Sony HDR-HC5 Camcorder Reviewby David KenderPublished on Nov 28, 2007 8:52 AM
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Picture & Manual Control
Automatic Control (8.0)
Sony is renowned for their automatic controls, which continue to work very well in the HDR-HC5. The auto exposure is the best of the bunch. Major transitions are smooth and take about 2-3 seconds. Incremental transitions are usually handled so seamlessly you might not even notice. In lower light, the exposure transitions can be a little more abrupt, so if you’re a low-budget filmmaker trying to set up a careful shot, be aware that the brightness could jump.
The auto focus was also good, though it’s less seamless than the exposure. You can expect a 1-2 second drag until the camcorder glides into focus. In low light, as ever, you will have a wait longer. Rarely, though, did we see the focus fail completely. Also, low contrast shots experienced a delay, even when the light was adequate.
The auto white balance worked will in uniform lighting, but produced some ugly tones in mixed lighting. This is no different from most camcorders, but we’re always hoping to be surprised.
As with most Sonys, there are a number of assist functions that help you take control of the shooting without requiring a B.A. in Photography. Two of the most popular are Spot Focus and Spot Meter. When either of these features are activated, a frame appears around the perimeter of the LCD. Simply touch the area of the screen that you want in focus or properly exposed. As long as the area is big enough, it usually works. Problems occur when the information is too dense or complex. In those cases, you’ll need to switch to manual.
The Spot Meter control
There are also a number of Scene Modes available, including: Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Candle, Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach, and Snow.
The Scene Mode menu
Overall Manual Control (6.5)
The overall manual control on the Sony HDR-HC5 pales in comparison to the HDR-HC7. Though we found fault with some aspects of the camcorder, the HC7 was a tool for serious videographers. The HC5, by comparison, is a merely a point-and-shoot that happens to take great looking video. The major difference comes from the missing dial on the left hand side of the lens barrel. Without the dial, the HC5 is relegated to complete touch screen operation for the manual controls. This is acceptable for minor tweaks, but someone who’s carefully composing a shot can’t keep tapping the screen, getting grease prints everywhere and shaking the camcorder.
The HDR-HC5 also lacks some crucial controls that one should expect (or even demand) at nearly $1000: shutter speed and aperture control. While the HC7 lacks the latter, Sony somehow decided that it was worthy of shutter control and the HC5 was not. Oh, Sony, you never cease to frustrate with such intricate and arcane pay-per-feature schemes. Every other manufacturer of HD camcorders, with the exception of Hitachi, offers shutter control, a simple but necessary feature for low light shooting.
With that complaint out of the way, we can throw some praise towards Sony for packing in a lot of other features, like Sharpness, Color, a histogram, zebra patterns, and more. These tweaks are fun to play with, even if they won’t get too much use. An upgrade to the HDR-HC7 buys you the addition of AE Shift and White Balance Shift, as well as exposure and focus tools right on the control dial.
Zoom (6.0)
The zoom toggle is located on top of the camcorder, towards the rear. Like the HDR-HC7, the toggle is well-placed for the index finger. The control is not large, but it functions well for its size. Depending on finger pressure, we were able to get about three speeds. The slowest was not as slow as we would have hoped, so you may have trouble getting that super-slow crawl effect.
When the zoom is engaged, a scale appears in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. The scale gives you a rough ideas of where in the zoom range you are, but a numerical value would have been more helpful. Even so, this zoom is well-designed.
Zoom Power Ratio (10.0)
The optical zoom of the Sony DCR-HC5 extends to 10x, which is the standard for most of the upper-end camcorders this year. It should prove sufficient for most shooting needs. The digital zoom can be turned on and off via the menu. There are two settings: 20x and 80x. Any digital zoom is a distortion of the image, and therefore detrimental, but 20x isn’t too noticeable. 80x is quite noticeable, and should be avoided.
Focus (4.0)
The manual focus control, sadly, is entirely deficient for its purpose. Sony has an interesting schema for its HD lineup this year. In each media class – HDV, DVD, and HDD – the top-tier model is awarded a special dial control to help with focus and other adjustments. It’s not ideal, but it functions pretty well. Every model below that top-tier position gets screwed, plain and simple.
The focus control
The HDR-HC5 relies solely on a touch screen interface for manual focus. As with all Sonys that use this method, here is our litany of complaints. First, when the manual focus is activated, the screen is suddenly cluttered with graphics - ten separate items! How is anyone supposed to see the subject with this much junk obscuring their field of view?
Secondly, the 211,200 pixel resolution is good, but a 2.7-inch screen is not large enough to accommodate all those graphics. Also, the simple act of touching your finger to the screen is typically blocking the screen, so you have to crane your neck to get a better view. Third, a touch screen interface is bound to collect finger grease, which only throws more guesswork into the procedure.
Fourth and finally, unlike a lot of the best HD camcorders this year, Sony offers no “focus assist” tools such as instant zoom or peaking. The JCV GZ-HD3 does an excellent job in this regard, making it the best manual focus system in all camcorderdom right now.
To its credit, the HDR-HC3 does offer the focal distance in meters while making an adjustment. Now if only the American education system could catch us up on the metric system.
Manual focus was clearly an afterthought in the design of the HDR-HC5, and Sony intends for you to stick with auto focus. While the auto responses are good, they’re not accurate one hundred percent of the time.
Exposure & Aperture (4.5)
The exposure control is simple, which is great for beginners but perhaps vexing for those who want a little more flexibility. When activated via the menu, a slew of graphics appear on screen. Two of these are touch screen button, a plus sign (to make the image brighter) and a minus sign (to make it darker). A scale in the middle indicates approximately where in the exposure range you are, but there is no actual numerical value, which makes it hard to keep track. There are 28 increments in all.
The exposure control
The HDR-HC5 features a second exposure control, and no, this one’s not an aperture control, either. Sorry. Instead, Sony has outfitted the camcorder with AE Shift, which functions like the regular exposure control, but with kid gloves. When activated, a series of graphics appear in much the same fashion. Again, there is a scale and two plus/minus buttons. The scale ranges from +4 to -4. What you’ll notice here is first, that you do get a fixed numerical value as you adjust, and secondly, that the changes are much more subtle than the regular exposure tool. AE Shift is a useful tool when you’re shooting under subtly changing light, like a partly cloudy day.
The AE Shift control
As mentioned above, the HDR-HC5 does not offer direct control of the aperture. The Canon HV20, all Panasonics, and most JVCs give some kind of control in this regard.
Shutter Speed (0.0)
The HDR-HC5, almost unbelievably, does not offer shutter speed control. This $1000 camcorder does not offer something as simple as shutter speed. Again, this seems reliant on Sony’s bizarre product-line architecture wherein only the top-tier models offer shutter control. All other competing HD camcorders, except the Hitachi Blu-ray models, offer shutter speed.
White Balance (5.5)
The white balance options on the HDR-HC5 are slightly expanded from Sony’s standard definition models. As with all Sony’s there is the option of Auto, Outdoor, Indoor, and One Push (Manual) settings. This is by no means a comprehensive list of presets, and the Auto mode is more reliable than the Outdoor and Indoor settings, because actual outdoor and indoor environments contain a wide variety of color temperatures. Making a manual adjust is easy and, in all the time we tried, quite accurate.
The WB Shift control in action
The additional white balance tool, found on all of Sony’s HD models, is WB Shift. When activated, a scale and two plus/minus buttons appear onscreen. The scale ranges from +4 to -4. Like the AE Shift, the effect is very subtle. Lowering the WB Shift cools the image, and raising it warms the image. From one increment to the next, the effect is almost imperceptible. Again, like AE Shift, this might be perfect for outdoor shooting on a partly cloudy day.
Gain (0.0)
There is no gain control on the Sony HDR-HC5.
Other Manual Controls (7.0)
Sharpness - This features increases or decreases the amount of in-camera sharpening that occurs within the HDR-HC5. A little sharpening can increase perceived resolution (but not the actual resolution) by pushing the contrast along edges. Too much sharpening creates halos around objects. The camcorder gives you a scale of eight increments to choose from.
The Sharpness control
Auto Slow Shutter - The Auto Slow Shutter allows the camcorder to drop the lowest shutter speed in auto mode from 1/60th to 1/30th.
Color Slow Shutter - More drastic than Auto Slow Shutter, Color Slow Shutter allows the auto shutter to drop much lower. To the eye, it appeared to go down as far as 1/2 of a second.
Camera Color - The Camera Color setting increases and decreases the saturation levels. This is a useful tool if you’re paying attention to color. Consumer camcorders almost invariably oversaturate. For the pro look, turn it down a couple notches. There are eight increments.
The Color Control in action
Tele Macro - The Tele Macro feature instantly pushes out to 10x and attempts to do some auto macro focusing. If the contrast is not high enough, the camcorder will just bounce in and out of focus. This might be better attempted manually.
Zebra - A Zebra function allows you to monitor for overexposure by creating zebra patterns in hot spots. (The patterns only appear on camera, not on the final footage.) There are two settings, 70 and 100, that refer to the IRE level, which is a measurement of exposure. The conservative setting is 70 IRE. If you see zebra stripes when in the 100 IRE setting, that means that the hot spots are completely blown out.
The Zebra feature in action
Histogram - A live histogram is a great feature to have on a camcorder. When this is activated, a box appears in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. This is a map of your exposure levels across the entire frame. The shadows are in the left and the highlights are on the right. Each little dot in the histogram equals a pixel that is being captured. The basic strategy is to keep most of the data somewhere in the middle of the graph.
The histogram in action
Conversion Lens - The Conversion Lens feature should be activated when attaching a wide or tele lens. It optimizes the image stabilization accordingly.
X.V. Color - The X.V. Color is Sony’s branded version of the xvYCC color space, which is in use on a very select number of HDTVs. Shooting in this color mode and playing it back on your regular HDTV will have little to no effect, though it may increase the saturation.
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