Purported to bring professional-quality video in the palm of your hand, Sony's HDR-FX1 Handycam camcorder records and plays back high-definition video with 1440 pixels by 100 interlaced lines of resolution. It's powered by the company's three-chip, 0.33-in., 1-Mpixel SuperHAD CCDs. An on-chip microlens on top of the CCD sensor increases the light-focusing rate for focusing on-the-fly. The CCDs also use Carl Zeiss VarioSonnar T* optics to minimize warping while maximizing sharpness and contrast. A newly developed 16:9 aspect mode lets users record in the widescreen format.
Because each lens has its own megapixel imager, the camcorder captures intense detail and color. A 14-bit analog-to-digital converter processes four times more digital information than converters used in traditional cameras for sharper, richer, and more true-to-life images. Also, an advanced codec engine efficiently compresses massive digital data while maintaining optimal high-definition quality. This DSP is engineered to reduce energy consumption as well.
The camcorder features a shooting range of 32.5 to 390 mm, a 12× optical zoom, and multiple zoom control mechanisms. Its expanded focus mode magnifies the camera's LCD image by up to four times without any loss of resolution. The 3.5-in. SwivelScreen hybrid LCD offers 250,000 pixels. And, placement of the camcorder's wide-range stereo microphone minimizes wind noise.
For details, go to www.sony.com.