Mike Hollingshead
Well since it is the more affordable HDV cam and I figure some might be looking into it, I thought I'd mention a couple first impressions since messing with it this morning.
Low light: Like advertised, it's not very good. On all auto it just barely beat out my Sony TRV-19...barely. It's really really close to being the same. I didn't think this would be the case as it has a 1/3 inch CMOS sensor while the TRV-19 has a tiny 1/6 inch ccd. Here's how I checked them(not very scientific). It's overcast out. My appartment is half under ground and all I have are the half windows(though I guess they are fairly typical size). The blinds are shut, so you can get an idea that it's pretty low light in here. No lights are on. I stuck them both a few inches away from a cardboard box which has the one flap laying out over the cams, shading that side of the box further. On auto both were much the same, but the TRV-19's noise was a bit more high frequency in appearance. It was also just a smidge more green and red. The differences aren't much and that's really not that great as I never cared for that cam's performance in here under the same lightning.
But, all is not lost. At least it is not worse than the TRV-19 which some reviews online had me wondering if it was quite possible that it would be. Now here is the best fix, the obvious one--use the slow shutter. This is something I never once used on my TRV-19. I'm not sure I ever found it in the menu. On the HC1 it's a real easy setup to do this. It IS in the menu, but it is right out front when you click menu. Setting it on 1/8 or even 1/15 really fixes the noise issue. I'm only using it on storms so the blur is not that big of a problem. 1/8 seems to have a pretty significant decrease in noise from 1/15. Going to 1/4 doesn't offer much more quality. Now here is the part I like about how they made this work on this camera. The exposure control is actually on the left side of the body. You just push a button and then toggle the switch up or down. So it is really easy to go into this slow shutter mode and get a good result on this cam. There's no gain feature, but you are still getting that with the exposure level you pick, and increasing it without the shutter increase will only increase the noise anyway. I made my dark and noisy cardboard box quite bright and free of all noise on 1/8. Blurring isn't terrible at 1/8 and even less so at 1/15(obviously).
So, from what I gather it'll do well enough and easy enough in low light...just not on auto.
Hot Video Camera: Now this stood out pretty quickly. After having it on and messing around for maybe 30 minutes I noticed the cam felt warm where the LCD shuts(it was always open so it has nothing to do with the LCD). On there it reads "The surface of the camera may get warm when the power is on for long time, however this is not a malfunction." So, it gets warm enough they thought they'd mention this to avoid calls. This worries me a bit as it isn't hot in here and I wasn't even recording while this happened. Add a few degrees in a warm car taping storms and well, I bet this camera gets damn warm. I've never noticed any camera get warm like that. I hope it doesn't become a problem.
Camera Noise: Well I just checked and I think this is the quietest camera I have. I wondered if maybe since it was recording in HDV and having to encode on the fly that maybe that'd make it a bit noisy. It's not at all noisy(other than low light in auto in regards to video quality).
Build quality: It seems pretty solid.
Wide angle: From my brief testing it seems like its widest perspective is less than the trv-19. I read somewhere that it's widest setting was a bit more zoomed in than others. It's not too much less but it is noticeable.
Auto focus: Again, from my brief testing it seems like it has better auto focusing than my trv-19. It doesn't seem to hunt near as much as my trv-19(not that I ever use them on anything but infinity when chasing).
HDV to SD output: I wondered how this would look too and it doesn't seem to stand out as a problem.
Well there's lots of other stuff to mess with, but thought I'd comment on those. I'm satisfied with what I see from the camera thus far. I really like the way it will work in slow shutter with the exposure control where it is. It seems very simple with not a bunch of menus to flip through to find both shutter and exposure.
Focus ring: One last thing I just thought of. This worries me, only because it seems very similar to my sony DSC-F707 still camera I had. That focus ring went whacky on me and became unusable. I'd spin it and it would jump to other distances. I'd try getting to infinity or so and it would bounce to like one inch, over and over. I went to use it on this HDV cam and quickly worried about it. I think I'll plan on using auto to get it focused on something and then just flip it to manual.
Battery: One more thing, lol. This was mentioned on other reviews for this camera. The view finder does not extend. If you put a big battery on this cam your nose will be on it and it'll likely extend past the view finder. I have like 5 FM50s now so it's not really an issue since they fit fine.
The HC3 is replacing this camera very very soon, so if you were pondering the HC1, it won't be around long.
Low light: Like advertised, it's not very good. On all auto it just barely beat out my Sony TRV-19...barely. It's really really close to being the same. I didn't think this would be the case as it has a 1/3 inch CMOS sensor while the TRV-19 has a tiny 1/6 inch ccd. Here's how I checked them(not very scientific). It's overcast out. My appartment is half under ground and all I have are the half windows(though I guess they are fairly typical size). The blinds are shut, so you can get an idea that it's pretty low light in here. No lights are on. I stuck them both a few inches away from a cardboard box which has the one flap laying out over the cams, shading that side of the box further. On auto both were much the same, but the TRV-19's noise was a bit more high frequency in appearance. It was also just a smidge more green and red. The differences aren't much and that's really not that great as I never cared for that cam's performance in here under the same lightning.
But, all is not lost. At least it is not worse than the TRV-19 which some reviews online had me wondering if it was quite possible that it would be. Now here is the best fix, the obvious one--use the slow shutter. This is something I never once used on my TRV-19. I'm not sure I ever found it in the menu. On the HC1 it's a real easy setup to do this. It IS in the menu, but it is right out front when you click menu. Setting it on 1/8 or even 1/15 really fixes the noise issue. I'm only using it on storms so the blur is not that big of a problem. 1/8 seems to have a pretty significant decrease in noise from 1/15. Going to 1/4 doesn't offer much more quality. Now here is the part I like about how they made this work on this camera. The exposure control is actually on the left side of the body. You just push a button and then toggle the switch up or down. So it is really easy to go into this slow shutter mode and get a good result on this cam. There's no gain feature, but you are still getting that with the exposure level you pick, and increasing it without the shutter increase will only increase the noise anyway. I made my dark and noisy cardboard box quite bright and free of all noise on 1/8. Blurring isn't terrible at 1/8 and even less so at 1/15(obviously).
So, from what I gather it'll do well enough and easy enough in low light...just not on auto.
Hot Video Camera: Now this stood out pretty quickly. After having it on and messing around for maybe 30 minutes I noticed the cam felt warm where the LCD shuts(it was always open so it has nothing to do with the LCD). On there it reads "The surface of the camera may get warm when the power is on for long time, however this is not a malfunction." So, it gets warm enough they thought they'd mention this to avoid calls. This worries me a bit as it isn't hot in here and I wasn't even recording while this happened. Add a few degrees in a warm car taping storms and well, I bet this camera gets damn warm. I've never noticed any camera get warm like that. I hope it doesn't become a problem.
Camera Noise: Well I just checked and I think this is the quietest camera I have. I wondered if maybe since it was recording in HDV and having to encode on the fly that maybe that'd make it a bit noisy. It's not at all noisy(other than low light in auto in regards to video quality).
Build quality: It seems pretty solid.
Wide angle: From my brief testing it seems like its widest perspective is less than the trv-19. I read somewhere that it's widest setting was a bit more zoomed in than others. It's not too much less but it is noticeable.
Auto focus: Again, from my brief testing it seems like it has better auto focusing than my trv-19. It doesn't seem to hunt near as much as my trv-19(not that I ever use them on anything but infinity when chasing).
HDV to SD output: I wondered how this would look too and it doesn't seem to stand out as a problem.
Well there's lots of other stuff to mess with, but thought I'd comment on those. I'm satisfied with what I see from the camera thus far. I really like the way it will work in slow shutter with the exposure control where it is. It seems very simple with not a bunch of menus to flip through to find both shutter and exposure.
Focus ring: One last thing I just thought of. This worries me, only because it seems very similar to my sony DSC-F707 still camera I had. That focus ring went whacky on me and became unusable. I'd spin it and it would jump to other distances. I'd try getting to infinity or so and it would bounce to like one inch, over and over. I went to use it on this HDV cam and quickly worried about it. I think I'll plan on using auto to get it focused on something and then just flip it to manual.
Battery: One more thing, lol. This was mentioned on other reviews for this camera. The view finder does not extend. If you put a big battery on this cam your nose will be on it and it'll likely extend past the view finder. I have like 5 FM50s now so it's not really an issue since they fit fine.
The HC3 is replacing this camera very very soon, so if you were pondering the HC1, it won't be around long.
Fred
