Sony NSC-GC1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Video Performance
The Sony NSC-CG1 features a 1/2.5” CMOS, with a gross pixel count of approximately 5,000,000 (5MP). This may seem like an incredible chip for such a small camcorder, but the numbers can be deceiving. The chip is likely borrowed from one of Sony’s point and shoot still cameras, which routinely use larger imagers. The NSC-CG1 uses an MPEG4 compression, similar to still cameras that shoot video, which reduces the effective video resolution to a mere fraction of those 5MP.

Though the camcorder on display at the press event was not a production model and cannot be used for final evaluation on video quality, the video we did see can be combined with information about the compression to make an educated guess. Don’t expect much from the NSC-GC1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, ). This is a low quality image, worse than any camcorder in their line. For better or for worse, this has little bearing on the overall value. Uploading to video sharing sites is a death sentence for quality anyway, as an additional layer of compression reduces fine detail down to a pixilated blur. So as to whether the video quality is acceptable, the answer is yes; it’s entirely suited to its purpose. But you must be aware that it cannot perform beyond that purpose. This video should never see the light of your large screen TV.

Low Light Performance
We were surprised to see that, despite the large imager, the low light capabilities of the NSC-CG1 did not appear to be very good. The venue of the press event was unevenly lit, and most of the footage appeared too dark to make out a lot of detail. This is likely due in part to the fixed f/3.5 aperture, which is not letting a whole lot of light in. By chance, we had a loaned JVC GZ-MG255 on hand, which was much better, and that camcorder is hardly a powerhouse in low light. While we can forgive the poor resolution and high compression, not having good low light is detrimental to all video. When you consider that the average YouTuber will probably not put a whole lot of thought into lighting, this may prove to be a serious failing. Once we get one in our labs, we’ll be able to verify this. Sony has not yet announced an expected minimum lux.