Sony HDR-AX2000E

The AX2000E is Sony's top-of-the-range prosumer camcorder. So it's time to put your HDV tapes up into the attic, as from now on in it's memory cards only.

Handling

Weighing in at almost 2.5 kg, the AX2000E isn't exactly the kind of camcorder you'd buy for a family holiday. This semi-professional model is aimed at independent film-makers or journalism students looking for expert-style filming and handling. There are no cassettes and there's no internal hard drive, as with the AX2000E, rushes are stored exclusively to Memory Stick or SDHC memory cards. SDHC cards are generally the cheaper and more readily available of the two. To give you an idea, a 16 GB Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo card would set you back around £75, whereas you could pick up a 32 GB (class 4 minimum) SDHC card for around £90.

Two memory card slots are located at the rear of the camcorder, so you could, for example, load it with two 32 GB memory cards at once. This camcorder will even automatically start recording on the second card as soon as the first one is full. Note that the AX2000E is supplied with no memory card as standard.

Overall, the AX2000E has a similar design and handling to previous Sony models. There's a carry-handle on the top, and a swivel-screen at the front with playback controls (rewind, fast-forward etc.) just next to it. With the screen positioned at the front of the camcorder, you can hold the camcorder on your shoulder and use it to line up shots instead of the viewfinder. The 3.5-inch screen is excellent quality too, with an impressive resolution of 921,000 pixels. Sony has simplified the touchscreen menu with main icons for Record/Playback/Memory Type/Edit/Copy for quick and easy access to all the main modes and settings. The viewfinder is comfortable and pleasant to use with a resolution of 12 Megapixels. In fact, I found myself only really using the viewfinder when filming with this camcorder.

The Sony G lens is a particularly interesting feature of this model. There are three endlessly adjustable manual rings for controlling the focus, zoom and iris. These rings have with no gradations or markings. Three neutral-density filters are also included to help keep overexposure in check. These can be controlled using a switch on the side of the lens, and you'll find them pretty much essential when filming outdoors. The focal length starts off at a wide-angle of 29.5 mm—which is a pretty wide field of view for a camcorder—and varies accordingly with the 20x optical zoom. This powerful zoom and wide-angle view make the AX2000E a really versatile camcorder to film with.

Left: simplified touchscreen menu. Right: automatic white balance mode.

Picture quality

The AX2000E films in a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels at 50 frames per second (1080i). Although it's technically positioned at the very highest end of consumer camcorders, shots from our test scene showed the picture to be identical in sharpness to that of the Sony CX550 (approx. £1,200). Sensitivity in darker, shadowy areas is much better, however, thanks to the tri-CMOS sensor and the lens, which generally does a better job of handling light. The white balance is slightly magenta heavy. That's not a first for this type of Sony camcorder either, as the PD170, released back in 2004, had the same problem. Thankfully, you can correct this fault manually by recalibrating the white balance in the WHITE BAL menu.


The AX2000E has a stereo microphone at the front of the handle, which does a decent job of capturing the surrounding acoustic environment. More importantly though, there are two XLR audio sockets, which is unprecedented on a consumer camcorder (for those of you who don't know, an XLR socket is used to hook up a professional microphone). There's also a decent range of audio settings, like microphone volume (CH1, CH2) and entry channel selection (Line, Mic). For some of you, this feature could well save you from having to shell out for the NX5 profession model (see insert), which can be more expensive. However, the AX2000E does still have one thing in common with consumer camcorders: the AVCHD format, which is synonymous with slowness and glitches in post-editing due to H.264 compression. This could be pretty detrimental in a model aimed at semi-professional video buffs who are likely to be heavily into post-production. The competition in this field is tough too, as JVC's GY-HM100 is more compact, films to two SDHC cards with excellent image quality, and records in the MPEG-2 Long-GOP format, which is much more supple in post-editing.

The AX2000E has a huge range of video connections, with an HDMI output, a composite output, RCA audio connections, a component connection, a USB port and a headphones socket.

So is it worth buying? That all depends on what you're looking for. For professionals who are used to handling Sony's FX1, FX1000 or Z1, the AX2000E could prove a wise investment, as it has all the same spec as the NX5 but with a slightly more reasonable price tag. For amateur users looking for a top-notch camcorder, the CX550 will do the job perfectly well, as the image quality and focal length are pretty much the same.