It's no waste of time Francis as it teaches us all; we never stop learning. But you've bought a defective unit from B & H, right? Then I'm quite sure they wouldn't want their reputation harmed and would be very pleased to swap it for a correctly working version. You have a guarantee from Sony for just such possibilities, and you have video proof up on blip.tv that your particular unit is faulty.

How can you be charged taxes a second time round? I assume you've paid them already - now all you want is a working camera. And I wouldn't be too hard on Sony. They want you to be happy, that's why the V1 is such sparkling quality in such an affordable package. Their guarantee comes to back up their confidence.

tom.

At first time, they tell me that i have to pay the taxes again because i had 7 days to return the unit with no costs. Now it is sony responsibility, they said. They could intermediate the sony support but i have to pay the costs, including Brazilian special ship cost that i have paid before - U$ 875. Within the first 7 days, i didnt notice no problem. And only now, 2 months later, i m sure about that.

Well, i will negotiate with BH because i dont think it is correct. I had paid taxes to ship it to Brazil and now they must support me. They have a special service to Brazil consumer and they might not run away when you got problem.

I JUST TALK TO BH AND THEY WILL SUPPORT ME. I WILL PAY THE SHIP COST, ABOUT U$ 150, WHAT I THINK IT IS FAIR (NOT SO MUCH).

I have noticed jumps with my camera on a tripod with the OIS on and the setting to MED or HARD. It was most apparent on long zooms (as you would expect). Nothing as severe as what you have recorded.

With the OIS on SOFT I have no noticeable jumps on a tripod. I will make a few test recordings to demonstrate when I get my camera back. For reference my tripod is a Bogen 503 head/3182 legs

OT - On the guitar front, I have a Texas Special Strat, An Ibenez Artist, A Washburn BT3 (Strat Clone), and a Gibson SG. For bass I have a Yahama 4 string. I held my first guitar when I was a child and ever since I can't imagine life without one nearby. Maybe in another 30 years I will figure it out how to play them. ;)

Thumbs up on the hand made guitars! I've always wanted to build one myself. One day..

It is so curios, because in my case jumps never occur on zoons, independent of it is long, fast etc. It occur only on movements that i v showed. But at any steady set, both on tripod and handheld (steady) shot.


* One o my hand made bass is fretless and i bought it on music store. The other, i made the body, the neck and apply the finish lacquer. But the radius neck (7.25" like fender 60's) and the frets, i paid an excellent luttier to do that job. You have excellent guitars!!! (i play guitar - not so good - but i play bass in the way i like it)

I'm sorry if I misstated when the jumps occur. They only happen when the camera is panned and not during a zoom.

What I really meant to convey was that it was more obvious when the camera was panned and the lens was zoomed in full.

Today i tested other Z1, on tripod, with OIS on hard set and telephoto. After lots of movements, the jump has occurred. But it was nothing like my V1. It was very different: little jump at the end of the movement, not big jumps after the movement stop, like in my case.

I borrowed a V1U to shoot some footage of motorcycle road racing. I immediatly got the jumps during the middle of fast pans while on a tripod. I suspected that it was an issue with the image stabilazation system and turned it off right away. Problem solved. Later that day I went through the menu and set the OIS to "soft" and the problem went away. But I have noticed another issue with this camera and I am curios if anyone else has seen this. I didn't notice this idiosyncrasy before the camera was returned. On steady handheld shots and tripod shots, occasionaly the image has a slow gentle rocking motion. I didn't notice it during shooting or initial viewing on my computer, only when viewing it later on a 50" plasma. And I don't really remember whether the OIS was on or off or even if autofocus was on or off. Anybody else ever experience this?

BTW. Someone mentioned not being able to record audio on the "line" position, only on the "mic" position. This particular V1's owner told me he had the same problem but I read the manual, set the controls up properly and I had no issue getting either line or mic audio off of my field mixer.

If the issues I encountered with the V1 are all related to the OIS, I really wouldn't have an issue with turning it off since I have shot a lot a Beta SP footage without the benefit of an image stabilizer. Even though it is handy on a small light camcorder. I was extremely impressed with the V1. I guess there is no perfect camera. I was on a shoot a couple of weeks ago with a HVX200. After that experience, if I were going to buy a new HDV camcorder in this price range, I would get the V1.

Francis

I had a very similar problem with my V1. I had used it for a couple of months with no issues at all, then all of a sudden one day the image started jumping, on a tripod. I stared at it and wondered if we were having an earthquake or something. I started a thread here and the consensus was that it was because OIS must have been left on. Anyway, I emailed some short clips of this to Sony service and they said to send in the camera, which I did. The tech who got it was tenacious enough to leave it on, on a tripod attached to a monitor for like 48 hrs until the image started jumping for him as well. He replaced some parts, I never found out what parts, and returned the camera. Since getting it back there've been no problems.

i've follwed this thread for awhile, all the time shooting with my v1p. i have a wa on all the time, and ois to wa. ocassionally i'll forget to turn it off and will 'perhaps' be rewarded with a little jump at the end of a pan. turn it off. no problem.

i also think it's a pretty amazing system, quite brilliant in fact.

francis, i don't know why you bought it from b&h when you have sony in brazil. did you think to get a 'worldwide' guarantee, or makie coverage, or check with sony brazil?

i live in australia and though i do shop for things wherever they occur, cheap batteries from hk for example, i would never have ever thought to buy an expensive piece of electronics from abroad WITHOUT know the full implications of doing so.

i don't mean to lecture, but the net is a wonderful department store, but unless the department you're dealing with is in the same country as you reside, you'll find the complaints department usually totally unhelpful.

good luck,

leslie

Leslie, the explanation is simple. I live in a poor industrialized country that closes their borders to protect brazilian manufacturers. The taxes reach 60% of the product price, for instance, even if has no similar produced here. It is hard to believe but its is true. A U$ 3.700 camera costs here U$ 6.000 or more expensive. The B&H sells me with low taxes, very low taxes: 20 % or less than it. How they do that is not my business. But they do. They sell and they support us too. I will return the camera to them and they will fix it. I might have bought an international warranty, but i didn t know that and i haven t bought. But they will fix it in USA.

problems with the ois
 

I am having the exact same problem as you had franscis, with two V1 's . One jump actually ocurres during a pan and the effect is far worse on the lcd then on tape. It does not do it always but sometimes. The other camera gives an at the end of an pan problem. I am talking about handheld movements. We (the broadcast company I work for) are thinking of replacing them with an other model because they have been returned to sony for software upgrades etc but still they come back with this problem. I am starting to think they are faulty because I have heard of other users that do not have this problem. So this thread has made up my mind to push Sony (and our supplier) for replacements.

(THIS WAS POSTED BEFORE I READ SOME OF THE LATER POSTS. EXPLAINS WHY OUR CAMERAMAN WASN'T REALLY AS BAD ON THE MERLIN OR CRANE AS HE THOUGHT HE WAS...NOW HE CAN BLAME IT ON THE V1)

Now here is an interesting thing. We just returned from a two week shoot up at a beautiful forest garden location in Parana, Brazil. On one of the slow pan shots off a tripod, we saw what appeared to be poor handling by our V1 cameraman on both the builtin LCD and a 7" Marshall HD LCD. He finally got frustrated and called me over, so I tried my rusty old hand at this hard, long zoom-in/pan from across a lake. We were tracking a couple as they walked left to right and the camera image would jerk suddenly every few seconds during the pan! We were quite alarmed and finally decided to change the shot to something easier.

Lo and behold, when we reviewed this footage on a large LCD later, there were no "jerks", all 7 of the takes were good, and the cameraman had done a very nice job indeed!

Explain that... (DID THAT AT THE BEGINNING NOW...)

Francis,

Did you ever get your camera sent in for repair? If so what was the result?

I mention this because the OIS on my camera has started to act up lately and is jumping around some now when I'm shooting hand held. Its not because I'm all that steady either! ;)

Chris