With prices of HD-ready LCD and plasma screens falling, and the dawn of HDTV, HD DVD and Blu-ray breaking, it won't be long before high definition appears in homes throughout the UK. But a far greater development is the long-awaited arrival of affordable HD filming for the consumer.
Enter Sony's £2,500 HDR-FX1E HDV/DV camcorder.This little beauty can record and play back 16:9 HDV 1,080i (50 interlaced frames per second) and mini DV 576i footage. What's doubly exciting about this latest semi-pro cam,apart from the fact that it still uses standard mini DV tape, is that it can be found for as little as £2,170 online.
Compared to JVC's GR-HD1 HDV/DV camcorder,which is only available in the US and records HD at 1,280 x 720 progressively (720p) to a video bandwidth of 19Mbps,the Sony HDR-FX1E captures high-def pictures at 1,440 x 1,080 interlaced (1,080i) to a larger bandwidth of 25Mbps.This bandwidth is also identical to standard mini DV,hence the same tape duration is used, regardless of whether you record to HDV or DV.But HD content has more information and a higher resolution to store than DV PAL's 720 x 576 pixels, so it's compressed as a type of MPEG2 video.This process of capturing HD as MPEG2 video to mini DV tape gave birth to the new and much raved about 'HDV format'.
Decked out in pro-style charcoal grey,the HDR-FX1E means business and resembles Sony's PD170 DV/DVCAM camcorder,but is slightly larger.The 3.5in colour widescreen LCD panel is uniquely positioned across the front of the carry handle, behind the onboard stereo microphone,and covering various VCR and LCD controls,plus a button for outputting and recording colour bars at the start of tape.The handle has a small,two-speed-adjustable zoom rocker beside a record button for low-angle filming.
All the necessary manual controls are within easy reach on the body, namely a volume level dial,large silver iris (exposure) dial,and focus, gain,shutter,white balance and twolevel ND filtering controls.Assign buttons store set-ups and the Expanded Focus button zooms in on the frame for checking focus before recording.The lens hood and shutters (instead of a lens cap) shield the 12x optical zoom f1.6/72mm Carl Zeiss lens with its focus ring and zoom ring with end stops.
