Despite fairly good recording ability and
user-friendly design, Sony HDR-PJ600VE still makes user hesitate due to the
price.
Introduced in May 2012, Sony HDR-PJ600VE is
the first personal digital camera having built-in projector.
In look, Sony HDR-PJ600VE bears similar design
to other compact cameras on the market. Sony HDR-PJ600VE has 466g weight
(including NP-FV50 battery) and 64x66x117.5mm size. Though there’s not much
change in design, Sony HDR-PJ600VE still shines with innovative features such
as Full HD capturing, direct recording into discrete hard disk drive and large-aperture
lens which is suitable for low-lighting condition. Moreover, Sony HDR-PJ600VE also
impresses users with the ability of viewing at 100fps thanks to a built-in
projector and 220GB storage.
Beside
recording videos and shooting images, Sony HDR-PJ600VE can work as a mobile
projector.
Sony HDR-PJ600VE is equipped with Sony G
Lens (12x optical zoom), anti-shake ability (Optical Steady Shot) and zoom
range extendable up to 160x (digital zoom). This hi-end camera owns maximal
aperture reaching F1/1.8 in 26.8mm focal length, promising to bring
good-quality images even in low-lighting. Next to the 12x zoom are flash and microphone
system supporting adjustment according to zooming length in order to optimize sound
quality. In the camera’s front lies infrared sensor beneath lens to receive
signal from the remote control. Sony HDR-PJ600VE is also equipped with Active Interface
Shoe for connection with external accessories such as video light, flash and
microphone.
This camera’s main strength is BIONZ image
processor plus Exmor R CMOS sensor seizing 1/3.91inch. With Sony HDR-PJ600VE, users
can not only record Full HD 60p videos in NTSC mode and Full HD 50p ones in PAL
mode in formats, including MPEG4-AVCHD/H264 (HD), MPEG2-PS (SD), but also capture
still images at 20.4MP (6,016x3,384 pixels) resolution. Beside 220GB storage, Sony
HDR-PJ600VE comes with card slot supporting SD/SDHC formats as well as Memory
Stick for user to extend the device’s storage maximally.
Anti-shake
feature works effectively in maximal focal length (34.8mm).
Overall, Sony HDR-PJ600VE presents quite
comfortable design when held either in palm as well as by tripod. Physical keys
are placed within hand’s reach and highly sensitive. However, button “Photo”
for capturing still images are situated next to zoom dial so they are sometimes
mistaken. 3inch swivel touchscreen supports large viewing-angle, HQ display and
high sensitivity for finger’s movements. Though, it still gives reflection under
direct sunlight and hot colors are a little more enhanced than they really are.
Taking a glance at control menu, we notice
that Sony HDR-PJ600VE’s main menu is appropriately arranged by big icons and
easily understood hints. However, sub-menus in fields, such as recording
configuration, sound quality and image calibration, are vertically sorted plus icons
are still small so they are a bit difficult to be operated.
Sony HDR-PJ600VE has fast autofocus when
casted in different angles. Beside this autofocus, user may choose to focus and
adjust brightness manually via operation directly on the touchscreen easily.
User
can focus on one particular object by touching its display on the screen.
We tried recording in automatic
configuration with AVCHD format, Full HD resolution (50i frame rate) and Standard
HD capturing mode. It was resulted that recorded video’s quality shown on PC as
well as on 26inch Samsung TV (Full HD support) was quite good. Colors were
accurate in condition of recording including strong lighting and auto
white-balance. Though, visual details in some scenes were not as high as
expected. Captured scene in maximal zoom was not either blurred due to vibration
and quality of colors and detail were not decreased. Zooming system ran
smoothly and quietly, without the issue that noise were created by zooming lens.
Image’s
depth and bokeh created by hi-end Sony Lens, was rather nice
Images containing animation were also reproduced
smooth and fluent by Sony HDR-PJ600VE. Sony G Lens 12x zoom did eliminate
lateral aberration effectively when the camera captured high-contrast scene, produced
images only shown little purple fringing.
5.1 surround sound delivered by Sony
HDR-PJ600VE was quite good and voice was naturally reproduced. Setting up auto
detection and wind noise reduction (Auto Wind NR), we saw that background noise
was considerably removed.
Visual quality recorded in low-lighting was
not decreased as much as it was configured at default. However, there was a
little noise, which might be acceptable and colors were presented quite
naturally. For night scene, user could deploy Low Lux feature to improve
screen’s luminosity.
Regarding built-in projector’s abilities, we
noticed that in order to 100inch screen size, user ought to experience in an
extremely dark environment. Trying viewing in condition having few secondary
light source with 20inch screen size, Sony HDR’PJ600VE gave pretty fine display
on beige wall as well as on specialized screen though frame got a little
dimmed. Operation appeared simple. Clear Phase surround sound provided loud and
vibrant sound.
Through practice, it could be seen that Sony
HDR-PJ600VE delivered fair visual quality and simple control. However, due to
short runtime, user should either buy an alternative battery or turn GPS off to
improve battery’s runtime. RRP is $1,299.
