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MillimeterTest Drive: Sony HVR-HD1000U, Part 2
Jan 28, 2008 12:00 PM
Figure 7. Low-light Lance. The Canon clearly produced a brighter signal than the Sony in this comparison.
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Low-light Performance
Low-light testing has two aspects: first, How bright can you make the image in poor light? Second, how much noise does the camcorder produce when jacking gain out the roof? The results are shown in Figure 7 and 8. Figure 7 shows “Low-light Lance,” who has resided beneath my desk since his real-life counterpart won Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2001. In this test, I set shutter speed at 60 and adjusted exposure on the Sony and aperture and gain on the Canon to brighten the video as much as possible. As you can see, the image on the right (the Canon) is both brighter and clearer.
Figure 8. This test compares the noise of the two cameras shooting the CamAlign ChromaDumonde chart under normal office fluorescent lighting.
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To test the noise created by the camcorder, I shot DSC Lab’s ChromaDuMonde chart using the fluorescent lights in my office. Here, I set the zebra stripes at 75 and adjusted exposure on the Sony and aperture and gain on the Canon until the flesh-colored color chip in the middle was fully swathed. As you can see in the figure, the Sony shows slightly brighter colors but a bit less contrast. However, noise levels in the still frame are noticeably higher on the left. I created a short Windows Media Video file of the two clips, and the HD1000 clip is noticeably noisier than the Canon.
Conclusion
What does this add up to? A $1,900 shoulder-mount HDV camcorder with very good, but not great, quality and adequate, but not exceptional, low-light performance. Handling is generally good, but configuration controls are very limited, which novices will love and pros will dislike. I/O is weak—lacking, for example, XLR audio input. The camcorder lacks progressive capture—an issue for aspiring filmmakers and those shooting for streaming.
Overall, if you need an affordable shoulder-mount camcorder for DV or HDV shooting, and you can live with these limitations, you’ve found your camcorder. If you don’t need shoulder-mount operation, you can almost certainly find a more suitable camcorder for your needs.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.