The 7 Be(p,γ) 8 B capture reaction is of major importance to the physics of the sun and the issues of the ''solar neutrino puzzle''. We report here on a new determination of the absolute cross section of this reaction, using a novel method which overcomes some of the major experimental uncertainties of previous measurements. We utilize a 7 Be target implanted into a Cu substrate and a uniformly scanned particle beam larger than the target spot, eliminating issues of target homogeneity and backscattering loss of 8 B reaction products. The target was produced using a beam of 1.8.10 1 0 /s 7 Be nuclei extracted at ISOLDE (CERN) from a graphite target bombarded by 1 GeV protons in a two-step resonant laser ionization source. The 7 Be nuclei were directly implanted into a copper substrate to obtain a target of 2 mm diameter with a total of 3.10 1 5 atoms. The measurement of the 8 B production cross section was carried out at the Van de Graaff laboratory of the Weizmann Institute of Science. We obtain for the S factor of the reaction: S 1 7 (E c m = 1.09 MeV) = 22.7(1.2) eV. barn and S 1 7 (E c m = 1.29 MeV) = 23.8(1.5) eV. barn, somewhat higher than other recent measurements. The present results can serve as a benchmark for further measurements of this cross section.