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Sony HDR-FX1 Review

Sony's HDR-FX1 is the first three-CCD HDV camcorder to hit the market and, to many, the first HDV camcorder to be taken seriously. The HDR-FX1 records video to standard MiniDV tapes at 1080 lines of resolution, 60 interlaced fields a second. With Sony's entry into the world of prosumer HD come high expectations, and this camera doesn't disappoint. The camcorder features three 1/3-inch CCDs at HD quality. The Sony HDR-FX1 has clearly been designed with the prosumer user in mind. Sony thankfully threw out the touch-screen and ignored still performance on this model and concentrated on video and low light quality as well as manual control. The HDR-FX1 delivers a level of manual control that we have never seen with Sony before, all in real buttons. I had an opportunity to work with the HDR-FX1 twice, both at a Sony press event in New York and at the International Broadcasters Convention in Amsterdam, and I was blown away. When you combine the HDR-FX1's outstanding quality video performance, low light performance, manual control and handling, it all makes one killer camcorder.

Video Performavce
The camera uses three 1/3-inch, 16:9 native HD CCDs, each with 960 pixels per scanline. The green CCD is bonded to the prism offset horizontally by half a pixel, increasing the apparent resolution by up to 50 percent, or 1440 pixels. And 1080i HDV records 1440 samples per line (as does HDCAM), so the effective resolution of camera and tape format mesh fairly well.

However, the standard-definition Canon XL2 also uses 960 (or 962) pixels per scanline, while Sony's other 1080i cameras use either 1440 or 1920 pixels per scanline; in other words, the FX1 is relatively undersampled horizontally. In terms of the picture, this undersampling shows up just as it does on its SD counterparts, the PD170 and VX2100: noticeable horizontal aliasing on fine vertical detail, especially when image enhancement is used. It's visible when shooting test charts, but less so in the real world; with 16 different "sharpness" settings available on the FX1, it's easy to vary the picture from "mushy" to "edgy" and trade off apparent detail against aliasing problems. In my tests, sharpness settings in the range of 4-12 gave perfectly acceptable pictures.

In other aspects, too, the FX1 is similar to its SD cousins. Colorimetry, dynamic range, and tonal scale rendering are very close to those of the PD150 I tested alongside the FX1, right down to the dynamic knee the cameras share, which varies the extent and scope of highlight compression based on scene content. The FX1 offers a "Cinematone gamma" that, like the Cine gamma on the XL2, pulls down midtones a bit and flattens the contrast curve, but it offers no other controls over the tonal scale (the Z1 adds a second, darker Cinematone gamma and a black stretch control). Vertical smear is comparable to the PD150. Luma noise is slightly less prominent than on the SD camera; chroma noise is slightly higher. Only in sensitivity is there a marked difference: the FX1 is 1.5-2 stops slower than the PD150.

On the test charts and in the real world, the camera makes crisp, detailed pictures. In HDV recording, I saw roughly 650 TVl/ph of horizontal resolution in playback, with visible but aliased detail out to 750 TVl/ph, and 800+ lines vertically. The numbers look unimpressive, but consider that the horizontal resolution of 1080i maxes out around 872 TVl/ph. Fine detail leapt out of the FX1's HD pictures, and the doubling of vertical resolution compared with SD made tilts and diagonal lines smooth and clean, with vastly reduced scanline artifacts. Although the camera isn't up to the specs of a CineAlta, its high-definition images were clearly a cut above SD pictures from the PD150 and DVX100 I tested alongside it.

In DV mode, playback resolution was limited to about 520 TVl/ph and 400 lines vertically, as you might expect. The FX1's SD pictures were as sharp as those from an XL2 or DVX100, albeit with slightly more noticeable horizontal aliasing than either of those. The FX1 offers two Cineframe modes, simulating 30p and 24p. Cineframe30 field-doubles, resulting in a 30 fps image update rate with halved vertical resolution (halved in HD, but only marginally impaired in SD). Cineframe24 uses a five-frame cycle of full frames and doubled fields that looks at first glance like 3:2 pulldown, but the camera itself is still running at 60i and the motion lacks the smoothness of true 24p (see www.adamwilt.com/ HDV). I'd stick with 60i for my film-outs.

In 1080i HDV recording, the FX1 uses long-GOP MPEG-2 at 25 Mbps. Sony's implementation is very good and has fewer artifacts than I expected. Most images look pristine, with little of the "mosquito noise" that plagues DV. With very busy details and lots of in-frame motion, perceived image noise in normal playback increases slightly. Single-frame or slow-mo playback reveals blocking or "quilting" errors, scattered and localized mosquito noise, color trailing, offset spatial details, and posterization, but it takes fairly extreme circumstances, like intentional shakycam with short shutter times, to generate substantial artifacts of this sort. I wouldn't recommend HDV for compositing, slow-mo, or still frames, but overall, the degradation due to compression was less than I see on most DVDs or in over-the-air HDTV broadcasts.

HDV has two channels of 48 kHz, 16-bit audio, squeezed 4:1 using MPEG-1 Layer 2 compression. I'm no Jay Rose, but both voice and music recording sounded clean and artifact free. The built-in mic is par for the course, picking up handling and motor noises in quiet surroundings, but line-level inputs from a mixer were accurately recorded and reproduced. The FX1 is just a little bit longer, wider, taller, and heavier than a VX2100. Like other Sony Handycams, it's well-balanced fore and aft, but the 4-pound, 10-ounce weight combined with the 6-inch width makes the camera side-heavy, like a DVX100. The camera is perfectly usable handheld, but it's approaching the upper limit for the Handycam form factor.

Controls
"It's a tube!" cried a colleague, upon seeing the camera. Indeed, the large lens flows back into the cylindrical body with no diameter changes; the first impression is of a bazooka as much as a camera. The huge lens barrel isn't just for looks: It contains heavy glass, with a front element of nearly 54 mm behind 72 mm filter threads (the same thread size as the Canon XL2's 20 X lens and the Panasonic DVX100A). The lens is an admirably wide 4.5 mm-54 mm zoom, wider than most other 1/3-inch CCD cameras. A clever 16:9 lens hood comes standard, with integrated, lever-activated "shutter"-style lens protection just like the VX2100 and PD170--no more fumbling for a dangling or detached lens cap.

A Sony-smooth servo focus ring encircles the front of the lens. It's not labeled, but the viewfinder reads out the focal distance in metric units when focusing manually. In auto-focus, the ring on the FX1 is disabled (the Z1 allows manual overrides). There is a Push Auto button, but it's nearly 5 inches from the focus ring, buried among several similar controls. When I groped for it, I often wound up pressing the white balance reset or one of the assignable buttons instead. The button's location made sense on the old VX1000, where it was adjacent to the focus ring, but as lenses have grown bigger and longer, the focus switches have failed to migrate forward, severely limiting their usability in live shooting.

Manual focus is assisted by two controls. An Expanded Focus button behind the zoom rocker momentarily enlarges the viewfinder image by 2 X, which is a useful feature found on some Sony digital still cameras as well as on the $250,000 Thomson Viper HDTV camera. Unfortunately, it doesn't function while recording. The analog and FireWire outputs blank briefly whenever the viewfinder goes into or out of Expanded mode.

Peaking sharpens viewfinder focus by a fixed amount. The FX1's peaking is underpowered for my taste, but it's useful nonetheless (the Z1 has three different peaking levels and innovative coloration of the peaking signal, but--at least on the prototypes--it's still weaker than it should be). It's too bad that peaking and zebra can't be used at the same time--it's one or the other, no matter that camera operators need both while shooting.

The zoom ring is a servo using an absolute position encoder, so settings are calibrated and repeatable, and the ring is marked with focal lengths. It's smooth enough to do a nicely ramped zoom, though the 90-degree rotation from wide to tele and a slight amount of static friction makes it a bit twitchier than the buttery-smooth slow manual zooms possible with the VX2100 and similar cameras. Snap zooms take about 1.5 seconds--you can turn the ring faster, but the lens needs time to catch up.

A slide switch enables the ring; you can use the ring or the zoom rockers, but not both (driving the ring under power against its considerable viscous drag would devour batteries). My slowest zoom with the rocker on the hand-grip took nearly 2 minutes--but that slow speed required depressing the rocker nearly halfway, but not a millimeter more; getting slow creeps with the rocker requires a very delicate touch. The fastest zoom with the rocker is about 2 seconds.

The FX1 gives you separate controls for iris, gain, white balance, and shutter speed--no more sharing the selector wheel between the latter three functions. An iris wheel controls aperture, three-position switches let you set gain and white balance, and the menu wheel controls shutter speed. Any manual control shows its setting in the viewfinder, but there is no indication of exposure other than a zebra, which can be set in 5 percent increments between 70 and 100+ (anything over 100 percent). The Z1, but not the FX1, lets you use the iris wheel as an auto-exposure override.

The camera has three assignable buttons, but only six menu functions may be assigned (fader, Steadyshot, index mark, audio dub, display, and colorbars; the Z1 has six buttons and more assignable functions). The FX1 has a comprehensive menu system, as well as six Picture Profile settings--known as custom presets or scene files on other cameras. A user-programmable P-Menu lets you set up a custom menu with commonly used items for quick access, and a Status Check button lets you review five pages of camera setup information without having to navigate any menus.

Two Shot Transition presets behave like a studio camera's shotbox. You can store exposure, white balance, focus, and zoom settings on each of the two buttons, then transition into them smoothly during shooting, greatly easing operations when performing repeatable moves. The transition time is variable from 2 to 15 seconds, and the transition ramp can have hard corners or eases. The Z1 adds automatic triggering of transitions based on a timer.

An i.Link (FireWire) connector projects down from the right rear panel, like the multicore connectors on older field cameras. This sensible arrangement protects the delicate 4-pin connection. LANC (remote control) and headphones jacks reside just behind the handgrip, and the analog I/O bay sits in front of it (see the bottom image on the right). The camera offers Y/C on its own jack and combines stereo audio and composite video on a four-conductor miniplug (an RCA adapter cable is supplied). Component analog has its own delicate-looking proprietary connector with a triple-RCA breakout cable; plugging in the component cable disables composite and Y/C. The FX1 can record analog SD through the Y/C and composite jacks and convert those inputs to DV, but the only ways to get HD into the camera are via FireWire or through the lens.

A 3.5 mm minijack provides mic-/line-switchable audio inputs. Both channels' gains are controlled simultaneously with a wheel at the back of the camera; either manual or auto-gain can be used. The camera's built-in stereo mic is overridden by audio plugged into the jack.

Handling
A big, bright 16:9-native viewfinder looks good, but only resolves about 350 TV lines. It's supplemented by a flip-out 3.5-inch LCD innovatively mounted toward the front of the carry handle, swinging out to reveal transport buttons. The LCD is transflective and completely readable in broad daylight; it resolves about 400 TV lines. Consider that the FX1 is an HD camera, and that the monochrome finder on the PD150 and PD170 resolves over 500 lines: focusing the FX1 accurately can be a challenge. Status displays provide useful information but cannot be cleared completely in camera mode; only the upper half of the screen's data is cleared with the Display function. You can use either the EVF or the LCD, but not both at the same time.

The Z1's finder can be switched to monochrome, but it's still a color finder with the same limited resolution. The Z1 lets you use both EVF and LCD simultaneously, and it lets you clear more of the display info off of the screen. With the LCD relocated to the handle, the tape transport returns to its rightful place on the left side of the camera, as on the original VX1000. Once again, you can reload tapes without removing your hand from the handgrip, a boon in run-and-gun shooting.

Tape searching, aside from Rec Review, isn't possible while in camera mode; you can't shuttle tape forward or backward. In VCR mode, the transport is nicely responsive to both direct control and FireWire commands. Although the FX1 only shows hours, minutes, and seconds in the display while in camera mode, it shows the full timecode in VCR mode (yes, HDV has timecode, and it's sent across FireWire). Timecode is presettable on the Z1, but not on the FX1. Batteries attach at the rear and charge in the camera. The diminutive NP-F570 supplied with the camera lasts at least an hour in normal usage; I shot an entire day, recording about 20 minutes of tape, without worrying about power. Heftier batteries are available, and both batteries and chargers from the VX2000, VX2100, PD150, and PD170 can be used. Like other recent Sony cameras, the AC adapter charges the battery in the camera only; an external charger is an extra-cost option.

In addition to the decent sized flip-out LCD monitor, a viewfinder monitor is included; in this case (unlike the FX1) it is selectable as color or black and white.  The viewfinder can be on at the same time as the LCD screen, another feature not found on the FX1.

On its release, this camera had a retail price of around $3700, and at the time of writing it was available for a street price of around $3500.