REVIEW
HEAD
CHINON CHEAPIE
INTRO
A bargain or is the Chinon VC-1700
too cheap to be true? We've been
testing this Dixon's exclusive which has just gone on sale for under £500
COPY
Two years
ago a camcorder costing less than £500 would hardly have raised an eyebrow,
these days the first question we're inclined to ask when we see one -- and
that's not very often lately -- is what's wrong with it? In the case of the
last sub £500 machine we saw, the Panasonic CS1, it was the lack of a replay
facility. The Chinon VC-1700s shortcomings
are not quite so obvious. It's a rather boxy-looking VHS-C palmcorder,
reasonably light and adequately if unimaginatively styled, but we won't hold
that against it. It has a 10x zoom, a basic but workmanlike assortment of
shooting aids which includes a 7-speed shutter, backlight compensation, fader,
gain-up and auto/preset white balance system. So far so good...
Closer
inspection of the box reveals the first evidence of serious cost cutting. The
accompanying accessory pack is unusually spartan; being a VHS-C machine it's
imperative that it contains a cassette adaptor and preferably an RF converter
as well, the VC-1700 has neither, so anyone with an older television, without a
SCART AV socket won't be able to watch their recordings on TV without buying an
optional converter or adaptor. In the past we've been concerned about the
general quality of construction of ultra low cost machines, in this case it is
passable, the mouldings feel reasonably resilient but the zoom rocker feels
tacky and the control layout could have been better thought out.
IN USE
Getting the
machine up and running is simple enough, though our sample made some strange
noises and displayed an error message the first time a tape was loaded;
switching it off and on again a couple of times seemed to clear the problem.
The first thing we noticed was the unusually noisy deck mechanism, there's a
constant whine when it is recording, which is picked up on the soundtrack. The
camera controls are on the small side, and hard to discriminate between when
the shooting. The buttons for manually operating the inner-focus lens are a
case in point, they're the same shape as, and too close to the counter reset
and memory buttons. The transport controls on the top panel are rather exposed
and holding or picking the machine up carelessly can cause problems.
PERFORMANCE
Quite
simply the VC-1700 sample we tried produced the worst picture we've seen in a
long while. Picture resolution was less than 200-lines, that's below what we'd
expect from a budget machine recording in LP mode. Pictures were noisy and
jittery, about the only good thing you can say about it is that colour fidelity
was fairly good, even under normally
troublesome tube lighting. LP recordings were almost unwatchable with serious
distortion on the soundtrack.
The
autofocus system was highly unreliable, it would loose lock for no apparent
reason and hunt around, even if the subject was static, in the centre of the
screen. The problem got worse indoors, even though there was enough light to
form a watchable image.
Sound
quality was poor, the recording system actually performed reasonably well, for
VHS-C, but the constant whine from the deck was audible in all but the noisiest
conditions.
SUMMARY
We've said
it a hundred times before but you get what you pay for. If you expect to get a
worthwhile camcorder for between £100 and £200 less than the current going rate
then think again. The VC-1700 is a poor buy, sound and picture quality are well
below average, the accessory pack is inadequate and if the worrying grunting
and grinding noises our sample made is anything to go by, there must be a
question-mark over its long-term reliability.
THE RIVALS
Currently
there are no camcorders with manufacturers list prices of less than £500 that
we feel are worth mentioning, apart from the Panasonic NV-CS1, which as we have
already pointed out is a record-only machine. However, if you're prepared to
shop around, and are not worried about buying last year's model, then there's
plenty of good camcorders to be found. Clearly it's impossible to list what's
available as these kinds of reductions and special deals are changing all the
time -- the best advice we can give is to check out past reviews in Video
Camera if you find a machine that you like the look of.
SPECIFICATIONS
Make/model CHINON VC-1700
Recording format VHS-C
Guide price £500
OPTICS
Lens f/1.8, 5.8-58mm
Zoom 10x
Filter diameter 37mm
Pick-up device 0.3in CCD
Min. illum. (lux) 4
VIDEO DECK
Long Play (LP) yes
Max. rec. time 90mins (LP mode)
IR remote control no
Edit terminal no
MAIN FACILITIES
Auto Focus yes
Manual focus yes
Auto exposure yes
Programmed AE no
Fader yes
Manual white balance yes
Auto white balance yes
Manual zoom no
Power zoom yes
Insert edit no
Character generator no
Digital Superimposer no
Image stabiliser no
Video light no
Battery refresh yes
Accessory shoe yes
ADDITIONAL FEATURES
high-speed shutter (7-speed up to
1/10,000th sec), record check, index marker, backlight compensation, time/date
recording, gain up
VIEWFINDER
Viewfinder 0.6in monochrome
Viewfinder info. deck mode and status, low
battery, tape count, shutter speed, fader, focus mode, tape end, time/date
AUDIO
Stereo no
Audio dub no
Wind noise filter
no
Mic socket no
Headphone socket no
Microphone unidirectional electret
GENERAL
Sockets
AV out (mini DIN), DC in
Size (mm) 110 x 119.5 x 171.5
Weight 0.8 kg (inc. tape and battery)
STANDARD ACCESSORIES
Batteries, (nicad and lithium),
straps, AC charger/power supply,
AV lead yes
video light? no
remote control? no
cassette adaptor? no
RF Converter? no
SCART adaptor? yes
PERFORMANCE
Resolution <200-lines-lines
Colour fidelity fair
Picture stability fair
Colour bleed slight (blue)
White balance good
Exposure average
Autofocus jumpy
Audio performance average
Insert edit N/A
Playback thru adaptor N/A
VC RATINGS
Value for money **
Ease of use ***
Performance **
Features ***
---end---
R Maybury 1994 0303
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