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VIDEO REVIEW SONY'S MJND-BLOWING 81VIM VIDEO GEAR Recently we had a chance to review a line-up of Sony's top 8mm video equipment, the V200E video camcorder and the EV-S800 video recorder. Both have PCM digital sound but picture quality is the real attraction. In a word, it is stunning. By LEO SIMPSON It was the "jog" control on the remote control of the EV-S800 VCR which started me off on this review. It's a facility for controlling the slow motion playback, similar to that found on broadcast VTRs for editing. Not only is it good for video editing, it is also great for searching the PCM digital sound tracks which store up to 6 hours of high quality stereo sound. Having lined up an EV-S800 for review, we agreed to have a look at Sony's V200E camcorder and KX-14CPI Trinitron video monitor at the same time. And having accepted this other video gear, the direction of the review was bound to change, for the V200E is not just another 8mm video camera with a few more facilities. It is much more than that. Most people are probably now familiar with the 8mm video cassette format and the very capable 8mm camcorders produced by Sony and some other manufacturers. They have very good picture quality, especially so since they come in such a small format. But the advent of the Sony V200E is likely to change peoples' perception of the 8mm format. This camera is no longer a miniature and offers facilities and performance more like a professional ENG (stands for Electronic News Gathering) camera than a domestic unit. Let's say right at the outset that we are not going to fully describe the operating facilities of the V200E. That is impossible within the constraints of a normal review. After all the instruction manual has 76 pages and the service manual runs to more than 160 pages. So we can only touch on the highlights. Camera features The highlights are pretty staggering. The V200E is a complete 8mm camera and recorder and the first one with digital PCM (pulse code modulation) stereo sound as well as the normal FM mono sound track. It comes with a stereo microphone, six-to-one zoom lens with macro, automatic iris (same as the aperture control on a still camera), automatic focus, six electronic shutter speeds up to 1/400oth of a second, automatic white balance, date and titling facilities, fade control, audio line input metering and level controls, audio dubbing, narration microphone and on and on and on. Twenty years ago, the concept of such a camera would have been out of this world. After all, at that time (1968) TV studio cameras had only just become available with zoom Sony's EV-S800 8mm VCR offers comprehensive editing and slow motion facilities with its "jog" control, seen at the righthand side of the unit. The EV-S800 will also record and playback up to 18 hours of digital PCM stereo sound. 8 SILICON CHIP --;' ri¾ziti'':> '!¥.i,,., . 1 . · - · - - -~ . . " Sony's top 8mm camcorder, the CCD-V200E, has 8:1 zoom and macro lens, auto-focus, auto-iris, auto white balance and six electronic shutter speeds to 114000th of a second. It also has PCM digital stereo sound. lens (before that they had three differing lenses on a rota ting turret). Now we have a camera recorder which offers not just zoom lens but a great deal more. As soon as you see the V200E you realise it is a completely different kettle of fish to other 8mm or VHS-C camcorders. This is a much larger and heavier camera, designed to rest on your shoulder rather than be operated with one hand. It has a proper shoulder rest, an adjustable pistol grip and a fully adjustable eye piece (adjustable for both focus and left or right eye use). Just to give you an idea of its size, it weighs 3.3kg with battery and cassette in place and with the pistol grip fully extended, for tall, gangly people like the Editor-in-Chief, it measures 500mm from front to back. But in spite of its larger size and weight, it is more comfortable to operate for longer periods than smaller camcorders which require single-handed operation. You can shoot in virtually any lighting conditions without the need for auxiliary spot lamps. The CCD (charge-coupled device) image sensor will work from 100,000 lux (bright sunlight) down to 5 lux (candle light) although for noise free pictures, video lights are recommended if the ambient light is less than 300 lux. The resolution of the V200E's CCD imager is the same as Sony's V90E camera but better than other 8mm cameras. It has a total of 439,000 pixels (picture elements) versus 291,000 for Sony's other 8mm camcorders. The zoom capability is dramatic. With a range of 8 to 1, it is about the maximum that is practical for a handheld camera when the maximum telephoto setting is used. The infrared auto focus also works very well in most situations, even when panning on a moving object. It can be tricked though, when you are shooting through a window and a number of other situations spelled out in the instruction manual. Electronic shutter The V200E has an electronic shutter which operates as fast as 1/4000 sec. By comparison, some ENG cameras can go to 1/1000 sec. Now the concept of a video camera having any sort of a shutter at all goes against the grain but here is one which has six electronic shutter speeds. How does it work? Well, there is no mechanical shutter as such, nor is the basic frame rate of 25 pictures per second changed. But the way in which the image is scanned is different. All the picture elements are scanned 50 times a second and fed to a field store. The field store data is then processed to give a conventional video signal with 50 fields a second. By manipulating voltages on the CCD imager, it is possible to change the time over which the image is SEPTEMBER 1988 9 Another view of the V200E camcorder, with its control handle folded away. The viewfinder can be adjusted for left 01 right eye use. The unit has a stereo mic out front and a narration mic on the side, below the viewfinder. stored. In effect, instead of letting the CCD imager record the varying light conditions during each 20 millisecond field period, the image is "frozen" after the designated shutter interval (1/120, 1/250, 1/500, 1/2000 and 1/4000 sec) but then scanned at the normal line and field speeds. As the heading on this review suggests, this is pretty mindblowing stuff. The high speed shutter makes little difference to the picture during normal playback but it greatly reduces or eliminates blurring of fast moving objects during slow motion replay or when displaying still pictures. By the same token, it also reduces blurring when panning on fast moving objects. The electronic shutter really makes use of the excellent sensitivity of the CCD imagers in these new cameras. As you might expect, selecting a higher shutter speed causes the iris to open up to compensate. It is quite fascinating to look into the camera lens while changing the shutter speed - sure enough, the iris closes or opens up immediately. Picture quality Well, what about the picture quality? It is absolutely tops. More objectively, it probably isn't quite up to the standard offered by the 10 SILICON CHIP broadcast ENG cameras with their higher resolution three chip CCD imagers (with light splitting into red, green and blue via dichroic mirrors) but it is not far off it. We viewed it both via the V200E's recorder and via the EV-S800 VCR, feeding direct video to the Trinitron monitor. Feeding the signal to an ordinary TV set via the V200E's or the EV-S800's UHF modulator inevitably causes some degradation. In fact, the ultimate picture quality of the V200E when displayed via a normal TV is not much better than that of a standard 8mm camcorder. It is really wasted in this situation. So much so that we can imagine many buyers of the V200E investing in a Trinitron video monitor too, to get the very best picture. For pictures of moving objects, the V200E really does excel. I took a series of shots of my daughter on her bicycle. She started off in the distance and as she came past, I panned to keep her in the viewfinder. Shutter speed was 1/250 sec. On replay, there was not a trace of the blurring you normally expect when panning. Even the bicycle spokes could be clearly seen (rotating in the right direction too). And on slow motion, the background was pin sharp instead of the blur you expect with panned shots. Marvellous. At this point we should compare the picture quality on playback from the V200E and EV-S800 VCR. On the V200E it is good, as we've already said, but on the EV-S800 it is even better. Hence our comparison to ENG camera quality earlier. On the EV-SB00, the picture is brighter and even more detailed. On still pictures it is brilliant. Whereas the V200E has a reasonably noise-free still play, the EV-S800 is perfect, with not a whisker of noise. By the way, both camcorder and VCR have adjusting facilities to remove jitter from the still playback mode but again, in the final result, the EV-SB00 is better. You'd expect it to be too, for the EV-SB00 is a fullblown VCR with all the bells and whistles. PCM stereo sound To be really blunt about it, the PCM digital stereo sound facility on the V200E probably won't be used to maximum effect in most applications. It gives wonderfully clean stereo sound to back up the hifi pictures but that is it. Sure, you could dub the sound from compact discs onto the tape and get very little degradation but we don't think most users will bother. They'll just want the V200E for its picture capability. We could be wrong on this point but that was our reaction. Who would buy the V200E anyhow? It is not a cheap piece of gear relative to other 8mm cameras but in terms of absolute performance and facilities it is a bargain. We see it as having wide commercial and professional use. For sports coaches, nature photographers, estate agents, and many others, it would be invaluable. The EV-S800 recorder This deck was the initial attraction in this review and it ended up being over-shadowed by the camcorder. That's unfortunate because the EV-S800 is a top piece of gear. We've already talked about the excellent picture quality, made possible by its newly developed 4-head drum. It has advanced luminance processing circuitry giving a claimed 5.4MHz bandwidth and higher white-clip level (220% ). It also has PCM digital multi stereo sound. This takes a little explaining. It is not just an alternative to VHS or Beta hifi systems in that it gives high quality stereo sound. It is much more. VHS and Beta hifi systems are effectively a dual FM carrier recorded underneath the analog video signal on the tape. Digital PCM sound is another technique entirely. The stereo sound signals are sampled at 31.5kHz, quantised and then stored on the tape in the gaps between successive picture scans. This is similar to the technique used for the transmission of BMAC TV signals from Aussat. Again, pretty mind-blowing stuff. In the multi PCM mode, the EV-S800 becomes a sound-only recorder, able to record up to six pairs of stereo signals on the track. To do this, each helical scan of the tape by the video head stores six blocks of PCM signals, in the space normally occupied by the video signal. So there are not six pairs of conventional tracks in the normal sense but six blocks of signals. When the heads read off the signal for a stereo pair, they have to be switched at the right time in each scan. The technique means that up to 18 hours of high quality stereo sound can be stored. That is what you call dense recording. You can select the tracks to be played by using the program controls on the deck or its remote con- The 8mm video cassette is about the same size as an audio cassette and just as easy to handle. It employs specially formulated metal tape. trol. Interestingly, in the the PCM multi replay mode, the function of the jog/shuttle dial on the VCR differs from that on the remote control. You can use the jog dial on the VCR to change tracks but you can't do that on the remote control-you have to use the program + and buttons instead. In fact, becoming acquainted with all the control functions on this deck would take quite some time. As an editing machine, to handle cassettes from a camcorder, it certainly has flexible facilities although we did not have anywhere The infrared remote control for the EV-S800 does just about everything except watch the program for you. near enough time to see what they could do. It took us long enough just to become familiar with the conventional VCR record and playback facilities and those to do with the PCM sound. It really is quite a complex package: Incidentally, while the V200E camcorder's video-cum-PCM signal can be replayed by the EV-S800 and other 8mm video PCM VCRs, the V200E cannot replay PCM multi stereo sound recordings. Well, how do we sum up this lineup of video gear from Sony? Clearly, it is at the leading edge of video technology and in some respects offers facilities and performance not yet available on broadcast standard video equipment. For anyone interested in producing and looking at videotapes which are clearly superior to conventional video equipment, this is the way to go. It is quite unsettling to go back to viewing ordinary TV, knowing what is possible from 8mm video. Recommended retail prices for the Sony equipment are as follows: V200E camcorder $4999.00; EV-S800 PCM stereo VCR, $3199.00; and the KX-14CPI monitor, $1299.00. For further information, contact your local Sony dealer or Sony (Australia) Pty Ltd, 33-39 Talavera Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113. Phone (02} 887 6666. ~ SEPTEMBER 1988 11