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It's a robust high-definition camcorder with enough horsepower to do the job, yet compact enough to fit in your coat pocket. It's under 3lbs. with battery, XLR adapter, lens hood, and cassette. It's frugal enough on power to run for hours on a tiny onboard battery. In short, the Sony HVR-A1U is the perfect "notebook" camera.
Use it to shoot reference scenes for your next location project, or as a crash camera Velcroed to a motorcycle helmet, or to achieve a unique perspective when suspended at the end of a fishpole. This camera is as inconspicuous as a professional camcorder can be, a potential key advantage for shooters operating in sensitive environments. On the Santa Monica pier recently, I strolled confidently camera in hand shooting unbothered and unhassled - the gold test of inconspicuousness for any camcorder.
Not a toy
The sophisticated "big" brother of the consumer-oriented HDR-HC1, the A1U's footprint is about two-thirds the size of the Panasonic DVX, which is hardly a Big Kahuna. Clearly the A1U was never intended to replace the Sony's CineAlta line, nor will it approach the functionality and workflow of Sony's much-anticipated high-definition XDCAM models due out this spring. This is a modest HDV camera, after all, with the concomitant strengths and weaknesses: high compression, modest 25Mbps throughput, and long 15-frame GOP structure that lend themselves to various workflow challenges in and out of the NLE.
The camera's size, range of professional features, and revolutionary CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) imager are the real stories here. It enables high-resolution images with an excellent look at very low power levels. The CMOS imager was pioneered by NASA in the Hubble telescope, and it's finally come of age, now significantly refined and perfected by Sony in the A1U.
A CMOS future
CMOS imagers offer numerous advantages over traditional CCD sensors - beyond the increased resolution at a relatively low cost. CMOS eliminates the vertical smear from bright highlights that have plagued CCD cameras for years. CMOS sensors also allow for a greater range of frame rates and scanning modes, while utilizing less than 20 percent of the power required for a comparable one- or three-chip CCD system.
In the near term, CCD cameras will continue to offer some advantages...