case, the wide angle lens is just not wide enough: you only get the equivalent of a 43 mm lens on a 35 mm camera.

Given the small size of the TG3, it's perhaps unsurprising that there aren't many connectivity options: there are HDMI and component video ports, but no jacks for microphones or headphones.

When you connect it your computer, you'll need either a PC or an Intel Mac with Mac OS X version 10.5 or above to edit the video it produces using iMovie.

The TG3 has an 'Easy' mode which handles everything automatically, but if you really want, there are a couple of manual modes, including focus, exposure and white balancing.  

In general, the autofocus works perfectly in good light, but it struggles a bit when light levels drop.


Video Quality

Under natural light, videos shot on the TG3E are very good quality, with deep colors and no visible effects of compression.  The main defect is purple fringing in parts of the frame with a lot of contrast.  

The optical stabilization works well, which means you can make the most of the 10x zoom that's on offer, although we're still not convinced Sony is as good at this as Canon.

When light levels fall, colorful tones become quickly washed out and details blur, but chromatic aberration is kept to a minimum.  If things get really bad, you can turn on the Night Shot mode, but you run the risk of making your subjects look like ghosts.  

When it came to filming our test patterns, a lot of images lacked a certain amount of detail, and on this front Song is clearly trailing behind Canon and its HF11.  This doesn't stop videos from being entirely watchable on a Full HD TV.

The TG3 records in 1080i mode, which occasionally leads to ghosting on moving objects, and, unlike other camcorders we've tested, doesn't support a progressive scan to avoid interlaced images.

It is, however, possible to film in Standard Definition if you wish, and the results are very good.  

Finally, the 5.1 surround sound helps the High Definition video along a lot, but, equally, you can choose to record in simple stereo should you wish.  

Unfortunately, the TG3 struggles with still photos and is easily outclassed by the majority of compact digital cameras.