While there are reports on rising HDTV TV penetration and broadcasts in the US and some other parts of the world, as well as high definition optical discs and drives preparing to launch, there is one thing that has been left out - A high definition camcorder successor. Well, Sony has unveiled its High-Definition camcorder, the HDR-FX1 and will be the first High-definition camcorder to go on sale. It will initially go on sale on October 15th in Japan and reach worldwide later this year. Its initial price however will be a hefty US$ 3,700.
The Camcorder features a 1.12 megapixel CCD (1.07M effective) with 12x optical zoom, 4.4lb weight (without batteries) and a maximum capture resolution of 1440x1080 (aspect 16:9 widescreen) at 60 frames per second. The HDV recording is stored on MiniDV tapes compressed using MPEG2 video with MPEG 1.0 Layer 2 audio at a total rate of 25Mbps. For compatibility with existing MiniDV camcorders, this camcorder can also capture at 720x480 in either widescreen 16:9 or standard 4:3 aspect ratio modes in DV mode. Three different capacity batteries are available with the following capacities: 4.6lb 65min DV/HDV, 4.9lb 130min HDV 240min DV and 5.1lb 205min HDV 215min DV. It also features a 3.5" 250,880 LCD display.
While Sony is also backing the Blu-ray optical disc format, Sony will not allow consumers to store recordings on Blu-Ray discs due to the lack of any form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) yet. Sony along with the content providers fears that allowing consumers to freely transfer camcorder content to Blu-Ray could lead to piracy.
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The HDR-FX1 camcorder is Sony's first step in promoting high definition video as the standard format for home-use camcorders, but its price makes it too expensive for most families initially, the company says. The price will be 00 when the camcorder goes on sale in the U.S. in November, says Masashi Imamura, senior general manager of Sony's IT & Mobile Solutions Network Company. The release day for the U.S. market in November has not been decided, but the camcorder will be on sale internationally by January 1 2005, he says.
Making Movies The HDR-FX1 has three recording modes: HDV (high-definition video) mode, which has 1080 horizontal interlaced lines with 1440 vertical lines resolution at widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio; a DV mode, which also features a 16:9 aspect ratio, and has 480 horizontal interlaced lines and 720 vertical interlaced lines; and a DV mode with 4:3 aspect ratio has 480 horizontal interlaced lines and 720 vertical interlaced lines. Each mode shoots at 60 frames per second with video data rates after compression running at 25 megabits per second, Imamura says. The camcorder records video in MPEG2 (Motion Pictures Expert Group) and audio in MPEG1 AUDIO Layer II in HDV mode and uses miniDV cassettes that provide 60 minutes of recording time, the company says. The camcorder has a 0.33 inch, 1.12 megapixel CCD (charge coupled device) that has 1.07 megapixels of effective resolution, a Karl Zeiss lens, and a 12x optical zoom. The color monitor is a 250,880 pixel, 3.5-inch liquid crystal display screen. The camcorder weighs 4.4 pounds without batteries. Three batteries are available; a 4.6 pound battery provides 65 minutes of recording time on both HDV mode and DV mode; a 4.9 pound version provides 130 minutes of recording time on HDV mode, and 240 minutes of recording time on DV mode. The 5.1 pound NP-F970 provides a maximum of 205 minutes of recording on HDV mode and 215 minutes of recording time on DV mode. The batteries are sold separately. The camcorder has the best resolution and features that Sony can make at the moment, but the HDR-FX1 is still a work in progress, Sony says. |
While the Megapixel rating on digital cameras just keeps getting higher, it is not until now that I heard of any next generation camcorder. Now, this camcorder reminds me of the early bulkier digital camcorders, considering the sheer weight of its battery alone.
As expected, it looks like the movie industry is already getting seriously concerned with camcorder piracy if they plan on implementing DRM measures on the next generation of camcorders. For example, to prevent such a camcorder from operating should the picture it is capturing has a watermark or some other embedded 'anti-record' flag. I find it bad enough for them to be forcing these measures on pre-recorded material, but consumers should be free to do what they want with their camcorder clips and not have to put up with DRM restrictions on personal home-made recordings!
Feel free to discuss and find out more about HDTV on our new Satellite, HD-TV, Blu-ray and HD-DVD Forum. For a more in-detail review of this camcorder, check out this article at CamcorderInfo.
Source: PC World News
