Built into the top of the unit is a GPS receiver, which will record your location whenever it's got a clear line of site to the sky. Location data will then be embedded in any video or photos you record, so you can then view your captures on a map, either on the camera or with the bundled Picture Motion Browser (PMB) PC software.
The Picture Motion Browser application reveals the GPS tagged locations
Click for a full-resolution screen grab
The PMB application allows you to easily copy your footage to your PC or archive it to DVD or Blu-ray. When you import footage it will also scan it for faces and smiling people, so you can quickly find shots with people in them where they appear to be having fun. In practice, it can be a little hit and miss, but it's a nice extra.
You can review your footage in PMB and create basic edits, such as trimming shots to remove excess material. Once you've finished cutting your shots down, you can then upload them to video sharing sites, such as YouTube or Dailymotion with just a couple of clicks.
PMB is Windows-only, although you can import footage from the TG7 into iMovie on the Mac. However, this is a lengthy process and you'll end up with QuickTime files that take up around ten times as much space as the original AVCHD files.
The TG7 features on board smile detection, in the form of Sony's own Smile Shutter feature. With this enabled, it will automatically capture a high res photo of anyone it detects smiling in footage you're shooting - at the same time as you're filming. You can vary the sensitivity and tweak whether it should be looking for adults or children smiling.
Picture Motion Browser main screen
Click for a full-resolution screen grab
On-camera connections are limited to a power socket for charging, a custom AV connector for Composite or Component Video out, and a docking station connector. Under the flap on the front you'll find the Memory Stick Duo slot, battery compartment and a switch to disable GPS. The supplied dock provides the same custom AV connector, an HDMI port, power socket and mini USB port. There is also an adaptor in the box that converts the dock connector to mini USB, so you don't need to lug the dock with you everywhere you go.
COMMENTS
Follow up
"The raw .MTS files from your MemoryStick Micro/Pro can be copied directly to a DVD, renamed as .M2TS, and played at full resolution directly in your PS3"
But can this DVD be played on anything else other than a PS3/Sony device? Still fiddly: as have to rename the file.
"your PS3"..."your MemoryStick Micro/Pro":
Agree with @handle: too much proprietary lock-in Sony here, not enough versatile inter-operability between different products. Sounds like what I would hear at the local Sony Centre shop. Fine if you want to stick with all-Sony though.
Fact still remains: No complete simple chain of solution. Such a thing needs 1) the camera to record in 1080p at 24p in H.264 2) a standalone Blu-ray recorder to directly accept this from a memory card straight onto a standard Blu-ray recordable. Panasonic come close to this but use proprietary AVCHD like Sony do. Quite expensive too.
For the rest of us who want quick archiving from memory card to reasonably permanent robust Blu-ray rather than remaining on the more delicate, wipeable memory card (which we want to re-use anyway) there is the plethora of dreaded PC-based (or Mac or Linux) solutions. Fine if you are working on a masterpiece with editing tools at disposal but not if too busy to want to bother and need a quick simple archive solution. Fine if you want to wait for the tedious boot ceremony of a PC (etc.). Fine if its you that's doing it; not fine if it's your dear old technology challenged relatives that want to, unless you want all your free time consumed being their technical support. So they rushed this camera out without thinking of the whole picture - pardon the pun, just like many other manufacturers have. Some poor souls will buy it then face the burden of managing their precious recordings.
@Aaron10: thanks for explaining 1080i: So for 1080i at 60Hz this would mean field 1 is all the odd 540 lines displayed at once (1,3,5...1079), spaced out/interleaved by black blank lines where the evens would be (2,4,6...1080). Then frame 2 is all even lines displayed at once (2,4,6...1080) spaced out/interleaved with black blank lines where the odds would be (1,3,5...1079).
As with all interlaced standards, there will be a comb effect seen where there is motion, i.e. edges of moving objects will have a comb-like pattern due to the interleaving. This may or may not be noticeable depending on the scene, the recording equipment, the display, the distance of the view from the display, their vision.
As for 1080i "Should this standard die? Yes and no" Yes because it is clearly inferior to 1080p and incompatible with Blu-ray and no because we need to support legacy for a while yet perhaps.
@Aaron10: "your PS3"
Yep - more proprietary lock-in from Sony, just like the memory cards. And I'm another who won't buy anything Sony for that reason.
@Rob & James & author
1080i was created as a higher-resolution standard that older CRT-based HDTVs could display over component video cables. (1080p's bandwidth is too high for component video.) Should this standard die? Yes and no. Like James said, 1080i takes 1/2 the bandwidth of 1080p. However, calling it 540p is inaccurate -- 540p is 960x540. Each FIELD of video in 1080i is 1920x540, or double horizontally what 540p is.
Why isn't there a 720i standard? Because it's not in the HDTV broadcast standard.
The raw .MTS files from your MemoryStick Micro/Pro can be copied directly to a DVD, renamed as .M2TS, and played at full resolution directly in your PS3, or if your PS3 has a memory card reader (or you connect one), the PS3 will play the video files directly from the card. There are also free/shareware programs to burn Blu-ray ready discs onto DVDs at full HD resolutions.
1080i vs 1080p
1080i (or any interleaved format) requires half the processing of 1080p to record and replay. So its cheaper to make a camera that does it rather than 1080p.
It is crap though, 1080i is sort of equivalent to 540p.
With regard to using MicroSD cads - these are currently quite bad with regards to data transfer speeds , esp. random access, when compared to standard SD or MS. Even high class uSD may have decent serial access, but really appalling random access. Depending on the software running the encoding and SD card, this could present a problem.
Why 1080i? 1080p at 24p for archive direct to blu-ray. Micro-SD to ProDuo adapter.
1) Why are we still seeing camcorders with 1080i and not 1080p?
The film industry does not use i - interlaced it uses progressive - p. My impression is that interlaced was developed due to technical limitations in early products. Moreover, if interlaced has any merit at all then why isn't there wide use of a 720i standard for the HD Ready/HD entry level 720lines standard?
2) Have they thought through the whole solution? At some point the consumer will want to move their footage off the memory card onto permanent robust storage. The Blu-ray format is ideal for this and for sharing content with others.
But so many camcorder manufacturers haven't provided a stand alone Blu-ray recorder to make this simple, except for Panasonic. Also, the footage may need processing if the framerate is not 24p for blu-ray. They should be offering 1080p (with 24 frames per second - that's 24 full 1920x1080 frames per second). This would make the footage ready for archiving to Blu-ray without re-encoding/processing.
I suggest a new campaign for a sticker on products to say: "24p: direct to Blu ray ready"
3) Memory cards. I echo other posters here in disliking Sony for their proprietary Memory Stick format when everyone else is using SD/SDHC. The cost of a memory card is justified when it can be used in many devices for different purposes.
One solution might be to try a micro-SD to Memory Stick ProDuo adapter:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/PEAK-1GB-Micro-MLC-Adapter/dp/B000SSMVOW
I have one of these and it works great for a Sony Digital Camera - see my full review at above link by "R.J.Davis". For this camcorder I would suggest using this adapter with a Class C4 8gb microsd that might be able to handle the high transfer rate required by recording Hi-def.
