One of the foremost DVguru's, Adam Wilt, takes a look at Sony recently announced HVR-V1. The V1 is a 24p HDV camera that seems like the child of the HVR-Z1 and the PD150. Adam believes this is "the best Handycam control layout Sony has done." And Sony is traditionally very good at this so that is saying a lot.

He also gets into the new CMOS sensors (vs traditional CCD's) which provide new options for Sony. "The CMOS sensor allows scanning from a reduced area at higher than normal speeds. The V1 exploits this with Smooth Slow Recording: the camera captures 3 seconds of 640 x 360 pixel video (or 6 or 12 seconds of 512 x 320 pixel video) to an internal memory buffer at 240 fps, for a 4x slow-mo. It then up-converts these small pix to DV(CAM) or HDV depending on format settings, and records them to tape. The resulting clips are a bit soft and show some compression artifacts." How long before we see this effects being exploited for its unique look?

But here is a snippet that should make your mouth water: "Overall, the raw resolution of the prototype V1 surpasses that of either the Z1 or the Panasonic HVX200, and may even challenge Canon's crisp XL H1. I'm eager to test the final, shipping version." Yum!