Sony HDR-FX1 Info.

[steve]

Stumbled over this article:

Sony HDR-FX1 Sneak Peek (http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?id=1250&cid=11&pg=1)

Seems to give a bit more detail than previous releases.

Steve

[Alan Roberts]

Yes, that's a decent overview, but it doesn't mention many of the intersting bits about it, like the dreadful interlinking of gain and exposure (it's like the PD170), or the highly damped iris control (it took a very firm grip on the knurled knob to shift it, and doing it too fast unscrewed the knob completely). But it delivers composite PAL, S-video, and YUV ad SD and HD, all as analogue, and DV data at SD and HD. Many of the controls are in nice places, but they'r spread all over it, so it doesmn't matter where your hands are, you'e almost guaranteed to accidentally press some control or other.

[PaulD]

Hi
A quote from the linked article:
" Cineframe lets you shoot your videos in either 25 frames per second (PAL) or 30 frames per second (NTSC), or even create a film-like 24 frames per second video."

Also from the specifications page:

Video Signal: 1080/50i and 1080/60i – 720/25p, 720/50p, 720/30p and 720/60p – 576/50i (PAL) and 480/60i (NTSC)



????
Does this mean the same camera will shoot PAL and NTSC?
(an almighty hooray if it does!)

[Alan Roberts]

Not sure. In the one I saw, we only got it doing 50. I couldn't see a setting to make it do 60. Maybe there are two software variants.

[infocus]

Quite a lot of extra interesting technical detail in the link, though it reads very like an official Sony release rather than an independent review. In particular I note: "Despite the sophisticated design of the chassis, the grip is positioned at the center to give it a well-balanced weight during long hours of shooting."

Which on the basis of my own (albeit brief) experience makes me wonder
A) are we talking about the same camera?
B) has the author ever picked one up?
or C) has the author the build of a large gorilla? smile.gif

[Alan Roberts]

I agree that the article looks like a peon of praise extracted from Sony's blurb. The grip's certainly in the right place for carrying it about, but is useless for eye-level shooting.

[steve]

I also thought that the article was like a publicity release. I wasn't following the camcorder market when the VX1000 was released, so I don't know whether Sony's first DV offering received much criticism. The VX1000 certainly seemed a different shape to its contemporaries.

Steve

[infocus]

I took the reference to the grip to mean what is on the right hand side, with zoom rocker start/stop etc, rather than the carrying handle on the top. It's not obvious from photographs I've seen - they all seem to show the left side or close detail, but is the obvious way to hand hold it when you pick it up.

I can't quibble with what's in most of the rest of that link, and in principle would probably agree that in terms of significance its introduction is comparable to that of the VX1000.

[Alan Roberts]

The top handle also has a zoom rocker and start/stop buttons, plus it's the obvious way to hold it when using the flip-out since many of the controls are there. The right-side handle is reasonable, but it doesn't feel too compfortable with that weight of camera, to me.

[Paul W Miley]

In the new (issue 57) 'What Digital Camcorder' magazine there is preview of the new HDR-FX1E.

[mooblie]

Do you think they've actually got their hands on one, or just regurgitated the press info we already have??

[Alan Roberts]

I have had hands on one, both the mock-up before NAB and a working one two weeks ago. I've put pictures through it, waved it about, and made measurements on it. Some hire companies already have them in stock in the UK. But I'm more interestied in the pro version, due next Spring.

[Unicorn]

Incidentally, there's now some raw HDV footage from he camera on the web here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33865

Not bad, and the few fast pans in the footage look a lot better than I expected, but overall it seems a bit soft and a bit grainy. However, it's mostly just wide shots of parks and streets, so it's not exactly an ideal way to judge the picture quality.

[steve]

I noticed that yesterday, - about 950MB in total is stored. I downloaded a 30MB file, but I can't get it to play on media Player 9 or Power DVD. do I need to download a specific coder?

Steve

[Alan Roberts]

I can't get them to play either.

"Graininess" on the night shots will be down to using extra gain, just like on any other camera. Can't comment about softness, it looked fine on my lab tests, but he recommends playing it half-size, that will make it look soft anyway because you'll get only 720x540.

[Unicorn]

I use VLC (www.videolan.org) at 1920x1080 on a 1920x1440 display.

Also, it sounds like they were shooting with the gain turned up, so that would explain some of the grainy look.