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Reviewing Sony HVR-V1U HDV Camcorder: Part 2

Mar 26, 2007 11:57 AM, By Steve Mullen

In the last edition of HDV@Work, I examined the Sony HVR-V1U's 3ClearVid CMOS imaging system, the way the camcorder achieves 24p, and looked into its optical system. In this edition, I explore its image settings and shooting controls. The first April issue of HDV@Work, will complete my review of the HVR-V1.

Image Control

The HVR-V1 features a very complete set of image control capabilities. These include Color Level, Color Phase, CinemaTone Color, Sharpness, Black Compensation—which offers both Black Stretch and Black Compress—an adjustable Knee, plus CinemaTone Gamma 1 and 2.

CinemaTone Color

CinemaTone Color decreases G, Cy, and B while increasing Y, R, and Mg. CinemaTone nicely increases blue-sky depth while causing red to pop. It also warms flesh tones. However, with very warm early and late daylight, CinemaTone’s yellow push can turn already warm red shades to orange.

Contrast Enhance

According to Sony, both the Contrast Enhance and Backlight functions use the EIP ability to process "texture patterns" (detail) and "brightness components" (luma) separately. Both functions increase detail that may be hidden in high-contrast situations.

Black Compensation

Black Compensation alters medium and dark gray. The Black Compensation function offers three settings: Off, Stretch, and Compress.

When Black Stretch is engaged, the relationship between light input and recorded signal is altered to increase shadow detail—as shown below.

When Black Compress is enabled, signal output is altered to decrease shadow detail and increase contrast, thereby increasing apparent sharpness.

Adjustable Knee

The HVR-V1’s “knee” can be set to Auto or to Low, Medium, and High. In Auto mode, the knee is raised in low-contrast situations and lowered in high-contrast situations. An example high-knee gamma curve is shown below. It expands brighter shades, adding sparkle to a scene illuminated by, for example, an overcast sky.

A sample low-knee gamma curve is shown below. It compresses the brighter shades and can provide up to an additional two stops of latitude.

By enabling Black Stretch and setting the knee to Low, you can achieve maximum latitude. Now darkest shades are expanded and the brighter shades compressed.

CinemaTone Gamma

The two Cinema Gamma settings alter the image more significantly. The V1 offers three gamma curves, as shown in this diagram from Sony.

Images from the three curves are shown below.

While CinemaTone Type 2 does create a dramatic look, it not only crushes shadow detail, it significantly reduces latitude in high-contrast situations — as shown below.

I recommend CinemaTone Type 2 either as a film-look effect or to punch up the image in very low-contrast situations. Therefore, I use CinemaTone Type 1 as my standard cinema gamma. However, as you can see below, even it should not be used in high-contrast situations.

In high-contrast conditions, Black Compress works far better — as shown below.

© 2009 Penton Media, Inc.