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First Look: Sony HVR Series

Jan 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By D.W. Leitner

Sony expands its HDV family with three new camcorders and a deck.

In fact, the Z7's ClearVid CMOS sensors are Sony's top-of-the-line Exmor variety, which employ at the base of each column of ClearVid pixels an individual on-chip A/D converter that eliminates noise-inducing analog circuits, adds digital dual noise canceling, and enables lightning-fast parallel read-out of columns (virtually eliminates rolling shutter effect). It's the same technology featured in the EX1 and Sony's new Alpha digital SLR line, the latest of which boasts 12.2 megapixels (not that I'm comparing). If you're into cars, think of Exmor as the turbocharger on a Dodge Hemi.

I'm also describing the ClearVid CMOS sensors in Sony's other new HDV camcorder, the S270, because the handheld Z7 and shoulder-mount S270 are essentially the same camcorder — a product strategy I can think of no precedent for, nor for their simultaneous release. From this point onward I'm going to describe them jointly as the Z7/S270, except when differences intrude — such as the fact that the larger S270 takes beefier Sony BP Lithium-Ion batteries (two types) or an upcoming Anton Bauer battery instead of the compact InfoLithium batteries the Z7 uses.

Key differences between the Z7 and S270 can be summarized as size, price, and an extended feature set for the S270: additional controls; a monochrome LCD on the side to display audio levels and timecode; a conventional round 12-pin ENG lens connector; uncompressed HD-SDI with embedded audio and timecode in contrast to the Z7's HDMI (S270 has no HDMI); optional use of the larger standard DV cassette for 4.5 hours of recording; and four channels of audio with four XLR inputs, two front, two back. (Using Audio Layer-II of MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-1, the HDV format supports four channels of 48kHz/16-bit, 384kbps audio. Canon's XL H1 pioneered this 4-channel HDV audio recording in 2005.)

The handheld Z7's MSRP is $6,850; the shoulder-mounted S270's is $10,500. (Compare these to the EX1's MSRP of $7,790.)

The list of what the Z7 and S270 share is extensive, starting with the 1/3in. bayonet mount with a built-in 14-pin hot shoe. The Z7/S270 ships with a new, innovative Zeiss 4.4mm-52.8mm (12X) with a 72mm filter diameter. It features the same breakthrough hybrid focus ring — mechanical and servo, two separate focus control mechanisms in one — as that of the the EX1's zoom. (Because Fujinon made the 14X zoom for the EX1, this innovation would seem to be a Sony invention. For more on the Fujinon 14X, see my review of the EX1).

The hybrid Zeiss 14X offers a mechanical zoom ring too (the iris looks mechanical, but it is electronic), along with Sony's Super SteadyShot, one-push autofocusing and one-push auto iris (the last inexplicably missing from the EX1). A second hybrid Zeiss zoom for the Z7/S270 will arrive in several months: a wide-angle 3.3mm-26.4mm (8X) with an 82mm filter diameter.

There's one subtle difference between the Z7 and S270 versions of these lenses: The fixed grip is angled differently to accommodate the shift in wrist position when grasping a shoulder-mount ENG lens vs. a handheld camcorder. (The balance of the standard 12X Zeiss zoom joined to the Z7 is amazing, by the way. The Z7 just melts into your hand.)

To address back-focus concerns, the Zeiss 14X and 8X zooms maintain automatic back-focus adjustment (akin to the automated back-focus routine in the EX1's service menu). Full electronic integration of the Zeiss zooms and the Z7/S270 also makes possible another unprecedented feature: digital “focus marking” in the viewfinder. If you're shooting actors hitting marks and you're operating the Z7/S270 without a camera assistant, you can preprogram two focus marks into the Z7/S270. A scale indicating both marks then appears along the bottom of the viewfinder. When you manually pull focus, the scale markers flash at both ends of the focus pull.

How do you store these marks? The A and B buttons of Sony's underappreciated Shot Transition function, that's how. Even Shot Transition has been updated: automated focus, zoom, and iris pulls are now independently executable.

Adopting a standard 1/3in. bayonet mount and 12-pin lens connector means, of course, the possibility of using other 1/3in. lenses (minus the thoughtful ergonomics, automated back-focus, focus marking, and Shot Transition). Two current candidates are the Fujinon 4.2mm-76mm (18X) with manual focus and a conventional servo zoom and the similarly featured Canon 5mm-100mm (20X).

Sony will also introduce three mechanical lens mount converters made by Fujinon: one to adapt 2/3in. lenses to the Z7/S270, another to adapt 1/2in. lenses, and a third to adapt 1/2in. lenses as well as convert their 12-pin connectors to the Z7's 14-pin hot-shoe contacts (because the Z7 lacks a 12-pin socket). The focal length shift for 2/3in. lenses is 2X — DigiPrimes, anyone? For 1/2in. lenses, the focal length shift is 1.3X. Intriguingly, a fourth lens adapter will mount all 23 of Sony's Alpha series lenses from its Alpha digital SLR line (Minolta A-type bayonet mount Sony adopted a year ago), a number of which are made by Zeiss. Focal length shift is 7X.

To appreciate this windfall of lenses, the Z7/S270 enlists a new Sony XtraFine color electronic viewfinder (EVF) and a 3.2in. 16:9 XtraFine LCD. The EVF produces an incredible 1,226,880 pixels (compared to EX1 and Z1, both 252,000). It socked me in the eye, first time I looked into it. Simply gorgeous — nearly as vivid as an optical finder. I did notice what seemed like RGB sequencing (a hint of color fringing if my eyes darted). The EVF's specs are described in the Z7/S270 brochure as 852x480x3 [RGB]. Hmmmm, interesting. The hybrid transmissive/reflective LCD is equivalent to that of the EX1 — 921,000 pixels, nearly four times the pixel count of the Z1's.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.