many electronic finesse, unfortunately remains the quality of expectations

At first the technical hearing. Data this camera very well. Looking for the 'Always with Camera' I have compared them with the S8100 / S9100. The points listed below refer to this comparison

Housing:
Very compact, a lot of plastic, in the processing of the competition offers more.

Operation (-):
At first on a lot that the Sony HX7V works very slowly. Until you can look at his pictures taken, goes before a while. Despite faster map! The change from one program to another also takes time! Not the best for snapshots! The same is true for switching.

Image Quality (-):
The Sony irons pictures smooth, details are lost. The HX7V tends red - to reinforce sounds. The minuses are in color fidelity.
In low light, the results vs.. For Nikon are better. The sophisticated software makes it possible.

Panorama (+):
This function works relatively reliably. The high resolution like.

Video:
Here I had hoped for a lot to me. After some tests it was clear that the HX7V remains here behind S8100 / 9100. It lacks the sharpness and color fidelity, similar to the still images. Then disturbs the MTS format when importing into iMovie 9.0 in Apple Intermediate Codec inflates by a factor of 3-4! In addition, you have to wait until the files are converted. The handling of files could also be better. Here perhaps is doing in the future which, however, was today is rather modest!

+ Image Stabilization:
The Image Stabilizer has no equal! This is by far the best!

Note:
Every now and again we read of a chatter noise when recording videos. This happens when you cover the microphone with your fingers while holding the Camera openings! -Then Take (hear) the camera, the operating noise of the autofocus system. Taking into it, the sound quality is good.

Conclusion: In spite of many tools the HX7V compares favorably with the S8100 / S9100 for my needs worse. Even in the video area, the I as Nikon will award it must remain rather Sony. For me it was clear: Sony HX7V goes back!