Hi!

I have read a Sony document (a pdf file) that says, these camcorders
doesn't have a built in ND filter, because the cmos sensor has
a wider dynamic range of exposure than ccd-s.

My question is this true? I know, hc1/hc3 have not so good lowlight
capabilities, but i film outside in nature with enough light.
So i have better dynamic range? Every cloud has detail, nothing
is overexposured when in bottom of the picture are darker trees?

I've seen a few hc1 sample video, but i can find the answer.

thx
Marton

i'm pretty sure that the HC1 and A1 both have internal ND filters that flip into the optical path when the light levels rech a certain value.
Optimum quality is acheived at a physical aperture of f4 so beyond that ND filters are used to control increasing light levels (they're very small filters) until it gets TOO bright and the iris closes down almost completely.

HC3, and I think HC! too, has an auto shutter function. When set "on" it causes the shutter speed to go up, instead of the iris closing down, when scenes get too bright(beyond the internal ND reach). This way, soft images caused by diffraction are avoided.

They also use the wider range of cmos so that they won't have to close the aperture as soon. The camera keeps it at f4 as long as possible.