Stunning Professional High-Definition Video Camera

The Sony HVR-A1U is described by Sony as being the 'World's Smallest Professional High-Definition Camcorder'.

It's black, solidly built and actually quite sexy! Add the audio box on top and this is one VERY professional-looking camera.

This camera replaces the also-excellent PDX-10 in Sony's Pro camcorder line-up.

When I was looking to buy a camera, I was in a store in Hong Kong looking at the Sony and a Canon XL-2. The Sony looked small; TINY in comparison to the XL-2. I phoned a friend of mine who is an executive producer and makes documentaries (and owns a PDX-10 that I'd borrowed to shoot the odd short movie). He recommended getting the smaller camera because it's unobtrusive, can be taken on vacation AND it's High-Def (which the XL-2 is not - but I just LOVED that lens on the XL-2!!). Anyway, I took his advise and got the Sony and have NOT looked back!

The model I have is the HVR-A1P (P=Pacific?, E=Europe, U=USA). I'm guessing that the 'P' and 'E' versions are identical and work to the PAL standard, whereas the 'U' model is NTSC.

Anyway, to business...

The first thing you notice about this camcorder (if you've ever handled other Sony camcorders) is that it is small and it has very few buttons. That's because Sony has decided to provide a touch-screen display with an excellent menu system. That's right, just about everything you need is tucked away in a menu somewhere.

Now that might put some people off, but Sony have done better and provided a customisable first level menu. In other words, you can put your favourite parameters in the first-level menu for instant access, and arrange the buttons any way you like. This really is an excellent feature.

This shoots in Full HDV (1080i), DVCAM (Sony's professional tape format for Standard Definition (SD)), or regular SD. Once shot in 1080i, it will down-convert to SD via component output or FireWire (iLink), so you can shoot everything in HD and still edit on a regular SD system for creating DVD. This is actually quite good. The HD pictures shot and played in SD are VERY crisp and clear, and is my preferred method of shooting. Amazingly, an HDV video will fit on a 63min tape just like an SD video. DVCAM will allow 40 minutes on a 63min tape.

The camcorder is fitted with Carl Zeiss optics, so the picture quality is really very good. The zoom is somewhat average at only 12x, but I really don't find this to be a problem. It works perfectly with my VCL-HG0737 wide-angle converter lens so I get much more zoom capability.

Sony opted for a single CMOS sensor, rather than the usual 3-CCD arrangement found in their other HD cameras. Trust me, this is not a problem since the pictures coming from this camera are virtually undistinguishable from its 3-CCD siblings. I suppose it is almost the same type type of sensor as found in today's high-end Digital SLR cameras. The colour resolution is really very good - very natural.

This is a 'Professional Camcorder', and so comes with the little box on top sporting the supplied shotgun microphone and 2 XLR audio connectors.

The zoom controller is one of the newer types which rocks left-right. It is very small and quite sensitive in use. I preferred the larger front-back rocker on the PDX-10. By placing 2-3 fingers on that (as you could) you seem to have more control over the zoom. There are zoom controller buttons next to the screen, and you can assign the focus ring to control the zoom too (I'll talk more about that ring later), so the camera has three immediate ways to zoom! FOUR if you count the LANC connection!

One of the reasons I was considering the XL-2 (besides that beautiful lens) is that it can shoot in 'cinematic film mode'. It can adjust the colour gamma and frame-rate to make your movies look like film. Fear not! The HVR-A1E also has this feature, and while you may not have the same level of control as on the XL-2, Sony has provided a couple of presets that do the job very well, and I guess they know what they're doing!

The colour-gamma control is call CineTone, and you can choose between 'Off', 'Type 1' and 'Type 2'. The latter has a very strong effect, adding some grain and deepened colours. It does the trick very well.

CineFrame is the feature giving the impression of 25fps film. You can turn it on and off. Again, the effect is quite impressive and adequately provides the illusion of film. I like this. A lot.

And so to the ring...

The focus/zoom ring behind the lens is one of those digital 'alpha-wheel' affairs. A three-way switch controls the following:-

Auto Focus, (Ring=Zoom)
Off
Manual Focus, (Ring=Focus)

Many professional videographers abhor any kind of focus or zoom ring where you can't mark off what you're doing. I'm inclined to agree with that sentiment, but the ring in use feels natural and responsive.

I personally like the manual zoom effect and control the ring provides, but then I'm at the mercy of the auto-focus. This actually isn't bad as auto-focuses go - it's quick and doesn't 'hunt' usually, but I like to 'dirty the frame' with foreground objects which is stuffs this feature completely.

This brings about another gripe to what is supposedly a 'professional' camera - the exposure control. It all works fine, but there's no way of telling how the iris/aperture is set. One must assume that with the exposure set to full, that iris is fully open (lowest F-stop). There is manual control over the shutter speed, but there's another little (undocumented) glitch. In order to adjust shutter speed, you must FIRST set the exposure to Auto. Once you have set the shutter speed, THEN you can adjust the exposure. I went CRAZY trying to discover how to change the shutter speed until I accidentally discovered that!

Also, I find the exposure control lever a little too small and fiddly for my big fingers, but somehow I get by...

Anyway, once you've finally got past all that, the end result i.e. the picture quality, is actually quite superb. On my Sony Bravia 26" LCD TV (which is NOT full-HD) the 'looking through a window' illusion is still apparent. It really is a stunning little camcorder.

There are a few extra REALLY nice features:-

- Shot transition - so you can program a focus/zoom/exposure/whatever sequence and go from setting 'A' to setting 'B'

- Interval recording for time-lapse filming (although this only save pictures to a Sony Pro-Duo MemoryStick).

- Tele-Macro for shooting up close to small objects.

- Nightshot - for 0-Lux movie-making...

- Programmable (Assign) Button - could do with more though.

Things I don't like - but live with....

The still-photo button is WAY to close to the zoom rocker. I hate this and wish it could be turned off (or reassigned to something more useful, like white-balance).

Bottom-loading tape. Annoying when using with a tripod. I bought a special bracket on eBay that fixes this.

The Zoom Ring. Would be nice if the focus could be fixed THEN the Zoom ring could be brought to bear. Zoom ring means Auto Focus. Yuck!

Requires GENUINE InfoLithium batteries. Forget using 'generic' batteries. This camera will reject them!