Sony Handycam HDR-FX1000 Camcorder Review

Manual Controls Summary
• Many manual controls are difficult to adjust and manipulate • Wide range of controls are available, but less than you'd see on a truly professional camcorder. • Picture Profile settings aren't organized well, especially in comparison to Canon's Custom Preset menu on the XL H1A
	Compression & Media	(Page 8 of 17)	Still Features

Auto Mode (5.0)

While most of your time with the HDR-FX1000 will likely be spent manipulating manual controls, the camcorder does offer a wide range of automated features that can come in handy in certain situations. The camcorder doesn't have a dedicated Easy Mode, which is a staple of Sony's consumer camcorder line, but it has a full auto mode switch on the left side of the camcorder. In this mode many settings can still be adjusted (Picture Profiles, ND filter, AE Shift), but aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and gain are all locked in auto and cannot be manipulated. When in manual mode, each setting can still be set to auto, or they can be switched to manual individually. This makes it possible to create combinations of auto/manual setups (i.e. auto gain with manual aperture or manual white balance and auto everything else).

Focus is regulated by its own switch that can be flipped between Auto, Manual, and Infinity for distant shots. There's also a push auto button if you want to do a quick auto focus even if your in manual focus mode. Overall the auto focus system worked great, although the manual focus assist features make manual focusing extraordinarily easy on the HDR-FX1000.

With auto white balance, the HDR-FX1000 offers three sensor settings—intelligent, high, middle, and low. For the most part we worked with intelligent and it produced decent results. Using the low setting, the image was generally warmer, picking up more color from artificial light sources. The high setting was the opposite, producing a cooler image.

Both gain and aperture offer limiter features, which allow you to set a peak setting the camcorder cannot exceed when set in auto mode. The auto gain control on the camcorder can also be set to use negative gain, which will automatically kick in to reduce noise to minuscule levels in very bright scenes.

Overall, the auto features on the HDR-FX1000 are decent, although the combination of auto/manual controls can get a bit confusing. Sony's lack of a dedicated mode dial makes it difficult to tell what features are set to auto and what is set to manual (without looking at the LCD, thereby taking up screen space). We also found, the camcorder often overcompensated and didn't adjust settings to the most ideal level. For example, in our low light testing color accuracy went down when we went from using +6dB gain to +12dB gain. This means the camcorder closed the aperture too much to compensate for the brighter light level, thus producing less accurate colors.

Low Light Modes
There are no preset low light modes on the Sony HDR-FX1000 and the camcorder doesn't offer NightShot, which is a staple on Sony's high-end consumer models. For shooting in low light with the FX1000, you'll have to manually lower the shutter, raise the gain, or use the AE shift feature to boost your light.

Scene Modes
There aren't any scene modes to speak of on the HDR-FX1000. The camcorder does have a few preset Picture Profiles—Portrait, Cinema, Sunset, and Monotone—which can be adjusted by the user. These Picture Profiles are created by manipulating various color and image controls (exactly like the custom presets options found on Canon's pro camcorder lineup, only with less options here).

Zoom (7.8)

There are three methods of zoom available on the HDR-FX1000—a zoom ring around the lens, a large rocker on the right side of the camcorder, and a smaller rocker located on the top of the handle. We liked the feel of the zoom ring as it is well-sized and offered smooth adjustment. Its design feels a bit better than the larger, more resistant ring on the Canon XL H1A.

The large rocker above the right-side hand strap has variable zoom control (it will zoom varying speeds based on how hard you push) and it cannot be set with a fixed zoom rate. The rocker is a bit clumsy and makes too much noise, but it is placed well and is good for making a quick zoom adjustment.

This large zoom rocker is on the right side	The middle lens ring controls zoom

A small zoom rocker is on the handlebar and can be set with a fixed speed

 The smaller rocker on the top of the handle can be set with a variable or fixed zoom control, with a speed range from 1-8. At speed 1, the zoom is slow, but it isn't slow enough—the camcorder should offer some speed control for very gradual zooms. At speed 8, the zoom is roughly as fast as the rocker is when its set to variable speed and and you push all the way down. Sony should have implemented slower and faster zoom speed options for at least one of the zoom controls on the HDR-FX1000.

Zoom Ratio (15.0)

The HDR-FX1000 has a 20x optical zoom. This zoom can be bumped up to 30x using the digital extender feature, although its use degrades image quality (as do all digital zoom features). If you want additional optical flexibility, Sony does sell an optional 0.8x wide conversion lens that attaches to the camcorder. It should be noted the HDR-FX1000 already has a very wide viewing angle, which we measured at 70 degrees.

Zoom Comparisons
Wide Angle	10x Zoom	20x Zoom

Focus (11.0)

The focus features on the HDR-FX1000 are decent, but some of the focus assist options are difficult to access. The large lens ring closest to the front of the lens is used to perform a manual focus. The focus ring offers a bit more resistance than the zoom ring, which is a good thing, and it is easy to perform a precise focus on the camcorder.

The largest lens ring is used to control manual focus.

Expanded focus is another good tool and the FX1000 offers two types. Type 1 simply provides a digital zoom so you can focus on a particular area of the frame. Once recording begins (or expanded focus button is pressed again) the image returns to its normal zoom level. Type 2 is the same zoom setup, but it also puts the image into black and white. Expanded focus combined with peaking makes for a very powerful focus assist mechanism.

Unfortunately, the options for peaking and expanded focus aren't the easiest to access. Expanded focus can be assigned to the photo shutter button, but then you lose the ability to quickly snap still photos with the camcorder. Peaking can only be turned on and off by going through the menu system, unless you assign the feature to one of the FX1000's 6 assignable buttons. In comparison, the Canon XL H1A, albeit a good deal larger than the HDR-FX1000, has dedicated peaking and focus magnification buttons.

Exposure (5.15)

First it must be said that the manual control buttons on the HDR-FX1000 are very difficult to access. Each button is tucked away at the bottom of the left side of the camcorder and their labels are hidden under the FX1000's bulky midsection, making them difficult to press—especially if you're looking in the viewfinder and trying to feel your way around.

The HDR-FX1000 offers two methods of exposure control. First is AE shift, which raises and lowers the exposure on the camcorder in an incremental fashion. When using AE shift, the camcorder adjusts aperture and gain settings in order to achieve the desired exposure effect. The feature can be accessed by pressing Assignable button 2, which comes preset as AE shift, and then shifting the AE using the control dial on the left side of the camcorder. The AE response can be set to fast, middle, or slow and it has a range of -7 to +7 increments. AE shift only works if either gain, aperture, or both are set to auto.

The other exposure adjustment method on the FX1000 is performed by setting the third lens ring (the smallest) to control exposure instead of iris (aperture). When this is set, aperture, gain, and shutter speed all become controllable using that same one lens ring. It is somewhat confusing as to how each are adjusted, but the overall idea is that the exposure on the camcorder is manipulated using a combination of the three systems (somewhat like a priority mode on DSLR cameras).

Aperture (9.5)

As discussed int he Exposure section, the third lens ring can be set to control the iris, or aperture on the HDR-FX1000. The ring moves a little too quickly and making precise adjustments can be a minor difficulty. There is no secondary control dial for adjusting aperture. 

The aperture range on the camcorder is f/1.6 - f/11 and there are 25 steps overall. While this is a decent aperture range, the Canon XL H1A offered several more f-stop options, including 8 additional aperture settings between f/11 and f/22.

Shutter Speed (5.0)

The manual shutter speed button on the FX1000 is long and flat, making it difficult to find and press. Once pressed, shutter speed is then controlled by rotating the selection dial on the left side. The dial is clumsy and offers a terrible grip. It is not ideal for making accurate, precise adjustments and is far better suited as a menu navigation system. A protruding wheel, as offered on the Canon XL H1A, is far easier for your fingertips to locate.

White Balance (5.0)

The manual white balance button is also hidden away on the HDR-FX1000 and it is sandwiched between the Gain and Shutter Speed buttons. After you press the first white balance button, you can then use the switch beneath it to choose between Manual A, Manual B, or Preset. Manual A and B allow you to store manual white balance settings using the one-push method that is common to most Sony camcorders. Setting the switch to Preset puts the white balance to either Indoor or Outdoor mode, depending on which is selected as a preset in the camcorder's menu.

The buttons are cluttered in this section and making manual adjustments here can be very confusing. Sony draws little lines (almost like maps) around each button to give you an idea of what buttons control what and what needs to be pushed to engage a certain setting. The button layout and positioning is very disappointing and it is difficult to imagine someone working the settings with absolute ease.

There is also a WB shift option in the camcorder's menu that will shift the overall color balance of the image to hot or cold tones. The range for this option goes from -9 to +9, with negative values giving the image a cooler, blue tone and positive values bringing up the reds to produce a hotter image.

Gain (3.5)

Manual gain is set by first pressing the gain button (just like shutter speed and white balance) and then selecting a setting from the switch below. Settings are labeled as L, M, and H (for low, medium, and high), but the user can program whatever gain level they want to match up with each letter, thus creating 3 gain presets.

It is an annoyance that you have to go into the camcorder's menu to select a gain setting that isn't set as one of your 3 presets. Why couldn't Sony have simply implemented a dial that allows you to shuffle through all the gain settings? The Canon XL H1A, in contrast, offers a pop-out, rotating dial with 8 preset settings—along with an option for precise gain adjustment ranging from 0dB to 18dB and every 0.5dB in between.

Color & Image Controls (9.6)

The Sony HDR-FX1000 offers lots of color and image controls, although the range of adjustment isn't near the amount Canon offers on its XL series of pro camcorders. The HDR-FX1000 has most of the important controls you'll need, and it mostly lacks features like color correction, detail frequency, and image controls such as coring.

Other Manual Controls (12.5)