Sony HDR-CX130

Sony HDR-CX130 Review

The Sony HDR-CX130 does an admirable job for its price tag offering excellent AVCHD videos, 30x optical zoom, and a touchscreen LCD display.The Flip is heading for extinction but it’s not the end of the camcorder world. There are tons of options available such as the new Sony CX130, a video maker that blows Flips and their kindred spirits out of the water. Now let’s see if it’s worth more than twice the price…We’ll admit to camcorder snob status. Pocket Cams like the The Flip never held any quality appeal. For some dumb reason, we preferred camcorders with optical zoom lenses rather than digital zooms, stereo sound versus mono and higher-quality AVCHD video. We also liked shooting with a larger LCD screen and having a more comfortable form factor. What a shock to feel this way! Yet The Flip’s low price and easy uploads ruled the day until corporate incompetence killed it off. For the record, it won’t be really, really dead until the end of 2013. The Flip did one really good thing, however—it forced Sony, Canon, JVC and Panasonic to drive down the cost of their basic AVCHD models. Now you can readily get one for under $300, still more than a Pocket Cam but with capabilities so far superior it’s ridiculous.