34 JANUARY2021|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE395
VLOGGINGISAbooming medium, but on
cameras we oftenwesee video features play
second fiddle to headline stills specs, With the
release of the Sony ZV-1, however,wehavea
video-first, premium compact camera that’s
good enough to be on every social content
creator’s shortlist.
While the ZV-1 doesn’t sit within any of
Sony’s existing product lines, it’s essentially
avideo-centric spin on Sony’s successful
RX100 range of compact cameras.The plastic
build isn’t in the same league as its more
metallic cousins, but at just atouch wider
than 100mm, it definitely shares the same
compelling compactness.
The front of the body is dominated by
the Zeiss-designed 24-70mm (35mm
equivalent) f/1.8-2.8 lens. In fact, so much
real estateistaken up by thelensthat the
barrel doesn’t quitesit flush with thebase
of the body,something to look out forwhen
attaching tripod plates.
As the ZV-1 is geared towards vloggers,
Sony has made anumber of design choices
that cater to selfie-style shooting. There’s a
grip that, while perhaps alittle cramped
when you’re filming from behind the camera,
offers great support while shooting selfie
content. There’s also atally light to let you
know when you’re recording.
BACKTO FRONT
The most notable physical feature,however,is
the 921,600-dot flip-out screen. Flipping out
to the side makes it better suited to vlogging
as it doesn’t interfere with any top-mounted
microphones or lights. It’s atouchscreen, too,
but you can only use it forselecting your
focus tracking points. Foreverything else,
you’re stuck with the physical buttons.
Across the topplate, there’s ahot shoe
and an arrayofthree microphones. As anice
touch, Sony includes acustomwindshield
SONY ZV-1
★★★★★
£699•From http://www.amazon.co.uk
VERDICT
Apocket-sized video powerhouse,the SonyZ-V1
is the perfect tool forsocial content creation
DSLR CAMERA
that slots intothe hot shoe tohelp cut down
on potentially distracting wind noise.
It’s worth noting that forall its focuson
video,the ZV-1 is still avery capable stills
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large 5,472x3,648 images, while its BIONZ X
processor allows photographs to be captured
at up to 24fps with autofocus and auto-
exposure enabled. Addthe workhorse
24-70mm lens, RAWfile support, face priority
multi-metering and Sony’s eye-tracking
autofocus, and you have quitethe camera.
There are,however, afew drawbacks.
While the camera’s automatic functions are
generally quitereliable,the limited number
of physical controls makes using the
advanced shooting modes achore.
If youcan overcome these limitations,
you’ll be rewarded: JPGs are large,richly
coloured and highly detailed. The standard
Sony colour profile has also beentweaked, in
an effort to improve skin tones. Overall we’d
saythe engineers have done agoodjob,but
some skin can still come out looking just a
little pink under certain lighting conditions.
TRACKING DEVICE
The ZV-1 is rich in video features, but what
really sells it forvlogging is the continuous
autofocus. With 315 phase and 425 contrast-
detection points, the focusissnappyand
dependable,quickly grabbing on to eyes,
faces or wherever you’ve selected via the
touchscreen. Move up,down, side to side,
back and forth –the ZV-1 has no trouble
keeping up,and it can
even quickly lock on to
objects that you’ve held
up in front of the lens.
The three-microphone
arrayworks well, too, and
really lifts the overall
quality of the videos; it’s a
farcry from compact
cameras of old. Themics
are directional, which
means theyfocus on the
sound in front of the lens
–the ideal setup for
vlogging. And, since there’s a3.5mm mic input
and hot shoe,you’re not limited to the
onboard mics, either,although there’s no
headphone jack, so monitoring is limited to
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Overall, video quality is excellent. 4K
recording is the headline draw,and the ZV-1
can record at up to 100Mbits/s at 30fps with
full readout and no pixel binning. If you settle
forFull HD you can record at up to 120fps.
As an added party piece,the ZV-1 offers a
high frame-rateslow-motion video mode,and
is capable of shooting at up to 960fps for40x
slow-mo in a24fps timeline.Slow-motion
footage can only be captured in short bursts
and takes awhile to process after shooting,
but it makes forexcellent B-roll footage. You’ll
need to shoot with plenty of light, however,as
the ISO gets bumped pretty hightoallow for
those^1 /1,000sec shutter speeds, and things can
get quitegrainy even then.
SHORTFILM
Battery lifeonthe ZV-1 can also be alittle
underwhelming: we only got 1h 6m of
continuous recording from afull charge,and
when more realistically recording multiple
clips, this dropped to 44m. Backup batteries
aren’t hard to find, but it’s ashame Sony
doesn’t include an external charger so you
can keep one always on charge –instead,
you can only charge by connecting the
charger via the camera’s micro-USB port.
It’s not perfect, then, but with solid stills
and excellent video features, the Sony ZV-1
is astrong all-rounder that punches well
above its size class.
ChristianHopewell
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
Seepage62for performancedetails
SENSOR RESOLUTION20.1 megapixels•SENSOR SIZE1in
(CMOS)•VIEWFINDERNone•LCDSCREEN3in(921,600
dots)•WEIGHT294g•DIMENSIONS60x106x44mm•
WARRANTYOneyear RTB•DETAILSwww.sony.co.uk•
PART CODEZV1BDI.EU
SPECIFICATIONS
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