Sony HDR-MV1

Advantages:. Excellent sound recording, not inferior to any of the competitors. Much better than competitors, copes with shooting in low light. For example, in normal home lighting, a pretty decent picture is obtained. Wide angle: allows you to capture the entire orchestra from a short distance; during solo rehearsals, it makes it possible to install the camera so close that even without using an external microphone, the sound is recorded practically without extraneous noise (other video recorders, for example zoom q2HD, have to be moved away from the subject much further, which requires setting a higher microphone sensitivity with all the consequences for quality sound recording negative consequences). The ability to connect external sources, such as a mixing console, for better quality recording of a group of musicians. Wifi

Commentary: This camera is definitely NOT universal “for all occasions”, but it does an excellent job of its main task. Recording music rehearsals, and also perfect for recording video blogs. Someone in the Video Review is trying to present it almost as a camera for recording concerts. But for THESE purposes, it is suitable only if installed near the scene or on the scene itself (Considering the wide-angle optics and the absence of zoom when shooting from the 10th row, the scene will be at a distance of a kilometer) and only with a tripod (there is no optical stabilization) All Notes described in the “Disadvantages” section very conditional. It all depends on the tasks that you plan to solve with the camera Link to the video recorded under normal home lighting on the built-in microphones of the video camera http://www.Youtube.com/watch?V=3Uq4ylw845g

Advantages: Sound, video, price

Disadvantages: Side screen, Sony menu

Commentary: An excellent piece of iron with excellent performance, clearly exceeding expectations from such a portable piece. Wide angle. Do NOT fish, but a wide angle. Little light? No problem. Not much noise. The sound writes perfectly. There are plenty of samples in the internet, I confirm their reliability. Battery life is long. Demanding memory cards. Minus. Screen on the side. Solved by installing and implementing proprietary software from Sony. Your iPhone-Android has a remote control and a viewfinder. Shl. Use a tripod people!

Pluses: Yes, she writes sound. He writes in much the same way as those very music-driven devices called port studios with condenser X-Y microphones. These microphones transmit the panorama clearly, distinctly and audibly, recognizably and correctly. At least our 4 instruments are precisely positioned during rehearsals, their character and activity are ash-trees, and even overtones can be caught. Two guitars, violin and accordion. Plus 3 votes. It was in size, ergonomically, in the assembly there are defects and straight wild jambs, I’ll tell you. There are no shoals at all. It seems to me a good product for those who would like to record their performances, rehearsals, concerts and publish them right there. The battery is small, but it can write off more than 1 hour continuously. The world captured by her lens is amazing. Distorted (there is another video camera for comparison) and sometimes funny. Distortion increases with distance from the center to the periphery. Well, physics is not cheating here. The ability to broadcast a picture via WI-FI to your own smartphone, and even more so. Recording management is a useful and pleasant, timely feature. No problems connecting to a computer, everything is as usual. “Pubum! USB is here. Everything is here. Nikita, Stas, Turbo.” And USB charging.

Disadvantages: Almost like those same port studios. I have heard differences in audio recorded by this camera and the Zoom H4n. The latter is 2 tr more expensive. Although it writes only sound, it is true with the ability to connect 2 more sources besides the built-in microphones, in total. 2 stereo tracks. This Zoom seems to me to be more tailored to the sound, so I compared it with it. Nipannyatno more but sounds from THESE two devices are like twins, brothers, or sisters, but inverted in amplitude. Where in Zoom the hill is up, in Sony the same hump is down. And vice versa! Sound itself. Bassist and slightly less distinct in the upper middle (I was comparing the sound of a classical guitar). Again, compared to Zoom. The camera has only two video and audio formats in its arsenal. 1080 or 720, and PCM or AAC. She cannot digest and will correctly represent fast frame changes, or constant movement with many small details in the frame. Well 30 fps and a small video bitrate (about 5 Mbps) are crucial. Eh, that would be 50 fps and 11 Mbit (there is something to compare). Loves a static picture. The screen is large and bright, but not Fold back and DO NOT really look during the shooting. Instead of a side one, I would make it a small display on the back wall.

Commentary: However, I am very pleased with the purchase.

Pluses:. Dimensions. Turn-on speed. Sound quality (two panoramic split microphones, noise reduction). Management and customization. Ability to control from a smartphone

Disadvantages:. The screen is on the side of the camera, and does not slide out. Missing Zoom

Commentary: The camera is excellent for its purposes in terms of price / quality ratio. Fits, if desired, even in a jacket. the dimensions are slightly larger than a smartphone. It turns on for a long time only for the first time, then you can instantly get it out of your. pressed ON, pressed REC. And he went to shoot. The sound is excellent, the camera was made for this, And they did not disappoint: a low-pass filter, noise reduction, a level indicator on the screen, two microphones. All in total works great when filming a concert, and just shoots everyday videos perfectly. A 120-degree wide-angle lens sees everything, at first it’s even surprising how close you can bring the camera and still capture the whole picture. There are many settings, their logic and quantity are completely satisfied. Control from a smartphone (Android / iPhone) using a special program, convenient. However, when buying such a camera, you need to clearly understand what it is for you. It is inconvenient to shoot household vidos on it: the screen is on its side and there is no zoom, that is, to take it on a trip or just as a “family” camera. NOT the best idea.

Advantages: High-quality sound, wide viewing angle, the ability to record only audio, the duration of continuous shooting is unlimited (I shot for 1 hour and 45 minutes, then turned it off, in total I received two files, one with a size of a little over 4 GB and a duration of about an hour and a half, and the second for fifteen minutes). With a 64GB card, you can record approximately 22 hours in 720.

Disadvantages: MicroSD, although it’s better than Memory Stick. The quality of the video, albeit with a wide viewing angle, leaves much to be desired, although, of course, you need to understand that this is more of an audio device than a video camera, and cameras in this price category shoot videos of even worse quality.

Preparing the Camera for HDR Images

You’ve probably heard of High Dynamic Range (HDR) images taken from the process of overlaying multiple images at different exposures (typically cityscapes and nature photos). All materials of our site in HDR technology you can see in the HDR photo section. The plots of such photographs will look natural, three-dimensional, undistorted, just like a person sees them. Many photographers are critical of HDR. Citing the fact that sometimes such photos are more fantastic than realistic. However, if everything is done without mistakes, it is possible to truly convey the volume of the landscape, which is to impress the beholder.

Above are the results of working with HDR. These shots would have had a very different effect if not for the HDR technique. (The pictures show the landscape of the Big Island, Hawaii). The photos were taken around noon, when literally everything was bathed in bright sunlight. The first shot turned out to be the most successful, although some problems are noticeable here. So, this article is intended to reveal to you the secret of how to use your digital camera to get high quality HDR images.

Read carefully the instructions for the camera

Few people like to read instructions, however, to become the best photographer of the best, you need to make friends with your camera. You should learn your camera and how to work with it inside and out. You can search the manual for the camera in the Internet, indicated the model of your camera in the search line. Find instructions in pdf format. no problem.

Explore Auto Exposure Bracketing

Auto bracketing is a key detail in the HDR creation process. images. This term refers to the combination of multiple exposures, resulting in a rich, deep photograph. You can read what bracketing is and how to use it in this article. Why is it so important? For example, let’s take a picture of a palm tree silhouette against the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise. The tree makes a significant contrast to the sun-drenched sky and is therefore too dark.

Thanks to the auto bracketing settings, you can get three different exposures: the exposure of the sky in the background, the internal exposure, and the exposure of the tree in the foreground. Or in more technical terms, the sequence of exposures would look like 2,0,2. These numbers represent normal, increased and decreased exposures. Depending on the camera model, you can take over 3 shots, for example 5, 7 or 9. The more exposures, the better, this will give you the opportunity to capture the entire spectrum of light. The sequence of 7 exposures will look like this:.3, 2.1,0,1,2,3.

So, find the AEB setting on your camera. For example, in the Canon 5D Mark II, the AEB setting is labeled “Expo.comp./AEB.” To change the number of exposures, enter the menu settings, press the SET button, then Rotate the mode dial to the right.

Select Av mode and set aperture options

Select AV mode

Aperture Priority Mode is the best setting for HDR shooting. In this mode, you set the aperture number, in accordance with which the camera sets the appropriate shutter speed. If you set Shutter Priority mode, the shutter speed will remain the same across multiple exposures. Therefore, in order to create dark and light images, the camera will adjust the aperture. Aperture is responsible for the depth of field in the image and the positioning of your subject in focus. If the shutter priority values ​​are different in each individual exposure, then it will be impossible to combine such photographs in further work. Using the Av mode is most comfortable for your first attempts at HDR. If you’re comfortable with manual mode, it’s best to stick with it. The main thing is NOT to change the aperture setting while shooting with different exposures. If you are bad with manual mode, your option. Working with Av. This mode will save you time.

Now you need to decide what aperture value you want to work with. Here the f-number depends on the depth of field of the image. When setting the aperture value, remember: the higher the value, the higher the depth of field. There is one little trick on how to determine the aperture value. For example, if there are 20 people in one line in front of you, and you need only the first of them to be in focus, and the rest are Blurred, you should set the aperture value to 1.If you need to capture the first 10 people, you need to set the indicator to 10 if all 20. to 20. It’s simple, isn’t it? With that said, start with an aperture value of 11 with this setting, everything in the frame will be in focus.

Setting the metering mode

Measurement. one of the most difficult settings on a camera. Newbie photographers often ask questions about this. Exposure metering mode determines the amount of light in your shot. The camera needs to be made aware of how you want to see the lighting in your shot, and determine the necessary settings. If you are new to photography, you should be aware that in most cases, Evaluative metering (for Canon cameras) is used. But do not neglect knowledge of other types of metering: spot, partial and center-weighted metering. Each of them has its own time and place.

Adjusting the white balance

Many people get confused when it comes to white balance. It is very important for the color balance of your image. If your white balance is not adjusted, the image will lose its saturation. Cameras are improving and automatic settings are improving with them. However, just like in the case of the subtlety of working with metering, you should know the specifics of the white balance settings. In this article you will find all the information you need to know about white balance. If you are unable to reproduce the natural tones of the image, this is a sign that the settings should be changed. The fastest way to adjust white balance is to use the manual white balance setting. Bring the camera to any white object (white wall, shirt or leaf) and take a close-up shot so that the white space is completely in the frame. For Canon 5D Mark II cameras, go to the menu section, select Custom WB, and follow the instructions to select the last image. The camera will adjust the color balance where your photo is white. A properly adjusted white balance will help the rest of the floor colors fall into place.

ISO setting

The ISO setting determines the sensitivity of your camera. The higher the indicator, the more sensitive it becomes.

Imagine that these ISO numbers are the number of bees that are collecting light for you. So, at ISO 100, you have 100 bees working for you. At a shutter speed of 1 / 100s. In a period of one second, 100 bees collect light.

And if these bees of yours are NOT coping with such a period of time? Exit. Set a higher ISO speed. The disadvantage is that the higher the ISO setting, the lower the quality of your image. Too high parameters provoke noise and grain, and unfortunately, already in the process of combining several images, this noise will NOT disappear anywhere. ISO 100 is the best option. Of course, you can set ISO 50, but in this case the image will be less sharp. In the ISO settings you can read in this article.

Use a tripod

With a high aperture setting and a low ISO speed, shutter speed will slow down. This makes it very difficult to keep the camera stationary. And if your goal is to create HDR, you need to avoid camera movements.

In this case, use a tripod. The type of tripod depends on your style of work. If you don’t have to hike a lot, you can use a tripod with sturdy, aluminum legs. If you are covering significant distances on foot, you need to choose a lighter and more compact tripod, so as NOT to burden yourself with weight.

Use Self-timer

Another way to avoid camera movement. this is to take advantage of the self-timer. Most cameras have the ability to set the self-timer while the shutter button is pressed. If you do not have such a setting, you will need to purchase a shutter release cord. Better to use the 2 sec self-timer. Without resorting to the use of cords, thereby saving yourself from wearing unnecessary things. In the case of self-setting the timer, you simply press the shutter button and then step away from the camera. After a couple of seconds, your camera takes 3, 5, 7 or 9 frames.

Choosing the Right Lens

The HDR technique can be used for any high-contrast image, but it is most commonly used for landscapes and cityscapes. These Plots are often large and often overwhelming. However, the right hardware will fix all the flaws. In most cases, use a wide angle lens. This is the best variant.

That is, we mean any lens that can zoom an image up to about 28 mm or wider. Lens with 24-70mm zoom. Ideal for landscape photography. One of the disadvantages of using wide angle lenses. This is a distortion, but that’s a topic for another article! You can read the classification and structure of lenses in this article.

Switching to manual focus mode

Now that your camera lens is ready to go, it’s time to think about focusing. Autofocus. this is a great feature, but not suitable for landscape photography. If you want to bring all the elements into focus, use manual focus. Set your focal point to Infinity, so everything will be in focus. Also, you can read the article Classification and construction of photo lenses.

By purchasing a bubble level

Smooth, not cluttered horizon line in your shots. this is a very important fact that must be taken into account in the work. Aligning the horizon line during processing will distort the quality of images. If you want to get the most flat, unobstructed horizon line in your images, it is best to purchase a level. Try to get as close to your camera as possible. DO NOT rely on the processing process to correct any imperfections in the shoot.

Now is the time to get to work! Try taking a few shots. Composition of your photo. it is a combination of a wide variety of histograms and much more.

Action camera Sony HDR-AZ1

The device we are considering today was released and went on sale for a long time. Unfortunately, for many reasons, we could not get hold of this camera in time in order to study its capabilities and write in them. Looking ahead, we note that if we had succeeded, the number of owners of Sony HDR-AZ1 could have been noticeably higher than now. And this conviction is not without reason. Separate characteristics of the camera, a combination of some parameters make it unique in its kind, comparing favorably with many similar gadgets.

Design, technical characteristics

The camera is supplied in the traditional packaging for most action cameras, which is distinguished by the presence of a transparent cap. The opaque part of the package contains various accessories, without which the action camera is often useless.

The completeness of the device received for testing consists of the following accessories:

• Camera with screw base
• Accumulator battery
• Transparent waterproof box
• Remote control with rubber strap
• Two fastening pads with adhesive base
• Removable transition mount
• USB-Micro-USB cable
• Multilingual user manual

Perhaps some will be concerned about the lack of any special types of mounts in the kit, but do not be upset: the presence of a tripod thread in the detachable base of the camera removes most of the questions. After all, the standard tripod thread, in contrast to the proprietary “proprietary” types of mounts, provides the ability to connect with any tripods, suction cups, holders, etc. available on the market.

The camera body is made of glossy white plastic and has built-in water resistance. It is, of course, not designed for immersion in water, but splashes and dust are NOT scary to the camera electronics. On the side, you can see a miniature LCD display, which displays the battery charge level, the current operating mode, the activity of the wireless adapter, and the status of the memory card.

The glass of the lens brought forward has a convex shape, under the lens there are stereo microphones directed to the front.

At the top of the camera there is only a button to start recording (it also takes photos or starts interval recording), and the Hold switch, which blocks the Rec button from accidental presses.

Camera interfaces and connectors are protected by plastic plugs with rubber seals around the perimeter. You will NOT lose these plugs. they all hold on recessed legs.

Almost the entire area of ​​the left side of the case is occupied by a removable battery cover. It, like the plugs, is equipped with a rubber sealing gasket running along the perimeter, and a sliding lock on the end of the chamber reliably protects the cover from accidental snapping off.

And here is the remote control. an important distinguishing feature of this camera. First of all, it should be noted that the camera is without this remote control. a useless toy, because using the buttons on the camera, you cannot change the mode, format, and other parameters. All of the above is done only with this remote control or through a smartphone or tablet. On the other hand, if the user pre-configured the camera by activating the desired format, then the remote control becomes unnecessary until the next reconfiguration of the parameters.

The remote control is equipped with a color display with a diagonal of 37 mm and five buttons, which are used to turn on / off the remote control, navigate through the service menu and start / stop recording. The body of the remote control is splash-proof, but it is not designed to work under water (all the more, this is pointless, because Wi-Fi does not work under water).

The console provides the ability to connect to multiple cameras with simultaneous control of all at once. There is also a function for single connection to the camera to view the material on the memory card.

The connection time between the remote control and the camera does NOT exceed five seconds. not a bad achievement, because in the street there is no time to bother with long connections. The established connection between the remote control and the camera is confidently kept at a distance of up to 7 meters with line of sight, and the delay in video signal transmission is only 0.3 seconds.

The bottom of the box contains a standard threaded mount for attaching to a tripod and a second standard attachment or holding device.

The included adhesive backed pads allow you to mount the camera to any flat surface. motorcycle helmet, for example.

• 17.1 mm (photo)
• 17.1mm (video, stabilizer off)
• 21.8mm (video, stabilizer included)
• 24.2 x 36 x 74 mm
• 63 g with battery
• Up to 64 min. In MP4 mode 1920 × 1080 50p with Wi-Fi working
• Up to 83 min. MP4 1920 × 1080 50p with Wi-Fi off

Video / photography

What color is the shadow? Gray? No. The shade can be pink, blue, orange, green, yellow. Any. In this case, the camera, even if It doesn’t sound pompous, saw the scene as an artist would see it. Of course, in reality, everyone looked a little different, and not so colorful, but more on that later. In the meantime, study the technical features of each of the modes, and choose the best.

The name of each format indicates the maximum bit rate, which can vary depending on the amount of movement in the frame. Note that in MP4 mode the camera compresses video with a low Main profile, while in “heavy” XAVC the profile, as it should be for serious cameras, is high. High. Conclusion: for a high-quality picture with a wide angle of view, shoot in XAVC 1920 × 1080 50p 60 Mbps with the stabilizer turned off.

The angle of view in the camera is not adjustable, but changes if the user activates the electronic image stabilizer. Changing the viewing angle at the same time seriously affects the size of the scene coverage:

Here we see an exclusively electronic way of changing the viewing angle. Of course, because in an action camera, especially such a miniature one, there are NO movable optical systems. A burning question arises rightly: does the resolution change when the stabilizer is turned on? If so, how much? There is only one way to get an answer, which has long been proven. taking pictures of the test chart. Since we are dealing with a camera whose wide-angle optical system produces strong fisheye distortions, it is impossible to shoot a whole table, it cannot fill the entire frame. In these cases, we limit ourselves to shooting only one section of the table, which is printed on a sheet of paper one meter high. Shooting is done, of course, with the required proportions. And here’s the result:

The suspicions were confirmed. when the stabilizer is active, the camera uses a smaller area of ​​the matrix to form a picture, which is provided by the MOS technology, which allows targeted information retrieval. By the way, this was not allowed in obsolete CCD matrices.

We can also conclude that this smaller area is either not enough to get honest Full HD (this is unlikely, if you remember the total number of pixels on the matrix), or the programmatic resizing of the frame to bring it to the required 1920 × 1080 (scaling) is not done accurately enough. As a result, when the stabilizer is turned on, the resolution drops quite seriously: from the former 1100 conventional TV lines to 800. It’s a shame. After all, the stabilizer here, although electronic, is damn good!

In good lighting conditions, good image quality is also good. it’s no wonder. Let’s try to change the conditions by turning off the lights and launching fireworks, the flashes of which last less than the gap between Keyframes. Now we see a very different result: strong pixelation. You will NOT be able to blame the lack of bitrate. it’s more than enough.

It’s time to study the level of the Rolling Shutter (for more details, see the material Rolling Shutter in video filming. Description of the defect, examples, explanations), which may be present in our camera. After all, the matrix used consists of almost 12 million pixels, and with such a number, it would seem, Strong Rolling Shutter is inevitable.

No. It seems that soon we will completely stop measuring the Rolling Shutter. After all, modern matrices grow not only in megapixels, but also in read speed, which significantly reduces the possibility of this defect.

Now let’s get back to the point already mentioned, which concerns color. The camera has only one setting that affects the color character of the resulting picture. This setting consists of two parameters: Neutral and Vivid. In the first case, we will get a standard, typically camcorder video, suitable for subsequent processing and color correction. Turning on the Vivid option, which makes the color more vivid and vivid, will result in a video ready for posting on YouTube with intense colors.

So, you can see that the Vivid mode gives more vivid colors, a more expressive picture. Yes, with sufficient illumination this is true, but if there is not enough light in the frame, this mode has the opposite effect.

Apart from this color setting, the camera has a modest choice of the type of scene being shot: Standard, and Water. Unfortunately, due to the peculiarities of the climate in the place where the camera was tested, we did not see any special differences between These modes, although the scene being shot is probably to blame here. Which can hardly be called underwater. Rather, under the ice.

And of course, what is an action camera without high-speed video filming? The apparatus under consideration offers two ways to obtain such a record. The first method does not require any additional actions on the part of the user. all that is needed is to set the desired mode in advance, which is called SSLOW. As a result of shooting, the camera will create a ready-to-use video file, during which the movement will be four times slower. The second method is already designed for further editing of the material: recording is carried out at normal speed, but the resulting video file has a frequency of 100 frames per second (120 frames for NTSC). To get a fourfold slowdown, it is enough to process such a file in a video editor. However, you can do without transcoding. some free video utilities allow you to change the FPS value in the file.

The disadvantage of both of these modes. the frame size for such shooting is only 1280 × 720 pixels. In this case, it makes no sense to measure the resolution, but subjectively there is no difference in detail between these two modes.

It is impossible not to remind about another extremely useful mode of the camera. time-lapse photography. It is called interval time because the camera in this mode automatically creates an endless series of photos (if the power allows, of course). In this case, the time interval between photographs can vary from 1 to 60 seconds. Subsequently, from such photo series, you can edit a good video showing any long-term event at an accelerated pace:

Software

Unfortunately, the camera does not have a built-in HDMI port with which it would be possible to broadcast a live Full HD stream. The only way to get a live picture from the camera. This is either the Reviewed Remote Control with Display, or a smartphone or tablet with Play Memories Mobile installed.

Once again I would like to praise the developers of this program. The convenience that this application provides begins with the process of connecting the camera to a smartphone. In the vast majority of cameras, the connection operation consists of several stages: turning on Wi-Fi in the camera, turning on Wi-Fi in the smartphone, searching for and registering at the access point created by the camera, launching the desired application on the smartphone, Initializing the application. But in our case, everything is much simpler. There is no need to go into the settings of your smartphone, you just need to launch the Play Memories Mobile application. The program will turn on Wi-Fi on its own, find the nearest network created by the camera, and connect to it on its own. All of the above Takes no more than 10 seconds.

Sony HDR-AZ1. the camera is undoubtedly good. Which, nevertheless, contains disadvantages, the main of which is the fact that without additional controls (remote control or smartphone), users cannot change the recording parameters. The absence of a car registrar mode also raises questions. what prevented such a regime from being built in is not clear. After all, the camera, like its wireless remote control, can operate by receiving power directly from the AC adapter. over, this remote has a GPS receiver, and each video is accompanied by a GPS track saved on the memory card.

In everything else, only good things can be said about the device:

• The presence of a control panel with a display, almost complete absence of a delay in the transmission of a video stream from the camera to the remote control
• In-camera electronic stabilizer, as effective as software image stabilization can be
• The camera has a high-bitrate recording mode in Full HD with a high frame rate
• PAL to NTSC switchable (travelers will appreciate)

We probably forgot to mention another drawback: the cost of the camera. For an action machine, this price, I think, is still too high. At least, if this price is called not in dollars, but in usual rubles.