Sony Announces DCR-PC330 - 3 Megapixel 1/3 in. CCD Matchbox Style Camcorder and the DCR-IP1 MicroMV 'Smallest Camcorder Ever'

Following an announcement two weeks ago by Sony Japan of the DCR-PC300, Sony USA today announced the DCR-PC330 at a press luncheon in New York city. The DCR-PC330 is the official replacement for the Sony DCR-PC120BT. Sony also announced the DCR-IP1, which was announced in Europe at the beginning of August. The luncheon event was held at the Institute of Culinary Education with a presentation by Food Network TV Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay, which provided for an interesting, if not odd place to announce new camcorders. The food was good - though I don't know if that can be said for the camcorders. The DCR-PC330 is a matchbox vertical style camcorder featuring a large 1/3 in., 3.3 Megapixel CCD. The DCR-IP1 features Sony's controversial MicroMV format, and is billed as the smallest camcorder ever.

The DCR-PC330 includes a 3.3 Megapixel CCD with 2,077K effective pixels for video and 3,048K effective pixels for stills. The camcorder includes a 10x optical, 120x digital zoom which has practically become standard on all Sony camcorders. The DCR-PC330 includes a manual focus ring, which sadly, doesn't double as a zoom ring. The PC330's lens is a ''Professional Quality Carl Zeiss® Vario-Sonnar® T* Lens.'' The T* lens has an additional coating that Sony says reduces lens flare and lens glare. It is the same coating that was included on the DCR-PC120BT and the DCR-TRV80.

The DCR-PC330 can record 3.0 Megapixel stills at a resolution of 2,016 x 1,512 pixels. The stills are recorded to Memory Sticks. Although the stills are very high resolution, they fall just under those of the Panasonic PV-DV953 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $899.88) which uses three CCDs to achieve an overall still resolution of 2,048 x 1,496 pixels. Sony spokesperson Rosemary Flynn stated that the DCR-PC330 produces ''[the] best stills out of a single CCD camcorder.'' The Panasonic PV-DV953's still quality is considered outstanding for a camcorder, it is largely considered one of the first camcorders to truly compete with standard still cameras. If the Sony DCR-PC330's stills can compete it may provide stiff competition in the hybrid still camera / camcorder market.

Sony is including a new ''RGB Color Filter'' on the DCR-PC330. It's difficult to find a clear explanation of what the filter does. Yoshi Nishimura (pictured right), Product Manager for Sony Camcorders U.S. stated ''This unit camcorder which has a primary color filter, that can create very accurate color for video and still pictures.'' Flynn expanded explaining that before the color system was Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Green called a complementary color filter system. The best explanation we have received on the RGB color filter comes from Sony Japan regarding the color filter included on the Japanese DCR-PC300, and it is safe to assume that the RGB color filters in the Japanese PC300 and US PC330 are the same. Atsuo Omagari, Sony USA's Liaison to Japan provided this explanation in an email ''An elementary-color filter can send color signals of the light transmitted through a lens as red, green, and blue to the CCD. The color filter is superior in in reproducing vivid colors and is used in many digital still cameras. [The] CCD attaches a color filter to each pixel to detect colors, and either an additive complementary color CCD or the color CCD is used, depending on how the light is being transmitted. Previous camcorders adopted the additive complementary color CCD.''

The DCR-PC330 includes a 2.5 in. touch panel LCD screen. The LCD screen uses a new navigation system. Sony has totally revamped the old touch screen system with a new 3D animated system. Although the old touch screen system (included on most of the current Sony MiniDV camcorders) was largely criticized as being harder to use than non-touch screen methods, Sony denied that there were any faults in the old system despite their totally redesigning it. Flynn stated ''There was no weakness. It's to compliment the different look and feel.'' Yoshi Nishimura explained the new system ''When we developed the touch screen, the basic human interface was almost the same as our old system. This year we totally redeveloped the interface so now we have bitmap technology so that we can show a lot of pictures and we have a 3D engine inside the camcorder so that we can move the graphics. It's very user friendly each pop-up is moving like an animation.'' Sony provided CamcorderInfo.com with images of the new 3D system.

The DCR-PC330 includes manual exposure and white balance control however the camcorder does not include any manual shutter speed or manual gain control. Although it was hard to make any objective conclusions about the video quality of the PC330 at the press event, the large pixel count on the PC330's chip will likely produce high quality video - similar or even better than that of the Sony DCR-TRV70 (Review, Specs, $744.99) which has a 2 Megapixel chip with around 1 Megapixels effective for video. Another major upgrade on the DCR-PC330 over the DCR-PC120BT is the inclusion of a large 1/3 in. chip. Although the camcorder is yet to prove itself in field tests, there is a strong connection between large CCDs and high video quality and low light performance. Sony is reporting the low light performance of the DCR-PC330 as 7 Lux, not a very impressive number when compared to other Sony camcorders. Please read my editorial on the 1/3 in. CCD in the DCR-PC330.

Interestingly Sony did not include Bluetooth on the DCR-PC330. The DCR-PC300, the DCR-PC330's Japanese companion does include Bluetooth. The DCR-PC120BT, which the DCR-PC330 is replacing was the first Sony camcorder to include Bluetooth. The lack of inclusion of Bluetooth on the DCR-PC330 seems as close as Sony will ever get to admitting that Bluetooth on camcorders was a total failure in the US. Many reviewers, including myself found it very hard to justify the inclusion of Bluetooth on the camcorder's which Sony billed as a networking feature for sending email and surfing the web with your camcorder. The effective discontinuation of the DCR-TRV39 (Sony has not officially discontinued the model however B & H - the largest retailer of MiniDV camcorders in the US isn't selling the camcorder and it's hard to find it in any stores) is another sign of the failure of Bluetooth. The DCR-TRV39 was effectively a $100 more expensive version of the DCR-TRV38 but with Bluetooth. When Sony spokesperson Rosemary Flynn was asked why Sony wasn't including Bluetooth on the DCR-PC330 despite it's being included on the Japanese version of the camcorder, Flynn stated ''Sony brings different products to different regions with different features.''

DCR-PC1 MicroMV Camcorder
Sony also announced the DCR-IP1 MicroMV camcorder, ''The World's Smallest Camcorder'' the size of a pack of playing cards. It really is a small camcorder, though the benefits seem to end there. The DCR-IP1 includes a 1/5 in. CCD - although it's small, it's not as small as the 1/6 in. CCDs included on some models. The Megapixel CCD provides 1,000K pixels for stills and 690K effective pixels for video. The DCR-IP1 includes a 10X optical, 120x digital zoom, and a nice lens shutter. The IP1 includes no viewfinder and a 2.0 in. touch panel LCD screen using the new 3D navigation system included on the DCR-PC330. This is a new CCD for Sony camcorders so it is very hard to see how well it will perform.

The DCR-IP1 can record stills at 1,152 x 864 pixel resolution to Memory Sticks. Focusing on the DCR-IP1 is controlled through the touch panel, as is exposure and white balance. The camcorder includes RCA in / outs and a power jack on the body. For the other connections, it comes with a docking station for a Firewire and USB. The zoom controllers is absolutely tiny.

Demand for MicroMV camcorders in the U.S. has been spotty at best. The format is very limited in tape length and the video quality is quite poor. Video editing options are also very limited with MicroMV. When the demand for another MicroMV camcorder in the US was questioned, Sony Spokesperson Rosemary Flynn stated ''Sony feels that people really want convenience and size is really important as trends seem to dictate. Because of the MicroMV format we are able to get the camcorders much smaller than with another format.'' In decreasing the size Sony had to sacrifice a microphone in jack and a headphone out jack meaning you are stuck with the audio options on the camcorder - a big problem.

The DCR-PC330 will be available in October for $1,700 and the DCR-IP1 will be available in November for $1,200.