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Sony had remarkable success with both the HDR-FX1 ? touted as the world?s first HDV camcorder ? and its bigger brother the HDR-Z1P. Indeed it seems that there has been an ever flowing outpouring of HDV product from the Sony Japanese factories over the last few years, including the newer AVCHD format both Sony and Panasonic will sway more domestic owners over to the hi-def format.
FX1 owners sadly and loudly lamented the loss of their treasured model, but they should be heartened, by the launch of the new HDR-FX7 with the launch price of the FX7 is A$500 less than the corresponding current price of the FX1!
Another major difference is the body shape, with the FX7 taking on more of the persona of the successful Canon GL1 (XM2) shape than the original and quite novel FX1 with its top mounted and flip-over LCD being a first in this area (and strangely, now almost exactly copied in the Canon XHA1 whilst Sony has reversed to the more traditional side mounted flip out LCD).
The FX7 is also a lot lighter than its predecessor by almost 25% but certainly has a more solid heft with many commentators criticising the FX1 because of its ?plasticky? feel. The only criticism of the shape of the FX7 is that some videographers who had a play with this review unit felt it was a little right hand side heavy for single handed use.
But the major talking point will be about image quality. The FX1 was driven by a 3CCD setup and the FX7 by contrast ? pardon the pun ? uses Sony?s new ClearVid 3CMOS setup. This gives a pixel count of 1120K (1037K ?real?) in comparison to the FX1?s 1120K/1070K. This is more than acceptable and definitely the CMOS will use less power.
Video camera engineers I spoke to on a recent Japan visit agreed that CMOS long term is the way to go and equally agree, at this point, CMOS is not quite as good as CCD. However the quality from the FX7 is very, very good in conjunction with the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* lens. There is a 20K optical zoom boasting 106-2.8 and a focal distance of 3.9-78mm. Stabilisation is optical.
Functions include auto/manual focussing (by focus ring), and white balance, iris control can both be automatic or manually controlled. Shooting aids include zebra patterning, histogram, guide frames and AE shift.
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| The Sony HDR-FX7 |
The flip-out LCD screen is a generous 3.5? and supports 16:9 widescreen with a pixel count of 211,200. The colour viewfinder has 252,000 dots.
Sony has continued their trend of placing the battery compartment on the rear of the camcorder (yay!)and to its right are controls for auto lock, gain, shutter speed, white balance and to activate the onboard menu. With the right hand slipped through the handstrap, the left is free to operate these controls as well as the nicely ergonomic exposure/iris button, ND filter switch and expanded focus and focus buttons. Also In this location is the flip down panel containing Memory Stick port, Bluetooth and unlike the Canon XHA1, an inbuilt HDMI port.
Transport controls for the VTR operation are underneath the flip-out LCD ? a design I find annoying as it means you have to use the LCD (and consequently potentially battery life) to review a shot rather than the viewfinder.
At least the LCD is not touch screen, another idea I just cannot fathom.
To the right of the battery compartment is another hideaway panel containing iLink, A/V and component out.
Audio is supplied by an onboard mic just ahead of a hotshoe, but sadly there is no provision for balanced XLR input, a point that may sway pro users to the Canon XHA1 (although you can run a plug in power external mic).
So is the HDR-FX7 a better camcorder than the HDR-FX1? Proponents of the FX1 state that it looks like a more ?professional? camera ? this seems to be important to some ? whereas the FX7 appears as a larger version of the standard domestic camcorder. It is strange that Sony has gone back to the traditional shape, and one can only surmise there was enough criticism of the FX1/Z1P shape to justify a re-tooling. Conversely, perhaps they thought Canon had the right idea all along (despite Canon now copying some FX1 attributes!)
The proof is in picture quality and functionality. Personally, I feel the control ergonomics are better than the FX1, but the use of CMOS slightly ? ever so slightly ? is not quite as good as the CCD based FX1. Many people I showed however ? admittedly not power users ? couldn?t tell the difference.
Overall, I?d opt for the extra dollars and get the Canon XHA1 as the twin XLR?s make the difference to me, but if this is not important to you, then the FX7 certainly deserves a long hard look and play to see if it suits your needs.
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David Hague comes from a photographic family with both his father and older brother having been professional photographers. David's experiences include writing and directing the suite of training videotapes for Microsoft for Office and Windows, training tapes for Filemaker Pro and Autocad Lite and numerous TV commercials, documentaries and corporate videos. He was for 3 years the Managing Editor of Australian Video Camera Publications and is now publishing and editing AusCam magazine and PC Update. He has a bent for fishing and motor sport and is an unashamed Aussie who makes a killer Home Brew. David lives in the south west of Western Australia among the dolphins and pelicans of Mandurah, 45 minutes south of the capital, Perth.Related Sites: Digital Producer , Hollywood Industry , Digital Video Editing , IBC News , Audio Video Producer , BN - Broadcast Newsroom , Digital Post Production , HD Issues , Presentation Master , Oceania , MacVideoPro , BN - HD , BN - Production , BN - Acquistion , BN - Hardware , BN - Sony
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