Monday, January 17, 2005
Sony HDR-FX1: High Definition Without Breaking the Bank
Posted by Doug Johnson in "HARDWARE" @ 11:00 AM
Controls and Layout, Part II
Additional controls are located on the back of the camera. A configurable zebra and peaking control is at top. The Zebra feature is normally used to indicate areas of the image that are overexposed, but Sony has made this configurable, allowing the level of zebra to be set between 70 and 100 IRE, plus a 100+ setting that only indicates areas of the picture that are truly overexposed. The peaking control enhances the sharpest details of the image, making focusing easier. The zebra works well, but I found the peaking feature would be more useful if its effect was more prominent.
Figure 6: Controls at the back of the camera.
A row of buttons underneath the zebra/peaking control include Picture Profile, Menu, and P-Menu (a "build your own" menu for commonly accessed features). To the left of these buttons are a Status Check button, which shows a 3-page on-screen summary of current camera settings, and a Select/Exec roller/button combo control for navigating menus and adjusting settings. If you have used a Sony camera in the past, operation of these features will come very easily to you.
On the handle of the camera is a zoom rocker along with a record start/stop control. The speed of the zoom rocker can be selected between customizable low and high settings via a switch on the left side of the handle, but the rocker itself is only good for one speed at a time.
The main zoom rocker falls under the middle and ring fingers of your right hand, and provides a very usable control over the zoom feature. Slow crawls were easy to pull off, though I do find that the slowest speed could be a slower (as always).
The right side of the camera is also where all of the input/output connectors are found. These include S-Video In/Out, Component Video Out, Audio/Video In/Out, Mic/Line In on the front, and LANC and Headphone at the back. The S-Video and Audio/Video connectors can be used simultaneously, but if something is plugged into the Component Video output the video on the other two connectors are turned off. Like many Sony cameras, the Audio/Video connector uses a 4-conductor 1/8” jack, which can be a problem if you leave the cord at home. I suggest ordering a spare cable, just in case.
