New Camera

I'm surprised I have not posted about this earlier in the week, but I got my new camera and wow, it's tiny!

I knew the Sony HRV-A1U was the smallest prosumer they made, but look at the picture to the left, it's barely bigger than my hand. Even though it is small, all the reviews (not on Sony's site) said it is small but high end and so far it's rockin like Dokken. The attached XLR mice box allows you to to get decent sound, but it also has a mini plug for the smaller wireless mics. Obviously it is light weight and in normal light it takes a great image.

The draw backs appear to be that everything has to be done through a menu, so if you want to change audio level you have to scroll through the menu. Also the DV tape is bottom loaded. So if you are needing a tape change and you are on a tripod... that's going to take a few seconds as you screw off the plate to get to the tape. It does not have a CCD, but a CMOS I've heard a lot of cons and some pros on this chip. The biggest thing it's more cost effective so that's a plus and you're not suppose to get the "Streaking" bright lights give the smaller cameras/ the P2 I was using at WNCN. As all smaller cameras, lower light sucks. It gets more grainy as the camera will bump up the gain to pull in more light. I knew that was going to happen, the smaller cameras just can't handle low light as well as a professional camera.

I like the camera so far, but I have to get the mind set of bigger is better out of my head. I remember seeing people with these small cameras at events thinking they need to leave this to professionals like me in other words a twelve grand camera. If I can get half way decent image with this thing, I should be able to blow away any small time crews. I just have to remind myself and anyone who asks it's not the size of the camera, but what you can get from it. I also have to remember I'm not shooting Ben Hur with this thing, it's weddings and kids doing things.

Still I am amazed at the size of this thing, Gilbert the Gnome is as long as this thing!

The camera in the last picture is a Canon XH A1 owned by Lifepointe Church.