First shoot, first impressions for HVR-HD1000

[Ervin Farkas]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

x.y color: A mysterious function which I didn't turn on is "x.y. color". Sony describes this as an extended color space standard that they are proposing to the video world. The manual doesn't really explain what this means. I'll play around with it this Thursday during another interview shoot and report.

You're probably referring to the new x.v.Color space adopted by Sony and Mitsubishi. "Tokyo, Jan 5, 2006 (JCN) - Sony announced on January 5 that it has prototyped the world's first LCD TV that has supported xvYCC, a new international video color space standard, and is showcasing it at the 2006 International CES in Las Vegas, Nevada."

x.v.Color (official name xvYCC) only works with the latest HDMI 1.3 interface. Basically it extends the color gamut by up to 80% (based on Munsell Color Cascade) compared to the ATSC standard. So far not much programming to watch in xvYCC - neither BlueRay nor HDDVD supports it - so these Sony cameras (the HC7 has it as well) are the first sources to test it. All Sony HDV camcorders with an HDMI interface support xvYCC.

"HDMI 1.3 supports 30-bit, 36-bit, and 48-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification. With the adoption of Deep Color and the xvYCC color space HDMI 1.3 removes the previous interface-related restrictions on color selection.

By implementing the xvYCC color space standard, HDMI 1.3 removes virtually all limits on color selection and supports 1.8 times as many colors as existing HDTV signals. This is because the xvYCC color space standard defines colors by means of an algorithm that can specify any color in nature. This lets HDTVs display colors more accurately and with more natural and vivid colors. The first TV to use this standard was the Sony Bravia, which premiered at the 2006 CES in Las Vegas." (HDTV Magazine).

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

You're probably referring to the new x.v.Color space adopted by Sony and Mitsubishi. "Tokyo, Jan 5, 2006 (JCN) - Sony announced on January 5 that it has prototyped the world's first LCD TV that has supported xvYCC, a new international video color space standard, and is showcasing it at the 2006 International CES in Las Vegas, Nevada."

x.v.Color (official name xvYCC) only works with the latest HDMI 1.3 interface. Basically it extends the color gamut by up to 80% (based on Munsell Color Cascade) compared to the ATSC standard. So far not much programming to watch in xvYCC - neither BlueRay nor HDDVD supports it - so these Sony cameras (the HC7 has it as well) are the first sources to test it. All Sony HDV camcorders with an HDMI interface support xvYCC.

"HDMI 1.3 supports 30-bit, 36-bit, and 48-bit (RGB or YCbCr) color depths, up from the 24-bit depths in previous versions of the HDMI specification. With the adoption of Deep Color and the xvYCC color space HDMI 1.3 removes the previous interface-related restrictions on color selection.
............

This is very interesting but since most HD displays are not in line with this color space what are the drawbacks to shooting with it? Is this color space in anyway altered by the editing process? And what if you have to do some color correction? How is it affected by downconverting to SD? Do any of the HDMI capture cards recognized this color space?

The whole thing sounds limited in the ways it can be used at this time.

[Jaser Stockert]

will this camera be feasible for home interior shooting using natural, incadescent and/or florescent lighting? how is the low light capability? is this camera's low light capability good for real estate videos? thanks.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Jaser Stockert

will this camera be feasible for home interior shooting using natural, incadescent and/or florescent lighting? how is the low light capability? is this camera's low light capability good for real estate videos? thanks.

The low light capability is good for a HD camera due to the single chip. Assuming that your real estate videos are descriptive and not beauty shots (i.e. specially lit and filmed) this camera should work well. My edit room is lit only by two 50 watt compact florescent bulbs and I got a decent shot in here. Maybe my PD-170 is slightly better but not by much.

[Jaser Stockert]

good to know. thanks william! looks like the perfect low cost professional looking(at least to real estate agents) HD camera. hopefully promax or samy's has one i can take a look at. i think this camera targets to users like myself: wanting a low cost HD camera way under $3000, yet impressing clients by its appearance.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Jaser Stockert

i think this camera targets to users like myself: wanting a low cost HD camera way under $3000, yet impressing clients by its appearance.

That it does. I am more interested in the ergonomics than impressing a client with size but that's what happened with my two shoots this past week.

[Greg Toope]

Just wondering if anyone who has used this camera has found any gain control? I bought the camera a couple days ago but have yet found any time to play with it. Hopefully I can match the footage from the HD1000u with my little HV20 with no problems.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Greg Toope

Just wondering if anyone who has used this camera has found any gain control? I bought the camera a couple days ago but have yet found any time to play with it. Hopefully I can match the footage from the HD1000u with my little HV20 with no problems.

No gain yet found.

"Gain" seems to be missing from the instruction manual which leads me to believe that Sony intends you to use a slower shutter speed for low light situations instead of raised gain. The only mention of low light is either in the "Nightshot" instructions (the green infrared option) or in the "Auto Slow Shutter" descriptions.

I was worried about gain when I mixing it with another camera but it seems that the gain is fixed!

[Greg Toope]

well that would be fantastic. I would much prefer no gain at all then some kind of AGC.

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

This lets HDTVs display colors more accurately and with more natural and vivid colors. The first TV to use this standard was the Sony Bravia, which premiered at the 2006 CES in Las Vegas." (HDTV Magazine).

I wonder if this is why the 52" Sony Bravia LCD TV model was tightly tethered to a BluRay and no amount of customer purchase leverage (as in, I won't buy it unless I can see a regular DVD and my Sony Z1 as inputs) would sway any of the sales people. Could it be possible that a special version of the Sony Blu Ray player with its Bravi demo disk (not made available to customer) would handle this color space ? Hmmm.

[Jeff Emery]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

The low light capability is good ... Maybe my PD-170 is slightly better but not by much.

I have a VX2100 which is as sensitive in low light as the PD170. Are you saying this camera can deliver acceptable results on par with the VX2100/ PD170 in lighting conditions like a dim wedding reception hall?

Jeff

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by Jeff Emery

I have a VX2100 which is as sensitive in low light as the PD170. Are you saying this camera can deliver acceptable results on par with the VX2100/ PD170 in lighting conditions like a dim wedding reception hall?

Jeff

Let me phrase it a little differently since I overlooked that I had the camera in 1/30th shutter at the time. The picture was of my edit room without anyone moving.

The HD1000 camera is definitely less sensitive then a VX2100/PD170 (same camera guts, different accessories) at 1/60 shutter. I have a good friend who makes her living videotaping weddings and she has resisted upgrading to HD specifically since she would be losing desperately needed light sensitivity in those certain to happen dark event hall situations. Now that Sony seems to be forcing us to use the shutter in place of gain, the comparison is a little hard to make. The quality of the HD1000 image in 1/30th shutter is excellent and I would think most clients would be very happy with the result (looks more like film).

I have a pro color chart on the way and I'll make some test stills at various lighting levels and post them as soon as possible.

[Jaser Stockert]

hmmm...1/30 shutter? for home interiors, as stated above, how well would this camera perform at 1/60 shutter? would prefer the smoothness of 1/60 for pans and zooms. thanks again william.

[Ron Evans]

I expect it has no gain control just like the HC7. I expect it has auto gain just like the HC7 and all the other Sony consumer cams. Full scale manual exposure is 18db gain, and then each click back will be 15db, 12db, 9 db, 6db,3db,0. You can check this with the data code in playback. I would be surprised if it is anything else as all the Sony's respond in this way in auto. I can never understand why Sony doesn't have these scales visible in record even if independent gain isn't available. By independent I mean set gain at 9db and iris at F4 etc.
Ron Evans

[Brian Tori]

A good test of whether or not gain is being applied would be to look at a monitor in a darkened room and open iris all the way. If the image gets noisier than it is most likely using auto gain.