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Sony HDR-UX1 Reviewed by CamcorderInfo.Com
At 3000 lux, the HDR-UX1 produced a familiar image. It is indeed a close relative of the HDR-HC3. The colors are strong, with an even saturation all around. This is a little more saturation than you would find in a professional camcorder, but right on par with consumer camcorders. In the consumer world, it’s often a question of finding the balance between “enough to make the image pop†and “Ow, those colors hurt my eyes.†Thankfully, Sony seems to have found the balance. In terms of color reproduction, though, the HDR-UX1 is much closer to the DCR-DVD505. The overall brightness and the yellow-green portion of the spectrum seems to witness most of the difference. In the HDR-HC3, the picture is brighter overall, and the yellow is a strong canary color. In the DCR-DVD505 and the HDR-UX1, the image is slightly darker, the yellow more of a goldenrod, and the greens not quite as strong as the rest of the spectrum. The cause of this color processing is unknown.
Next is the question everyone want to know. How sharp does it look? We are happy to report that this is definitely HD-quality video, and not just HD-sized. The HDR-UX1 did a great job reporting fine detail. But noise is definitely an issue. There seems to have been a steady decline in Sony’s ability to control noise level since their introduction of consumer HD camcorders. The HDR-HC3 was noisier than the HDR-HC1 and now we’re sorry to say that the HDR-UX1 is noisier still, and the heavy AVCHD compression is likely the contributing factor to that increase. There was noise is everything we show, bright light and low light, indoor and outdoor, against flat backgrounds and against detailed shots. The noise did not seem to cost the camcorder much in its fine detail rendering, but there’s no way you won’t notice it. We saw compression artifacts in the footage like blockiness and poor handling of color gradients. It's really too bad because the picture is so sharp and so well-colored, that it isn't compressed as well as it could be.This does not bode well for the first generation of AVCHD, and forced us to factor that into the score.
Next is the question everyone want to know. How sharp does it look? We are happy to report that this is definitely HD-quality video, and not just HD-sized. The HDR-UX1 did a great job reporting fine detail. But noise is definitely an issue. There seems to have been a steady decline in Sony’s ability to control noise level since their introduction of consumer HD camcorders. The HDR-HC3 was noisier than the HDR-HC1 and now we’re sorry to say that the HDR-UX1 is noisier still, and the heavy AVCHD compression is likely the contributing factor to that increase. There was noise is everything we show, bright light and low light, indoor and outdoor, against flat backgrounds and against detailed shots. The noise did not seem to cost the camcorder much in its fine detail rendering, but there’s no way you won’t notice it. We saw compression artifacts in the footage like blockiness and poor handling of color gradients. It's really too bad because the picture is so sharp and so well-colored, that it isn't compressed as well as it could be.This does not bode well for the first generation of AVCHD, and forced us to factor that into the score.
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