Excellent Quality Consumer Camera
Written: Jul 01 '01
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Pros: Excellent Picture Quality
Lightweight
Touchscreen
Cons: Price, 1CCD, Low pixelcount
The Bottom Line: If you can pick this for under $1000, grab it. If you are set on paying 1500 for a digital camera, look the Prosumer-to-Professional grade models such as the Canon-GL1.
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| mchytracek's Full Review: Sharp VL-FD1U Mini DV Camcorder |
I purchased this camera from it's previous owner.
At first I was concerned about the high street price while touting only a single ccd chip. At the time of this writing you can find this camera for around $1400. If I were to pay anything near $1400 for a new camera I probably would have spent a few hundred more and picked up a 3 CCD Canon GL1.
However, that's not to say that I'm not very pleased with this camera. Since I purchased it I have shot about 16 hours of video in very different situations and lighting. Nearly every minute of footage looks fantastic. The difference between LP and SP mode is very slight, and under bright light I believe that LP mode would be more than adequate, giving you 50% longer recording time.
The battery life also impressed me. I was afraid that since the camera does not have a viewfinder the lcd screen would eat battery time. Not so! The battery is very small and attaches to the bottom of the camera rather than slide into it. I remember my first VHS Camcorder that had a 10 pound external power supply that you had to carry around! I have recorded a straight hour of video and then played that video back completely on the same battery. I have a digital still camera with a view screen and the battery lasts about 60 shots..
The lcd is a full 3 inches wide and is very clear. The color reproduction is very good and closely matches what you'll see on your tv screen (provided that your tv is calibrated. I recommend the Avia Guide to Home Theatre Calibration DVD if you have a DVD player).
The lens actually flips out from the front of the camera and on what becomes the top of the lens mechanism sits a microphone. I initially thought, "Why would the microphone be on top and not on front?" The first time I watched some video I had shot I had my answer; to pick up sound in all directions.. Smart... You can pick 12bit or 16bit (CD Quality) sound. I'm not sure why you'd ever pick less than 16 bit, but it's there in case you need to do so. The sound reproduction is very clear and picks up for quite a distance. The only thing that disappointed me was the drop off distance was very short. From 0 feet to about 8 feet the sound is at about the same level, dropping off from 8 feet to infinity.
I haven't yet used the 1394 cable to dump video to my computer but I have used the provided cable to dump it via S-video and left and right audio channels. I captured the video using a Happauge WinTV very consumer grade capture/tv card and it looked great. Sound transferred great as well.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 850.00
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Epinions.com ID:
mchytracek
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Reviews written: 2
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