Wild-Weather.com

One of the camera kits I’m using to film storms, tornadoes and
lightning in the US this year is Sony’s new HXR-MC1P mini POV camera.
This is a small HD camera head about 1″x1″x3″ connected to a small
recording unit by a 6ft cable. By using 2 of these cameras side by
side and controlled by a single controller I can shoot in full HD 3D
with a compact and portable rig. My other rig uses a pair of XDCAM EX
cameras and is much bigger. I have been testing and evaluating the
MC1′s trying to figure out just where they sit compared to the EX’s in
terms of picture quality. The units are based on Sony’s TG1/TG3
consumer cameras and they do produce very good pictures which are
recorded onto Memory Stick Pro Duo cards using AVCHD. The picture
quality is not as good as the XDCAM EX’s, but given the size of the
cameras it’s certainly reasonable. My biggest gripes are the fact that
they are interlace only (I shoot progressive normally), the lens could
do with being a bit wider and there is no external audio input. The
lens isn’t too much of an issue as there are plenty of adapters to
choose from. Interlace can be turned into progressive in post
production, but the lack of audio input is a bit of an oversight on
Sony’s part.
The units have a good range of manual overrides allowing manual
control of focus, exposure and white balance. Most of the cameras
functions are controlled by a large and clear LCD touch screen. An 8Gb
card allows around 50 mins of recording at the maximum quality setting
which works well with the supplied battery which also gives around an
hour of operation.