Sony Handycam HDR-FX1000 Camcorder Review

Handling & Use Summary
• Relatively light and compact, especially when compared to most professional camcorders • Button layout is not good and many manual controls are difficult to adjust • Both the LCD and electronic viewfinder have high resolutions • Battery life on provided battery could have been better
	Still Features	(Page 10 of 17)	Playback & Connectivity

Ease of Use (5.75)

For a prosumer camcorder, the HDR-FX1000 could be easier to use. Even though it has far less features than higher-end professional camcorders, it still feels cluttered and confusing—especially on the left side. Take, for example, the FX1000's manual control system. To manipulate a setting such as shutter speed, the user must first put the camcorder into Manual mode. Next, you need to locate the shutter speed button, which puts shutter speed control into manual mode. Then you use the inept scroll wheel to adjust the shutter settings. Too many buttons need to be pushed in order to access some of the simplest and most important manual controls. Canon's system on the XL H1A of using a mode dial with aperture-priority, shutter-priority, auto, and full manual modes makes far more sense.

We wish Sony had made the buttons for shutter speed, aperture, white balance, and gain easier to find when feeling around with your hands. Too many times we found ourselves peering around the side of the camcorder to see what button we were about to press, which is something you shouldn't have to do when you're shooting—especially once you master the lay of the land on the camcorder. The layout of buttons isn't horrible, it's just that they're small and poorly designed.

Handling (7.0)

We don't like the manual control design on the HDR-FX1000, especially when compared to the larger Canon models. Button layout is confusing and specific settings are difficult to locate without using your eyes—something you won't want to do in the middle of a shoot. The HDR-FX1000 does offer decent balance and strong grip, despite the fact that it does not utilize a shoulder mount. The camcorder is small enough to wield with one hand (although most users will likely use two hands for added support), and the tight, padded hand strap helps keep the FX1000 steady and maneuverable.

The HDR-FX1000 held by its top handle

All menus and numerous controls on the HDR-FX1000 are navigated using the embedded scroll wheel on the left side of the camcorder. The scroll wheel is problematic for a number of reasons—its finely ribbed surface offers terrible grip, its location is poor, and the wheel is clearly not suited for on-the-fly maneuverability. Users with large or slick fingers will find the scroll wheel unbearable, which is a huge hindrance considering how many features, menus, and settings are controlled using the wheel.

The scroll wheel does have one thing going for it, however. Making menu selections is performed by simply pushing in on the wheel. This motion works seamlessly and stands in contrast to the annoying design on the Canon XL H1A, which uses a separate button as a selector. If only someone would design a scroll wheel with the ribbed, protruding design of the Canon XL H1A, and the push-in selection method on the Sony HDR-FX1000.

For a large hand held device, the HDR-FX1000 is well balanced

Overall, the handling on the Sony HDR-FX1000 isn't terrible. The camcorder feels good when you hold it and it retains balance, so there isn't a big problem there. It's really just in adjustment of manual controls that things get awkward and messy. Buttons are too close together and there aren't enough dedicated switches or dials to make quick adjustment really easy. The long, larger design of the Canon XL H1A provides a far less complicated manual control system—with better dials, buttons, and switches all around.

Image Stabilization (12.14)

The Sony HDR-FX1000 offers several levels of image stabilization, and we found that these generally offered good results, producing significantly sharper, steadier video. (More on how we test image stabilization.)

Sony HDR-FX10000 Low Shake Test

81% improvement in Soft Mode

82% improvement in Standard Mode

75% improvement in Hard Mode

Our first test subjected the Sony HDR-FX1000 to a low level of shake, about the same as you would expect from holding the camcorder in one hand while trying to use a control with the other. The graph above shows the amount of shake we detected in the recorded video using Standard mode. The orange lines represent the camcorder's motion with OIS turned on, while the blue shake is with stabilization turned off. Sony claims that the SuperShot Hard mode should be the most aggressive at compensating for stabilization, but we found the opposite; the SteadyShot Standard mode did the best job of compensating here, whit Soft mode producing nearly the same results.

Sony HDR-FX1000 High Shake Test

82% improvement in Soft Mode

74% improvement in Standard Mode

61% improvement in Hard Mode

Our high shake test applies a larger shake to the camcorder, simulating the sort of shake that you would get if you were holding the camcorder in one hand without bracing it, or if you were walking. In this case, the Soft mode was the clear winner, with Hard mode actually reducing the shake the least.

Using the SteadyShot feature in normal shooting, we found that the SteadyShot generally performed well; it did a very decent job of stabilizing the video without introducing any glitches. It also coped well with pans and other deliberate movement; we did not see much evidence of the stabilization system confusing this for handshake.

The bottom line here is that the SteadyShot feature does an excellent job overall;  in all of the modes, the video was noticeably sharper and more usable. The SteadyShot Soft or Standard modes would be our pick for most users; they provide the best balance of shake reduction without adding glitches while panning. However, none of the SteadyShot modes could work miracles; there was still some shake in the video. So, the SteadyShot feature won't replace a decent tripod (or just leaning against a wall or other steadying object) while shooting, but it did do a decent job of helping to stabilize video when you have to shoot hand held. Below is a sample video from our tests, showing all of the stabilization modes in action with the low shake.

Click Here for larger Version

Image Stabilization Comparisons

Portability (7.99)

Compared to high-level pro camcorders, the HDR-FX1000 looks like a baby—and weighing only 2100 grams, it may feel like a baby too. Keep in mind, however, that the HDR-FX1000 is designed as a hand held device and therefore does not have a shoulder mount. This means the camcorder can still get rather heavy, especially if you're planning to do a hand held shoot all day. MiniDV tape is a fairly portable option for pro-level camcorders as you can pass tapes off to your editor with ease. You don't want a camcorder that records to internal memory or a built-in hard drive, as you'd need to bring the camcorder along whenever you want to transfer something to a computer.

We base our portability scores differently if a camcorder is hand held than if it is shoulder-mounted because we realize both options are preferred by different types of shooters. The Canon XL H1A, while significantly larger than the HDR-FX1000, scored only slightly lower with portability because it is relatively light weight as far as shoulder-mounted camcorders go.

LCD Battery Life (7.6)

The Sony HDR-FX1000 didn't impress us with its battery life scores. Using the provided battery, the NP-F570, the HDR-FX1000 lasted 152 minutes during our LCD battery life test. Now, this isn't a terrible score, but it stands in sharp contrast to the 236-minute performance by the Canon XL H1A. Sony does, of course, sell much larger batteries for the HDR-FX1000 that will presumably last for a much longer period of time. (More on how we test battery life.)

Battery Life (LCD) Comparisons

The supplied battery doesn't last too long

Viewfinder Battery Life (7.8)

Usually, when you record using the viewfinder instead of the LCD you'll save yourself a healthy chunk of battery life. This isn't the case with the HDR-FX1000, as the provided battery lasted only 4 minutes longer with the LCD closed. In total, the viewfinder battery life on the FX1000 came to 156 minutes.

Battery Life (Viewfinder) Comparisons

LCD & Viewfinder (7.49)

The Sony HDR-FX1000 features both a 3.2-inch LCD screen and a 0.45-inch electronic viewfinder. The LCD has an eye-popping resolution of 921,000 pixels, which is extremely high for a prosumer camcorder. In comparison, the LCD on the Canon XH series has a 207,000-pixel resolution, the Panasonic AG-HMC150 a resolution of 210,000 pixels, and the Canon XL H1A 215,000 pixels. The extra pixels do help with focusing and adjusting color controls, but the difference in quality isn't easily noticeable with the naked eye. The LCD screen offers brightness display adjustment with 32 individual steps, color display with 16 steps, and back light settings of normal or bright. All these display adjustments give you a good amount of control over the quality of the image produced by the LCD screen and can come in handy when shooting in awkwardly-lit settings.

The 3.2-inch LCD screen	The viewfinder and LCD can be used simultaneously

The viewfinder on the HDR-FX1000 is 0.45-inches in size, displays a widescreen color image, and also has an impressive 1,227,000-pixel resolution. Even with this high resolution, the image appears a bit soft and washed-out in comparison to the LCD. The electronic viewfinder also doesn't offer the most comfortable video-recording experience—it pivots a good deal, but cannot extend or rotate. The rubber eye-cup is flexible and should provide adequate light concealment. The viewfinder does have a diopter adjuster, backlight settings of normal or bright, and a power mode that allows you to have the LCD screen and viewfinder operate simultaneously.

The viewfinder can pivot, but not extend or rotate	The eyecup is decent, but not the best.

Menus (5.0)

The menus on the HDR-FX1000 are organized relatively well, although some options get lost in the long, deep list of settings. Most items are organized under the main Menu, which is broken down into six sections: Camera, Audio, Display, Connectivity, Memory, and Others. The Camera and Display submenus are the largest, both containing multiple pages of settings. There is also a Picture Profile menu, which is very poorly designed.

Most features are found after pressing the Menu button

Navigating the menu system is performed by using the small, ribbed, scroll wheel on the left side of the camcorder. The scroll wheel doesn't stick out from the camcorder's body, which can make it very difficult to maneuver. It's also difficult to get a good grip of the scroll wheel if you have large or slick fingers. The wheel does have one good design, however—you simply push the wheel in to make a selection.

The Picture Profile Menu

More color and image controls are located under Picture Profiles, which is Sony's version of the Custom Presets found on Canon's pro and prosumer camcorders. The HDR-FX1000 doesn't have as many settings as you'd find on, say, the Canon XL H1A, but it still has quite a few. This isn't really the problem, however, as Sony really failed more on the menu design of its Picture Profiles than the amount of controls available. Canon's Custom Preset system shows all the available options on one screen (using abbreviations for each setting). This is a smart design, as it allows you to quickly scan through presets and see, specifically, what settings are adjusted for each. Sony's system, however, forces you to scroll through each setting individually to see what everything is set at (just like a normal menu). This makes locating specific settings more difficult and turns reproducing exact Picture Profiles into an annoying experience.

A lot of information can be displayed on screen

There are 6 assignable buttons on the Sony HDR-FX1000, which are useful and necessary—especially if you want to take advantage of all the settings offered by the camcorder. So many controls are embedded deep in the menus that sifting through to access them all the time would be an utter annoyance. Features like shot transition and peaking would be extremely frustrating to control without the use of assignable buttons.