I did several searches but found nothing on this, so sorry if I missed it.

I'm VERY new to video (ok, less than a week with this new camera) and am going to want to record some of an indoor evening kid's birthday party. I really don't want too a lot of grainy hi def footage, but I also don't want to blind people with the light and be a distraction.

I see Sony makes a couple of lights for their cameras:

The HVL-10NH, which runs off of external batteries (good) but has no real interface with the camera's electronics (bad);

The HVL-HFL1, which runs off the camera battery (bad) but has an active interface with the camera (good), and includes a flash, but the camera already has one (why?);

The HVL-HIRL, which is similar to the HFL1 but has no flash and includes IR (not sure I'd need that).

Anyone else have experience with Sony lights? I imagine that running one off the hot shoe would really drain the camcorder's battery...

The other issue with using an active light is that it occupies the hot shoe so that if you wanted to use an external mic that also uses the shoe, like the ECM-HW1 Wireless Microphone or ECM-HGZ1 Shotgun Microphone, you're out of luck.

Any opinions?

Thanks,

Larry Becker

No Ideas?

It wasn't on my original list, but it is a cheaper 3 watt light only that has an active interface with the camera and takes power from the camera battery. It was only $40 and was the ONLY light I could find locally. I think it will meet my needs pretty well... Wanted to use it tonight...

Larry Becker

Does anyone know if there are anymore powerful lights available that will fit onto the SR7? I've found the HVL20DW2 but I'm unable to determine if it will fit. Any suggestions would be great.

Neither the Sonystyle website nor the accessories booklet lists the HVL-20DW2 as being compatible with the SR7. It DOESN'T use the active hot shoe for power or control -- it needs its own camera battery to run. You might call Sonystyle to see what they say.

The website and acccesories booklet lists the HVL-10NH as being the most powerful light that works with the SR7. It's only 10 watts, where the 20DW2 is two 10 watt lights that can work together or separately. The HVL-10NH doesn't use the active hot shoe either. It uses 4 AA Ni-MH rechargeables for power.

I'd call Sonystyle to see if the 20DW will work for you. B & H Photo video lists quite a few on camera video lights that might work as well, but none but the Sonys will use the active shoe interface. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/shop/2025/On_Camera_Lights_On_Camera_Lighting.html
That might be ok as using even the 3 watt light REALLY sucks down the battery life.

Larry Becker

I'd actually prefer that the light have its own seperate battery, my only concern is that I want what ever light I get to fit into the Shoe Interface. I'm new to the vid cam world, is the shoe interface a standard slot or does it vary from manufacturer to manufacturer?

I'm sorry to say I don't know. The shoe on my SR7 IS different than my Canon SLR, but camcorder to camcorder, don't know.

I'm QUITE sure that even if they are the same physical size, the electronics won't match up from brand to brand. I don't know that there's much being passed along anyway, but still, there will be differences.

The Sony units that have their own batteries also come with a bar that attaches to the tripod shoe that has a shoe on it to mount the flash. I think that's handy for the times when you want to use something ELSE in the active shoe -- like an external microphone.

Larry Becker