HD Camcorder question............?

Question

I bought a top of the line sony camcorder. $1200. It had a very poor indoor picture. I finally got Best Buy to take it back w/out the 15% restock fee. I bought it only 2 days earlier. The guy from the Geek Squad hooked it to a 52" HDTV and reluctantly agreed the picture was not as it should.

The question is , do all HD Camcorders have a bad indoor picture? The room was well lit. I know low light is usually bad, but I consider low light to be more like a candle in a dark room, not any indoor lighting.

Do all HD Camcorders have this problem?

Thanks

Answer 1

I would guess it's both the settings the camera was on and the lighting.

Answer 2

no they shouldn't.

did you muck around with the shutter and gain controls?

switch it to auto to see what it's doing. it might look a little bluish (because of the white balance) but still should show a decent inside picture.

i use a hvr-v1p and shot stuff in almost no light and even tho it was grainy it was still reasonably well seen.

(actually boss - the v1p is a 3 cmos unit not single.)

Answer 3

Many do.

Poor performance in low light is a common problem with HDV camcorders, especially small ones, especially single-chip ones (and especially inexpensive ones)!

The phenomenon occurs because there are, by necessity, more pixels on HD imaging chips(s) than on SD.  That means less surface area for each pixel than in the same-size SD equivalent chip, which means fewer photons hit each pixel, which makes the device perform poorer in low light situations!

3-CCD or 3-CMOS cams work better in low light than single-chip models (they also tend to have better color).  Also, larger image sensor chips work better in low light, and of course more sensitive ones work better in low light .  A 3-chip camcorder with large sensitive imaging chips (such as expensive professional cams) will do best in low light.

The trend to make camcorders small and light (and cheap) also drives the manufacturers to use smaller (and less sensitive) imaging devices, so small/light/cheap DV (SD) camcorders often suffer from the same problem.

It isn't easy to make a good HDV camcorder cheaply.  There are many out there for under $1000, but they probably don't do well in low light either.  Another poster mentions the HVR-V1, which performs well in low light (especially considering its a one-CCD design), but it is a Pro-level unit and costs close to $4000 (and it isn't even the top of the Sony Pro HDV line; that would be the HVR-S270 at almost $9000!).