Shoot Review: Sony HVR-Z5U

The Sony HVR-Z7U (top) is the basis of the new HVR-Z5U (bottom).

Sony strikes again. No sooner had I reviewed the PMW-EX1 than the HVR-Z7U appeared. No sooner had I reviewed the Z7 than the PMW-EX3 appeared. I've just reviewed the EX3, and guess what? Like clockwork, there's another new handheld HDV camcorder to consider: the Sony HVR-Z5U.

Four innovative handheld HD camcorders in a year. A record, no doubt, that will stand for some time, but what's with the lower model number? Did Sony slip and forget to introduce the Z5 before the Z7? Given this veritable cascade of handhelds, has the company simply lost count?

Ordinal nomenclature aside, the skinny on the Z5 is this: It's a Z7 with a fixed lens. If you read my review of the Z7's features and capabilities (digitalcontentproducer.com/hdhdv/
depth/sony_hvr_series_0101) or its handling and behavior in the field (digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/
revfeat/video_sony_hvrzu), you already know 90 percent of what you'll need to know about the Z5.

In other words, like the Z7, the Z5 has three 1/3in. progressive ClearVid CMOS sensors (45-degree tilted pixels) using Sony's advanced Exmor on-chip A/D conversion (one per column) and dual noise canceling for low-light capture with less noise. Menu items and picture-profile settings are nearly identical: same novel choice, for instance, between 24p over 1080i (with pull-down) or 24p native progressive recording, among the usual HD and DV frame rates. The stunning XtraFine 921,000-pixel LCD and high-res, LED-illuminated color viewfinder (1,227,000 pixels, a third more than the LCD) are the same, as are the InfoLithium batteries and optional (but oh-so-cool) HVR-MRC1 module that dual-records HDV or DV files to CompactFlash (CF) cards. The Z5 even goes the Z7 one better: It displays a CF card's remaining recording time in the viewfinder.

Parent and offspring: from left, the venerable HVR-Z1U, last year''s Z7, and the new Z5.

And last but hardly least, the new Z5 shares the Z7's superb ergonomics. As you can see from the pictures, weight and size are remarkably similar. So I'm going to dedicate this review to what's new and different in the Z5 as compared to the Z7.

In an unexpected throwback to the classic mid-1990s Sony DCR-VX1000, the Z5's top-loading cassette door has returned to the same side as the controls. In another nod to the VX1000, the new Sony G lens is 20X compared to the 12X of both the HVR-Z1U and the Carl Zeiss zoom supplied with the Z7. But while the VX1000's optical section (zoom and prism) accounted for half its length (ditto Z7), the Z5's occupies two-thirds its length. Which raises the question: Is the Z5 a camcorder wearing a new lens, or is a new lens wearing the Z5?

Sony's 2006 absorption of Konica Minolta's still-photography business — the essential building block of its Alpha line of digital SLRs and lenses — brought fresh expertise in lens design. (Sony also has a large stake in the lens manufacturer Tamron, which once collaborated with Konica Minolta.) The resulting synergy, which produced the G lens series and large-aperture Alpha lens series for still photography, has now resulted in a G lens for the Z5 — a first for a Sony camcorder.

Sony's goal was a 1/3in. zoom that is wider, longer, better corrected for chromatic fringing, and more tightly knitted into the camcorder's overall functionality. In each of these endeavors, it appears, the company has succeeded. Using more extra-low-dispersion glass and aspheric surfaces than ever before in a built-in zoom for 1/3in. sensors, Sony has achieved the shortest focal length yet: 4.1mm, surpassing the previous champ, Panasonic's venerable AG-HVX200, with its Leica 4.2mm-55mm (13X) zoom.

Maximum aperture is f/1.6 at the 4.1mm wide end and f/3.4 at the 82mm tele end. This is more than two stops of light loss due to ramping, the price paid for a 20X optical range in a super-compact design. At full wide, 4.1mm and f/1.6, an object touching the front of the lens barrel (lens shade off) is in focus. Amazing. At 82mm and f/1.6, minimum object distance from the front of the lens for focus is a little more than 3ft., which is about what you'd expect.

The G lens has three rings: focus, zoom, and iris — all electronic. The focus ring spins infinitely. This is not a hybrid mechanical zoom like those on the EX1 and Z7. The zoom ring, however, mimics the feel of a mechanical zoom. It has one speed with no artificial soft transition at either end, so its successful use relies on the operator's skill and sensitive touch.

The battery well of HVR-Z5U is deeply recessed to fully enclose large NP-F970 InfoLithium battery so that the HVR-MRC1 Memory Recording Unit using CompactFlash can attach flush to rear.

Use of the zoom rocker switch on the handgrip is another matter. The G lens provides for soft zoom starts and stop — unlike the Z7's hybrid Zeiss zoom, which sacrificed electronically assisted finesse for mechanical control. At the default zoom speed, the G lens travels from 4.1mm to 82mm in 2.2 seconds. At the optional high speed (found in the menu settings), the G lens zips from wide to tele in 1.65 seconds. This appears extraordinarily fast to the eye compared to previous camcorders such as the Z1, which had a similar zoom-travel speed of 1.7 seconds but only a 12X zoom range to cover in that time.

The rocker switch is shorter and stubbier than the Z1's. The Z7 had enlarged its own rocker switch compared to that of the Z1, which was a good move. A larger rocker switch always provides better leverage for more subtle zooming control. Using the Z5's shorter rocker switch, I noticed that zooming sometimes got away from me — producing a fast, racing zoom when a slow, measured zoom was intended. This happened sometimes when the G lens was in high-speed zoom mode and when the rocker switch was manipulated by hand from above, as for instance when the camera is on a tripod. I did get better over time at controlling the more compact rocker switch, although the option of a third, slower zoom speed might be useful. Rocker-switch technique, after all, is highly personal.

The G lens iris is six-bladed and nearly circular, providing natural circular blurs for bright points of light. The iris ring itself, which is reversible in direction, otherwise mimics the mechanical control of a real iris. Or, in a new Exposure mode, it can also combine control of gain, iris, and shutter speed so that by simply turning the iris ring, the Z5's sensitivity can travel the extremes of sensitivity from f/1.6, 21dB, 1/30 second to f/11, -3dB, 1/2000 second. That's right: The Z5 introduces minus gain settings of -3 and -6 for improved signal-to-noise. Surprisingly — and this remains to be seen — Sony says that dynamic range is not affected. It will be interesting to see if use of minus gain, a high-end technique, makes inroads into low-budget productions.

The Z5 brings back the built-in stereo mic that is missing from the Z7.

Briefly, other improvements over the Z7 include the return of a built-in stereo mic, which the Z7 lacked (It can be switched into a single channel if an external mic occupies the other channel — how great!); a small transparent cover over the mic switches on the XLR input pod; a rotary-style switch for camera/VCR on/off instead of the Z7's hard-to-see micro switch; an extended and almost imperceptibly slow 90-second duration added to Shot Transition; and peaking that appears smoother, less coarse than the Z7's. Color peaking has been added too, and I found red peaking to be so useful, it became my personal default.

There's a new optional local-area-network controller (LANC) for the Z5 that crane and jib-arm owners are going to love. The RM-1000BP Remote Commander looks like (and is named like) a game controller. Dual handgrips in a batwing design are topped by large rotating knobs, which control iris and focus. Between them is a rocker switch for zoom control. In addition to record start/stop, most of the Z5's camera functionality is controllable from the RM-1000BP — including menus, picture profiles, expanded focus, shutter speed, gain, and white balance. Also, there are six assignable buttons. Although LANC is a fairly primitive wire protocol — only a single function can be controlled at a time — most operators zoom, then focus, then set exposure a step at a time anyway. A minuscule price to pay for the remote-control freedom the RM-1000BP brings to the Z5. (With a firmware upgrade, it also works with early Z7s and HVR-S270s — no upgrade required for the latest batch of Z7s and 270s — but it is incompatible with the DSR-PD170, HVR-A1, HVR-Z1U, DSC-V1, and HVR-HD1000.)

Back to the future: The Z5''s 20X zoom and operator-side loading recalls 1995''s forbear of all MiniDV Handycams, the classic DCR-VX1000.

Using the Z5, what do I miss from my experiences with the Z7? I've grown attached to the Z7's 12X Zeiss, with its externally geared mechanical zoom and mechanical focus — both of which take me back to the years of 16mm Angénieux zooms.

More critically, I miss the placement of the auto/manual iris switch and push-auto iris button near the rocker switch on the Z7's handgrip. This is where these functions are located on all 2/3in. professional cameras, and it's where they should be located on handhelds. The Z7 gets an A+ in this regard, but it's painful to encounter the Z5's retrograde Iris/Exposure button, which feels as small as a cell-phone QWERTY key, at the lower-left corner on the side opposite the handgrip. On handhelds with handgrips like the Z5, the ring finger of my right hand seeks in vain the push-auto exposure button (as if remembering a phantom limb). This is a finger that otherwise has nothing else to do when operating the camcorder.

External controls are clear and well organized, although the Iris/Exposure button belongs on the handgrip.

To compensate, I assigned the iris/exposure function to assignable button number seven, which is a new assignable button on the handgrip directly above the rotary on/off switch. This returned the habit of frequent exposure checks (I shoot a lot of documentary) to my right hand, where it belongs when handholding. It's great the Z5 offers this key function to its assignable buttons, one of which is thankfully on the handgrip.

The tiny, misplaced Iris/Exposure button is the single design gaffe in the impressive Z5. With its versatile built-in mic, wider-angled 20X zoom, superb low-light performance, progressive scan, dual tape/CompactFlash recording, and proven ergonomics, the formidable Z5 leaps to the front of the documentary pack. The more I shot documentary with it in the field, the more reluctant I grew to return the review unit to Sony. Seriously. The Z5 will arrive in December with a MSRP of $4,950 — essentially, the same price as the classic Z1 it replaces.

bottomline

Company: Sony
www.sony.com/professional

Product: HVR-Z5U

Assets: Shares many of the HVR-7ZU's features; adds a 20X fixed G lens, built-in stereo microphone, and color peaking.

Caveats: Shorter rocker switch may require user to adjust zooming technique, tiny Iris/Exposure button poorly placed.

Demographic: Professional videographers.

PRICE: $4,950