Is this the same HVR-A1U I bought almost 2 years ago?
 

I went to an outstanding web site for home theater reviews this morning to see if Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity had done a review on the Sony PS3 to get their exhaustive take on the unit's Blu Ray performance which is supposed to be about as good as it gets.

Instead I came across a review, in Nov of 2007 no less, of the A1U.

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...07-part-1.html

Quite a glowing review and I was really surprised to see how good they felt its color and handling of deep reds and surrounding hues is. I haven't been on this part of the forum for quite awhile and still have my A1, but take it along on jobs mainly as a backup to a JVC HD200 more recently purchased. Originally I had purchased the A1 to back up my std. def jobs on DSR 300A but always prayed I would never have to use it, with the difficulties of focussing for run and gun event shooting and low light performance. Now the JVC comes along to back up the std. def shoots.

Anyway what happened to the "chroma bug"? Has it been fixed, and can older versions like mine be upgraded with software or some other method? Initially after reading about the "pink reds" I gave a close look at mine and definitely am in the same boat.

Thanks for anyone's information.

Ron

I remember reading about this problem before I bought my A1E a year ago. All I can say is that there's nothing wrong with the reds on my camera.

As for focus and 'run and gun'. I put the camera in a Fig Rig with a Bebob Zoe lanc controller, stick the camera in manual and use push autofocus from the controller. Works fine.

With a Sanken CS3-e mounted on the Fig Rig and a G2 wireless mic in the second XLR socket the sound is pretty good too.

Reds are better...
 

I initially struggled a bit with the reds on my A1u. I contacted Sony, and the engineer I talked to recommended white balancing manually in every situation, and using cinematone type 1.

I followed his advice and it has been like having a new camera. Now whether I use the A1u, or my Nikon D70 SLR, I white balance manually before I even shoot a test shot. It is probably something all of us know, but it get's easy to "trust" the presets for white balance.

Cinematone type 1, helps the overall color balance in my opinion, it also seems to smooth everything out. I know that probably doesn't make sense, but that is what I see. I never use presets anymore.

Some may call it a weakness of this camera that the WB presets tend to ruin the reds. But another possibility is that the resolution is so high on these CMOS chips, they "read" more of the environment, or are somehow more sensitive to certain hues of light. Go ahead and call me crazy, but it's an idea.

All I know is I have filmed over 700 hours with my A1u's this year, and the images are just hard to beat. The resolution is awesome. I love it the more I use it.

My .02 cents.

I set the white balance manually each time I use the camera. That would correlate with Joel's comments.

What tape do you use with the Sony HVR A1U? Is the Sony DV excellence the right tape to use?

Thanks.

I don't have an A1; I have an HC7. Anyway, I just use the regular Sony premium tapes. As long as you don't reuse them, they're fine. Even when I was shooting DV on an XL1S, I never reused the tapes. So far I haven't experienced a drop out on my HC7. Knock on wood.

I have an HC 1, I use the standard tapes, never had a drop out. I also know people who reuse tapes over and over again and never had any issues. Personally I like to keep the tapes for archive.