Sony NSC-GC1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Sony does not state the exact flavor of the compression, but the video we saw indicates that the compression is very high. The compression artifacts appear as blocky chunks, just the kind of thing that you see in video from point and shoot digital still cameras. Viewed on a TV, this video would be unacceptable. However, we’ve all come to accept this from online video, which is exactly where the NSC-GC1’s footage is due to end up. Google Video, YouTube, and all the other sites compress the hell out of video and create the same aberrations. Sony simply beat the middle man to the job.

Media
The NSC-CG1 captures video to MemoryStick Duo and PRO Duo cards, which are available is sizes up to 8 GB. Sony states that the average capacity of a 1GB card in the highest quality (640 x 480 at 30fps) is 44 minutes and 57 seconds. In the lowest quality (320 x 240 at 15fps), it can fit up to 8 hours and 23 minutes. This is not Sony’s first camcorder to shoot exclusively to MemoryStick. The HDR-CX7 (Specs, Recent News, $1199), which records in the high def AVCHD format, is an entirely different class and price (almost $1000 more), but indicates a shift in Sony’s perception of the market. In at least two demographics, high and low-end, they are responding to a demand for card media. This is of particular value to online video sharing, as speedy transferal has a much higher value than archiving.

Editing
Sony offers several options for editing the video produced by the NSC-GC1. The first, and most interesting, is the Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software pre-loaded in the computer. This requires no installation on your computer itself. The entire operation runs off of the camcorder when it’s connected to a PC (no Mac support). What PMB offers is a very simple upload to YouTube, Crackle and other online video share sites. You can add your preferred sites to your quick upload list if they aren’t already there. Crackle, which Sony Pictures Entertainment Company owns, is the most thoroughly integrated. Every other site requires a few more hoops to jump through, but it’s really quite simple.

Upon connecting the NSC-GC1 to a PC, a screen appears with thumbnails of all the clips. Check off which clips you want to upload, then click on the site to which you want them uploaded. In the case of YouTube, a browser window opens and takes you to the sign-in page. When it’s time to indicate what clips you want to upload, skip the whole “Browse” search where you have to dig through a bunch of folders. Just go to the empty text box and hit CTRL+V. The clip and path names have been automatically copied to your clipboard. Hit Upload and you’re done. We attempted to do this straight from the floor of the venue, and managed to upload our video with almost no hitches.

Also included in the box is a copy of the full-sized Picture Motion Browser, the standard NLE included with all Sony HandyCams. It offers very basic editing capabilities, and is also a PC-only app. Finally, you’ll find a driver that allows the NSC-GC1 to function as a webcam.