It was bound to happen: Sony has announced the U.S. version of the aforementioned HVR-V1E. The Sony HVR-V1U is basically the same camcorder except it can record in 24P rather than 25P (the Europe format). It can also record 30P and 60i along with a few other features.
Other than that most specs on the Sony HVR-V1U stay the same. It is still one of the first camcorders to utilize 3 CMOS sensors rather than the standard CCD sensors. Each sensor is 1/4″ and contains 1.2 million pixels, with 1.03 million effective when recording HDV.
The HVR-V1U features a 20x optical zoom and a 3.5″ LCD. Audio input can be achieved via two XLR jacks. On top of that:
The time code can be relayed in/out via i.Link (DV cable). Other improvements over the FX7 include Cinematone Color, Knee, Black Compensation, color bars, aspect and safety makers, 6 assignable buttons, and more.
There is also a new hard drive unit that can be connected to the HVR-V1U. The HVR-DR60 HDD unit has a 60GB hard drive and utilizes the same batteries that the HVR-V1U does. It will go for around $1800, which seems a bit high to me.
The Sony HVR-V1U HDV digital camcorder will be available this December. The price is set at a MSRP of $4800, which thankfully is lower than what was expected.
In general, the Sony HVR-V1U is a good camera and is capable of some very good image quality under a narrow range of conditions. However, why is it that no reviewers pay attention to the audio on these cameras? The V1U has a bell-shaped audio frequency response and the filter cannot be turned off for proper recording indoors. I can’t see the point of a frequency response whose flat range only extends from 1,222Hz to 8,000Hz. Sony needs to fix this, and reviewers really should be evaluating ALL important aspects of the camera, not just the picture. Sound is 70% of the viewing experience.