Thursday, August 23, 2007

Neither Fish Nor Foul

Sony just announced a new HDV camera that is sort of a maddening combination of pro and consumer features. It's called the HVR-HD1000U.

The positives:
-Only $1900
-Shoulder-mounted (Sony's first for HDV)
-Either viewfinder or LCD screen apparently usable while shoulder-mounted

The drawbacks:
-The same CMOS chip used in their consumer cameras
-I don't see any XLR sockets on that thing
-No announcement for progressive shooting modes like on the V1

After working on a shoot this weekend in the bright California sun, I remembered the benefits of a good viewfinder (not sure if this is indeed a decent viewfinder.) Shoulder-mount is great for handheld shooting, but you have to deal with the bigger body size when lugging it around. No XLR audio is sort of a deal-breaker for me. Seems like this is mainly for wedding videographers. Available in Dec.

Update: Here is a good overview of what's lacking on this camera (e.g., good zoom lens), as well as something that I didn't know--Sony showed a pro HDV shoulder-mount mockup at NAB. Where's that, Sony? Also from the same site, a good, thoroughly-negative review of what's missing from one of Panasonic's "pro" cameras AG-HSC1U.

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