DSR PD150
by Vernon Kato
Chips
The engineers at Sony developed new CCDs for the PD150. The 1/3-inch, 380K- pixel CCDs scan in 480 progressive for still photos or the standard interlaced for video. These new chips showed their stuff when we played back a resolution chart we shot in DVCAM—the PD150 measured a solid 500 lines of horizontal resolution upon playback on our Tektronic 1780R waveform. We could also tell from our subjective testing—in front of several professional shooters—that resolution and sensitivity were increased while noise and vertical smear were reduced. To put things into context, we found the picture quality of the PD150 to be better than the Sony PD100A, but not nearly as good as the Sony DSR-500WS.
The PD150 can record in either DV or DVCAM mode. Because the comparison will inevitably be made, this feature is one of the main differences between the PD150 and the VX2000 (the other main difference is XLR audio input). You can fit up to 40 minutes on one mini-size DVCAM tape, or about a full hour if you record in the slower-running DV mode.
The PD150's auto exposure (AE) mode can take care of everything for you if you want, but it still allows for manual exposure. This is controlled by an iris dial located near the lens. There's a lag after turning the dial to adjust the iris, which takes getting used to. The auto iris produced accurate video levels, even in extreme lighting conditions. There are spotlight and backlight compensation settings that are preset to appropriate levels. There's also an auto iris button located near the iris wheel.
Through a glass
The PD150 sports a 12X optical zoom lens that's smooth and easy to control. The stock lens has a nice wide angle of view, but one of our testers thought the camera could use more telephoto. The manual focus on the PD150 was quite responsive for a servo-controlled focusing ring. It's of course not up to par with non–auto focus professional lenses, but it's the best prosumer-style, servo-controlled focus mechanism I've seen so far.
The zoom control uses a familiar rocker control. It's convenient and easy to reach. The zoom is smooth throughout the entire range, and is easily controllable.
The PD150, though significantly smaller, still handles similarly to the VX1000. The position of the main viewfinder has not changed. One tester who owns a VX1000 was disappointed with the PD150's viewfinder arrangement. I tend to agree that the direct rearward placement of the viewfinder forces the operator to hold the camera directly in front of the chest. This position doesn't allow the operator to lock his or her right elbow easily for support. Fortunately, the PD150's relatively light weight helps to reduce fatigue, and the camera's quality SuperSteadyShot image stabilization soaks up the jitter.
My only gripes with the PD150 have to do with the viewfinder and LCD screen. The black-and-white view-finder, with only 500 lines of horizontal resolution, makes it difficult to focus sharply or adjust video levels. As a comparison, Sony's DXF-801 black-and-white CRT viewfinder on the DSR-250 is in the 700-line range and has a larger 1.5-inch screen, which makes a significant difference when you're focusing for ultimate crispness. I'm not saying you can't focus with a 500-line viewfinder—it is just easier to trust that you've got the correct focus and gain with a higher-resolution viewfinder. To be fair, a 500- line viewfinder in this price/feature range is nothing to sneeze at.
I found the PD150's 2.5-inch LCD flip-out screen to be a bit small, especially in comparison to the pre-vious 3.5-inch screen on the PD100A. That said, the quality of the LCD screen was high, and the volume and LCD bright controls are located conveniently on the edge of the screen housing.
Audio
Many early DV shooters quickly realized the audio limitations of first-generation DV camcorders. The stan-dard solution was to buy an additional unit that would adapt professional XLR audio connectors to a flimsy stereo mini-jack—an effective but somewhat clumsy solution. The PD150 has addressed these audio problems by including two balanced XLR connectors just under the shotgun microphone. The camera provides switchable 48 volt power to both channels.
The short shotgun mic looks similar to the mics on Sony's large-format camcorders. The AGC response of the included microphone seemed to use the same circuitry as the VX1000 and PD100 that we've tested before. Those mics performed at the top of their field with low noise and quick response. The short shotgun was situated in a way that camera noise was not a problem.
Another improvement is that manual audio con-trol is much more accessible. You adjust levels via the rear menu dial. It's still not as nice as a dedicated pot for each channel, but it gets the job done. The audio meter is easy to see in the viewfinder or LCD screen.
The headphone jack is located behind a plastic cap, along with some other video I/Os. It would be better placed on the handle, or at least by itself, so it doesn't compete with other cables and tape.
Other features
The PD150 is replete with a lot of bell-and-whistle features. A Sony MemoryStick slot lets you record stills to a flash memory stick that you can transfer to your computer. You can store up to 988 JPEGs on one 64MB MemoryStick, which can even be mixed or keyed to a live image. The corny application of this is to frame your video with a, well, picture frame, but you could also use this feature to key a bug or logo over your video or mix effects in the camera instead of further down the production pipeline. Sony includes a software package for logo generation and USB port support.
Professional features that are nice to find on a camera in this range include two settings for master black—0 IRE or 7.5 IRE—70 percent and 100 percent Zebras, switch-able 16:9/4:3 aspect ratio (4:3 native), timecode with preset and user bit programmability, and two ND filters that can be used in auto or manual mode.
Some features that crept up from lower-end cameras are 640x480 progressive-scan still image capture and a custom preset mode that allows you to tweak color balance, saturation, detail, gain, and AE settings.
For those users wondering about using Sony's progressive scan to shoot 30fps video, DV columnist and contributor Adam Wilt had this to say in the December 14, 2000, DV.com Newsletter:
"There's a rumor going around on the Net that the Sony DSR-PD150 and DCR-VX2000 camcorders have a hidden 30fps progressive scan mode after all. I tried this earlier in the week using a VX2000. Alas, it didn't work. As soon as I selected the setting, the camera line-doubled a single field like it does in slow-shutter modes. It's possible that the PD150 behaves differently, but I doubt it. During the few tests I've been able to run on both the PD150 and the VX2000, they behaved identically."
Summary
The DSR-PD150 is an improve-ment over the tremendously popular VX1000 in all areas—as well it should be. The most obvious changes are the balanced audio inputs and the flip-out 2.5-inch LCD screen. More subtle improvements include better manual focus, audio control, select-able timecode, and progres-sive scanning.
The PD150's overall size and appearance fall neatly into Sony's lineup. On one side, there is the PD100A, a camera that produces a fine picture but does not draw much attention to itself. On the other side of Sony's line, there is the DSR-250, a shoulder-mount camera with more expensive accessories. The PD150 makes a finer image than the PD100A and has better manual controls, yet it's not as intimidating as a shoulder-mounted camcorder. It just might be the best of both worlds if you're looking for a discreet, portable camera that still yields quality video.
How does the PD150 compare to previously tested cameras when playing a tape back through a waveform monitor? (Numbers show lines of horizontal resolution.)
Sony DSR-130 510
Sony PD150 500
Sony PD100 470
Sony TRV-900 470
Sony VX1000 460
Canon XL1 460
* Note that these numbers vary from manufacturers specifications due to the fact that they're based on tape playback, as opposed to pre-playback.
Vernon Kato is chief videographer for KTSF in San Francisco.
Excerpted from: http://www.dv.com
This article was acquired on the "fair use" basis.
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