Z1 uprgades
 

If you could make anychanges to the Z1 what would you do? And do you think Sony will upgrade the Z1 anytime soon?

The camera has only been out less than 6 months and we're not reading about any problems, so I'd say it will be awhile. The only thing I'd like to see is that slideout shoulder brace thing should be included as standard equipment. For the price of the Z1 and the deck package, I don't think there's anything to complain about. I personally would like to see things stabilize a bit. Continuous change is not always desireable to people who make their living with video gear.

Hear! Hear!

Thanks,,,You haven't seen any of the 'door won't close or other problems' cameras seem to have. Thats good.

I haven't heard of any door closing problems. All 2/3" chip Sony cameras I've used, from my old BVW300 to the current DSR500 and others I've rented, have tape doors that you have to be careful with. If you treat them properly and don't slam them or in the case of the 500 shut them by pressing in the wrong place, they're OK. But they are a weak point. On the DSR250 they solved that by having a flap on top instead of a door that hinges open. I haven't actually loaded a tape into a Z1 (just shot with a friend's already loaded) so I'm not sure how its door operates.

I have a 4 year old VX-2000, 3 year old PDX-10 and a Z1. No tape door - or any other - problems with them. The Z1 seems pretty solid to me. And I like the fact that they moved the tape door to the left side where the handstrap doesn't obstruct it. Actually the Z1 tape transport has the same sort of mechanical sound and feel as my PDX-10.

I agree with Bill that we aren't likely to see any changes soon. The rumor that keeps coming up is that of a shoulder style ENG HDV camera.

Aside from major hardware changes (like progressive CCD's) there are a few design tweaks I would like to see made to the Z1:

1. The Z1 can output 480p and 576p via component video. Would be nice to be able to send this over firewire which isn't currently possible.

2. The "all scan" (underscan) feature currently only works in HDV mode. Would be nice to enable this in SD mode, and also eliminate the big black border around the image which wastes a lot of screen pixels.

3. The LANC function should be fixed so that it will allow the slowest possible zoom speeds. Currently rocker switch can acheive zooms about half the speed possible with a LANC controller.

4. Allow the expanded focus button to function during recording.

5. Provide separate switches for zebra and peaking so they can both be used together if desired.

A general thing that I wish Sony would examine is the basic user interface with the menu wheel. At least they gave us a bigger wheel on the Z1, but that's a really awkward way to navigate so many long menus.