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MillimeterShoot Review: Sony HXR-MC1
Feb 18, 2009 12:00 PM, Reviewer: D. W. Leitner
Giraffe-cam? Mole-cam? Snake-cam? Whatever it is, it’s versatile.
The Sony HXR-MC1 features a camera head attached to a control unit by a 2.8-meter cord. The rig shoots in full HD and is lightweight.
Photo by D.W. Leitner
Where others zig, Sony zags. In the past year, Sony has unleashed a flood of unconventional low-cost HD camcorder designs. Well, grab those galoshes again. Here comes another one.
Sony's brochure calls the HXR-MC1 a Digital HD Video Camera Recorder. Five categorical words that bring no specific image to mind. Sony's press release tries on the conventional label: point-of-view camera. But all cameras are point-of-view, at least by the laws of perspective.
Let's explore Sony's naming quandary as we take a closer look at the singular HXR-MC1 and see if we can't come up with better language to describe what might become a new product category.
The HXR-MC1 has three components: a camera head, a headless body, and a cable joining them.
The camera head, about 3.5"×1.5"×1.5", resembles a tiny C-mount box camera — the type attached to skydivers' helmets, Formula One chassis, and 7-Eleven ceilings. Except that it contains a fixed, built-in 10X zoom (no C-mount) and a stereo microphone that varies its directivity to “zoom” along with the lens.
From the 14th floor, cameraman Tom Piper gets a shot looking straight down at traffic below with the HXR-MC1. There was no space on the narrow ledge for a jib arm with stand and counter balances.
Photo by D.W. Leitner
Inside is a single 1/5in. CMOS sensor with a full HD resolution of 1920×1080, incorporating both Sony's ClearVid technology (pixels rotated 45 degrees, more green pixels) and Exmor (fast column A/D readout and dual noise canceling).
The headless camera body cradles in the hand like a fat BlackBerry. The cable attaches at the top like an iPod earbud cable does. Next to it is a small InfoLithium H-series NP-FH60 battery. At the center of the camera body is a 2.7in. LCD (211,000 pixels), and at the bottom there are camera controls including a small zoom-rocker switch, which I'll discuss below.
The thick black cable, 2.8 meters long, permanently attaches with strain relief to both camera and camera body. In other words, head and body are always tethered to one another.
This is why you could call the HXR-MC1 a snake-cam — a long, slinky black body with a head at the end — although I can see Sony's reasons for holding off on that one.
What about recording? The camera body contains a slot for a Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo or Pro-HG Duo flash-memory card to record 1080/60i AVCHD (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264) at 5Mbps, 7Mbps, 9Mbps, or 16Mbps. Why any professional would consider the first three is beyond me, as they record 1440×1080 only. If you wish to record full HD 1920×1080, you have but one choice: 16Mbps. If you're still into standard definition, the HXR-MC1 also records 480/60i MPEG-2 at 3Mbps, 6Mbps, and 9Mbps.
The use of solid-state Memory Stick Pro Duo cards — millimeters narrower than competing SDHC cards — makes for silent, low-power, instant-start recording that perfectly fits the liberating spirit of this unusual camera rig. A 16GB card, the largest Memory Stick Pro Duo card available as of this writing, captures up to 110 minutes of 1920×1080 or almost 4 hours of SD at 9Mbps. Pro Duo cards with 32GB of storage are due soon.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.