During my trip to the Isle of Arran to review the new Sony HXR-MC50, Chris my old boss in another life was so impressed with the MC50 he decided to purchase my demo model. Chris has been using the camera since, here are some of his findings.

Chris “I have just tried out the camera connected to my Sony Bravia telly and can confirm you are quite correct: the camera does indeed output according to its setting – and it makes a smooth job of the conversion too. All settings work flawlessly and are recognised correctly by the TV. (Of course this is Sony to Sony, so I suppose there could possibly be an issue when using another manufacturer’s television, although I doubt it as the conversion seems to be perfect!”

Chris is referring to the fact that the camera has an output setting that you can choose HDMI RESOLUTION and you have 5 choices in HD mode, AUTO, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p this mode selects the signal type from the HDMI cable. The HDMI socket is a mini HDMI so if you buy this camcorder you will need a mini HDMI to HDMI cable.

Chris “The spotlight mode works well in fact Sony have given you a rectangle on the 3.5″ LCD and if you touch the screen anywhere in that rectangle the camcorder adjusts the light levels and holds the exposure at that level, very clever indeed’ this will be great for our theatre productions”

Chris “I thought you might like to include a comment about audio monitoring…Before Jan departed this morning I plugged in a set of headphones to check this facility and guess what – there is quite a significant delay in the audio! It’s perhaps only a tenth of a second, but enough to be a little off-putting – and of course it makes a nonsense of using noise-reduction headphones! Not a serious problem and the monitoring still proves audio quality, but I wouldn’t want to conduct an interview wearing headphones!

Chris is correct the camcorder has a small delay when monitoring with headphones but having used this myself in an interview situation is not that bad.

Chris also bought a remote control for his MC50 and it works a treat… Chris” The remote fits fine onto my tripod handle and you get a choice of slow zoom by lightly pressing the button and fast if you fully press the button. The main flaw is the position of the record button as it could be easily pressed during a theatre show.”

This will be a great second camcorder for Chris as he already owns a Sony EX-1…Chris”At my age you don’t want to to be humphing a lot of kit in and out of venues so having a petite camcorder that packs an enormous punch picture wise makes a lot os sense plus being a Sony with an Exmor chip will keep both Sony cameras well matched.”

So there we have it a mini user review for the Sony HXR-MC50.