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Sony HVR-A1 and HDR-HC Series
Sony's latest single-CMOS additions to their HDV camcorder line.

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Old June 6th, 2006, 08:08 PM   #1
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Great review for A-1 !

There is a wonderful review of the A-1 at dv.com. You need to register, but it is free.
http://www.dv.com/reviews/;jsessioni...ECKHSCJUMEKJVN
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Old June 6th, 2006, 09:26 PM   #2
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Good review indeed but a lot less technical than I would have hoped for.
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Old June 6th, 2006, 10:12 PM   #3
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It was a good review. More of a hands-on and ease of use. (There's a ton of techinical data already out there on this). I think the authors approach in the useability area was a refreshing approach. It was also nice to see the camera used in examples that require a small form-factor. It sold the camera in my eyes. After reading it, I'm a little happier to have the HC1 in my kit.
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Old June 7th, 2006, 06:36 AM   #4
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The reviewer praised the A1's stills capability. Is it really good enough to leave the p & s back in the office? 16x9 jpegs make great production stills but super steadyshot is disabled in still mode. Is that right?
Maybe someone w/A! could post some jpegs please?

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Old June 7th, 2006, 07:30 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Li
The reviewer praised the A1's stills capability. Is it really good enough to leave the p & s back in the office? 16x9 jpegs make great production stills but super steadyshot is disabled in still mode. Is that right?
Maybe someone w/A! could post some jpegs please?

chris/wash. dc
The A1's CMOS chip is actually 4:3 with the top and bottom cut of for recording HDV. Stills are 4:3 rather than 16:9.

As far as the quality goes, it is close to an older 3 megapixel snapshot cam. Nothing spectacular but it sure is handy when you want to grab a still of something you're shooting to use in cover artwork later on.

You can actually shoot stills while you are shooting video, but these are 16:9 HD resolution stills and nowhere near as sharp as what you get in camera mode.

You can also capture stills from already recorded video just by hitting the photo button when you are previewing video from the camera or paused on a frame you want. This is handy if you are downrezzing on capture but want full HDV resolution screen captures for artwork.
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Old June 7th, 2006, 08:56 AM   #6
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The stills from my HC1 are useful if I absolutely didn't want to carry an extra camera, but I have a Canon A70 that makes much nicer stills than I can hope to squeeze from my HC1, with better colors and better detail. The A70 is a few years old but it's pretty solid and gets very nice photos. If I want a certain aspect ratio, I can crop the Canon's output.
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Old June 7th, 2006, 11:12 AM   #7
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I couldn't get registration to work. It kept saying "Database Error".
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Old June 12th, 2006, 11:02 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Adam La Prade
I couldn't get registration to work. It kept saying "Database Error".
Same problem here: Anyone know what's the deal with that web site registration.

thanks
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Old June 14th, 2006, 09:03 AM   #9
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Originally Posted by John Godden
Same problem here: Anyone know what's the deal with that web site registration.

thanks
JohnG

I had the same problem about a week ago, just tried again and it worked. Still got to read it though.
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Old June 14th, 2006, 04:35 PM   #10
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For those - like Alexander Karol - who want technical information, Alan Roberts, BBC camera set-up guru, gives detailed set-up recommendations for the A1 and HC1 on http://img.hexus.net/v2/lifestyle/al...n_res_sets.pdf
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Old June 15th, 2006, 08:29 AM   #11
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Actually, what supprised me about the review, is that there was no mention of the A1 being bottom loading. Pointing this out to user would have been nice, 1) being the problem of bottom loading cams, and 2) The solution for solving the problem (hence stand off plate and such).
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Old June 15th, 2006, 08:55 AM   #12
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I think you'll find the HVR-A1 a surprizing performer given it's price and form-factor. I'm very pleased with the results I've seen with A1 and therefore I bought one for use on a documentary I'm shooting at this time. To dertermine if it was good enough I did a quick and dirty (visual, rather than technical) comparison of the single CMOS chip A1 vs. its Z1 three CCD chip big brother, check out my results at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kino-ey...7594082411015/

From my experiences so far, the A1 offers amazing price/performance for a little critter. Now if only someone would make a little critter like this with TRUE progressive scan (Panasonic and JVC, are you listening?), then I'd be a happy camper, personally I'd rather not shoot interlaced video, it's the one thing I don't like about my little A1 (and the fake progressive mode does not cut it).
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