Sony announces new HDV High Definition Camcorder

Sony has just announced their new HDR-FX1 HDV Camcorder. This is the first HDV based camcorder that records in 1080i resolution. The first HDV camcorder was from JVC and only recorded to a maximum of 720p lines. The "p" stands for Progressive and the "i" stands for "Interlaced". Progressive renders the whole picture at once while interlacing paints half of the picture in one pass and the other half in a second pass quickly enough to fool your eyes into thinking you're seeing one whole picture.

This Sony also stands out as the first HDV camera to have 3 CCD, which is very important for color fidelity, and native 16x9 support. The Canon XL2 can also be considered native 16x9 because it masks the CCD in a unique way that satisfies 4x3 and 16x9 sources.

The Sony HDV also has a 250k pixel LCD screen that is placed near the front of the camera in the line of sight from the color viewfinder. It should be nice for low and high shots. I'm pretty enthused about this camera. Apple has already stated they will support HDV(which is really just MPEG2) in a future Final Cut Pro natively. High Definition recording and 3CCDs is going to be huge for the prosumer. There should be a Pro model out probably next year some time with more Pro features like XLR audio and even more manual controls but right now the HDR-FX1 will be available Mid Oct and ready for use.