Sony HX-1 Camera Review - Real Estate Video

Linda, we our a real estate video editing outsourcing company and by far most of the content coming in is coming from this camera using the .45x wide angle lens.  It is simple to use and gives great results. 

Mark

The Cybershot is currently being used by alot of our real estate clients for video and photos as well as stunning panoramics of the front of the house for property flyers....it also is used by alot of the Pros who use our HDhat video edit service for their real estate video work. 

PROFESSIONAL VIDEOGRAPHER HX-1 Examples:  Here are 300 or so videos  http://www.hdhathomes.com/results.aspx?vid=1 all of these were shot by a Pro in Madison Wisconsin for agents there.  All were shot with the Sony HX-1 with the wide angle lens.
NOTE: All these tours in the link above were "stabilized" by us in the post production editing which is where we make your video footage shine. 
Here is an example of what our stabilizing in the editing process can do for a typical video http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/401_tourb.html

AGENT HX-1 Examples: This is Katrina's 5th video with the HX-1 and I just shipped her a wide angle lens yesterday for her HX-1 http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/1859_tourb.html

AGENT HX-1 Examples: This is Lindsey's 2nd video with the HX-1 without a wide angle lens:  http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/1439_tourb.html

Sue: The Zi8 for video in completely ideal situations i.e. great even lighting does fantastic, however where a camera like the Cybershot wins out is in lowlight areas.  in those areas if you watch my video on the HX1 you can just set the exposure up to +.7 or +1 and WOW then the HX-1 will leave the Zi8 in the dust.  Plus the HX1 has a much more advanced stabilization system which helps to get better less shaky footage. You can see an "ideal" conditions comparison video(HX1 vs Zi8) here http://www.hdhat.com/tour-examples/kodak-zi8-vs-sony-hx1-hx-1-side.html 

TWO RECOMMENDATIONS:
For agents just wanting to start out in video and maybe not wanting to spend the $400-500 on the HX1 I would recommend the Kodak Zi8 with the .5x lens and the stabilizer bar......
However my 2nd recommendation if you are getting into video with a passion to win market share and gain additional traction in your market....then invest the extra and get the HX-1 and lens.  My personal recommendation is to get the HX1 from www.bhphoto.com as some of the cheaper prices online for this camera don't have the U.S. warranty so stick with reputable firms to buy it.

"How to Use Video To Crush the Competition" 
I have just this week started working one on one with a new agent i.e. less than 6 months in the business and I will be documenting and publishing all of my trainings with her.  In this I will show her how to use video to crush and take the market share of even the most experienced agents i.e. videoblogging, local community and neighborhood videos as well as property videos.  In fact she just got her first competitive listing yesterday.  Video was a big part of her presentation and what sold the seller on listing with her. 
Nichole and I are just getting started but my plan is to post her progress and exactly what we did(videos, social networking, SEO etc.) on my AR blog and on TechSavvyAgent.com.  TechSavvyAgent also will be interviewing her early next week. 

If anyone ever has any questions even at 10 p.m. at night :) 7 days a week about real estate video feel free to call me directly at 517-896-4376 Mark

Terri,

1) The limit is 2gb which is 21 minutes of record time at the highest setting. 

2) Yes you can zoom 20x in the video mode without the wide angle lens on.  If you have the wide angle lens on that we make for the camera you have to remember that the cameras lens is inside the barrel of our wide angles tube extender so you can zoom to a certain point....if you zoom to far the lens collide....no harm is done you just turn the camera off and everything resets.  I would though practice zooming "smoothly" before trying it with the lens on but once perfected it is smooth and real nice.  Click any of the video tour buttons on this page and you can see a typical HX1 zoom with the lens on the front exterior shot  http://www.hdhathomes.com/results.aspx?vid=1 

3) No not at all and we tried alot and settled on this specific .45x lens and this tube adapter.  What HDHat does is machine the tube adapter to the right length then attach the lens inside the tube adapter permanently.  The tube adapter/wide angle lens simply screws on and off whenever you want to use it. 
As far as I know it is the only true wide angle lens solution for the hx1 that works with no vignetting.

**About the wide angle lens: 
When taking video the wide angle adds alot and when taking 16:9 photos it adds alot(equivalent of about 18.5mm) but when taking 4:3 photos you can expect 28mm results which is wide both with the lens on and off. 
We shoot photos in 4:3 because they fit into websites and MLS's better. 
Below is a typical picture(reduced file size) with the HX1 with wide angle lens in 4:3 without a flash. Note: if you need a flash just remove lens and shoot with flash, however we have shot 1000's of photos even in the darkest no electicity foreclosure listings you can think of and never had to use the flash we just use the Exposure(OEV) setting(see my video review), but it is simple enough to just unscrew lens and shoot with a flash if you so desire. 

Terri the HX1 is an all in one wonder camera!  You can shoot stunning panoramics like this example http://www.hdhat.com/pansample.jpg in just seconds and use those as your main image in your property flyers!  You can rotate the dial and be shooting HD Steadyshot(optical stabilization) video at about 18.5 mm with the wide angle lens we offer and photos in 4:3 mode at 28mm. Beyond that you can set to handheld "twilight" mode and shoot some stunning photos of a home or pool area etc. when it is just getting dark outside etc. These types of photos really impress sellers and buyers.

The one thing I recommend to everyone is watch my "How to film at video tour" http://www.hdhat.com/video-tour-tutorials/how-to-film-a-real-estate-video-tour.html  these types of walking tours really give the buyer a piece of information that they can't get from disconnected photos......and they are ultra simple to do especially when using a camera like the HX1. 

NEW AGENT:  I actually set it up to teach her how to film her very first video tour tomorrow so I will load that up here soon and will have an assistant shoot some footage of me going over it with her. 

Mark