White Paper 034 Addendum 45: Tests and Settings on a Sony HXR-MC1P minicamcorder

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this section is taken from the handbook and a very brief examination of Sony HXR-MC1 as part of a group test of HDTV mini-cameras. The camera is permanently connected to its controller/recorder by a multi-core cable, all controls are on the control unit.

The camera is small (37x42.5x86.5mm), the control unit is 82x107x42mm and weighs about 500 grammes. The connecting cable is 2.8m long and cannot be detached from either the camera or controller. The camera has a single CMOS sensor of 1/5” size (3.6mm) and 1.43Mpixels. The pixel array is Bayer patterned, and is rotated 45°, thus rather more complex decoding is required than normal. The lens is integral, F/1.8, 3.2mm to 32mm zoom (10:1).

Recording is either 1080i/25 using AVCHD, or SD using MPEG2. HD recording can use bit-rates from 5 to 16 Mb/s, which is rather low for broadcast purposes. SD recording uses rates from 3 to 9Mb/s, also rather low. Clearly, this is a consumer device.

All camera control is via the controller, with a touch screen for most control purposes. The controls are very similar to those found in small consumer camcorders. Indeed, the whole unit resembles a consumer camcorder with the camera part physically separated from the controls.

Unfortunately, the cameras show significant response to infra-red illumination.

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