ProVideo Coalition.com: Camera Log by Adam Wilt | Founder | Pro Cameras, HDV Camera, HD Camera, Sony, Panasonic, JVC, RED, Video Camera Reviews

Both cameras come with the HVR-MRC1, a Compact Flash recorder. This recorder docks directly to the camera, or can be used in a standalone mode on the supplied adapter (the HVRA-CR1 i.Link cradle) with an InfoLithium battery mount, tripod socket, and six-pin i.Link port.

Two views of the MRC1 with its standalone adapter and a CF card

The CF card recorder is a solid-state counterpart to the HVR-DR60 hard disk unit. It records HDV as a transport stream (.m2t file type), and DV/DVCAM as either an AVI file (.avi) or a raw DV stream (.dv), on a FAT32-formatted CF card.

What format gets recorded depends on what comes across i.Link; the MRC1 does not transcode or downconvert.

At 25 Mbit/sec for both DV/DVCAM and HDV formats, an 8 GB card will hold about 36 minutes of video. The CF card must be 133x or faster (300x or faster for loop-mode recording), but there’s more to it than that: see Marshall Levy’s article for some real-world test results. Sony supplied their own, video-rated 8 GB CF card for my tests, and it performed flawlessly, but you’d be well advised to carefully test any particular card for suitability before relying on it for a paid gig.

The MRC1 can work in Synchro mode, where it responds to i.Link commands from compatible camcorders (including the Z7, S270, and most other recent Sony DV & HDV units). In synchro mode, you can have the MRC1 record in parallel with the camera’s tape drive, or in ping-pong mode: the CF card records when the tape drive doesn’t, so you can use the CF recording to cover tape changes. You can also use the camera’s trigger to control the MRC1 without using a tape at all.

For cameras that don’t provide remote control over i.Link, the MRC1 offers “follow” mode; it watches the i.Link stream for evidence of recording (changing timecode, for example) and follows along, lagging the source’s start and stop by up to two seconds, but still managing to perform an automatic recording.

The unit can play back any selected clip, or repeat the last clip or all clips over and over.

Modes, menus, and status are displayed on a small, faintly-backlit dot-matrix LCD. The display can be a bit hard to read off-axis or in some lighting conditions, but fortunately the door also has a bright red tally LED to indicate when recording is in progress. The door of the unit is also the control panel, with buttons for all the common transport controls as well as menu access. The door has a spring-loaded latch to hold it closed, and the sliding power switch has a locking pushbutton, but there are no other locks or “hold” switches to prevent inadvertent button presses from affecting operations.

The MRC1 snaps onto the back of the Z7, covering the battery slot, but that’s fine as there’s nowhere else on the camcorder it could be attached!

The HVR-MRC1 mounted on the HVR-Z7

It’s a handy location operationally; the status display is easily seen and the buttons are readly accessed when needed, yet it doesn’t stick so far out from the camera that it’s in constant danger of accidental activation.

On the S270, the MRC1 is exiled to virtual Siberia, marooned in the middle of the camera’s right side:

The S270’s right side with i.Link port exposed, and with the MRC1 CF recorder attached

It’s functional, and it’s out of the way, but it’s also out of sight, out of mind: hidden on the camera’s far side, it’s invisible to the operator, so it’s hard to check for proper operation during a take. Even more worrisome, its lack of a “hold” switch, and its lack of any locking attachment (all it takes to remove it is to press a release button), means it’s easy prey to anyone who wants to fiddle with its buttons during a take, or pull it off completely and abscond with it. Were I using it in a public environment, I’d be leery of leaving it so exposed; I’d probably put a fat strip of black gaffer tape over it to make it a less attractive target for the idly curious—or larcenous—passer-by.

Note that attaching the MRC1 to either camera disables the camera’s i.Link connector (and covers it up on the S270), as the MRC1 uses i.Link to receive data and control from the camera.

What can I say? It’s a CF card recorder, and it works as advertised. It offers the robustness and minimal power consumption of solid-state recording, letting your tape-based camcorder enter the brave new world of file-based, solid-state storage, and at a lower cost per Gigabyte than either P2 or SxS. The loop and cache modes give you functions that only random-access media can offer.

Get yourself a USB 2.0 or FireWire 800 CF card reader and load up the appropriate Sony software for your editing platform, and you’re good to go with file-based ingest at faster than real-time rates. Of course, the MRC1 will also play back over i.Link, so you can capture from it just like you would from a deck, if you prefer.

The only letdowns are that interval recording only works in DV mode, and that there is no single-frame option in interval recording… and that, currently, the only way to get an HVR-MRC1 is to buy a Z7 or S270.

Calibrated Codecs

Adam Wilt | 12/04- 05:08 PM

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