HVR-V1U: Initial impressions (from Michael Wisniewski)
 

Hi, thanks to Chris Hurd I was able to attend the Sony Press Event here in NYC. My initial impressions:

1. This is the cleanest and sharpest HDV video I've seen. I was struck by the lack of smearing, aliasing, and banding in the video which I've almost taken for granted nowadays. Spot's video on the Sony theatre screen was breathtaking. After the presentation, Boyd Ostroff and I sat for about 10 minutes just admiring the video.

2. The ergonomic design is very well thought out, while it is very similar to the PD series, the designers put a lot of small touches into it that you won't really notice but you will "feel" right away. Buttons and switches are placed in locations that make sense and "not placed" in locations where you might put your hand. I felt an immediate connection to the camera the moment I picked it up and that feeling grew as I continued to use it. Weight balance is very well done. I think this is as good as it gets for the small form factor.

fyi: per one of the designers, they chose to put the LCD on the side of the camcorder because it allowed them to slim down the body. Placing the LCD on top created a larger/longer body and also got in the way of certain accessories.

3. I was very, very impressed by the hard disk recording unit. First, it's small, approximately the size of a coke can. Secondly, and most importantly, it allows dual recording to tape which means when I'm done shooting, I can store my tape on the shelf as a backup, tranfser the HDD video to computer, and erase it from the unit. The efficiency of the workflow put a big smile on my face.

I'll post more later, and when Boyd gets home on the train, I'm sure he'll have a lot to say as well.

From the on line page, it looks like the unit can be used by just about any camera... HDV or DV. Was that impression you got there ?

We knew Sony would be answering the tapeless/storage issue, and the dual recording is a great way to go !!!

Thanks for this initial report, Michael -- much appreciated!

Heh, I have a feeling there just *might* be a V1 in Michael's future :-)

Great to finally meet you and Spot in person! I will be sending Chris quite a lot of photos this evening, so look for those soon.

For now just let me say "wow." This camera really impressed me!

Thanks for your early impressions Mike. I think Sony is going to have a hit with this unit. 1/4" sensors are a bit... abnormal in this space, but you can't argue with the results.

I was watching Douglas' videos at work today, especially the shot pointing right into the bright sun and I was very impressed. No smear whatsover and no color bleed or chromatic fringing that distracted from the image. I'd just assumed I'd be trying to get the XH A1 in a few months, but this cam deserves a look.

That is true.

A big advantage to using it with the V1 is, you can display the HDD info directly on the V1's LCD while recording. Very neat feature. My jaw dropped when Spot showed that to us.

And it was really great to finally meet Boyd and Spot in person!