Sony DSR-PD100A Review

Overall Rating

Excellent Video...Broadcast Quality
XLR Audio
Small Compact Size

Small Size
Cumbersome menu based controls.

This Unit is Sony Broadcast Division's version of the PV900 sold by Sony's consumer division. There are 4 main differences. The unit is made of high quality titanium type construct rather than cheap plastic. It has XLR audio capability. It is DVCAM format rather than miniDV format. Also, it has a built in ND filter.
The DVCAM format runs a little slower, yielding 40 minutes rather that 60 minutes from a tape, but the video quality is true broadcast quality...exactly the same as from the $10,000+ DVCAM units used for ENG by TV stations. I had the camera with me at a political event that was attended by gaggles of news crews and they looked down their nose at me with my "little toy camera". Later, I played back my DVCAM tape on their monitor and compared it with tapes shot on their huge $25,000 DVCAM pro unit, and the laughter stopped. My footage was acually better than theirs and was equal to footage shot by another crew with a top of the line Broadcast Betacam. All this in spite of the fact that the unit's ccds are onlt 1/4 inch as opposed to 1/2 inch on the DVCAM-PRO and 3/4 inch on the betacam that we compared it with.
Using good quality external microphones via the XLR input and edited on a home computer with Adobe Premiere, I have produced several excellent quality TV commercials as well as a documentary that has appeared on PBS.
The drawbacks to a camera like this are size and menu based features. It is very difficult to hand hold such a small camera. I overcame this by buying an inexpensive shoulder pod. Also, it is far easier to control a camera with knobs and swithes rather than constantly having to access the menu thru the viewfinder and scrolling thru all the options to make a simple adjustment to sound or shutter or f-stop. Bottom line is...I paid only $2100 for it as opposed to a minimum of $8000 for a heavier unit with more convenient controls.
This is one hell of a camcorder for the price. If I had it to do over, I may have sprung for an extra $800 and bought the DSR-PD150A. It's the Broadcast division's version of the VX2000. and is a bit larger and has more easily accessable controls. Also, it has 1/3 inch ccds...and if the quality on my 1/4 inch ccd unit is good...the 1/3 inch may be better still.

Members' Comments onwardhealer.'s Review

• Robin. on 15th Apr 2003

  I think that the reviewer is mistaken about the difference between miniDV and DVCAM. I believe that the information on the tape is the same in both cases, the only difference is the tape speed. In my experience, I haven't noticed any improvement in video quality using DVCAM, although the chances of drop-outs will be lessened.