This could be the perfect consumer camcorder, it has a 30GB hard drive and records in high definition video. Also it has a 4 megapixel camera. We have the earlier version, the DCR-SR100 that has 3 megapixel still and 480/60i image using a HAD CCD sensor and only standard definition and it is really convenient and small. As an aside on this camera, widescreen 16:9 and 4:3 aspect have essentially identical pixel counts (2060 and 2050 respectively), so for most uses, set it for widescreen. With older camcorder, widescreen actually had less resolution like our old Canon MC-100. As an aside, if you have steady hands turn off the electronic image stabalization as this reduces effective sharpness.
Camcorderinfo has a nice first preview of it. It uses a new codec called AVCHD which is derieced from MPEG-4 H.264 codec (are those enough acronyms for you). It also uses a new CMOS sensor which is 1/3” and had 1.43 effective megapixels in 16:9 and 1.07 effective in 4:3 aspect, so widescreen is a real widescreen. Its the same imager found in their top of the line standard definition DVD camcorder, DCR-DVD505, their new AVCHD DVD camcorder, the HDR-UX1.
It also has a gigantic 3.5” LCD screen and can capture stills to MemoryStick or the 30GB hard drive like the SR100 and it has dedicated microphone and headphone jacks, which the SR100 doesn’t and which is really needed for good quality recording I’ve found.
The big issue with all hard disk camcorders is that the picture quality isn’t that good compared with tape based. Standard definition camcorders record in MPEG-2 at 9Mbps and I can say that the quality isn’t as good as a miniDV camcorder that is recording at 24Mbps but with uncompressed DV format The new HDV has a maximum bit rate of 15Mbps so it isn’t clear how much better it is, although it using a much more advanced codec so we’ll have to see how good it is. It is shooting 1080i at 60 fps which in SD mode, it shoots 480/60i (480 lines at 60 fields per second interlaced).
The new MPEG-4 H.264 is suppoed to be twice as efficient as MPEG-2, but of course, you need video editing software that can deal with it.
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1 response so far ↓
1 seeklinks // Oct 26, 2006 at 19:29
I appreciate this review – very timely. I held out and purchased a Canon HV10 today, instead of the Soney SR-1 or UX-1.
The HV-10 has some flaws, but it won’t break my arm after holding it for long periods. I’ve tried these cameras side by side, and both the Sony models are bricks – sorry. I’m not a small guy (or weak), but this flaw really lowers their usability more than your review indicates.
lance
http://www.camcorder-battery-shop.com
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