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Filed under: Cameras •Hardware •

Review: Sony HXR-MC1 1-CMOS AVCHD POV Camcorder

Conclusions

This isn’t the usual sort of camera; the HXR-MC1 is a very specialized beast. If your days consist of cameras on sticks or on the shoulder, shooting interviews, dramatic two-shots, and the like, the little MC1 won’t interest you. But if your shooting tends towards more radical views—action sports, odd angles, viewpoints unachievable with conventional camcorders—then the “camera on a rope” configuration has definite possibilities. The HXR-MC1 excels at making tough angles easy. With the camera head separable from the main body by up to nine feet, oddball camera positions with full monitoring and control are possible.

For auto-everything (or set-it-and-forget-it) shooting, the MC1’s consumer heritage is no drawback; the controls it provides are adequate to the task, autoexposure and autofocus work well, and the ability to lock and manually set exposure, focus, and white balance means that you can override the MC1’s tiny brain when you need to.

Shooters wanting more manual control, though, may be disappointed; the fiddly CAM CTRL wheel makes rapid and certain adjustments difficult. Its slowness tweaking focus at telephoto is particularly galling, since (a) you want to zoom in the most critical focus anyway, and (b) by the time you’ve manually set focus, your subject has strolled off. I found that spot focus was a better method than manually focusing whenever time was of the essence.

Imaging performance is decent, if not exciting: the HXR-MC1’s parent is a rather nice consumer camcorder, but the MC1’s pix won’t be mistaken for those from an EX1, and while its image quality approximates that of a good HDV camera as it comes out of the box, the MC1 lacks the image adjustments that let you tweak that HDV camcorder for even better pictures. Fortunately, the sorts of action shots where the MC1 shines are those where the delicate nuances of image rendering take a back seat, so the lack of fancy image tweaks and the limits of its chipset are much less important than they would be in a conventional production camcorder: the MC1’s images are certainly good enough that no one is likely to notice their limitations.

What sets this camera apart—literally—is the nine-foot cable between the head and main body. The ability to stick the head in awkward locations (helmet cam! bike cam! flying-wires-on-a-biplane cam! under-the-car cam!) while still holding the screen, controls, and recorder in your lap / on your handlebars / someplace where you can see ‘em is what gives this camera its singular purpose.

Look, either this camera makes sense to you and your shooting requirements, or it doesn’t. If you’re excited about how it can enable you to see things in a different way, I don’t need to convince you to take a look. If, on the other hand, you’re wondering what all the fuss is, so be it: this camera isn’t for you.

I don’t see many folks buying this camera as their primary shooter; it’s just not suited for the daily grind of news, drama, and documentary work. But if you have need for its special talents, there’s darned little out there that does what this camera does for the price.

And if $2800 seems too steep for you, consider renting one: I just Googled “HXR-MC1 rental” and got over 3,000 hits. Rental houses understand your pain, and many already have this little guy in their inventory.

Pros

• Small, splashproof camera head.
• Compact, easy to use main body.
• Autofocus, autoexposure well suited for typical applications.
• Reasonably high resolution images with reasonably few compression artifacts.
• Shock-resistant solid-state recording media.
• Nearly two hours recording time at highest bitrate with 16 GB card.
• Sunlight-readable touchscreen LCD.
• Touchscreen-driven spot focus and spot meter.
• 1/4"x20 and shoe mounts on both head and main body.
• Full-sized HDMI connector.
• Simultaneous clip and photo-capture capability.
• 70% or 100% zebra display.

Cons

• No manual shutter speed, iris, or gain settings.
• No built-in ND filters.
• No image-processing tweaks other than preset Scene Selections.
• 60i recording only (50i in Euro models); no 30P, 24P.
• Finicky and inconsistent manual focus control; no peaking or focus assist.
• No headphone jack.

Cautions

• No media included in package; you’ll need to buy at least one MS PRO Duo card.
• No image stabilization.
• Main body isn’t splashproof or water resistant.
• Fixed cable can complicate camera mounting in constrained places; limits distance between head and body.
• Multicore cable carries multiple analog signals; probable “weak link” if stressed or abused.
• Wide angle isn’t very wide.
• Consumer-grade image pipeline lacks resolution, latitude of higher-end pro camcorders.
• No manual audio gain.
• HDV-quality compression (at best quality) doesn’t allow artifact-free slo-mo, still frames in quality-critical applications.
• Y/C cable is an extra-cost option.

More Info

David Leitner’s review: http://digitalcontentproducer.com/cameras/revfeat/review-sony-hxrmc-0209/

VASST’s tests on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksbpslVBk84

An amusing “Powers of 10”-like test: http://www.vimeo.com/4500588

Discussion on DVInfo.net: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/digital-video-industry-news/144664-sony-hxrmc1.html

Discussion on Helmet Camera Central: http://helmetcameracentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269

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