Sony HVR-V1 Review

This review of the Sony HVR-V1E was first published in Showreel Magazine. While writing it I found a couple of issues with the V1's progressive scan mode. I have therefore included my initial review followed by the addendum on a modified camera that Sony sent out at a later date.

Back at the end of 2004 Sony launched its first three-chip consumer-orientated high definition camera, the FX1. This was followed shortly afterwards by its more professionally orientated sibling, the Z1.

Both cameras were greeted with both open arms and closed minds. On the one hand, the indie operations who wanted a cheap, effective way to shoot footage that could be shown on a large screen loved the idea. As a result, the FX1 and Z1 became the defacto standard low-budget documentary cameras and the new darling of indie digital features and shorts. On the other hand, many hardened pros were less than impressed at the idea. After all, DV25 is limiting enough as it is – without squeezing high definition into the same bandwidth! Time frees the mind, however, and the HDV ball gained momentum, with JVC releasing its HD100 and Panasonic its HVX200. All of these were 1/3in CCD cameras, with all the limitations that come with that chip size. But what also became clear as people used them was that these new cameras outperformed their price bracket.

One of the main criticisms of the Sony HDV cameras until now has been the implementation of 24p. While it is true that the FX1 and Z1 cameras had a version of 24p, it was not a good implementation. So far, when it comes to 1/3in chip cameras, we’ve had 720p cameras, 1080i cameras and 1080i cameras with a faux progressive mode. But we still haven’t had a true 1080-line low-budget proscan-capable high definition camera unleashed onto the market. With the launch of the HVR-V1, that is hopefully set to change.

Recently, I was given the chance to test-drive the European version of the camera. But before I continue, I should point out that the camera I was supplied with was a preproduction model, and therefore any foibles I found may well be glitches not found on the final release version.

Along with the camera, Sony also supplied the LCS-G1BP soft carrying case and preproduction versions of the HVL-LBP LED battery video light, VCT-1BP mounting bracket, SH-L35WBP LCD hood, and the VCL-HG0862K wide conversion lens. The VCT-1BP is useful for tripod-mounting the camera with additional equipment, such as larger LCD monitors. The video light mounts on the mounting shoe and is well featured, with a built-in diffuser and barn doors. I was most impressed with the carrying case. This was easily of equivalent quality to those produced by the likes of Portabrace and Kata.

Upon taking the V1 out of the case I was pleasantly surprised with the form factor. Larger than the diminutive Sony HVR-A1 and smaller than the FX1/Z1, the V1E is of a very similar form factor to the old Canon XM2. I always found the Z1 to be rather bulky for a camera that is designed to be held in front of the body. With this more compact sizing, the V1 is a much more sensible proposition for longer periods of documentary-style handholding.

With Handycam-style cameras I always dread having to work out where all the buttons are. Quite often, I think that designers get their two-year old nephews to play Pin The Tail On The Donkey, but with controls on a camera diagram instead. Once again, I was surprised to find that most of the important controls were to hand. The ‘in’ thing in this kind of camera design is to put both a focus ring and a zoom ring on the lens barrel. The V1 implements this design strategy, while using a separate iris roll wheel just behind the lens barrel on the side of the camera body. This places the iris within easy reach of the support hand if you are handholding the camera.

On the rear right hand side there are all the ports for Firewire output, component output (once again a proprietary Sony lead), A/V out, and power/charge input. The left hand side provides for HDMI output, a memory stick slot, and a USB port.

The zoom and focus controls are of the infinitely rotating servo ring variety. The controls were very smooth, although, as with most servo driven lenses, there was a fair amount of lag when they were moved quickly. This made quick manual adjustments to the picture difficult at times. The maximum speed of the zoom servo is also rather slow. At the very least a hyper fast Shuttle Shot feature as found on pro lenses could be included to assist with snappy focusing – essential in high definition. But these are issues that I have with all modern cameras of this design, and are certainly not restricted to the V1.

In keeping with its professional aspirations, the V1 includes two XLR audio inputs. These allow 48v phantom power operation, as one would expect, as well as allowing auto or manual levels control. On a tripod the audio controls will be just fine. However for run'n'gun operation, I’d have liked a master audio control near the iris (where the support hand would be) to allow quick master adjustment of the levels. I realise I can’t have everything on a camera of this price range, but with such cameras being used more and more in the professional arena, and indeed being directly marketed at that area, they must start to include such ergonomic placement of controls. I also found the labelling of the channel monitoring selection confusing and it took me a bit of playing around to understand which channel I was listening to through the headphones.

In terms of weight and build quality, the camera is of a very high standard. The body is finished in matte black with a slight textured quality. Nicely understated, and very elegant.

Picture profile

In terms of the marketplace, the V1 is placed between the A1 and the Z1. In keeping with those cameras, the V1 includes a number of menu functions to allow a comprehensive configuration. One of the most useful options to be found in the setup menus is the realtime histogram function. This feature is so useful that I would recommend all cameras from all manufacturers include one immediately. Say goodbye to guessing the balance of exposure in the picture. It seems that Sony has understood that low cost LCDs are not a good indicator of exposure. With the useful combination of the Zebras (switchable via a hardware switch just behind the LCD) and the histogram, it is possible to pretty much nail exposure first time, every time.

The Picture Profile menu on the camera allows users to customise the look of the picture to their liking. The camera includes a few presets, including a cinema look, a warm look, etc. But it is in the custom setup that you will find all the goodies. Note that the included presets can all be customised too.

You can adjust the gamma of the camera, black stretch, sharpness, skin detail, and knee, among other things. Black stretch has three settings. As well as the default, there is a stretch and a compress option. Compressing the blacks will obviously crush shadow detail, but may be useful if you want a very punchy high contrast look. I found that turning the option to ‘stretch’ helped greatly with the look of the picture, giving a healthy boost to shadow detail without making the blacks go milky.

By default the knee is set to auto. You can lower the knee point or raise it. In practice, I found the auto knee performed very well, with none of the ‘hunting’ that can occur with the DCC mode on the higher-end cameras. Of the gamma selections I found that leaving it on the standard setting was best. The cine-style gammas on the V1 crush the blacks too much for my liking and are only really usable if you desire that sort of look in-camera. Be aware that if you use such modes you are unlikely to be able to recover that lost detail in post, so use them with care.

There is also a white balance offset control too to allow a preset amount of warming or cooling of the image in relation to your own white balance adjustments. This is a feature usually included on more expensive cameras, and it is a welcome sight here.

In all, there are enough options included in the various menus on the V1 to allow a nice adjustment of the picture without the risk of making too much of a hash of things. While I am on the subject of picture adjustment, there is also a nice little function you can access when using the daylight white balance preset. By using the menu selection wheel on the rear of the camera, the user can make quick step adjustments to the warmth of the picture without delving into the menus.

I only had the camera for a short time, so I donned my best knee-length socks and headed down to Bristol Docks. Here a plethora of steam locomotives, old steam powered cars and other relics of the industrial age can be found alongside old ocean-going ships and luxury yachts.

Monitoring

Switching the camera on is a very quick affair. The V1 is up and running within seconds of flicking the On switch. This will appease some who complained about the startup time of the Z1. The flip-out LCD panel on the side of the camera is clear, and has two brightness modes, which can help in brighter conditions. With the addition of the LCD sunshade, things were even better. The lens hood collapses quickly and allows the LCD to be folded up against the camera while it is still attached, making it a very portable solution. I would say after using the camera in sunny conditions that this may well be a must-have accessory.

Camera information is presented clearly, and even with options such as the histogram turned on, things are not overly cluttered. The audio meters are also clear and responsive. Within the menus on the camera it is possible to switch the LCD into what Sony terms ‘All Scan’ mode. This displays the whole picture and helps ensure that no undesirables get into the view.

Also of note is the way in which the viewfinder and the LCD can both be viewed at the same time. In many other cameras the viewfinder switches off when the LCD is flipped out. Not so with this camera. The viewfinder can also be switched into a black and white mode.

As far as focusing goes, there are two modes that work by digitally enlarging the picture. For my liking there wasn’t enough zoom during this process, although it did help. There is also a peaking option. I found this to be the least effective method of focus assist. Its main problem was that it didn’t seem to detect high frequency edges very well, and sometimes didn’t pick up on them at all. This may be something that will be improved in the production model.

The camera’s 20x zoom was very effective, although at the shortest focal length the view was perhaps a little narrow. This is to be expected with a camera of this type, as wideangle lenses are much harder to make for smaller chip sizes. So in many cases a wideangle adapter will be an essential accessory. Which is quite handy because Sony supplied me with one. Is there a down side? Yes is the simple answer to that. While the wideangle adapter does give a slightly wider angle of view over the standard lens, it isn’t really an earth-shattering amount. Although I should mention that, like the camera, accessories that Sony supplied were also preproduction models.

As well as two handy ND filter settings, which can be selected from a nice chunky switch on the side of the camera, the V1 also includes six assignable buttons. I’m glad that such features are becoming more common, especially at this price point. Using these you can assign some of the more common camera functions to the buttons that you prefer.

While I was hanging around such things as steam trains I thought I would give the optical stabiliser a good work out. On the V1 there are three modes for this: hard, medium and soft. Switching between the modes didn’t seem to show much difference to my eye. But I decided to try them out on a very shakey open-top steam train carriage. While I can’t say that the stabiliser ironed out all the shakes, of which some were quite violent, I can say that the camera didn’t miss a beat. No dropped frames or other such problems showed themselves.

One of the biggest things going for the V1 is its power consumption. If you use the NP-F970 battery pack you will never run out of power. Ever. In fact if you put one in when you first purchase the camera you could sell it on Ebay in a year’s time and it would still only be half used. The fact of the matter is that batteries last a very, very, very long time on the V1.

Audio was of good quality, although I did notice some noise on while monitoring through headphones. This isn’t unusual for a camera at this price point, and once again I should point out that this was a preproduction model.

The picture

Just how does the actual footage from the V1 size up? One of the first things that may strike you if you have used Sony cameras for a while is just how un-Sony the picture looks. Sony cameras have a reputation for being colour accurate – almost too accurate. Sometimes this can lead to pictures lacking punch, and many people refer to the Sony ‘pastel’ look.

I found that the colour reproduction on the V1 was accurate, but at the same time it had a certain warmth to it that I liked. Something else that I loved about the camera was its handling of contrast ranges. For a camera of this price range the V1’s contrast handling ability is astounding. Like many cameras in this price range, when it does clip it clips quickly. But until that point the camera handles exposure very well indeed.

So why is this camera seemingly such a good performer in this area? Well, for one thing the V1 uses three 1/4in Clearvid CMOS sensors rather than CCDs. Sony is making quite a fuss over not only the capabilities of these new chips, but also the processing technology that the picture goes through before being laid to tape.

The sensors themselves have a unique arrangement (angled rather than head-on to the light) that effectively makes the sensor elements diamond shaped. Sony claims that this new arrangement allows them to make each element the same size as those found on 1/3in sensors, thus allowing greater lowlight performance. Sony is also touting its new Enhanced Image Processing technology, which processes the picture in 4:2:2 colour space before recording it to tape.

I didn’t have my electron microscope handy to see what precisely is going on, but having seen the results from the camera footage I can honestly say that this new system does in fact work almost exactly as it says on the tin. The picture from the V1 is very good indeed. If there was only one area in which I felt it fell down against the advertising blurb it was smear. The brochures all claim that there is virtually no smear from this new system. I found that this wasn’t strictly the case.

Something else I was surprised at was that I didn’t feel the need to tone down the sharpness in the camera. Usually I find that all cameras have objectionable digital edge enhancement out of the box. With the V1, I found the picture to have a very pleasant look right from the word go, and even when I did turn down the sharpness to minimum the picture still remained sharp. This may be because the detail circuits cannot be turned off completely, so further investigation is needed.

In lower light the camera was more limited. All is not lost, however. The V1 manages to produce a perfectly usable picture even with the gain ramped up to 18db. Certainly there is grain, but it is good to know that the camera can be pushed that far and still be watchable afterwards. Thus at lower gain levels the camera is perfectly competent, and a much better performer in that regard than the HVX200, for example.

Other snazzy abilities of the camera include a 1.5x digital zoom which, compared with digital zooms on previous cameras, is extremely usable. Being a high def camera helps, but even so, I was quite impressed with this function, even though I’d usually steer well clear of such things.

The lens did exhibit some chroma aberration, but on this point I feel many people overreact. Unless you are using the highest quality primes you will never reduce this to zero. On the V1 this issue is only a subtle one anyway. For the most part, CA is barely noticeable. At the telephoto end, the lens goes from f1.7 to f2.8, which is on par with some of the high-end lenses I have played with. Barrel distortion also appears minimal.

So the camera produced a damn good image then? Well yes, but unfortunately I found a fly in the ointment. Although, once again, I have to point out that this was a preproduction model. Sony is aware of the issue and men in white lab coats should now be looking into it.

The problem in question relates to the camera’s progressive scan ability. As I mentioned at the start of this article, a true progressive scan mode is becoming rather desirable on all cameras. Everyone it seems, with the exception of every television engineer in the land, wants that elusive film-style movement.

But full resolution progressive scan is a bit of a rarity on the lower end cameras. Hence, one of the main selling points for the V1 is the fact that it can capture and display full resolution progressive scan images. Unfortunately, my test camera didn’t want to oblige. Instead of extremely high resolution progressive scan images, what I saw was a very large measurable drop in resolution, as well as a drop in picture detail. I posted some stills on internet forums to see what others thought, and apart from the odd person that needs an eye test, the consensus was that it looked as if some extremely harsh noise reduction was coming into play when the progressive scan mode was selected.

As a result of this I cannot offer you any conclusions on the quality of the proscan mode on this camera, and it would be unfair of me to do so. It could well be a problem with the firmware, which will hopefully be rectified for the release model. Reports suggest that the US model of the camera does not suffer from the same problems, so I sincerely hope that this is the case.

In conclusion, if I was to judge the camera based on its performance as an interlaced device, I would wholeheartedly recommend the V1. For those looking to upgrade from their PD150 or PD170, it would make an absolutely ideal choice, although Z1 owners might want to hold off if they use the 60Hz/50Hz switching ability that the V1 lacks. Whether we can wholeheartedly recommend its use in progressive mode will have to wait for our test of the production model.

Many thanks to Gavin Allen at Schematise for taking the camera stills featured in this review

Addendum

Back in the Nov/Dec 2006 edition of Showreel I reviewed a preproduction model of Sony's new HVR-V1E HDV camera. During the course of my evaluation of the product it became apparent that there was an issue pertaining to its progressive scan mode. A function that was pivotal to the way the camera was being marketed.

As readers of Showreel will be aware progressive scan modes on cameras are a hot topic at the moment. Many different manufacturers have their own way of achieving the effect, some with more resolution loss than others. However true full raster 1920x1080 progressive scan has until now eluded the prosumer market. Certainly some manufacturers claim that their products can resolve a full 1080 lines, but rarely is this the case in reality. At least not without some sort of trade off.

So when Sony announced that the V1 model would be capable of a full 1080 lines (interpolated from 960 to 1440 on the horizontal plane) that the high definition format allows it was greeted with open arms by many people. It was unfortunate then that the problems I found with the camera in progressive scan mode presented themselves. Specifically that the picture took on the look of an image that had been subjected to overly excessive noise reduction filtering or coring.

Since this issue was discovered, and backed up by others who had also noticed the problem, Sony took matters very seriously and subsequently subjected the camera to a full examination by their technical departments both in Japan and the UK. The result is that Sony has now updated the firmware on the cameras.

Those who have followed various threads on the internet will also be aware of another issue relating to line twitter in progressive scan mode. However I have never myself regarded this as an issue with the camera and believe that it is purely a display issue with monitoring equipment. With an image that is very sharp, especially with added digital edge enhancement, the problem can be quite apparent on interlaced displays. On natively progressive displays such as LCD's, more specifically with LCD's that are not capable of displaying 1080 lines from a progressive source and need to go through a scaling and deinterlacing process, the problem of line twitter during movement can again rear its ugly head.

So why hasn't this effect been noticed on other cameras in the same price range? It is possible that because the Z1 can only do 1080 lines in interlaced mode, and that other manufacturers cameras do not have 1080 chips there is certain amount of natural softening/anti-aliasing going on as a result of the processing that they use that reduces the effect. It must be noted that this is only a theory of mine though.

With a monitor that is capable of displaying a full 1080 lines via a connection that can pipe a true progressive signal such as HD-SDI or HDMI the line twitter should not be an issue, unless the detail setting on the camera has been set to excessive levels. Unlike standard definition a component connection is unable to deliver a progressive scan signal in high definition. So if this is the way that you are monitoring the picture from your V1 then line twitter might be an issue again.

Sony's recommendation is to reduce the detail setting on the camera to +3 in the Picture Profile menu, down from the +7 setting which is the default. This will take the edge off things somewhat, but in general will keep the overall sharpness that you would expect from high definition.

While testing this on a new V1E I can say that progressive scan mode is now natively sharper than interlaced. This is as a result of some of the tweaks that Sony have made to the camera, so it is a good idea to follow their official recommendations regarding the detail level setting. Many people who use progressive scan are after a more filmic look anyway, and so lowering the detail level is often a matter of course no matter which camera model is being used. The need to reduce the sharpness level is not a technical deficiency of the camera.

Regarding the issue of what has become known as the 'watercolour' effect that I referred to at the beginning of this article I can now say that Sony has minimised the issue to the point where the picture is usable. I am afraid that I cannot claim that the problem has gone away entirely, because it hasn't. There are still some differences in the way the picture is treated in interlaced mode. It is my opinion that there is definitely some noise reduction of some sort going on. Every picture on every camera ever made shows some sort of fine noise. There is no getting away from that. In interlaced mode the V1 displays the picture as you would expect, but in progressive scan mode any noise that is present is smoothed out.

This would initially sound like a good thing if it wasn't for the fact that some blocking artifacts can be seen as a result. You do have to look closely for these though, and in the course of general picture movement and playback they are even less noticeable, but I feel that this should be pointed out to those who may wish to use the V1 as a B camera with a mind to intercut the footage within projects that use higher end equipment.

In conclusion it must be remembered that the V1E is not meant to be a rival to the high end 2/3” cameras. It also uses 1/4” CMOS chips which are smaller than most other cameras in the same category. So the price/performance ratio that Sony have managed to extract from this product is impressive. As it stands at the present time I will say that the newly modified V1 is a very viable purchase decision, and that while the progressive scan mode has subtle differences to the way it handles some picture elements compared with interlaced, it shouldn't hold you back from seriously considering it. For myself I would have no problems using it as a B-camera for an XDCAM HD shoot or equivalent.

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