Sony HDR-HC9 High-def Handicam

Review Date: February 13, 2010
Purchase Date: December 30, 2009
Purchase Price: $831.93
Purchased From: Amazon

I've been using this camera for about a year, both at the track and shooting educational videos. I'm very happy with it. Here's why.

When I decided to get a high-def camera I was seriously thinking of moving up into the pro ranks. Yes, they definitely cost more, but they also offer a lot of features and performance not available at the consumer level, even at the high-end consumer level. For instance, the sharpness of a 3-CCD sensor, their low-light performance, and the focus, zoom, and aperture controls that are much more usable in live shoots. But in the end, I decided to spare my budget and get something that would work out better for in-car video. For in-car situations I didn't need the more ergonomic controls since I'd be setting up the camera and then leaving it alone. The low-light capabilities would not be essential because track days are always run in daylight or overcast conditions, but not dusk, dawn, or night.

The greater expense also concerned me because there is always the chance of loosing the camera with the car if the worse should happen.

Finally, I needed a smaller camera than what the pro ranks offered. I was going to mount it in a speeding car, a fairly high-vibration and high-G environment, and it can be a cramped environment, depending on what the car's roll cage design was. So I went with the Sony HDR-HC9, shown below, and took it to the track the very next time I had the chance.

Instead of reviewing this camera the way other sites do, by testing it, comparing specs, and so on, I'll just stick with describing my experience as a real-life user.

OK, it's my first time at the track with this camera, and I'm glad I brought my backup SD camera (Song DCR-TRV80) because the battery that came with the camera didn't have enough life in it to get me through even one tape. (I hadn't had time to purchase extra batteries, plus they were pretty expensive.) So that was a short day for the camera.

Second time out, with extra batteries, things went much better at the track, but it wasn't until I got home and got a chance to download and start editing the video that I saw how nice the results were. The image was so clear, and the wide format even let me capture my speedometer and tachometer and the image was sharp enough that I could easily follow the engine's RPM. The colors were beautiful, and it didn't hurt that this was one of those beautiful spring days in California when the sky was bright blue and the grass was still green. Here's the view from the cockpit. Click it to see it full sized, and keep in mind that there was a lot of action in this shot (0.6 G's lateral).

The video this frame is from is on Vimeo, in case you want to see it in action.

When at the track the camera is mounted on my harness bar using an IOPort mount. I do not use the built-in mic, instead I have two lapel mics mounted under the hood, although sometimes I put them on the rear bumper. I also use a polarizer to reduce the glare on the dash, windshield and the other cars. It is also very helpful late in the day when the sun is low. Focus is set to manual and the camera is focused at infinity and I zoom all the way out (40 mm focal length).

To start and stop recording I cannot use the LANC cable I use with my SD camera because, again, this camera does not provide A/V input so it cannot function as a VCR from this port. Instead, I either start recording before I buckle up or I use the IR remote.

One very nice feature, one which is apparently a departure from the norm for consumer video cameras, is that the tapes load and unload from the top. This means that I don't have to remove the camera from the mount to do this, so I am very happy about this. The battery does load/unload from the bottom but I can usually manage to do this without dismounting the camera. It also helps to have a high-capacity battery. So far, when using the high-capacity battery, I haven't had to swap batteries during the day. Most track events give each driver about two hours of track time and this battery will give me about six hours of continuous recording time.

Back at home I'm transferring the video to my computer via the camera's Firewire (iLink) port. This has been working flawlessly with Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. When I use the A/V port to play the tapes on my SD analog TV the image quality is good, or at least as good as that of my 12 year old TV, but I had to change the "TV Type" setting to DV because otherwise the image was distorted, compressed horizontally to fit the screen.

For off-track projects I have used the camera with Sony's nice little tripod that has a remote control handle. The HC9 and higher end cameras work with this tripod and control is via the mini-D style connector. That project was an indoor shoot of a metals casting event and while I got some great shots of people and glowing liquid metal the low-light limitations of this camera made themselves known. It was acceptable in this case as the videos will be played mainly online, but it is just a little reminder of why higher-spec cameras are used by the pros. Here's a sample, the short version, from this event.

I noted above that I cannot record from bullet cams, but this camera can actually record from other devices, but only from the iLink (Firewire) port. This camera has an HDMI port but as far as I can tell it is for output-only.

This camera has a number of other features that I am just starting to explore and which may be useful in an upcoming project.

Mic Levels - The sound levels recorded by the built-in or external microphones can be set to manual. (The default is auto.) This could be very useful in noisy situations such as motorsports.

DV Format - In an upcoming event I may use this camera to record DV video. This camera can do this and I am very interested in seeing that the quality of the images is, coming from a sensor that has a 5X the pixel count required for DV video. (Note - when in DV mode the LCD will still display the wide screen image, but it will darken the areas that are out of the DV frame.)

Scene Select - This camera includes a number of convenient presets for exposure and focus, named things like Twilight, Candle, and Sunrise, but the one that might be interesting to try out is Landscape. This appears to be an autofucus mode that avoid focusing on near objects, such as reflections on the window looking out at the landscape.

Auto Shutoff - Normally, when powered by the battery, this camera will turn itself off after a period of inactivity. This feature can be turned off, and I will probably use this in an upcoming project where I need the camera to stay on all day. I'm using the camera as an imaging and audio input device-only and will pass everything on to a digital video recorder. I plan to power the camera using the car's electrical system and when the car is turned off, or when the battery switch is turned off (Race cars have a master switch that rescue teams can use to turn off all electrical power on the car.) I want to camera to stay on. Doing a little testing I just found out that if Auto Shutoff is turned off, and I power the camera from the charger, then I plug the charger, the camera will turn off. But, this is momentary. The camera will turn itself right back on. I might be able to live with that, especially since I can tell the DVR to start recording as soon as it is turned on. I just need to figure out how to keep the DVR running. (Note: the camera must be running on battery power to be able to change the Auto Shutoff setting.)

Histogram - You can have a histogram of the brightness displayed in the lower right corner of the LCD display. This can be useful when setting the exposure manually.

Guideframe - Turn this on to display a 3 x 3 grid on the LCD display. This helps you frame a subject and make sure the camera is horizontal. Or, use the Center Marker to place a cross in the center of the screen, an aid in helping you aim the camera.

Time Lapse - Put the camera in memory/photography mode and you'll find this nice feature, called Int. Rec-STL, for interval recording. You can set the intervals to 1, 5 or 10 minutes. It will keep running until you stop it. Normally for a good time lapse sequence you also have to set the camera's exposure to about half the interval time, but you don't really have this kind of control here. Still, the memory stick I have in this camera can hold over 2,500 photos (2,500 minutes = 41.7 hours!), so this could be fun to play with.

Zebra - If you turn this feature on the camera will display diagonal lines over the region of the image where the brightness is greater than a selected level (70 or 100%). This will help let you know that you are over-exposing the scene, much like many DSLRs do.

I guess a product review wouldn't be complete without listing a few complaints, not that that makes me feel superior or anything, but it means I might have something to contribute.

I noted above that I wish it was possible to keep the camera running when AC/external power was turned off. This camera almost does this. It turns itself off momentarily when external power is removed. But when it comes back on it is no longer recording. In one of my applications the camera will be powered by a car's electrical system, but the car may get turned off, possibly momentarily, but could ruin the rest of the recording session. I guess I need to find a UPS-type solution.

Second, there are so many great features on this camera, and not only can taking it all in be difficult, but for someone new to all this it can be pretty intimidating, and confusing. Sony should create short tutorials, similar in duration and style as the Lynda tutorials that Adobe provides for some of its software. Or maybe I should do it, and Sony can pay me.

Third, there seems to be a trend in the software and other technology industries to present their products to the user in a way that pretty much hides all of the technical details. That might be nice for technophobes and Mac users, but for people that have a handle on the issues, people like me, actually have a difficult time figuring out exactly what the gizmo is supposed to be able to do. I recently returned all of my Norton software and have sworn off Norton's products for just this reason. I just could not figure out what the stuff was doing, so I felt I couldn't count on it, so it is gone. Everything about the product was presented in reassuring dumbed down language that to me said nothing useful. I guess that's how many people feel when they take their car in for repairs. You just nod yes to everything the mechanic says and you pay, not having any idea what just happened, but the car seems to be working again, so it's all good. Now, my complaint here is not so severe as to loose faith in the product, but the descriptions of the Scene Select features, for example, are similarly vague. The manual just says use such and such setting for some situation and so on, but it doesn't tell you what it actually does. I'll probably just try them out and maybe they will work, but what they hell is the camera actually doing? If someone asks me how I got that shot, what do I say? Duh, I just pushed this button and it just happened.

Well, that's about it. I may be back with additional comments after this next race.

Adobe Encore CS4

Review Date: December 8, 2009 (updated February 8, 2010)
Purchase Date:
Purchase Price: Bundled with Premiere Pro CS4, upgrade cost was ...
Purchased From: Adobe

All week I've been editing video from a race held near here recently (motor sports, 24 Hours of LeMons) where I attended with a team with the idea of getting photos and video and putting together something the team and friends would enjoy. I got some good in-car and track-side video and was anxious to get this done and show it to everyone.

For this project I decided to finally try using Encore to create the DVD. (In the past I had used Sony DVD Architect.) The Sony software didn't do Blu-ray and I wanted to try that, too. So I start up Encore and when it finally loaded I started a project in the usual Adobe style then was presented with a screen I simply could not figure out. I poked around trying to figure out what the basic procedure was and found the "import" function, tried to import an mpeg file, and I got my first blue screen ever on this computer.

Rebooted, and restarted Encore, I explored more on my own. I can usually figure out these things on my own. I explored the menus and buttons, and figured out that an asset was probably anything I wanted to put on the DVD. Other than that I was pretty much stuck. I imported another mpeg file and that worked, but I finally gave up and decided to try "Help". That took me to the Adobe site, and that to the Lynda tutorials, which were just what I needed. I went through them one-by-one and they answered most of my questions. They were excellent. Quick, clear, and just the right amount of detail for a tutorial. Adobe did good with that one.

With Lynda's help I was off and running. I figured out how to create menu templates by examining the ones that came with Encore and I figured out how to change the order and other settings for each button. Everything was going smoothly now. I had a project that had a menu and three videos. The preview feature was also working great. But, the highlight I used for my buttons is a green dot that has an inner shadow. In preview I only get a green dot. No shadow. Later on the DVD itself, same thing. I later learned by reading in these forums that that is the fault of the DVD player.

I still had room for one more button, and I still had lots of photos I had not used, so I tried the slide show feature. It looked like it would a good job just showing photos, and for this project I thought it would be a nice little extra. I know that some people here consider it to be a consumer gimmick and just seeing it in Encore made me think the same thing, as if Adobe wanted to be able to match the features of (much) lesser DVD authoring programs. No matter. I'd also learn, by experience that this feature still needs a little work. Again, I am not a pro, so if I notice something that needs fixing it must really scream out at the pros.

It was pretty easy to import my photos and add them to the slide show, but I soon learned that 99 photos is the max for a slide show. I suppose that is OK. Next, I learned that the shortest time I could display a slide is about 1.2 seconds. I was hoping to be able to run through some of my photos quickly to simulate a stop-action sequence for those times when I just held the shutter release button and snapped away at the action, such as a car spinning off into the dirt. It could be that this limit is due to the cross-fade transitions I had set as the slide show's default transition. I'll try it again later without transitions to see what happens.

Adding and removing slides turned out to be a real pain. When adding slides in mass I'd get an error saying there was something wrong with a slide. I forget what the other errors were, but I got a lot of them. They were probably related to the number of slides I was placing in the timeline, over 99 total. But besides the errors, Encore really slowed down. It took maybe 10-15 minutes for it to get back to normal, or just about how long it took me to give up and go off and fold laundry. So then I tried to delete some slides and that took for ever, especially if the slide was near the beginning of the show. I figure Encode must be reprocessing the whole show somehow. But after these problems something seemed to be wrong with Encore. It was slow when doing anything. I closed it and started it up again. It was all better again.

In previews the slide show looked good, but I realized that I needed to resize the photos. I did this in Photoshop for a handful then came back to Encore, expecting it to update itself, seeing as assets like these are external to the Encore project itself, but that didn't happen. If I edited a video and came back to Premiere it would re-import the video. Apparently this doesn't happen in the slide show. I deleted the slide show and started again. At least it is easy to set up new slide shows, except as noted above.

The do-over worked. The slide show looked good.

I burned a DVD and the results were excellent, except for, again, the slide show. The show ran OK, but at the end of each transition there was a little flicker, more like a contrast glitch. Annoying, and it has to be fixed or else the slide show feature will be useless, even for me, except for personal use.

Other than that, all was good. I edited video and Encore re-imported it and the burn was successful and it looked great, well, on my analog TV. I still don't have digital as I canceled cable and quit watching TV nearly 2 years ago. But it was working, minor changes were easily handled, etc.

I then tried the Flash feature, and it worked well, except that the video frame is not centered (too far to the right). The HTML code was simple enough. The video plays in a table whose width is 99% of the screen the cell justification is centered. I'm sure I could deal with that in my own pages. But, a bigger problem, again involving the slide show. The VCR controls would pop up at the start, or end, of each slide, and then would disappear again on its own. Again, the slide show is a nice feature but I can't use it if the controls are going to be going up and down throughout the show.

I also exported an ISO image and will be trying that out later. Being able to create an image for the DVD is nice. It means I won't have to use Encode for future burns, and I might have trouble keeping up with the 130 GB of files I have in this project.

---

Update: February 8, 2010
I've had more time to work with Encore and I getting pretty used to is and am much quicker. It's no longer a matter of trial and error when editing a menu in Photoshop and I've started linking to the videos in my Premiere CS4 project and that is working very well. I've made some more DVD's and high-def Blu-ray disks for people and they are very impressed. I've also learned that many of the problems with replaying the Flash videos were due to Flash itself. Each slide is a different file so Flash pauses, displays the VCR controls, then resumes. The same thing happens with videos that have chapter marks. Now I know to avoid these issues, and I can put together a simple DVD or Blu-ray project pretty quickly, not counting rendering and transcoding time.

Sony DCR-TRV80NTSC Handicam

Review Date: February 9, 2010
Purchase Price: $1499.99 (now available used on Amazon for $350-$450)
Purchase Date: April 5, 2003
Purchased From: Fry's Electronics

This has been a great camera. I've been using it at the track for years and am happy enough with it that instead of buying a newer model for a second SD camera I am seriously thinking of getting another one of these. The explanation is simple. The video looks great, and it has been very reliable.

I doubt I would have even bought a video camera except for track events. After I saw one in another car I knew it was something I had to do. So I went to Fry's Electronics and checked out their extensive selection. It was pretty confusing as I knew nothing about these things, although I was pretty good with photography. It seemed that there were three broad price categories, relatively cheap but not really, expensive, and way too expensive. I did not even understand what I was looking at so the expensive cameras were out of the question. The cheaper cameras, from a features standpoint, did not compare well with the mid-range cameras and my experience with the budget stuff has been such at I generally do not go that route. Mini DV tape was just coming out and that looked good and the TRV80 was a Mini DV camera. The Sony DCR-TRV80 also boasted quality optics, so I figure that means the Sony engineers were really trying to make this a great performer. (The reviews that I eventually read, long after I bought the camera, would say pretty much this.) Still, it was pretty expensive, but that's what I went with, and years later I still have no regrets.

I had already bought a Hama camera mount and I just happened to have it in the car that day so of course I shot video of the drive home, probably watching the pretty LCD screen a bit too much for California freeway driving. When I got home I reviewed the tape and I knew this was going to work out well.

The first time I took it to the track I recorded several sessions. The results were mixed as I didn't know how to use the camera in this situation. That day I learned about the relationship between good audio and the number of windows that were rolled down, that auto focus does a great job focusing on the reflection of your dash in the windshield when the light was right, then searched for and eventually found another subject then the light (angle of the sun) changed. I also started to learn how trying to manage the camera will driving can really mess you up, especially since I was still pretty new to this type of driving. While fiddling around with the camera to start recording I'd forget to do things such as buckle my chin strap or even fasten my seat belts.

And to be honest, the image quality was not so good. So much glare, and strong sun. But I solved that problem with a polarizer.

At this point I wasn't using many of the nice features of the camera but over time I would and I'd come to depend on them. The camera's image stabilization feature is very nice feature, perhaps essential for this applications. There's plenty of vibration in a speeding car and it hardly ever comes through in my videos. The A/V port was bi-directional so I could use that with a bullet cam. I also spent a bit of time playing with exposure and white balance, things like that, and before long the image quality was much improved. When I compared it to what most people were shooting and felt even better. This camera was doing a great job.

One thing I never had a problem with was the tape mechanism. People were telling me it would be a problem but it never was. I have seem a few tape glitches over the years, but that might total a whole 2 seconds compared to the hundred, possibly near two hundred, hours of video I have shot. Also, I have come to learn that the data rate of DV tape is in the 30 MBit/second, well above DVD quality, and this camera uses a CCD, which works better than the CMOS sensors seen on many cameras.

While everything sounds great so far I do have two complaints, but keep in mind these complaints are common to many video cameras. The first is that you have to take the camera off your tripod or camera mount in order to change tapes. That's not just a nuisance, but in this case it messes up the alignment/aim I spent so much time getting just right. The second is similar, but it concerns the battery and how in most cases I have to remove the camera from the tripod in order to change batteries.

The camera came with software that would let you download the video but it seems it was limited to 320x240 images. Odd. Being new at this I didn't know any better way to get the video onto my computer. I eventually figured out how to do this using Premiere 4.5, or 6, I forget, but that made a big difference.

The camera is now a bit scuffed and dusty, but it is working great. I still use it even though I now have a newer Sony high-def camcorder. I used it at the recent Lemons race, mounting it on the rear of the pace car. In the video I used those clips as picture-in-picture insert into my high-def footage. I also use the camera for second views and for recording the audio of my conversations with my students.

Below are frames from several different videos using this and other cameras. Click the images to see them full sized.

This is a frame from a Sony EX 480-line bullet cam. Notice the
lack of sharpness, the dark edges of the white car, and the color
smearing of the orange cones.

The image is much sharper and the colors much better than in
the bullet cam example above. This shot is from the same
location and nearly the same time of day as in the example
above.

This image is from the HDR-HD9 high-def camera, but the
inset is from the DCR-TRV80. The inset has not been resized
and serves as a good comparison of the differences in the
HD and SD image formats.

BlueAnt Interphone Motocycle Helmet Kit

Review Date: January 12, 2009 (revised January 31, 2010)
Purchase Date: August 4, 2007
Purchase Price: $144.95 each
Purchased From: BlueAnt - InterPhone Motorcycle Helmet Kit

I've been using a pair of BlueAnt Interphones for almost a year now and have had great success with them, so I thought I'd write a review.

I instruct at track events, mostly for newbies getting their first taste of performance driving on a road course. We have a lead instructor who handles classroom instruction, but for on-track instruction we actually have a lesson plan for the 20 or more people like myself who go out on the track with the students.

As an instructor I had always had a difficult time hearing what my student was saying, and with him/her hearing me. Hand signals helped a bit, but since the are seeing my hand from the side while I point to the braking markers up ahead, that usually confuses things. A number of other instructors are using the ChatterBoxes to communicate with their students, but I always thought hey were pretty pricey for a wired audio link. Besides, we are usually in the student's car for one, maybe two sessions. After that, it's lead-follows for the rest of the day. I needed something that would let me talk to my student whether they were sitting next to me or in another car.

I looked into radios and such and I ended up buying a pair of BlueAnt Interphones for helmet-to-helmet and car-to-car communications. These units were designed for motorcyclists who want to be able to talk to each other while on a ride. They communicate via BlueTooth and they can be used to talk to another (one other) unit, or to your cell phone. The range is about 150 meters, which is usually plenty for lead-follows.

The Interphone includes the receiver/transmitter, headset,
charger, and mounting bracket.

Each unit (I bought two, one for me and one my students could use.) comes with the main unit, a microphone and speaker, charger, and mounting hardware. The mounting hardware included an adhesive bracket that you can clip the main unit to. It also included a clamp-style bracket that could be slid, or shoved, over the shell of the helmet and under the padding. I'm using the adhesive mount on my helmet and my students use the clamp-style bracket.

BlueAnt Interphone mounted on a helmet.

Before you can use them you charge the batteries, then you get them to recognize each other. This involves pushing a button, waiting for beeps and such. It's in the manual and it was easy to do.

To use them, you press and hold the main button and wait for a beep to indicate the unit is on. Once both units are on you press the button on one unit until you hear two beeps. This switches it from phone to intercom mode. At that point you can yak away. To turn them off again you press and hold the button until you hear the beep. You can do all this with the unit on your helmet. There is a red/blue LED on the main unit that indicates what mode each unit is working in.

There are volume controls, too. These buttons are located on the end of the units and are easy to find and press, even while wearing driving gloves.

On the track, communications are very clear. These things are voice-activated plus they filter out the ambient noise so you don't hear the wind noise in the other car even while my student is speaking, although you can hear their tires squealing.

My hang gliding friends warned me against using voice-activated intercoms or radios. Apparently hang glider pilots do a lot of grunting and swearing as they manhandle their gliders. Imagine 8-10 pilots in the air at the same time, all using voice-activated radios, and everyone of them being able to hear each other from 5-10 miles away, all day. Anyway, this turned out to not be a problem. I'm pretty relaxed, well, focused, while I suspect some of my students aren't even breathing sometimes, but we hear each other when we speak. Besides, these units only communicate with each other, in pairs.

The batteries last 4-5 hours on a single charge, plenty long for a typical track day that usually includes 2 hours or so of driving. The batteries are not removable so you can't simply slip in a fresh set of batteries. Oh, well, I guess that's the cost of them being weather-proof.

Two little things to think about when using these, and neither are about these intercoms themselves, but rather to issues related to their use. First, now that you can talk to your student, you have to learn not to. It's tempting to hold a conversation with them, but you have to resist. In the beginning, keep it to a minimum. Their brains are already working at capacity. Later, you can add commentary, like "That looked like fun.", "Nice line.", "I saw that!", and so on. Second, practice turning on these things before you attach them to your helmets and get in the car. It's easy to start them up and put them in intercom mode, but if you mess up, its a pita and you're missing out on valuable track time.

I'm very happy with these things, and my students are too. They can't imagine what it would have been like not using them. Actually, I can, because I have instructed for years without using them. My first time instructing is a good example. This was our first lead-follow session, and I was rolling along at what I thought was a leisurely pace, barely even having to use my brakes. I'd still faux-brake to let my student know that where he should start braking, and I'd follow the school line very closely even though my modest speed gave me many more options. I kept checking the mirrors and he was still back there, keeping up, and seemed to be doing well. After wards I heard quite a different story. He thought we were nail-bitingly fast and it was all he could do to keep up with me. It had been a, well, very emotional session for him. He had even flashed his headlights to get my attention, but he had taped them up so I never saw them. Oops. But then again it cured him of his well-known bad habits in only one session. He was known in autox circles for jerking his car left and right and being hard on the pedals, and erratic. There was no way he could do that and keep up. Later he said he that on that day he really learned what smooth was. Now that I think of it, maybe an intercom would have extended his learning curve.

On the other hand, more recently I had a student who had only 20 and 40% hearing left and the intercoms were just what we needed.