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(Page 1 of 3 pages for this article 1 2 3 >) Filed under: Cameras •Production • Review: Sony HVR-Z5U 1/3” 3-CMOS HDV CamcorderThe Z5U can be thought of as the Z7U’s fixed-lens half-brother.
“When Sony bought Konica/Minolta”, says Sony’s Juan Martinez, “we suddenly became a major lens manufacturer.” One of the results of this acquisition is the HVR-Z5U, an HDV/DVCAM camcorder with a 20x fixed “G lens”. Consider it the wide-zooming half-brother of the HVR-Z7U, which shares much of what comes behind the lens.
The HVR-Z5U (US$4950 list price, $4200 street price) is a handheld camcorder recording 1080i HDV and standard-definition DV and DVCAM on miniDV tapes (and/or on CF cards with an optional MRC1 recorder). It weighs 5.4 pounds and is generally the same size as other HD handycams; by comparison, the HVR-Z1 is very slightly longer but a couple of ounces lighter, while the HVR-Z7U with its interchangeable lens is within half an inch of the Z5U’s dimensions, but weighs 6.2 pounds.
The HVR-Z5U between a PMW-EX1 and a Panasonic HVX200.The Z5U is based on the same electronics as the Z7U (and its shoulder-mount sibling the S270U) and shares the same LCD and EVF. However, the Z5U sits behind a fixed, 20x “G” Sony lens, instead of the 12x interchangeable Zeiss lens on the Z7U. The physical layout of the Z5U differs from the Z7U, too, as do the I/O connectors, so despite their common cores the two camera have different operational personalities. If you’re looking into these two camcorders, the choice between them may depend as much on how naturally the controls fit your working style as much as on the differing qualities of their lenses or their prices (the HVR-Z7U is about $1200 more expensive than the Z5U).
That Big G-Series LensThe Z5U is fronted with a hefty, 20x Sony “G” zoom. The G lens is a result of Sony’s absorption of Konica/Minolta and that company’s decades of experience in making still camera lenses. This lens uses two extra-low dispersion elements and three aspheric elements in pursuit of high performance, a wide zoom range, a relatively compact size, and an affordable price.
The operator’s side of the HVR-Z5U, with lens hood and short shotgun mic fitted.It starts at 4.1mm and zooms to 82mm; in 35mm still-camera terms, Sony says that’s equivalent to 29.5mm - 590mm. Compare that to Sony’s figures for the HVR-Z7U (32mm - 384mm) or the EX1/EX3 (31.4mm - 439mm). In side-by-side tests I found the wide end to be virtually identical to the EX1’s in practical terms, and noticeably wider than the HVX200’s 4.2mm wide angle. Of course, the Z5U beats them all on the telephoto end. The lens has three free-spinning servo control rings, for focus, zoom, and iris. These lack endstops or external scales, though the camera’s displays will show you focus in feet or meters, zoom setting as a bar graph or numbers from Z00 to Z99, and apertures to the quarter stop. Action on all rings is silky-smooth, instantly responsive, and consistent, with little lag and no overshoot; I never felt disconnected from the lens using these servos. The focus and zoom controls use grippy, ridged rubber rings; they have similar textures and I often mistook one control for the other when finding them by feel. The iris ring is a thinner plastic “gear”, readily distinguishable by touch alone. The focus ring can be set to allow manual override when autofocus is in use; this “AF Assist” mode is quite helpful when the autofocus decides to track the wrong subject. The iris ring’s direction can be reversed (clockwise brighter or clockwise darker as you prefer), and it can be switched between iris-only control and overall exposure control, varying gain and/or shutter speed as needed when the limits of the iris have been reached: gain is changed when the iris is wide open, and shutter speed is varied when it closes down to f6.8 (though iris comes into play again once the shutter speed reaches 1/250 sec). When in exposure-control mode, you can still lock or set gain and shutter speed manually using their own controls; those parameters affected by the iris ring show a “E” beside their data readouts, so you stay in complete control at all times. It works quite well and makes manual control in widely-varying lighting a lot faster and more convenient. My only complaint is that I wish I could change the closed-iris limit where the shutter speed kicks in, as I can in auto-iris mode, to reduce resolution losses due to diffraction effects. The lens takes a 72mm filter and comes with Sony’s excellent shutter-equipped lens hood: a lever flips open the top and bottom shutter panels serving as a built-in lens cap. The hood bayonets in place, locking with a pushbutton instead of a thumbscrew, so it’s latched securely in place yet can be removed with a minimum of fuss when necessary. Sony’s Steadyshot optical stabilization is present, of course, and it allows for three different strength levels, plus a setting for the optional VCL-HG0872K wide-angle adaptor. The settings range from Soft, which only smooths things out a little, to Hard, which really tries to lock down the image, and reminds me of the more aggressive stabilization Canon uses on its high-end HDV camcorders. You can trade off fluidity against firmness as you see fit, or turn off Steadyshot completely for tripod work (or for that totally aggro shakycam look). Camera Controls and Handling
Most shooting controls are on the left side of the HVR-Z5U’s body.Just behind the lens, a four-position slide switch controls three levels of ND filter: 1/4, 1/16, and 1/64, or 2, 4, and 6 stops of compensation. Conventional focus-selection controls follow: a manual/auto selector with a momentary infinity-focus position (which, like the same control on most other handycams, is too easy to accidentally activate when toggling from auto into manual), plus a “push auto” momentary autofocus button. Across the lower edge of the body, a recessed niche holds auto/manual pushbuttons for gain, white balance, and shutter speed. Below that niche are the iris auto/manual pushbutton, three-position flip switches for manual gain and white balance selection, a white balancing pushbutton, a global auto/manual flip switch (so you can bounce between full auto and manual configurations with a single control), a menu and shutter speed thumbwheel, and pushbuttons for menus, picture profiles, and status checking. Button and switch stiffness is good overall, and I found that most controls were well placed and easily usable with a couple of exceptions: the “push auto” focus button isn’t well distinguished from its surroundings and can be difficult to locate by touch, and the thumbwheel is limited by a cramped location (the tape door juts out above it) and poor feel; it’s too easy to push the wheel in (thus selecting a parameter) when you really want to turn it (to change a parameter). I wound up using the optional RM-1000BP LANC controller for most of my menu and profile fiddling instead of struggling with the on-camera thumbwheel.
Audio level and channel selection controls behind a flip-down guard.The Z5U offers comprehensive audio controls, with most of the immediate-use controls behind a guard panel on the left side. Flip switches select between the stereo internal microphone and dual XLR inputs and choose auto or manual gain; rotary controls set the manual recording level. Both channels are individually selectable and controllable; you can have one channel use an internal mike in auto gain while the other records from an XLR input in manual gain. Additional controls in the menu system let you vary mike-level input attenuators, engage a peak-end limiter in manual gain, turn on noise-reduction and wind noise filters, and choose whether AGC works in channel-linked mode (for stereo work) or separate mode (when the two channels are used for different purposes, like two lavs or a lav and a boom).
The HFR-Z5U’s assignable buttons.
Tape loading: it’s like half the camera is spilling its guts…The rear half of the left side flips open to reveal the top-loading tape transport. The HVR-Z5U records 1080i HDV as well as standard-definition DV SP and DVCAM. It will neither play nor record DV LP mode tapes.
The HVR-Z5U’s rear panel, back of handgrip, and XLR controls.The supplied NP-F770 infoLithium battery snaps into the back of the camera and is good for nearly three hours of use; I also used a larger F960 battery, which still fit entirely inside the battery well. An optional, $850 HVR-MRC1 compact flash recorder can be attached behind the battery, just as on the HVR-Z7U, and it functions the same way as on the Z7U. Connectors on the Z5U have been pared down compared to those on other recent Sony HD camcorders. The six-pin i.Link (FireWire) socket we saw on the Z7U did not herald the future, alas: the Z5U’s i.Link socket is the smaller and more fragile four-pin job. All analog I/O has been consolidated into the fat, round multipin connector used for composite, Y/C, and audio on other recent cameras; there’s no separate mini-D-shell component socket on the Z5U. Two cables are provided for this connector; one is the familiar composite video + stereo audio triple-RCA breakout cable, while the other is a five-RCA cable with analog component and stereo audio (obviously, both composite and component cannot be connected at the same time). While Y/C is available on the socket, Sony sadly neglects to provide a Y/C cable in the box; the VMC15FS breakout cable with the added connector is a $17 option. A full-size HDMI socket provides digital audio and video, handy not just for monitoring but for connecting to a high-quality field recorder like the nanoFLASH or the Ki Pro, or capture cards from AJA or Blackmagic Design. Connecting HDMI disables the analog video outputs. All these sockets are concealed behind hard plastic doors that flip open, with the exception of the HVR-MRC1 I/O connector, which lurks behind a pop-off (and easily lost) plastic cover. Even if the cover goes missing, the internal connector has a spring-loaded sliding dust cover, so it’s fairly resistant to the hazards of a cruel world. On the back of the handgrip, just above the camera/VTR power switch and start/stop trigger, there’s a 2.5mm LANC remote jack with its own tethered rubber cover. The LANC command set for the Z5U, Z7U, and S270U is vastly expanded over that of previous cameras, and the $1200 RM-1000BP Remote Commander gives you full remote control over the camera. The backside of the XLR pod has switches to set each of the two sockets to mike or line level and to enable +48v phantom power. Like the side-mounted audio controls, these are protected behind a flip-open transparent cover.
The right side of the HVR-Z5U.The right side of the camera has the usual molded handgrip and handstrap, surmounted by a proportional zoom rocker. The rocker allows steady zooms of at least 60 seconds duration, with a smooth ramp up to a top speed of 2.5 seconds in the default setup or 1.5 seconds in “speed zoom”, which allows faster travel at the expense of a bit more motor noise. The camera balances fairly well in the hand, though it’s ever so slightly front-heavy. There’s a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot in the handgrip behind its own door. Memory Sticks are used both for still photos (which this camera can grab even while recording video) and for storing and transferring camera setups. At the front, there are two XLR inputs located in the now-familar above-the-lens position Sony has been using for some time. Some folks look at that XLR location with disdain, but it’s just about the only place to fit two full-sized XLRs on a small camera without having them interfere with other controls, doors, or I/O ports.
Top view: LCD, playback controls, multiple mics, and top-mounted zoom lever.
In front of the control panel is a built-in stereo mike pod, and the Z5U is also supplied a separate short shotgun mike, the same ECM-XM1 used on the Z7U. While the stereo mikes project forward of the lens front, making it challenging to mount some lens accessories, I like having mikes always available without having to attach a separate unit. There’s an accessory shoe atop the mike pod, and a 1/4x20 threaded socket atop the rear end of the handle, just in front of the EVF. As with the Z7U, a separate accessory shoe is provided that can be mounted over the threaded socket. The Z5U has the usual top-mounted start/stop trigger with locking collar, and a tiny zoom rocker—but this zoom rocker isn’t the fixed-speed rocker we’re accustomed to seeing in this position. As on the Z7U, it’s a fully-variable control, albeit a slightly finicky one, given its small size (traditionalists can set the rocker to work at a fixed speed if they so desire). All top-mounted zooms should work this way! Next: Performance and Features…
(Page 1 of 3 pages for this article 1 2 3 >) 
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