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Shoot Review: Sony HVR-HD1000U

Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Jan Ozer

Shoulder-mount HDV cam broadens the HD production field.

Sony's HVR-HD1000U isn't the type of camcorder to woo you with subtle features. You either need a single-chip $1,900 shoulder-mount HDV camcorder with fairly Spartan controls or you don't. You'll probably know instantly if this camcorder is for you. Either way, the target market is likely broader than you think.

I recently spent two weeks with a pre-production model of the HD1000 to assess its usability, which I'll write about here. I performed a suite of quality-related tests with a production model for an issue of HDV@Work. I also tested the Smooth Slow Rec function, which captures at 240 fields per second for 3 seconds to produce 12 seconds of slow-motion video — albeit at lower-than-normal resolution.

As you can read at length in many video-oriented web forums, the HD1000 is the repackaging of Sony's top-end consumer HDV camcorder — the HDR-HC7 — in a larger form factor. In many ways, that's OK for many potential buyers. As the marketing story goes, not only does a shoulder-mount form factor provide greater stability than Handycam-sized designs, it also provides credibility that's necessary in many markets and shooting situations.

Because the HDR-HC7 has performed poorly in some low-light tests, I spoke with Sony's Juan Martinez about any differences between the two camcorders that might improve those results for users of the HD1000. He says that the HD1000 had to leverage consumer technology — or it would cost much more than $1,900. However, he mentioned several technical differences between the products designed to optimize the HD1000 for professional use. When it comes to video quality, I'm with Missouri — the Show Me State — so I'll hold this part of the discussion until I can back it up with objective results from a production model.

But I will relate some other aspects of our conversation, starting with Sony's 1/2.9in. ClearVid CMOS sensor, which includes approximately 3,200,000 total pixels — of which 2,280,000 are used during video capture. If you do the math, you'll see that this is sufficient to capture at true 1920×1080, which the camcorder does. All pre-compression processing is performed at that resolution in the 4:2:2 color space. Martinez claims that this preserves sharpness — even after converting to HDV's 1440×1080i resolution in 4:2:0 color space. Again, we'll see how this plays out in testing, but it's nice to know the theory behind the marketing claims.

Martinez also explains why, at this price point, CMOS has several advantages over CCD. First, CMOS sensors are obviously cheaper to manufacture, and they require less power, so they offer longer running time and less thermal noise. In addition, from a feature standpoint, data retrieval is much simpler from CMOS than from CCDs, which enables such features as the ability to capture still images (at multiple aspect ratios) and video simultaneously with the HD1000.

For example, while shooting HDV, you can capture a 16:9 4.6-megapixel still image to Sony's Memory Stick, which expands to a 4:3 2848×2136 image (6.1 megapixels) when you're not shooting video. This is not important to me, but both features have obvious applications for newsgathering and even event videography, where both still and video capture is helpful.

With all this as background, let's have a look at the HVR-HD1000U.

Hardware

In terms of size and shape, the unit is about as long, wide, and tall as a Canon XL2 — although the composition of the body is more traditional with an integrated lens and plastic body with a hard, durable feel. For those who haven't seen or touched the XL2, this makes it about 18in. long, 3in. wide (exclusive of eyepiece and lens hood), and about 9in. tall from the bottom to the carrying handle on top. The camcorder has a traditional pop-off-and-dangle lens cap rather than the integrated cover I love so much in the HDR-FX1.

The HD1000 includes a 10X zoom and features electronic image stabilization. It uses the same batteries and power supply as the DCR-VX2000 and HDR-FX1, which is nice if you already own these or similar camcorders. Sony includes a stereo shotgun microphone, the ECM-PS1, which attaches to an integrated microphone holder on the front right of the camcorder. The microphone plugs into a stereo mini-jack without phantom power.

The viewfinder pulls out to about 1in. to accommodate shooters of different sizes, and it comes with a rubber eyecup to block unwanted light. The .27in. color 16:9 viewfinder has 1,233,000 effective pixels, while the 2.7in. 16:9 LCD panel — located directly atop the viewfinder — has 211,200 pixels. The touchscreen LCD panel, which serves as your menu system, can swivel 180 degrees to function as a preview monitor for your subject.

The front grip contains a large zoom-rocker switch, along with a photo button and Sony's traditional power switch with the big red button to start and stop shooting. There are additional zoom controls and another start/stop switch conveniently located on the top handle.

The camera uses MiniDV tapes, and the tape mechanism is on the front right. The unit records in HDV and standard (63 minute) and LP (90 minute) DV modes in both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios, interlaced only. While this camcorder probably won't interest filmmakers anyway, progressive mode can definitely improve quality for those shooting for delivery via streaming, which constitutes a much larger market.

I/O is extensive. Sony took advantage of a large camera body to include three separate RCA adapters for composite video and left and right audio — no three-prong specialty cable to lose. Other analog outputs include S-Video and component; on the digital side, there are HDMI, FireWire, and USB outputs. The latter is for still images. There's also a headphone jack and LANC port for an external zoom controller, but there are no XLR connectors, so you'll need a third-party solution — such as the Beachtek DXA-8 — to connect to a sound board or other devices. There are two cold accessory shoes atop the camcorder: the first in the customary position on the front for a light, such as the optional HVL-LBP LED video light. The second is on the back of the handle, where it can hold Sony's HVR-DR60 hard disk recorder.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.