Hands-on VX2000 Report
by Chuck Littman, Spring 2000

My first day's impression with my new Sony DCR-VX2000 semi-professional camcorder: I wish it wasn’t bright silver... just looks tacky to me. Ergonomically, it’s pretty much identical to the VX1000. I suspect that with a wide angle adapter lens on it and the new external mounted battery, it should balance well. The camera will take the NP-F960 for what Sony claims will give it up to 9 hours of shooting time, without the screen. The NP-F960 is quite a brick but because the batteries fit into a recessed compartment area it only sticks out the back about 3/4 of an inch. The common NP-750 actually sits flush.

The handle now has a wavy grip like a pro camera, and that’s nice. With the 2.5 inch screen the handle needs to feel secure, because more people will shoot now by holding it from there. The LCD screen is perhaps the sharpest I’ve ever seen, and I believe the screen is the first I’ve seen on a camera that shows focus better than its viewfinder, I kid you not! Of course I wish it was bigger. I miss the direction arrows from the VX1000 that tell you which way to turn the lens to focus, which was dropped from this model. I always felt that was an intelligent thing to have with an unmarked lens. Manual focus was about as swift as the VX1000, possibly a bit faster, and auto focus, for the short period I used it, seemed better than the VX1000’s, possibly because of the quick light response of the 1/3" HAD chips.

Low light shooting was very impressive. I shot some tape which Sony then played back on a WEGA TV they had set up (no pro monitor... as this was a consumer showcase). The dark weave of a Sony rep’s suit reproduced very well, with very little color noise or aliasing. I must say that this camera seems to handle a wider range of light levels and white balance anomalies than I expected. Blacks and details in the shadows did not crush easily... by the time I found something the camera wouldn’t reproduce, I realized I couldn’t see that part of the carpet with my own eyes anyway. I took it outside and shot a section of the walkway, with half in bright sun and half in shadow, and was able to clearly discern detail in the sidewalk on both sides upon playback. There are now two levels of neutral density filter. And the aspherical glass lens is very, very sharp and gives a nice flat edge to edge image.

Of course, I welcomed the return of the manual zoom. It’s the skinny ring closest to you as you shoot. However, it is a servo controlled thing and therefore there is a little lag time, which bugged me. Also, I don’t believe there are any marks on it to tell you where you are in the range of wide to telephoto. A small raised tab would have been nice. The rocker for the zoom switch has almost no slop in it, and is more predictable than the VX1000’s. A good slow speed, but I believe the Canon GL1’s may be a tiny bit slower.

Somebody intelligent must have insisted that the menu, manual mode settings, white balance, shutter speed, and audio controls be mounted on the back of the camera, and steered Sony away from the tom-foolery that infected the TRV900/PD100A, where they hid many of these vital functions behind the LCD and in the menu. It’s lovely to push the audio level button and instantly control the level, and see a VU meter running across the bottom of your display, even if it is only a single meter averaging (?) the right and left channels. I don’t know how accurate this can be, but it’s helpful. And while I’m streaming about audio, let me commend Sony for beefing up the mini mic jack to a healthy looking stainless steel component that may not have to be replaced as often as my old plastic one was... and for the inclusion of a line/mic attenuator switch next to it, to allow us to run something live out of a mixing board. Thank you very much.

The new on-camera mic has two capsules, instead of the VX1000’s four. I have no response to this either way, I’ll have to hear it. As I neglected to bring my headphones, and Sony wasn’t playing back audio through the TV, I missed out on one of our biggest concerns about the camera. The TRV900/PD100A is notorious for an abysmal pre-amp. Background noise, or hiss was a problem that kept me and many others from buying that camera... if I get my hands on one of these again I will definitely check this out. By the way, the VX2000 will now do 16-bit audio on two tracks, or 12-bit on two tracks, leaving you two more for audio dub.

There is an intelligent shoe for compatible Sony accessories, like their intelligent shotgun (that’s one for the NRA, isn’t it?) mic that zooms audio with your video. The camera captures stills onto tape or Sony’s memory stick at a 640x480 resolution. It will shoot in progressive scan; however, I don’t believe this will be the camera of choice for web production. Unlike the Canon GL1, who’s progressive scan is actually smooth enough that some people shoot with it for web video, this camera’s progressive scan mode appears to be more of a convenience to grab a non-interlaced still. I believe it shoots progressive at 15 frames per second.

Shooting 16:9, available in the menu, seems very sharp, although it is of course not a separate chip set but an electronic conversion. There was no monitor available to check the output, but I loved how it looked on the LCD. Unlike Canon’s, Sony’s 16/9 is displayed unsquished, in letterbox, which is much more realistic for composing your shot. Because the lens is now 58mm, your old Sony wide angle adapter will not fit it... they will have a new wide and teleconversion lens to fit.

The camera will convert analog video and audio to DV output through its IEEE1394 jack on the fly (you don’t have to record it first or put the camera into record), which is great. The VX2000 will also come with a memory stick reader with a USB jack to download images to a computer, and it can also upload images onto the memory stick media. Inside the LCD screen compartment are the controls for a 20 shot assemble editor, two levels of zebra stripes, and the obligatory digital and picture cheeze effects that Sony insists on foisting onto the world. Does anybody actually use these things?

This camera will come out of Sony listing for about $3000, which probably means that we’ll eventually see it on the street for something like $2600. I have to say, I dug it muchly. Would I give up my GL1 for it? Yes, I think so. But it’s gotten to the point where I wish I had a gun rack with half a dozen DV cameras on it, ready to go, because each one is perfect for a different shooting situation. But yes, barring any potential audio problems, which one should not yet assume its free of, consider this unit approved.

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Written by Chuck Littman
Thrown together by Chris Hurd