A review of the Sony HDR-HC1E HDV camcorder.

The Sony HDR-HC1E is the first small-bodied camera in the HDV world, but its size belies its quality and capability. Aimed directly at the consumer market, this camera has a price of around $1700.00. Smaller than most DV cameras, the native 1440 x 1080 camera uses CMOS technology to provide impressive imagery from a 5.9mm (1/3) chip.

While this isn't aimed at the professional market, I have to say that I was substantially more impressed with this camcorder than I expected to be. Sony has created a very nice niche in the 1080i market. This camera, coupled with software like the DVRack with HDV Plugin Pak, makes for an amazingly inexpensive HDV production kit for even the most budget conscious or HD-curious video geek. If you're wondering about HDV and how it fits your workflow; this is the camera that you can experiment with. This also appears to be a great low-level event and wedding camcorder, in addition to sneaking it into museums, etc. For example, I was able to sneak it into a museum that would not permit "professional" videography. At the KLCC towers in Kuala Lumpur, I watched a guy with a fairly rigged DVX camcorder be turned away by security, he had a tripod, shotgun, and hood on the cam, so it looked fairly intimidating. None of the security guards gave me a second look, and one even somewhat posed, as I was taking images of him near the entrance of the KLCC complex. The quality of the shots coupled with the palm-corder style design of this camera definitely make it a terrific sneak n' peek camcorder.

Boasting just over 2.8 megapixels pixels, which is fantastic for capturing still images, video mode offers 1.9megapixels while the still camera mode offers 2.7 megapixels for standard aspects and just over 2 megapixels for shooters of wide-screen stills.

The camera uses the same Mini-DV tapes as all DV-camcorders as this is part of the HDV specification, and shoots in widescreen/16:9 mode unless the user specifies otherwise.

The Sony manual claims a battery life of just over 90 minutes in HDV mode, but in real world use of stopping/starting the camera, I was able to record for just over 2 hours. However, I also was not leaving the display screen open all the time, either, so their manual may be predicated on leaving the display open full time. Leaving the screen open, the camera performed for just under an hour after its 4th charging, so the battery was operating at full capacity. Like its more robust relatives, the display may be turned on or off, and when shooting in DV mode, the camera will provide slightly longer battery times. The battery is charged via the camera, eliminating the need for an external charger. Fortunately, this camera uses the standard FM-50, QM71, and QM91 batteries like many other Sony products, meaning that spare batteries are very easy to obtain.

The battery pack is on the back of the camera next to the Start/Stop recording button; basically the same as any previous Sony consumer camera. Note the LANC control jack just above the REC/Start button.

The camera is extremely easy to use straight out of the box, and in my testing, I compared the CMOS images against the HVR-Z1 with both cameras in auto-mode. Automode is where this camera really shines. There are several menus available, and exposure, although capable of fully automatic, may be set to standard modes such as “Spotlight,” “Beaches/Sunlight,” “Portrait,” and “Sunset and Moon.” Exposure may also be instantly increased/decreased by the Exposure Adjustment found on the front left of the camcorder, which also applies to audio volume depending on the mode it is in.

The shutter is adjustable in standard shutter speed settings, and the camera auto-adjusts exposure based on shutter speed, effectively making this a shutter-priority camera. Shutter speeds are adjustable from 1/10000 to 1/3.

The camera also has four white-balance modes, Auto, Indoor, Outdoor, and Manual. I found the manual mode a little irritating, because if the frame isn’t entirely filled with white, the white balance wasn’t accurate. With the FX1/Z1U, and most other camcorders, it’s quite easy to white balance if you’ve only got 75% of the screen filled, you can still white balance off the shot. Granted, a lot of consumers won’t be using any manual white balancing, but for the pro or pro-sumer, this is going to an important feature when using the HC1E as a backup or second camera accompanying another HDV camcorder.

Spot Metering in this camera is very good; it’s quite easy to focus on the subject and then touch the view screen at the area at which you’d like to adjust the exposure. One thing I found most handy for this was to use the plastic pen from my PDA, as I didn’t really care for my finger oils filling in the view screen fairly quickly.

Like other Sony camcorders, this camera has a Sharpness adjustment. On the FX1/Z1U camcorders, I found a sharpness setting of about 11-12 was ideal, whereas on this smaller camcorder, a shutter setting of just slightly to the right of the default center was perfect when viewing on a 1900 x 1200 laptop screen.

I used Serious Magic’s HDV Rack for my sharpness and color testing/comparisons, and found this camera to be no where near the same imagery as the Z1U as displayed on the Vectorscope and Waveform monitors, but at the same time, the pictures are very, very nice. One major benefit to the HC1E was giving the color a slight boost, again pushing it to just barely right of the default center point. One thing that would surely be sweet is if this camera could remember settings. If you turn off the camera or the battery dies, you’ll be adjusting everything ack to where you like it to be. The camera should at the least allow for uswers to memorize favorite settings, ie Picture Profiles) so that they are recallable. You do have the ability to save shortcuts for menus, which helps a lot. The built in semi-owners manual is nice too, because you can point to a section of the touch screen and get feedback on what that feature does. Charging the camera for longer than 12 hours also resets all settings to Default.

Everything in this camera is menu-driven, there are few physical switches to adjust. The only buttons/switches found on the camera are:

There really isn’t much to adjust physically with this camera, although it does offer more adjustment and control than most consumer oriented DV camcorders.

Sporting a port on the top of the camera for Sony’s new consumer products, this Active Interface Shoe allows for any AIS capable accessory to be plugged into the camera such as a video light, microphone, or flash. The HC1E does sport a built in flash for still use as well, although it cannot be used as a video light.

Audio considerations have not been left out of this camcorder. Accepting a microphone input, and offering a headphone output are part of the package, and the headphone/mic level may be adjusted during the shooting/playback process using the Volume control which is accessible via the touchscreen menu. Levels may be automatically adjusted or manually set, although there is no individual control of right/left levels. Pressing the small button to the side of the paddle switch selects whether you’re in volume or exposure modes. Audio quality is surprisingly good, sounding better than any camcorder I’ve heard outside the HDV realm. However, because the mics are situated just behind the focus/zoom ring, it’s also difficult to get great audio using the camera-mic if you’re going to be manually focusing anyway.

Truthfully, in my test of this camera, I predominantly used the Beachtek DX8 anyway, since I needed the XLR capability for the audio and video tests/shooting I was performing. The camera sounded great by putting the HC1E in manual level mode, setting it to about 60% of level, and then using the Beachtek to set my levels. Interestingly, but not surprising, is that the audio sounds substantially better with on-board mic use if the built in flash is engaged/in the up position. Keep in mind the flash isn't useable for video.

Not surprisingly, audio sounds best when the still-camera flash is engaged.

I particularly like the spot focus and spot metering modes of this camcorder. Being able to use a PDA pen to tell the camera what to focus on, should the camera be only focused on the center image is really sweet, and the same can be said for the spot metering, instructing the camera on what part of the image it should be basing exposure. I do wish that there was a display indicating the aperture and shutter speed that the camera has selected based on what point of the image I’ve told the camera to use for exposure and/or focus. But, this *is* a consumer-oriented camcorder, so it’s probably asking too much for such a feature in this price class. The camera is LOADED with special effects such as Sepia, Fade, Color Correction, and more. I didn’t really test these modes beyond flipping through them, as these aren’t features that I’d likely use, since all NLE’s offer these sorts of functions in post-production.

The Macro mode and shooting in low light were also surprisingly good. The images are too large to display in this review, but here are some links to images straight from the camera, captured using the Sony Vegas preview frame print. Sony offers a rating of 7LUX on this camera, but I found that it performed better than the specs might indicate.

Low light Macro-view

One surprise on the camera is a LANC control. For a consumer camcorder to have this feature is huge, because it means that if a device such as an Edirol R4 is being used as a master audio recorder with one of the big brother Z1 camcorders, the HC1 can stop/start the R4, providing frame-accurate sync in post during capture. That’s impressive!

Another sweet surprise is the built in Histogram, which allows users to see the balance of color across the spectrum, aiding in finding over exposed points, and can be left on in the lower right of the camcorder preview window at all times, and may be seen in the viewfinder. The camera further offers a Zebra mode that may be set to a value of 70 or 100.

There is an iLink connection, a USB 2 connection, an uncompressed RGB output, and a composite output on the camera, an S-Vid/Y/C cable would have added a little more to it, but that also would have meant more size. It's hard to keep realizing this camera is aimed at the consumer market due to the quality of output it provides. A few gripes with this camera that need to be mentioned.

The bottom loading mechanism, while necessary to maintain the small profile of the camera, is really annoying and inconvenient if one is using a tripod. Sony needs to figure out some sort of tripod offset, because taking a professional sled off the bottom of this camcorder every hour is a pain. I know, this isn’t a professional camcorder, but it’s inevitable that the cam will be used on a tripod. I also don’t care for the lens if the lenshood isn’t mounted on the camera, and it’s quite easy to knock the lens hood off. The curvature of the lens takes the edge of the glass very close to the front of the lens where it’s not much to scratch or damage. You’ll definitely want a Sky 1A or similar lens protection on this camera. I wouldn’t consider shooting with out it. I also wish the camera had a traditional shoe rather than the Sony-proprietary AIS shoe. The reasoning behind the Sony proprietary shoe is evident, but it doesn’t seem that offering both, or at least offering a standard shoe that could dummy mount (no power) into the AIS shoe doesn’t seem like too much to ask. It would be a cheap bit of plastic, and would allow for a standard shotgun mic mount or small self-powered video light.