Digital video cameras get smaller, cheaper, and better. Sony’s latest entry, the DSR-PD100A is a tiny and powerful tool for beginning filmmakers as well as professionals looking for "B-roll" and low-budget alternatives. It’s listed for $2,725 but you can find it on the internet for around $2,400.

About five years ago when Sony brought out its DCR-VX1000 camera, a lot of shooters picked one up. They will like the DSR even better. It’s smaller. It has a 3 ½ inch swing-out side panel viewer in addition to a regular eyepiece. And best of all, it produces a considerably better image in terms of shadow detail, color, color saturation, and color balance.

Sony seems to hide this camera from general knowledge. If you go to their web site, you have to know the exact name to find it, and unlike their "consumer" models, you won’t find a price listed. Why Sony makes it easy to find and buy their older and much more expensive DCR-VX1000 and hides this superior and less expensive model is one of those corporate mysteries. Readers of John Nathan’s excellent Sony: The Private Life may be tempted to see a combination of vision, stubbornness, personal passion, and corporate politics at play here.

Who would use this camera? One colleague, Robin Mortarotti, thinks that "the chief attraction of a camera like this is for the low budget documentary maker or beginning filmmaker. It’s the perfect tool to learn the fundamentals of storytelling in pictures and sound." And it is. It’s also a superb tool for relatively inexpensive corporate work, shooting news when and where a larger camera is impractical, and any project for which there are very limited funds.

As wonderful as it is, this camera cannot replace the look you will obtain with well-shot film or high-definition video. Still, it does open the playing field and works toward Godard’s belief that motion pictures will never be an artform until the materials are as cheap as paper.

Since the DSR-PD100A looks like a home camera, you can shoot in places where a big "professional" camera would draw unwanted attention. The pivoting side-viewer makes it possible to begin a shot with the camera above your head and end with it on the ground in one continuous and smooth move as you swivel the viewer with your left hand (don’t touch the screen,) provided you do so quickly enough to mask the bump you’ll get as you pass through the viewer’s middle position. For this kind of work, most hand-holding shooters will probably want to leave the included .7 wide-angle attachment screwed into place even though it adds about ½ pound to the camera’s weight.

While the camera is relatively light compared to full-sized versions (about 3 ¼ pounds with the wide-angle and large battery installed,) shooters who anticipate many hours with this unit may want to strengthen their wrists and forearms with some judicious exercises or weightlifting. This is not a camera you can place on your shoulder.

The camera comes loaded with lots of fun gimmicks and manual controls. They include what Sony labels "picture effects," which convert the image to black-and white, or sepia, or negative, or a solarized effect. There are playful "digital effects" such as "flash" which grabs a frame and holds it for an adjustable amount of time before the camera grabs the next frame. It is also possible to shoot in 16:9 format, though be careful you have the right post equipment to handle the squeezed image. And for a shot during which neither the camera nor the subject moves, you can switch to progressive scan and benefit from a much higher resolution.

Most professionals will prefer to leave these modifications to post manipulation. They will certainly want to stick to the 12x physical zoom and turn off the digital zoom since the latter tears up images. Some of the useful tools that pros will like are: recording to DVCAM instead of to DV; internal color-bars you can record at the head of every tape for more accurate bumping to a higher format at post; ability to chose either drop or non-drop frame; an included hot shoe for XLR mic attachment; firewire socket (cable not included); and adjustable shutter speeds to produce very usable in-field effects.

When it comes to color balance and exposure, the user can modify these across a wide range. But unless you are adjusting the camera while watching a professional monitor and a vectorscope, such manual tweaks are perhaps better left to post. While the camera’s two viewing methods are an improvement over the older DCR camera, they remain relatively crude to judge color, color balance, and exposure. Far better to budget tape-to-tape transfer after you’ve finished editing your film. Then, with the amazing help of a Rank or Spirit Datacine, you can accurately judge image modification and at the same time bring out detail and nuance you only dreamed were there. With some exceptions, run the camera on "auto" everything. Those exceptions are: focus, when you need to keep an object sharp that is not at the center of the frame; and exposure, when a hot or very dark background throws the camera’s auto-iris off kilter (the switchable 70%/100% zebra stripes helps a lot here.) The auto-color-balance is amazingly good, though color balance is also pretty easy to set manually by zooming into a white card or shirt and pressing the proper button.

What’s not to like about the DSR-PD100A? Too many buttons and menus – the consequence of loading the camera with so many methods to modify the image as well as the ability to shoot still pictures that you can record to either tape or to a "memory stick". There’s also the annoying factor that while all the publicity pictures of this camera show it equipped with a short shotgun mic, that’s an extra and not included. Neither firewire nor super VHS cables are included either, even though the camera has sockets for both. Finally, you will need to buy at least one larger and longer-lasting battery than the tiny one included.

Those complaints make a short list against the extraordinary positive features of Sony’s DSR-PD100A. To find out even more about this camera, search the internet. Then go forth and shoot.

Rick Wise is a long-time freelance director of photography, web designer, and writer.