Sony Z1 Colour Shifting

[primers]

Hi,

I recently decided to purchase a used Sony Z1 after spotting one at a decent price, Since recieving it I have had to send the camera back once due to a blown firewire port, But otherwise so far it has been OK and a joy to use.

On my recent projects I have been starting to notice something that appears to look like colour shifting and posterisation, after looking back at all my previous tapes, I've now found this appears to have affected everything else I have shot too. I shoot HDV to downconvert through the camera to 16:9. As a Sony DSR user previously, I have never noticed anything like this before, So I'm unsure as to weather or not it is to be expected, I have read things that lead me to beleive it could be due to the restrictions of the HDV format, ie: compression etc, but the problem seems quite agressive at times, is visible in SD and I've never seen it on other Z1 footage.

The problem occurs most in low light/darker areas, it appears to be like an overlay which makes colours shift and look posterised, in brighter shots it makes skintones look unnatural and over saturated, ie: very red or a sickly yellow. I have also experienced this when recording colour bars, an overlay shifts around, which looks similar to interference from using a cheap/bad quality cable.

I have viewed footage captured in HD on my pc, captured in SD (downconverted), playing back on the camera and I've also played back footage on a HDTV using the component cable, I recently hired a Sony A1 for a project which didn't seem to have the same problems as the Z1, leading me to beleive it could be a Z1 issue, None of these issues I have seen or encountered when recording, it is when playing back on the camera, PC or TV.

Has anyone got any ideas/Suggestions? I'd very much appreciate any help, The camera is still under warranty as far as I know, so hopefully it shouldn't cost me anything if it does need to go off for repair.

I could post screen shots off raw mpeg footage if it helps:)

Many Thanks

[tom hardwick]

I'm glad to hear the Z1 is still under warranty and I'd get it looked at smartish, as all the symptoms you describe are certainly not normal or part of the Z1 or HDVs parameters. The blown Firewire port means someone's been connecting it to a computer in a very rough way.

I presume you've reset the camera so that all the menu settings and custom presets are turned off and that you're viewing this footage in its unadulterated mode? Good. Then send it back for repair.

tom.

[Alan Roberts]

Don't mess about, get it to a Sony Service Centre pronto. And provide them with footage to demonstrate the problem.

[primers]

Thanks for the help, I'm going to get it sent off asap, I made sure everything was set to the defaults, so it must be a problem internally, just a shame it's affected so many hours of footage I've shot.:o

Thanks again

[tom hardwick]

Maybe it wasn't a 'decent price' after all. No obvious signs of a beating?

[Dave R Smith]

If you bought it with 'silver service' don't forget to ask for a loan camera while it's fixed. From memory, I think you only get it if camera is with them >10 days.

[Gavin Gration]

It would be worth doing a full reset just in case the picture style settings have been mashed.

[primers]

Maybe it wasn't a 'decent price' after all. No obvious signs of a beating?

I was thinking that too, it wasn't too bashed, other than a few scratches on the body, the hours were quite low which is another reason why I bought it, I did find a sticker on it from the previous owner though, who records storms and hurricanes:o