When I wanted to start taping I was looking around for cheap camcorders, I took some looks at the cameras on sale in the media market. The cameras in the price range I was looking didn?t had the 16:9 support I was looking for (anamorphic) and when I was going into the segment which did have this support the cameras started to be much more expensive.
I decided to take a peek online on the second hand market. I bought the second hand Canon XM1 camera. A nice little piece of equipment which performed as a charm during the shooting at Campzone but let me down at usability and picture quality in low light.
I decided to upgrade but in the segment of SD prices where rising pretty steep really quickly.
Therefore I search more information on the HD platform, after all, this is the platform of the future.
After the past summer, in September to be a little more exact, Sony dropped half of its retailers and therefore the dropped retailers were selling the HC1 for the cheapest price on the block.
I didn?t hesitate one second and bought myself the HC1 and fitting equipment.
It?s CMOS censor should ensure high picture and color quality. Also the camera was pocket sized, would taping events become unsuccessful I could still take the HC1 cameras with me on holidays instead of taking a 5 kilo colossi on the road/plane.
Shooting with the HC1 never let me down, unless when I am trying to shoot in the dark.
The advertised low light support is letting me down In low light situations, lets say, during a cozy romantic diner or during the taping of indoor LAN events I was very let down with the quality. The lesser the light the more horrible the grain and distortion in the picture.
Now I shot my second ?after campzone- episode and I have come to realize that this low light problem is getting the lesser of the benefit of the doubt and I really seriously have to start thinking of a more light sensitive solution.
On the brink of my decision Sony decided to make it a little more hard for me. Sony released the HDR-FX7e camera, at the moment I just kinda put my mind on the FX1 model. The FX7e offers better functionality, smaller size, lighter in weigh and a lot of problems from the FX1 fixed. But, damn it, it also is less light sensitive.
Do I now have to buy a much better camera, but less light sensitive or should I buy a crap camera which is really light sensitive.
Of course the very best camera I can have is the Canon or the Panasonic one, but mister Canon or Panasonic only made those beauties in the higher price segment and nothing for the prosumer.
Ohwell, welcome in the wonderful world of technology, I guess I will be shooting one more LAN with the HC1, and hopefully I can start season 2, starting off with Campzone, with a new camera.
Whichever that would be.
-[CCTV]Rik