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May 2012

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by Jim Kumorek

As a professional video producer, as well as a media team leader in my church, I’ve been watching for the right time to upgrade my video camera to better serve my clients and ministry. I have several requirements that a new camera must fulfill, and just in the last year manufacturers have started producing what I’ve hoped to find at an affordable price: a high-quality camera with lots of physical controls, professional audio inputs—one that records to reasonably priced flash memory cards. I also wanted cameras that would shoot full 1920x1080 progressive HD footage; interlaced footage is so annoying when you want to use it on the web. Yet another plus is 60P in at least one recording mode.

In this review, we’re taking a look at a few cameras that meet these requirements from Sony, Canon and Panasonic. JVC also has an entry in this field that we’ve previously reviewed—look online for the review of the JVC GY-HM100 Compact Hand-Held 3-CCD Camcorder at www.churchproduction.com/GY-HM100.

As space is always a limitation in writing reviews, I’m focusing on the video quality of the camera and its ease-of-use, and not evaluating the on-board or included microphones.

Here are some features common to all the cameras: At least two XLR audio inputs with phantom power; flash memory card recording media; a decent zoom capability on the lens (18-20x); physical controls for features such as audio inputs, white balance, gain, iris, and ND filters.

I specifically looked at cameras that support relay recording—when one memory card is full, it automatically switches to a second card, and the first can be removed and replaced with an empty card to support continuous one-camera shoots.

Video clips from each camera can be downloaded from churchproduction.com/0411_videocameras

Sony HXR-NX5U Professional AVCHD Hand-Held Camcorder

Sony’s first camera in the NXCAM family has an MSRP of $4,950, and was introduced at the beginning of 2010. The camera sports a G-Series 20X lens—the G lenses are Sony’s higher-end glass. It records AVCHD video to SDHC and Memory Stick media (I only used SDHC), and supports 1080i at 30 fps; 1080p at 30fps, 1080p at 24 fps; and 720p at 60 fps, as well as several SD modes. The camera has optical image stabilization that can be turned off if desired.

Video outputs include HDMI, HD-SDI, composite and component.

The camera is physically well balanced. It was very comfortable to hold from the top handle and capture nice hand-held motion shots with minimal shake. The fold-out LCD monitor felt adequate in size, and the expanded focus feature doubles the size of the image in the viewfinder to assist in fine-tuning a manual focus.

Manual focus can be temporarily overridden with a push-button to allow the camera to set focus for you and then return you to manual mode—this worked very well.

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Jim Kumorek is the owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video/media production and writing services to the A/V/L, technology, architectural and hospitality industries. He has led audio, video and lighting teams in churches as both staff and a volunteer for over 10 years. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com.