Photos: Hands-on with the Sony HDR-SR11

The excellent build quality continues with the connections: the SR11 has more doors than an Advent calendar. All of them are neatly hinged or on sliders -- none of that flappy rubber nonsense here. Up top we have a proprietary hot shoe for external lights and microphones, providing power and on/off capability directly from the camcorder. DC in is the little hatch at the bottom, while the sliding door at the back conceals USB and AV socket. The slide-open door at the front hides a microphone input, headphone output and an HDMI connection.

That HDMI socket comes complete with Bravia Sync (CEC) technology. This allows you to hook your high-definition Sony camcorder to your high-definition Sony television, so video and 5.1 channel audio can be zapped across. The camcorder can also be controlled by the TV remote.