Camera Review:     Sony HVR-Z1U      Company: Sony    Type of Camera: HDV    Media Used: MiniDV & HDV tape    Lens: Fixed lens system    MSRP: $5946.99    For Special Low Price: Click Here    Website: Sony Business Select    Release Dates: February 1, 2005    Review Date: March 15, 2006    Reviewed By: Andy Yardy Final Score: 8.8

As a filmmaker, I dreamed of the day that I could toss my standard def camera for a high Def one. I started pricing them about 5 years ago and one hundred grand was the best price I could find. It took a couple years until it had come down by half to fifty grand. Even then, I was never going to have the kind of a budget to own or even rent such a camera. Then, in late 2004, Sony broke the $10,000 barrier and released the FX1 and, in 2005, the Z1U, bringing the dream of owning an HD camera to regular people like you and me. Over the last year Panasonic, JVC and Canon have followed suit giving microfilmmakers everywhere broader options in cameras and more tools to tell stories at a much higher quality than they used to have. Since I owned a Sony PD-150, which I liked a lot, I naturally leaned toward the Sony HDV camera. I did my homework on all of them and in the end I decided to go with the Z1U. It has its ups and downs but over all it has lived up to the hype.

There are a lot of reviews available on the Z1U. As a shooter I found that those reviews glossed over a lot of things that effect me in the practical day-to-day use of this camera. In this review I have glossed over a few of the features that will make your jaw drop in awe in favor of giving you a perspective that has some practical value to the microfilmmaker. That way when you drop a few grand on getting this camera you at least know all sides of the picture.

Ease of Use
If you have picked up a Sony video camera before, you can probably start shooting on this camera with no problem in about 2 minutes. If you have been using other brands, it might take you 5 minutes, but what's an extra 3 minutes between friends?

The menu functions are easy to understand. Scrolling through them will give you a pretty good understanding of what the camera is capable of. Once you've got that down you can find manual controls for most of the important features somewhere on the camera.

The manual control features are easy to get to and with practice you will be able to get used to adjusting them without having to look. The iris control has intermediate stops which prevent the jumping issue that you had with the PD150 when you manually dropped down the iris. I still wish it were on the lens itself, but that maybe in a later model.

One feature that I was pretty excited about was the color control options that are on the camera. However, I have to say after working with them for quite awhile, I gave up and decided to it was easier to do it in post. Maybe after a few more months of production with the camera, the light will come on in my head and it will all make sense, but, until then, I am staying with the factory presets.

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