So many models and flavours

[Nuno Ribeiro]

Hello

Im a bit confused about de HDV Sony models.
What is the latest and most "professional" one??

-HVRZ1U?
-HDR FX7?
-CMOS?
-CCD?

Im lookink to work in FCP6 with the most compatible camera and with the one with more frame rates and DVCam\DV play\rec modes.

HVRZ1U rigth??

Best to all

[Joe Busch]

The FX1 and Z1 are a bit older and use 3CCD
the V1 and FX7 are the newer 3 Cmos...

I'd think the 3CCD would have better low-light, but the V1/FX7 have 20x optical zoom over the FX1 and Z1's 12x which I find useful

That and the FX7 doesn't have a weird LCD placement (imo)

I think the image quality in good lightwill look the same from any of the 4...

Z1 I believe would have the most options/flexibility though, FX7 having the least...

[Dave Blackhurst]

Z1 - more options, NTSC or PAL, 50 or 60i, DVCAM, far more things you can do with it - the LCD position is not hard to get used to <wink>. The Z1U is the most "professional" of the lot... the V1 is smaller, lighter, and a few less options - CMOS instead of CCD.

FX1 is the consumer version of the Z1, FX7 the consumer version of the V1.

[Mojmir Pribis]

Also FX7/V1 has CMOS chip that cause "rolling shutter" effect, footage is little skewed when shooting with faster pans and picture is unusable for tracking or stabilizing.
FX1/Z1 has CCD chip with "frame shutter" that consume more power than CMOS, but the picture is not suffering with these "side effects".
The choice is up to you.

[Nuno Ribeiro]

Originally Posted by Mojmir Pribis

Also FX7/V1 has CMOS chip that cause "rolling shutter" effect, footage is little skewed when shooting with faster pans and picture is unusable for tracking or stabilizing.
FX1/Z1 has CCD chip with "frame shutter" that consume more power than CMOS, but the picture is not suffering with these "side effects".
The choice is up to you.

Thanks for the advice. That part of tracking things is important to me.
I do alot of Post and one day it come be andy.

THX
Nuno

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Nuno Ribeiro

HVRZ1U rigth??

Right!
I see it as CCD vs CMOS, and to me it's no question CCD (at least as of now)
I went to the store, got the miniDV tape and shut with FX1 and FX7, same light conditions, same objects, same settings ;
to my eye it's a big difference between two, and so far I'm happy with my FX1;
do yourself a favor, do the same, you'll make decision as soon as you'll see the footage side by side.
Cheers.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Buba Kastorski

Right!
I see it as CCD vs CMOS, and to me it's no question CCD (at least as of now)
I went to the store, got the miniDV tape and shut with FX1 and FX7, same light conditions, same objects, same settings ;
to my eye it's a big difference between two, and so far I'm happy with my FX1;
do yourself a favor, do the same, you'll make decision as soon as you'll see the footage side by side.
Cheers.

Buba, can you tell what the biggest differences were that you saw between those 2 camera's? was it in light sensitivity, image quality, colour or?

[Nuno Ribeiro]

Hi again

Today I made a test drive with a HVR Z1 and I deed Like the camera.
Aside I worked only a 1 hour SD DVCAM in an interview job, I liked the overall behaviour.
Note that this was my first test in HDV cameras and I was brifed for controls and adjustents for only 30 min and then of I went to work.

Pros- Good body design with easy access of controls and the overall fisical weight fine tuned.
Good DVCAM record.Good focus control.
Nice LCD (res enough to focus and exposure control).
Good VCR mode (quick and esay to access tape shots)

Cons- Do not go to work with a 30 min. brief on camera controls :)
Low light sensitivity is low. I had a hard time to control the exposure but I didn´t had the time to explore all adjustments.(My footage need Post to push leves up :( )
Inboard microphone is too much perifelical and front speech interviewed person with too much surroundnig noise (I took with me a gun mic to compensate in XLR1 input.)
Working with the camera without tripod is a realy pain in the neck.
In hands the camera is neither a shoulder camera or Handycam, its too heavy to work like a Handycam.More Pro profile than I expeted.

PS: Didnt understand quite yet the Z models flavours.
Z1U (CMOS Pal Ntsc switchable??), Z1E (CCD only Pal??) , Z1 (CCD?) , more Z´s out there??

Il try to post here when I finish the cuts a short clip in WMV.
Any sugestions were to cast\upload the final clip??

Peace
Nuno

[Boyd Ostroff]

Hi Nuno. All the "Z" models have CCD's. The "V" models have CMOS. And the "V" models are as you describe, with separate PAL and NTSC versions depending on which region they are sold.

All the "Z" models can be switched between PAL and NTSC. The different regional versions are just localized with the correct manuals and power connectors. There has been some discussion that the analog composite and s-video outputs are balanced differently for PAL and NTSC versions, but I've never seen a definitive answer to this. Regardless, all of the Z1 models can definitely record both PAL and NTSC which is a great feature and really the only reason I chose the Z1.

[Nuno Ribeiro]

Hi Boyd

Now things are starting to clear.
Z is my flavour (I think). I was regarding a Canon XLH1 but the price just kill me.
In the Z section what is the best camera? (top model), i mean the "allroad" camera for all the tipes of cinematography!
I have a guy here in my town who wants to seel a Z1 ( Just Z1 with no more E,X,F,or Y in the specs ;)
He´s asking me arround 5.310 U.S. dollars for it. Its a used camera with rental history and has about 80 Hours of rec play drum count. Its too much money for a used camera???What You think???
I think he is nuts!!
A new one in GlobalMediaPro.com is 4.166 U.S. dollars
For a used Z1 camera in US whats the market price???
What about Ebay??

Peace
Nuno

[Dave Blackhurst]

Hi Nuno -
As far as I know, a "Z1" is a Z1... the suffix letter is just to designate where it was originally marketed... U for US, E for Euro, I think there's J and H...

The Z1 is pretty much THE all around camera I think. Definitely the best cam if you need DVCAM and PAL/NTSC capabilities in one unit.

That price is high, definitely - I have one for sale myself right now (doing weddings, it's just a bit heavy for handheld as you found out... and my market just doesn't justify such a nice camera...) - PM/email me if interested and you haven't got access to the classifieds on the DVinfo site - I think it takes 30 days of membership before you can get to that forum.

Ebay is always a possibility, just got to be careful (I buy and sell on Ebay myself...) Going rate on a used Z1 is going to start around 3300-3500 USD, don't see them for much less if they have reasonable # hours on them... they go up to the low 4K depending on accessories...

[Boyd Ostroff]

Dave is correct Nuno. There is no "best camera" in the "Z" series. There is only the Z1 and they should all be the same except the language on the menus and manuals, and the power connector to fit your local electrical outlets.

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Buba, can you tell what the biggest differences were that you saw between those 2 camera's? was it in light sensitivity, image quality, colour or?

Sure I can,
FX1 is wider and noticeably sharper, so basically it is an image quality, I guess the same 1120K effective pixels per chip of FX7 are physically smaller and less light sensitive cuz they allocated on 1/4" CMOS vs 1/3" CCD of FX1

[Joe Busch]

Figure I'd pop in... FX7 Rolling Shutter?

http://www.lousyheros.com/videos/xpslpat.wmv

No rolling shutter I see :)

HDR-FX7, HDV501 Bogen Head...

That video was triple-compressed, there's lots of artifacts cause of it... (Not intentionally triple compressed )

And this was my first time out with the FX7/HDV501... I'm poor... and newish to this...

[Joseph Hutson]

If you are going to buy a z1u, buy it from BHPhotovideo for $4,399 after rebate. It comes with a wireless mic system worth $500, and several other valuable accessories.

You also need to buy a shotgun mic because any movement really, causes unwanted noise. I bought the ECM-674.

Joseph