Sony announces four new AVCHD video cameras

Sony announced yesterday, the HDR-SR5, HDR-SR7, HDR-SR8 and HDR-CX7.

HDR-SR5/SR7/SR8:

These new AVCHD based HDD cameras offer Face Index Technology, 1/3 inch ClearVID CMOS sensor, 2 lux rating low light rating, mini-HDMI output, four omni directional microphones for 5.1 surround sound recording and One Touch Disc Burn. The SR5 model features a 40GB hard disk which records 15 hours of LP recording (LP is Long Play and means it's the most possible compression and lowest quality compression | Sony does not state the recording times at other compression sttings such as SP) and 4.0MP sitll pictures. The SR7 is simillar but features a multi purpose wheel, longer EVF (I'm not sure what for), 6.1MP still pictures with 4.6MP stills during video recording and a 60GB hard disk. The SR8 is much like the SR7 only with a 100GB hard disk and is only available in Europe and Canada (lucky me, although most of my readers are American).

Compared to HDR-SR1:
Much smaller, no multi purpose ring, smaller LCD, larger hard disk capacities, higher resolution stills for the SR7 and SR8

The HDR-CX7 is a flash memory based Camera recording to the Memory Stick PRO Duo flash card. An 8GB card will give you an hour of recording time. 6.1MP 1/2.9 inch ClearVID CMOS sensor. Features are nearly the same as the new SR5 camera.

Sony's consumer high definition video cameras in chronological order starting
with the first:
HDR-HC1
HDR-HC3
HDR-UX1
HDR-SR1
HDR-UX5
HDR-UX7
HDR-HC5
HDR-HC7
HDR-SR5
HDR-SR7
HDR-CX7
HDR-SR8 

Although I'm unsure of when the HDR-SR8 was announced, for the reason that most websites only announced the HDR-SR5, HDR-SR7 and HDR-CX7. And Let's Go Digital had their article on the HDR-SR8 today but the SR5, SR7 and CX7 yesterday.

I haven't exactly figured out the naming process, but I think they skip two numbers (when it's a minor upgrade they skip one and if they have a high end and low end model they'll have them two numbers away) and sometimes they skip four or seven. Four for the SR and UX serieses (1 to 5) and seven for the CX serieses (non-existant to 7). I'm guessing they skip like that becuase they don't want consumers to think that the one camera recording format is better than the other.

If I find any more information about these cameras, such as the recorded resolution, I'll be sure to post.