wutang2364's Full Review: Sony DCR-VX2000 Mini DV Camcorder
Well, OK, Sony's newest and bestest "pro-sumer" Mini-DV camcorder is out, the VX-2000 (along with the similar PD150, which has a B&W finder instead of the color one on the VX-2000, XLR audio inputs instead of mini-jacks, an accessory mono shotgun mic instead of a built-in stereo mic, and a few more controls). It appears to be about the same size and weight as the VX-1000 and looks similar, but its innards are completely different. Many things about the VX-2000 remind one of the TRV-900. The following comments are based on several months' experience with two samples of the VX-2000:
THE PICTURE:
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It is very sharp (it is a tad sharper at infinity, and noticeably sharper at room-interior distances than the TRV-900 and VX-1000). The image is so sharp that detail appears to be at the pixel level, giving a "busy" look as the camera is moved over finely-detailed subjects. It also appears that CCD pixel-offset is used, giving some tendency to show "stair-stepping" effects on near vertical single lines and and moiré effects on near vertical parallel lines, but the sharpness gain with this camcorder is worth the additional picture "busy" look. Sharpness is not gained with excessive "sharpening" artifacts as it is with some other camcorders (mainly the Canon XL-1 and GL-1) - and unless the sharpness is raised considerably in the custom controls, contrasty edges do not have excessive "halos" with the VX-2000.
The lens by itself (and the lens with WA converters attached) appears much better in back-light and point-source lighting conditions than usual, with less flare and fewer internal reflections showing.
Exposure and color balance are closest to the TRV-900; in stock form, the camera overexposes (AE gives too light a picture) and the color has a slight blue-magenta cast (both curable with the CP controls on the VX-2000). Using the custom controls, I get a picture very much to my liking.
I prefer these CP adjustments for many subject types:
I now have two VX-2000s and they match in color balance fairly well, with one warmer than the other in all WB modes by an amount about equal to the color of a strong skylight filter (or about 1/2 the change made by one increment of warming using the CP controls).
The VX-2000 is unusually good in low-light - it has really good color and low noise in moderately low light, and the low-light limit is considerably below that of other cameras - and the image quality near that limit is higher (the difference here is "like night and day"...;-). With the available slow shutter speeds, acceptable-looking noise at even +18db gain, and a lens that is good at wide stops, the VX-2000 can produce an acceptable-quality image in VERY low light levels. In some very low light situations, though, vertical bars can be seen in dark-tone areas, spoiling the image.
Auto Focus response appears slower than usual, reducing the "hunting" effect (though also reducing its ability to quickly shift focus) - AF focus shift looks "smoother" and more natural, with less "hunting". Overall, AF is excellent, even in fairly low light levels - in this it is better than all the other camcorders tried.
The stabilizer appears OK, with less "bouncing ball" effect at the short end of the zoom range than usual, but it is less effective than I would like in reducing "jitter" with the lens zoomed long...
Even with the faults noted above, the picture quality is very satisfying (kind of an understatement...;-) - it is the best yet that I have seen overall, but it is not without some faults.
THE SOUND:
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The built-in mic is unusually wind-insensitive (and adding a couple of layers of air-conditioning filter foam improves this, making this one of the few camcorders that can be used in moderate wind without an external mic). The built-in mic has a rather bright sound, and appears to have unusually low gain compared with several external mics tried. The result is that audio levels are unusual and this makes adding most mics on the AGC appear impractical (excessive limiting ruins the sound, darn!) - but switching to manual gain works with external mics, and the VF audio-level meter makes it (sometimes) easy to keep track of manual audio-gain needs. I was able to hear excessive noise (and "popcorn" noise, in addition to "hiss"...) when input and output gains were set incorrectly, but in normal use I have not heard unusually high background noise levels. In a quiet room, there appears to be no pickup of camera motor sound, unlike the other camcorders tried.
I did hear recorded the noise of releasing the start/stop button on one of the VX-2000s.
Overall, the sound is very good (and having line-level selection available is useful), but it is not without some quirks.
HANDLING:
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The VX-2000 is fairly large and heavy as "compact" camcorders go and it is therefore harder to pack in normal-sized camera bags than most others. I also have more difficulty holding the VX-2000 steady with the lens zoomed long than I do with the other camcorders. Putting a side handle on the VX-2000 helps, but I find it necessary to add a short monopod (which rests on the opposite shoulder from the handle) for steady long-lens video, something unnecessary with the other camcorders tried.
The zoom ring is hard for me to control for smooth full-range zooms - but it is excellent for smooth starts/stops for shorter zooms.
The large manual-focus ring is nice (but AF is so good on this camcorder that I now rarely use it).
The built-in two different-density ND filters (1/4 and 1/32) makes control of DOF (and shutter speed, in my preferred AE-with-selected-aperture operating mode...) easier than on most consumer-level camcorders.
Battery placement is good, and the largest batteries fit and they do not interfere with viewfinder use.
As usual, the indicated battery run-times in the specs and in the viewfinder display have little to do with reality - but the run-times are so much longer with the medium and large size batteries than we were used to with the old NiCad consumer batteries, who cares...?;-) There is no external battery charger with the VX-2000 (batteries are charged only internally using the supplied charger) unless you spring for the accessory external charger, or already have another one.
The viewfinder is good, but the magnification was higher, the eyepiece larger, and the off-axis view better on the VX-1000 - and the color could be dialed out for a slightly easier-to-focus B&W image. The VF image mysteriously occasionally blinks on my two VX-2000 samples. The little fold-out viewing screen has some occasional uses, but it is too hard to see in bright light to be of much use most of the time. A useful VF feature is included: a rectangle in the VF (which can be switched on/off) that can be used as a guide for aligning the camcorder with horizontal and vertical subject lines.
There are several "hokey" features brought over from the TRV-900 to the VX-2000, giving it (along with its bright silver color) a "consumer" look and feel undeserved by its overall excellent picture and sound capability: function "chimes", useless AE modes, useless "special effects" (with the exception of B&W mode...), and the silly still-photo feature (for stills, any much smaller, sharper, lighter, cheaper still digital camera will produce better results, without spoiling video footage with non-interlacing [the VX-2000 "progressive-scan" mode video footage looks terrible] - and I suspect the auto exposure error in the VX-2000 and TRV-900 is related to still-image needs... - but these features can be ignored, along with the hard-on-the-mechanism time-lapse ability. The VX-2000 does have some nice features brought over from the TRV-900 and VX-1000, or added new: color bars, analogue-to-DV transcoding (without having to record analogue footage onto Mini-DV tape first), LP-mode recording, 16-bit sound recording, line-level recording ability, VF sound-level meter, VF aignment-guide rectangle, two levels of VF highlight overexposure indication (zebra stripes), and the "manual" zoom ring (it is servo-type, but it almost feels "real"...;-).
Handling the VX-2000 is fairly pleasant, but some controls are still hard to find and awkward to use - I find the EZ30U the easiest to carry, pack, and handle of the camcorders in this group (though its controls and low-light ability are very limited).
Ah, well, nothing is perfect, and I prefer other camcorders for particular strengths, but overall, the VX-2000 is the best yet that I have tried - this camcorder is purdy durn gud...!;-).
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