Shoot Review: Sony HVR-HD1000U

The HVR-HD1000U is Sony''s newest shoulder-mount HDV camcorder, and it is aggressively priced at less than $2,000.

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.

The HVR-HD1000U offers four control buttons for manual/auto, nightshot on/off, backlight on/off, and battery display on/off. There''s also a control ring that you can configure to control focus, brightness, shutter speed, auto-exposure shift, or white balance shift.

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.

There are two cold accessory shoes atop the HVR-HD1000U: 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 the Sony HVR-DR60 hard disk recorder.

The camera offers four control buttons for manual/auto, nightshot on/off, backlight on/off, and battery display on/off. You also get a control ring that you can configure to control focus, brightness, shutter speed, auto-exposure shift, or white balance shift. You can also control zoom with the ring, but with two zoom rockers on the camcorder, this makes little sense.

All other controls, including enabling and disabling image stabilization, are located in the touchscreen-controlled menu system. In addition, you assign a function to the control ring via the touchscreen menu. It would have been nice to have a manual switch on the camera body.

Every shooter is different, and every event is different. Typically, in a controlled setting such as an interview, you control the lighting, set exposure, and manipulate zoom and perhaps focus during the shoot. In this environment, the HD1000 should work just fine.

In a live event, under changing lighting conditions, things get a bit dicier. As part of this first look, I shot two performances of The Nutcracker with the HD1000. Here, I set shutter speed manually, adjusted exposure with the control ring, and relied upon auto focus to keep the dancers sharp. This worked well except during the low-light scenes, where I set exposure, switched the ring to focus, and then focused with the control ring. (You can change this ring control while shooting.)

Although the unit lacks a separate “push auto” button or the equivalent, you can toggle the manual button into and out of auto focus, which accomplishes the same thing. However, there is no peaking mode, which many shooters use to help with focus, or expanded focus, which gives you a close-up in the VF to use for focusing purposes.

Interestingly, the brightness control doesn't exclusively set aperture, and it doesn't even show aperture values. Rather, it adjusts shutter speed, aperture, and gain from one unified control. When it's extremely bright, the control might increase shutter speed to limit brightness. In the middle ranges, it adjusts aperture to control lighting. Under low-light conditions, it boosts gain to increase brightness. Helping your adjustments is an onscreen histogram, which is the first onscreen scope that I've seen — very nice. You also get zebra controls that you can set at either 70 IRE or 100 IRE.

Overall, for many shooters on many shoots, this control paradigm should work pretty well. On the other hand, if you like to fine-tune exposure, shutter speed, focus, and zoom continually, this camera isn't for you.

With the HD1000, shooting a live performance of The Nutcracker was easy—except in low-light scenes, which required a complicated set of manual adjustments.

The Nutcracker was a two-camera shoot. I used a Canon XL A1 as the close-up camera following the dancers on the stage, and I had the HD1000 locked down and shooting the entire stage. I was operating both camcorders, so I had the HD1000 in auto-focus mode with the shutter speed set at 60. I searched for an automatic shooting mode that could handle the challenging stage lighting, and then I noticed that although the camcorder offers a backlight control, there is no spotlight control. That's a definite bummer, because it meant I was going to have to go manual on the exposure. Auto exposure invariably blows out the whites — especially when shooting white-clad ballerinas dancing against a black curtain.

I shot two shows that day, switching camcorders for the second shoot. Once I had the HD1000 on the moving tripod, I quickly noticed that the zoom rocker is almost 15in. from the back of the camera, which can be quite a stretch to hold for an hour at a time. The zoom rocker is 5in. from the camera back on the Canon XL A1, 4in. on the Sony HDR-FX1, and 3in. on the Sony DCR-VX2000. This isn't a showstopper, but it's something to consider if you mostly shoot on a tripod.

As mentioned above, I mostly rode the exposure controls during the performance because the lighting changed frequently and was uneven across the stage. During the second show, I noticed myself making unintended exposure adjustments with the HD1000's control ring. I had to remind myself to not rest my fingers on the ring, which wasn't a problem with the XL A1. After the show, I checked the XL A1 and noticed that the zoom, focus, and aperture rings all had different tension levels. The focus and aperture are set a bit tighter than the zoom. It's pretty subtle, and it's not something you would notice unless you were switching cameras frequently, but it would be really cool if Sony could vary the tension for the selected control on the HD1000 — or at the very least increase the overall tension level to prevent inadvertent adjustments.

Although some consumer camcorders that I own have touchscreen controls, this was the first professional camcorder that I've tested with a touchscreen. After the two shows and few days of additional testing, smudges were evident, but they weren't really distracting.

After the first ballet, I spent about 30 minutes taping audience shots and B-roll interviews with the dancers on the HD1000, and I found its shoulder-mounted operation quite good. The unit is much more balanced than the Canon XL2, which is front-heavy and tilts strongly to the left. Weighting on the HD1000 was much more even, so it didn't feel heavy on the front, and you could negate the slight leftward side roll by resting the camera body against your head. I could see this camera performing very well in the ENG role for which it was clearly designed.

I'll withhold final judgment on the camcorder until I can assess quality, but I expect the quality to be good. From a feature and usability standpoint, the HD-1000 should strongly appeal to a target group of shooters who need a shoulder-mounted HDV camcorder and who can't afford $6,500 or more for the Canon XL H1. It's not a breakthrough camera the way the Sony HDR-FX1 or the Canon XH A1 were, but it will fill an important — and likely surprisingly — large niche among the growing cadre of HDV producers.

Company: Sony www.sony.com/professional

Product: HVR-HD1000U

Assets: Shoulder-mount, extensive I/O, onscreen histogram, balanced weight.

Caveats: No manual control switch, no peaking mode, auto focus doesn't work as well in low light, no spotlight control, sensitive control ring.

Demographic: Shooters who need an inexpensive shoulder-mount HDV camcorder.

PRICE: $1,900

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