Sony HDV HD HVR-V1: Get the film look

By Chris Stevens on 28 September 2006, 12:18pm

Our love affair with the Sony FX1 continues unabated to this day, but if we had to level one criticism at the camcorder, it's the lack of an in-camera 24p mode (to the layman, 24p is a broad emulation of the way a traditional celluloid movie camera captures footage). Sony has evidently sensed our mild disappointment and has created this, the HVR-V1.

Sony says it has collaborated with "prominent movie and drama creators" to come up with a more filmic capture method that trounces traditional 50/60i (PAL/NTSC interlaced). In addition to typical 50/60i, the HVR-V1 offers 24p/30p progressive scan capture -- this should give a very close approximation of film look, and make it easier to convert HD footage for traditional celluloid projection. The HVR-V1 adopts a 2:3 pull-down HDV recording system for storage of the 24p scanned images. The diagrams on Sony's Web site will give you the best idea of what this means.

In brief, a 2:3 pull-down keeps your existing 1080/60i HDV gear in action, and you can playback 24p/30p scan footage using Sony HDV equipment you already have at hand, or feed it to a compatible Non-Linear Editing (NLE) system without changing your HDV deck or monitors.

We've been exceptionally impressed by the HDV format so far and the HVR-V1 is definitely one to watch if you're an ambitious semi-pro. -CS