Fisher FVD-C1 Camcorder Reviewby Matt CullerPublished on Jul 19, 2004 6:00 PM 
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No, that's not a dolphin breaching the surface of the glassy Pacific ocean with its mouth open to the sky... it's Fisher's first entry into the camcorder market! With a list price of $799.99, the Fisher FVD-C1 records solely onto SD card and offers incredible portability, classy menus, and even an automated voice. It offers many options for MPEG and JPEG resolutions and includes editing software, making its media very convenient to access. These features, coupled with an impressive CCD size of 1/2.7 inches, make the FVD-C1 seem too good to be true--until one considers the negatives like the loud optical zoom and poor low-light performance.
Video Performance (4.0)
Can someone say Star Trek? Just like a phaser, folks. Fisher’s put this one in the running for all you tight-panted, back-pocket beauties out there. Weighing in at only 5.4 ounces with no viewfinder and a 1.5-inch LCD, the Fisher FVD-C1 lists for $799.99 and includes a 5.8x optical zoom with 10x digital zoom, perfect for the secret agent on the go. This little bad boy puts the punch into its puny package with a 1/2.7-inch CCD and approximately 3.2 megapixels. But as they say, it’s not the size that matters, but how you use it. While the C1 does produce great still images at resolutions up to 2048 x 1536, its video performance comes up short.
At 3000 lux and other bright light levels, the Fisher FVD-C1 reproduces colors somewhat accurately with average crispness. The overall reproduction, however, is quite poor. Over-saturation in the reds definitely occurs, and the camcorder’s lack of manual white balance certainly doesn’t help in the testing environment. Additionally, while colors are relatively crisp at 3000 lux, the gray washes together terribly.
While portability — aided by a nice belt-attachable carrying case! — and size are definite advantages to owning the C1, lack of manual control, bad video performance, and a very loud zoom mechanism takes away from the camcorder’s beauty. After all, how are you going to stealthily infiltrate underwater organized crime lairs?
The Front (9.0)
The front of the Fisher FVD-C1 is relatively strange; then again, what isn’t strange about this camcorder? The front begins with the lens, situated above everything. Wrapping around the lower edge of the lens is some focal distance information, followed below by a photo flash. At this point, the front of the C1 takes a turn in toward the viewer, acting as the grip for a hand’s three fingers.
The Right Side (8.0)
The right side of the C1 is sparse. Along the lens barrel, the words “Pocket Cameracorder C1” are displayed in glorious white, which against the silver body of the camcorder is, let me assure you, nothing short of breathtaking. Now, we don't know if it was some really bad translation or funky marketing, but Fisher calls this a "Cameracorder," not a camcorder. Below this is a port cover, which slides off to reveal the battery pack’s slot. Unfortunately, the port cover which shields the battery is tenuously secured to say the least. Below the battery slot is the strap loop connector.
The Back (8.0)
The back of the C1 is its busiest side. The control panel is located here, and it includes the camcorder’s zoom toggle, jog-navigation-dial, menu button, photo button, and MPEG record buttons. Below this panel is a barren space, with only a rubber hand cushion to break up the landscape.
The Left Side (8.0)
The left side of the Fisher C1 is dominated by the LCD screen, the only viewing component of the Fisher C1. The 1.5-inch LCD folds out from the bottom of the camcorder, revealing the on/off button, a small speaker, and a standby button which is depressed when the LCD is closed. On the external side of the LCD is the microphone. At the bottom of the camcorder, under the LCD, is the SD card slot. This is the only recordable media available with the C1 (A 512MB card ships with the camcorder). It should also be noted that on the bottom of the machine is the tripod mounting screw and the docking station mounting port. Once plugged into the docking station, the Fisher C1 can access the FireWire port.
The Top (8.0)
The top of the C1 contains only the camcorder’s mode switch, which alternates between record mode and playback mode.
Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (5.0)
The Fisher C1 offers automatic adjustments for many qualities, including white balance, shutter speed, focus, exposure, flash, and ISO. These automatic settings and slightly tailored automatic presets are largely all that are available in terms of control options for many of these elements.
Automatic adjustments to focus aren’t the greatest, especially at any level of zoom. The total range and super macro options are nice, especially super macro, which allows the user to get incredibly close to the subject.
Automatic adjustments to exposure are slow and cumbersome, but automatic white balance adjustment is very quick.
It should be mentioned in this section that the Fisher C1 has two levels of use while in record and playback mode: Basic and Expert. Basic mode is a stripped-down expert mode that offers fewer features.
Overall Manual Control (1.0)
What manual control? This is the first camcorder I’ve seen without manual white balance, focus, or shutter speed. The Fisher C1 doesn’t offer much in this department, but I doubt that it’s supposed to. The C1 is marketed as a "pocket" camcorder, and it very much is. Frankly, the fact that it has a tripod mount is comical. The C1 was meant for one-handed automatic use, period.
Zoom (3.0)
The C1 offers 5.8x optical zoom and 10x digital zoom, on a scale similar to the camcorder itself. The biggest negative to the zoom, however, is its noise level. Zooming in with the thumb zoom toggle creates some of the loudest machinery noise of any camcorder I’ve seen so far. This noise is definitely picked up on the microphone and makes for an annoying hiss and buzz. In the digital zoom realm, noise is unshakable, a virtual sandstorm.
Focus (1.0)
The C1 has three automatic focus modes with no manual focus option. The automatic options include super macro (background is fuzzy, able to keep great focus on objects literally millimeters away), normal (background is usually in focus with everything at least about 6 inches from the lens remaining in good focus), and total range (everything from about 2 inches to the lens is in focus, with background objects in focus as well). The C1 doesn’t do too well with focal adjustments at any degree of optical zoom. It oscillates between focal lengths, “thinking” about which ones to use.
Exposure (Aperture) (4.0)
The Fisher C1 does have manual exposure available by pressing the jog dial left and right when not in the menu screen. Automatic exposure adjustments operate between +1.8 EV and -1.8 EV with step increments of 0.3 EV.
Shutter Speed (0.0)
There is no true manual shutter speed on the Fisher C1. While the camcorder does offer scene select presets of sports, portrait, landscape, night view, lamp, and full auto, these offer only windows of performance to qualities like shutter speed and exposure. Automatic shutter speed adjustments operate in the window of 1/2 to 1/2000 for stills and 1/30 to 1/10000 for video.
White Balance (3.0)
The Fisher C1 offers white balance options of auto, sunny, cloudy, fluorescent, and incandescent. However, it lacks a truly manual white balance setting, which is disappointing. The presets do help for adjusting between fluorescent and incandescent light sources which could be a big problem without a manual function; however, you’re definitely sacrificing some control. On a positive note, automatic adjustments to white balance are very quick.
Still Performance (8.0)
With most camcorders, still performance is merely an additional feature. Since the Fisher C1 only records to memory card, still photo performance is half of the camcorder’s business. The C1 takes stills at three different sizes and resolutions: 3.2MB / 2048 x 1536, 2.0MB / 1600 x 1200, or 0.3MB / 640 x 480. This is a great max still resolution compared to other hybrid camcorders.
Playback Mode (8.0)
The Fisher C1 offers two modes: one for recording and one for playback. The two modes can be switched using the mode switch on top of the camcorder. In playback mode, media is displayed with the date it was recorded, and can be navigated using the jog dial. Still photos are shown with no border, while MPEGs are shown with filmstrip borders. There are options within the menu screens for reordering playback, combining video, erasing parts of video, saving frames from video, rotating frames, etc.
The Fisher C1 can be hooked up to a television, or to a computer where files can be rudimentarily edited, manipulated, and exported using the included software.
Low Light Performance (3.0)
Under low light, the Fisher FVD-C1 doesn’t do so hot. At 60 lux, the C1’s colors actually look better balanced than at 3000 lux; while this may be due to better automatic white balancing, the over-saturation in the reds noticeable at 3000 lux is gone but the crispness remains. There is still significant blurring in the grayscale, but the biggest negative aspect of the C1’s performance at 60 lux is the huge increase in grain and noise.
At 15 lux, the noise evident at 60 lux is magnified substantially. The image is very dark, with the end of the grayscale approaching black across the board. The end of the grayscale approaching white is horribly noisy with gray artifacts everywhere. Colors are surprisingly balanced but very blurry, with washing occurring throughout the spectrum.
LCD/ Viewfinder (3.0)
The Fisher C1 features a 1.5-inch LCD and no viewfinder. While this may seem ridiculous, it must be noted that this setup fits the Fisher C1 well. It is a pocket camcorder, and a tiny LCD and no viewfinder don’t seem out of place here. The LCD is equipped with approximately 110K pixels. The LCD solarizes pretty badly.
Audio (2.0)
The Fisher C1’s stereo microphone is located on the external side of the LCD. A small speaker used during playback is hidden underneath the LCD. The speaker makes beeping noises periodically during navigation and occasionally plays a female voice to announce mode switches and other changes. Speaking of audio, the stereo microphone does unfortunately pick up the mechanical noise of the zoom lens adjustment, so be wary. You can't do much audio-wise with the Fisher because there's no audio in and no Headphone out. But spies don't need manual audio options, do they?
Handling (7.0)
How to handle the Fisher C1 is a strange question indeed. A better question to ask would be: How tight are your jeans? Seriously, folks, this is a one-handed camcorder, conveniently called a “pocket camcorder.” (Note the explanatory picture.) The main negative aspect of the handling is that the zoom is so loud it is picked up by the stereo microphone, and that to adjust the zoom, one’s thumb must be contorted a bit. The docking bay is a nice feature, except that it sort of destroys the portability of the camcorder itself. The C1 does come with a nice carrying case, with included belt loop, in case you were a total dork, or a supah-cool spy.
Ports (5.0)
The Fisher C1 includes a Digital / A/V output terminal on the camcorder’s docking station. From this port, the camcorder can output to a television, using A/V RCA cords that are included, or to a computer using the provided USB cable.
Other Features(5.0)
Navigation Function:
Because of its no-tape/all-card recording ability, the Fisher C1 offers a navigational playback mode similar to a DVD-RAM camcorder as far as ease-of-use and functionality are concerned. This feature offers easy thumbnail navigation through the SD card’s data, which doesn’t involve rewinding tape or anything cumbersome like that.
MPEG:
The Fisher C1 only records video as MPEG; options include TV-SHQ (640 x 480 resolution, 30 frames-per-second, 3MB-per-second), TV-HQ (640 x 480, 30 fps, 2 mbps), TV-S (320 x 240, 30 fps, 640 kbps), Web-HQ (320 x 240, 15 fps, 384 kbps), and Web-S (176 x 144, 15fps, 256 kbps).
ISO:
The Fisher C1 offers manual control over ISO, ranging between 50 and 400.
Video Filters:
Filter effects are available for sepia, monochrome, ghost (which is a weird slow shutter thing), slim (digital weight-loss), and portrait (enhanced skin tones).
Stealth Mode:
Comparisons
For $100 less, the Panasonic PV-GS120 is available. This is a 3 CCD MiniDV camcorder with three 1/6-inch CCDs. The GS120 also offers improved optical zoom and manual features, but where the GS120 separates itself from the Fisher FVD-C1 is in video performance. And the difference is immense. Crisper, better-balanced colors across the board into all light levels are the rule for the Panasonic and, when it comes to grain, the GS120 is pristine when compared with the C1. But it should be noted that for size and portability, the GS120 cannot deliver like the C1 can.
For about $80 less, there's the Panasonic SV-AV100. This Panasonic records to SD card as the Fisher C1 does, but it lacks many of the Fisher C1’s resolution options. The good news is that the Panasonic SV-AV100 does have manual controls for white balance and focus, which the Fisher does not. Also, SV-AV100’s video performance is superior, with less noise and better color balance. This is surprising, considering its 1/6-inch CCD. The AV100 also houses a 10x optical zoom, nearly double that of the Fisher. The AV100 also weighs over an ounce more and is definitely less sleek.
At the same price is the Canon Optura 65. The Optura 65 houses a 1/4.5-inch CCD with a 16x optical zoom. Its CCD holds 1.23 megapixels for stills and 690K for video, and records to MiniDV tape. While the Optura 65 offers fewer options and less resolution for still photography, it contains many manual features for video that the Fisher C1 does not. Like the Panasonic PV-GS120, the Optura 65 turns out remarkably better than the Fisher as far as general video performance and low light performance go.
If gadgetry is your thing, perhaps a DVD camcorder would better suit your fancy. Hitachi’s DZ-MV580 (Specs, $549) is available for $50 less than the Fisher. While the MV580 sacrifices Fisher’s portability, it does record on DVD-RAM/SD card, media relatively as convenient as the C1’s. The Hitachi performs well under low light, on par with the best of the DVD camcorders, and superior to the Fisher FVD-C1’s weak showing. It includes more manual functions than the Fisher, with a greater optical zoom of 10x.
Who It’s For
Point-and-Shooters (9.0)
This camera can only be truly recommended for point-and-shoot consumers, though even they might be frustrated at the lack of control. This camcorder is marketed to appeal to those who buy into the neo-secret agent phenomenon. It’s tiny enough to fit into one of Jennifer Garner’s jeans pockets, portable enough to use while infiltrating Cold-War era Russian subs, and the one-hand operation ability comes in handy if you have to grab onto a helicopter rope to escape burning wreckage or being sucked into a whirlpool.
Budget Consumers(2.5)
The Fisher C1 is not meant for budget consumers. It lists at US $899.99, which could be a problem for some of us, as the camcorder is largely a giant digital camera with good MPEG quality.
Still Photo / Video Camera Hybrid (8.0)
The Fisher C1 is probably the best of the best when it comes to still photo capabilities; when it comes to hybrid camcorders, the Fisher is again great as it is very much half a camera and half a camcorder.
Gadget Freaks (7.0)
The Fisher C1 will appeal to gadget freaks solely because of its portability and the fact that all of its data is recorded to an SD card.
Manual Control Freaks (3.0)
Manual control freaks have zip on this thing: there's no shutter speed, no focus, no nothing. There is manual exposure, but the window of adjustment is so small, you’re better off without it.
Pros / Serious Hobbyists (1.0)The Fisher C1 is not recommended to anyone in the pro/serious hobbyist market, except for professional secret agents looking for camcorders that look like taser guns so they can better infiltrate illicit organized crime gang operations which use old Star Trek studios as their headquarters. Or something.
Conclusion
What sets the Fisher FVD-C1 apart from the competition is its portability and handling. You’re buying a secret agent camcorder; do not buy this for video performance. The still quality on the Fisher also makes it a good contender in the hybrid camcorder/digital camera market, especially with many resolution options as well as 3.2 megapixels to work with.
If you’re strictly looking for video performance, look elsewhere. There are plenty of camcorders with incredibly better video performance for the price, as detailed in the comparisons section. With the Fisher C1, you’re paying for portability, convenience, and gadgetry.
On its own terms, the Fisher produces great still images and average to poor video MPEGs. The software included is surprisingly better than the editing software included with most DVD camcorders. But the Fisher’s optical zoom is loud enough to hear in the camcorder’s microphone. Also, many manual controls are lacking, such as manual white balance. All in all, if you’re looking for portability and style, the Fisher FVD-C1 might work, although it’s worth looking into the Panasonic AV100 while you’re at it.