My New Favorite Camera: The Sony HXR-MC1 1080i High Defintion Lipstick System

There are a ton of fun toys in the motorcycle world - heck, some folks even call bikes themselves toys, though I’ve never quite liked that description for a purpose built machine myself - however over the weekend I got a chance to try out what quite possibly might be the coolest motorcycle toy ever created, a pre-production unit of the brand new Sony HXR-MC1 1080i High-Definition Bullet Camera System.

Granted, calling the HXR system a toy is totally not fair because it is a professional grade video production tool - however it is by far the best combination photography and record system I’ve seen in the POV camera market to-date.

I suppose a short backtrack is in order here — We’ve used a variety of POV Camera systems on a number of our projects over the years. None was ever perfect. System after system, one thing or another always left me wanting more. Either the cameras didn’t handle the vibrations on a motorcycle very well, or the record unit wasn’t exactly user-friendly, or the battery life just flat out stunk.

And ever since the Television world went High-Def, I’ve been actively searching for a stellar High-Definition POV camera system (sometimes referred to as a Bullet Camera or Lipstick Camera) that met Broadcast specifications in order to capture those great Point-of-View shots from various angles on a motorcycle that we as riders love to see. The shots that make you feel as if you’re part of the action.

Well, Sony it seems has answered my prayers…

The HXR-MC1 system shoots 1080i High-Def footage and records it seamlessly to a Sony Memory Duo HG Stick. The interface on the unit is superb thanks to the LCD-touch screen, easy to navigate menus and simple record features. The best proof I can offer is that because the unit was a pre-production model it didn’t come with a manual - because the manual apparently is still being written according to our Sony rep - but that didn’t matter at all. We were up and running in less then five-minutes. It’s really that easy. If you can run iTunes, I feel fairly certain you can operate this gizmo…

The embedded Vimeo video below is a quick and dirty camera test we shot up in Malibu, California, with the HXR unit set to auto-exposure in the highest quality setting. While it’s not nearly as crisp as a true 3-chip professional HD camera, it’s damn good looking stuff. Especially if you take in to consideration that a high-end professional HD Camera can run from 40k up to 100k. The HXR is anticipated to come in at just around three-thousand dollars. I’d say that’s some nifty bang-for-the-buck!

But, don’t take my word for it, take a look yourself

http://www.vimeo.com/3358659

Unfortunately we didn’t have to time to run the unit through a million paces, but as I understand it the lens is also capable of being set manually (most seem to suggest underexposing three stops). My primary concern was simply seeing if it a) worked and b) could handle the stress and strain of the specific vibrations from a motorcycle. (Historically that’s been the real undoing of a number of POV options we’ve tried in the past)…

So while this isn’t nearly as complete of a review as most folks will do, my gut tells me we’re going to be using this little’rig a lot on our next several upcoming sportbike projects

Quick snap-shot of the record unit.

Another quick snap of the unit gaffe taped to the tank of a Ducati Monster.