I took the cue from the other thread about limiting gain with the HC3, only I did it with my HC7.

Shot this clip using "Twilight" mode, which locks the gain to a max of 9 dB.
(f1.8, shutter at 1/30, as taken from the data code on playback).

http://media.dvinfo.net/sony/hdrhc7LL.m2x

Dan

did you have to manually set aperture and shutter speed or does twilight mode do that for you?
thanks

Twilight sets those automatically.

For a better explanation of how to know what aperture and shutter speed you're using, see this thread about the HC3:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=72566

(I assume this works similarly, if not the same, with the HC7.)