Sony unveils new HDV CMOS technology/camcorder
May 22, 2005 5:26 PM, Beyond The Headlines e-newsletter
 Sony’s compact HVR-A1U HDV camcorder features enhanced CMOS sensors coupled with the company’s enhanced imaging processor. |
Sony has introduced the HVR-A1U HDV camcorder, a new pro model based on a 1/3in, 3-megapixel complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) imager.
The CMOS camcorder is also accompanied by Sony’s enhanced imaging processor (EIP). The EIP enables the high-speed processing required for capturing high-definition video images, and allows an HDV camcorder to record and playback high-quality still images.
The HVR-A1U offers many of the same features as the earlier HVR-Z1U model, including: balanced audio, XLR inputs, SMPTE timecode and a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* Lens. However, the new model’s smaller footprint makes this camcorder ideal for applications where space is at a premium or extreme mobility is required, like on a skydiver's helmet or the hood of a car.
CMOS-based technology helps eliminate the presence of smear, which is created by vertical bands of bright light stretching from the top to the bottom of an image’s bright areas and occurs when something extremely bright like a pin-point light source is shot.
The transistors' size has been reduced within an image’s pixel matrix, allowing for a larger area of the photosensitive portion of the pixel and enabling more light to be taken in than with a conventional CMOS sensor. In addition, the correlated double sampling circuits on the sensor achieve extremely low-noise image quality.
The HVR-A1U can record and playback HDV, DVCAM and DV content, with the ability to down-convert footage into standard definition. A wide-screen Hybrid LCD monitor is also included. The new camcorder is expected to be available in early fall.
For more information, visit www.sony.com/professional.
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