Sony MSW-900, 900P Compact, lightweight, and low power consumption, Extended recording times

Compact, lightweight, and low power consumption

The MSW-900 is designed to be extremely compact and lightweight, providing a high level of mobility in the field. It weighs approximately 5.3 kg (11 lb. 10 oz.) including a viewfinder, microphone, BP-L60A Li-ion battery and BCT-60MX cassette tape.

With its new-generation LSI, the camcorder achieves a low power consumption of just 27 W.

Extended recording times

The MPEG IMX camcorder provides long recording times, up to 60 minutes for NTSC signals and 71 minutes for PAL. These are achieved by the efficient MPEG compression algorithm, which provides the optimum balance between image quality and recording time.

Loop/interval recording

The MSDW-903 Picture Cache Board allows two new and extremely useful features to be incorporated into the MSW-900.

Loop recording is a useful function that allows audio and video signals to be buffered in a memory until the Record button is pressed. The signals buffered in the memory are recorded to tape at the instant the REC button is pressed. This capability can avoid the loss of important scenes that may occur before the operator has time to press the Record button. It is especially helpful for news gathering applications where a vital, one-off shot, would otherwise be missed. Up to eight seconds of data are always buffered for recording.

Interval recording is also a unique feature of the MSW-900 camcorder, and operates in a choice of two modes. In manual mode, up to eight frames are recorded every time the Record button is pressed. In auto mode, the camera records frames at predetermined intervals over a predetermined time. In both modes the frames are initially stored in the Picture Cache board and when this is full its contents are copied to tape. This allows recordings to be made over very long time periods on a single tape and minimizes wear of the tape drive mechanism.

❚ Loop recording ❚ Auto interval recording

(the decisive moment)

Cameraman's action

Total Time

Push REC button

Tape recording

Max. 8 sec

Recorded Time

5