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MillimeterShoot Review: Sony HXR-MC1
Feb 18, 2009 12:00 PM, Reviewer: D. W. Leitner
Giraffe-cam? Mole-cam? Snake-cam? Whatever it is, it’s versatile.
On a dog, David Letterman-style, is it a doggy-cam? If I spin it in my fingers like a fat Cuban cigar, a twirling-world-cam? Swing it by its cable in a wide arc, a merry-go-round-cam?
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Brush-cam? I'm the guy who put a lipstick cam on artist Chuck Close's partially paralyzed arm to capture a close-up of his paintbrush traveling across canvas in Marion Cajori's Chuck Close, which was released theatrically in 2007 but filmed mainly in 1997. At the time, that meant a single-CCD lipstick camera attached to a big CCU attached to a Betacam deck, all plugged into the wall. Plus a lot of light. You can see the result at www.artkaleidoscope.org/brushcam.
Creative ideas pile on with an inexpensive rig like this. Put two side-by-side like eyeballs for cheap 3D. Peer over a skyscraper's edge despite your fear of heights. Get closer to dangerous animals. As Sony's Juan Martinez wryly notes, if an alligator bites it, it's not a huge loss.
Yes, there are other miniature box and lipstick systems out there — Iconix, ChaseCam, JonesCam, and Toshiba ice cube cameras come to mind — some even feature HD output. But none has built-in zoom or audio, or captures native 1920×1080, or is as light and affordable.
Availability is in February; price is to be announced, but it should be less than $5,000. If you think of a killer name for this camera, contact Sony.
bottomline
Company: Sony
Product: HXR-MC1
Assets: Records in full HD; lightest, most compact HD remote camera system yet; 10X zoom introduces little to no geometric distortion or color fringing.
Caveats: Manual controls for white-balance shift and autoexposure shift are near useless; camera lacks optical image stabilization; key exposure parameters can't be controlled individually.
Demographic: Any filmmaker interested in using novel points of view.
PRICE: TBA
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