REVIEW
HEAD
STEADY AS YOU GO...
INTRO
Optical image stabilisation makes its second appearance this month on an
8mm camcorder. This time it's the turn of the Sony TR-606 Handycam, a machine
for the nineties, or should that be the over-nineties?...
COPY
Image stabilisers are becoming an increasingly common fitment on
mid-market and top-of -the range camcorders, taking over from program
auto-exposure and digital effects as the flavour-of-the-month feature. Sony's
involvement in this trend can at best be described as sporadic. Their first
machine to feature a stabiliser was the TR805, a classy Hi8 palmcorder launched
way back in the Autumn of 1992. It used an ingenious system called Steady Shot,
which was developed in collaboration with Canon.
Unlike purely electronic stabiliser systems, Steady Shot uses optical
techniques to reduce camera shake, so there is no reduction in picture quality.
Over a year and almost a dozen camcorders later they've finally got around to
their second Steady Shot machine, the TR606, an 8mm palmcorder which arrives in
the shops this month, selling for a hefty £1100.
The price is significant; the 606 costs as much as the 805 when it was
launched in 1992. In the last couple of months the 805 has been quietly
're-positioned' and it now costs the better part of £1,300; you have our
permission to kick yourself if it was on your shopping list but we have warned
you about price increases following last year's currency fluctuations, and as
far as we can see it's not going to get any better!
The 606 has a conventional 8mm video recording system, stereo sound and
four-mode program auto-exposure, and apart from Steady Shot, hardly any
embellishments, unless you count the dual-mode fader which goes to or from
black, or a mosaic pattern. The AE system is a fairly routine affair with
settings for portrait, sports, high-speed shutter and twilight; these are
selected sequentially via a button concealed behind a sliding cover on the left
side of the machine. For the record the shutter speed varies between 1/50th and
1/2000th second in the portrait mode; 1/50th to 1/500th in sports mode, and it
is fixed to 1/4000th and 1/50th sec. respectively in the high-speed shutter and
twilight modes.
The dominant feature is undoubtedly the big Steady Shot lens; it's
protected by a sliding cover which is opened and closed by the main operating
switch, on the side of the machine. The lens has a 52mm thread, which might
cause problems, or at least limit the choice for anyone who wants to use an
adaptor lens with this machine. Behind the Steady Shot's 'variangle prism' (a
sandwich made up of two glass plates enclosing a flexible sac filled with a
transparent gel), there's an inner-focus lens which can be manually adjusted
from a small (very small...) thumbwheel just below the LCD panel, on the right
side of the machine.
The 606, like all Sony camcorders (record-only machines excepted) has a
Control L terminal, so it can be used in conjunction with an edit controller.
Sony clearly do not think 606 owners will be overly interested in this feature
as it is dismissed in a seven line caption on the page identifying the rest of
the machine's plugs and sockets.
The small number of controls reflects the 606's relatively modest line-up
of features; secondary functions, such as recording mode, enabling the remote
control, switching the beeper on or off, wind noise filter or selecting an
audio channel, are controlled from a simple menu-display which appears in the
viewfinder. The transport controls are all located under a hinged flap on the
top panel; altogether a very unthreatening sort of camcorder.
Design and build quality are unmistakably Sony, it has a reassuringly
solid feel about it, apart from the viewfinder eyepiece, which on our sample
wouldn't easily lock into the shooting position. It either collapsed back to
the stowage position at the slightest bump, or detached from the viewfinder
module. The supplied IR remote handset is on the chunky side, a distinct
contrast to tiny credit-card sized remotes we've become used to lately. It's
just a thought, and without wishing to sound ageist, could the larger than
normal remote handset, fewer buttons and facilities, and the Steady Shot
stabiliser mean the 606 is being discreetly targeted at older users, dare we
say senior citizens?
PERFORMANCE
Picture quality is a little above average; horizontal resolution on our
sample just about reached 240 lines. Noise and grain were all within acceptable
limits and colour accuracy, despite having an auto-only white balance system,
is reasonable. The WB system stumbles a little when shooting under tube light,
there's a distinct colour cast, but in daylight, or even mixed day/artificial
light, its hard to fault. The program AE system isn't terribly inspiring, it
works adequately well, but backlight compensation, say, would be more useful than sports or
high-speed shutter modes. In any case they only reduce blur on playback when
the recording is copied to VHS, or replayed on an 8mm (or VHS) VCR equipped with stable still and slomo
facilities.
Steady Shot works well, cancelling out small, steady movements. It's not
quite as fast-acting as some of the wholly electronic systems but it does seem
able to cope with a greater degree of movement. Although it doesn't affect
picture quality it does have a marked impact on power consumption and the
instruction book rightly suggests that it should be turned off if not
needed.
The 606's stereo audio system works well, and the side-facing mikes
actually help to create something approaching a stereo image. The microphones
pick up their fair share of handling noises but it has an external microphone
socket, and headphone monitor facility, for those who want to take full
advantage of the system.
VERDICT
There's nothing wrong with the 606, it works well, Steady Shot is
effective, and it is very easy to use, but if we were spending eleven hundred
pounds on a camcorder we'd want to see a bit more for our money. That is, of
course, unless we had a stability problem of our own, in which case the extra
cost of an image stabiliser might be justified.
THE RIVALS
If an optical image stabiliser is your main priority the Canon E700 is
£100 cheaper, but you will have to say good-bye to stereo sound, and the
undoubted kudos of a Sony TR machine. Several other camcorders in the
£1000-plus price bracket also have image stabilisation and compared with the
606 the Panasonic NV-S7 looks like a very good deal indeed, because in addition
to stereo sound it has a high-band (S-VHS-C) recording facility. If you can
live without the stabiliser then you can do a lot better, when it comes to
creative facilities and gadgets and Sony's FX700 would be high on our list of
alternatives.
SIDEBAR 1 -- IMAGE STABILISATION
We're still not totally convinced about the need for image stabilisation.
User-induced camera shake is known to be a problem on ultra-lightweight
machines, weighing substantially less than 1kg, which are not heavy enough to
damp out involuntary muscle movement. The irony is that most stabiliser systems
-- Steady Shot in particular -- carry with them a significant weight penalty,
which more often than not takes the machine over one kilogram. To be fair they
do have their uses, though, and the one we have found most effective is when
shooting from a slow-moving car, though none of the systems we've tried, -- and
we've used them all -- can cope with
very fast bumps or sudden undulations in the road surface.
There's no doubt image stabilisers, especially systems like Steady Shot,
which do not impose any performance penalties, may be of benefit to people who,
for whatever reason, have problems holding a camcorder steady for any length of
time. However, anyone reasonably in control of their hands and arms would do
better save their money and buy a tripod instead, or take the usual precautions
to avoid camera shake, by leaning against a wall or stable object. We hesitate
to say it but there's a real danger that image stabilisers could become the
electronic equivalent of the Zimmer frame! What next, big viewfinders for the
visually impaired? Hmm, maybe they're here already....
SPECIFICATIONS
Make/model
SONY CCD-TR606
Recording format 8mm
Guide price
£1100
OPTICS
Lens
f1.6, 6.1-61mm
Zoom
x10
Filter diameter
52mm
Pick-up device
0.3in CCD (320k pixel)
Min. illum. (lux) 2
VIDEO DECK
Long Play (LP) yes
Max. rec. time 240mins
(LP mode)
IR remote control ? yes
Edit terminal? yes Control L
MAIN FACILITIES
Auto Focus? yes
Manual focus? yes
Auto exposure? yes
Manual iris? no
Programmed AE? yes (4-mode)
Auto white balance yes
Manual white balance? no
Power zoom yes
Manual zoom? no
Backlight compensation no
Insert edit? no
Audio Dub? no
Character generator? no
Digital Superimposer? no
Image stabiliser? yes, optical
Video light? no
Battery refresh? no
Accessory shoe? no
Record review yes
Fader? yes black/mosaic
Digital effects yes
(see above)
Digital zoom? no
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
time/date recording, record review, tally lamp
VIEWFINDER
Viewfinder
0.6in monochrome
Sportsfinder eyepiece? no
Viewfinder info.
deck mode and status, low battery, tape count, fader, focus mode, tape
end, time/date, dew, AE preset mode, zoom position, stabiliser
AUDIO
Stereo? yes
Audio dub? no
Wind noise filter? yes
Mic socket? yes
Headphone socket? yes
Microphone single-point
stereo
GENERAL
Sockets
video and audio out (phono), ext. mic., headphones (minijack), Control L
(sub-min jack),
Size (mm)
109 x 109 x 197
Weight
1.14kg (inc. tape and battery)
STANDARD ACCESSORIES
Batteries, (nicad and lithium), straps, AC charger/power supply, RF converter
video light? no
remote control? yes
cassette adaptor? N/A
RF Converter? yes
SCART adaptor? yes
PERFORMANCE
Resolution
240-lines
Colour fidelity good
Picture stability good
Colour bleed
slight
White balance
average
Exposure
average
Autofocus
good
Audio performance good
Insert edit
manual inserts clean
Playback thru adaptor N/A
VC RATINGS
Value for money 6
Ease of use 9
Performance 8
Features 7
---end---
(c) R Maybury 1993 0211
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