Digital Vlog Camera ZV-1

Vari-angle LCD screen, for selfie shooting with confidence

The flip-out LCD screen lets you check your framing for vlogs and selfies without the view being restricted by accessories like microphones. The touch panel control makes intuitive adjustment of focus, shutter and other settings simple, even during selfie shooting.

Directional 3-capsule mic and a bundled wind screen

Record your voice clearly, even in a crowd, with the built-in three capsule microphone. The unique design and structure uses spatial filtering to capture clear audio in front of the camera with fewer distracting ambient sounds. The included wind screen can also be attached to shoot outdoors, even in windy conditions, with confidence.

Optimised for easy and natural selfies

The ZV-1 is designed for quick and easy vlogging, with an ergonomic grip for stable selfie shooting, and a bright recording lamp so you’ll never forget to hit record again.

Compatible with all-in-one Bluetooth® grips

The ZV-1 is compatible with our range of shooting grips, including the GP-VPT2BT with Bluetooth® wireless technology, for easy remote control of recording, zoom and even assignable custom controls, without cables. The ideal accessory for vlogging, our grips offer stable and flexible shooting, and also expand into a mini tripod for compact, handsfree capture anywhere. 

Beautiful and natural skin tones for everyone

Sony’s enhanced colour science ensures lively, natural imagery and is especially strong across the diverse range of skin tones. It is available for both movie and still image capture, and is supported with a Soft Skin option to smooth blemishes.

High image quality and easy advanced effects

Despite its pocket-friendly design, the ZV-1 is equipped with a large 1.0-type Exmor RS^TM CMOS sensor, for high quality images even in dim or challenging lighting conditions. In addition, the large sensor delivers professional-looking images, with a blurred background bokeh, along with high-speed data readout for stunning 4K and super slow motion video capture.

Leave the focusing work to the camera with Real-time Tracking

Just turn your face to the camera, and the camera will recognise colour, patterns (brightness), subject distance (depth) and face/eye information and automatically snap into precise focus tracking. In addition, when the camera recognises eyes, faces, or subjects, a frame is displayed on each target so you can make sure that the subject is in focus and shoot without worrying.

Quickly shift focus between subjects

The high-performance focal plane phase-detection AF sensor enables high-speed and high-precision focusing with Fast Hybrid AF. The sensor uses 315 phase-detection focusing points across a full 65% of the screen area to quickly switch between subjects without hunting. When taking a selfie, the camera can switch focus with just a touch from your face to the background and back again, so sharp and accurate focus comes easy.

Beautiful defocused background bokeh, with ease

Capture expressive selfies with the professional look of a soft-focus background. The unique Bokeh Switch (C1 button) bypasses all the complexity of exposure balancing and depth-of-field control, and replaces it with a single button. Simply press to switch between having everything in focus, or blurring the background to expertly feature your subject.

Make your reviews stand out with Product Showcase Setting

Take your product reviews to a new level of professionalism with the Product Showcase Setting, for fast and precise focus transitions from you to your featured product. The C2 custom button activates Product Showcase Setting by default, deprioritising your face for focusing and widening the field-of-view. Simply holding a product up in front of the camera will switch the focus point from your face, so there’s no more autofocus frustration and you can efficiently shoot video reviews with ease.

Powerful image stabilisation

Even while walking with the camera, you can get smooth, highly stable imagery thanks to the SteadyShot™ joint optical and electronic stabilisation system. It's specifically designed for handheld shots and vlogging with a shooting grip so you’ll enjoy the confidence of blur- and shake-free shots. Instead of holding still, you can concentrate fully on your presentation and framing.

Smart auto-exposure (AE) transitions, optimised for faces

The kind of erratic, in-the-moment, shooting that makes for compelling vlogging also presents a huge challenge for most cameras. The ZV-1’s clever AE transition algorithm, however, makes rapid exposure adjustments even as lighting conditions change dramatically, through shadow and sunlight, indoors and out. And by prioritising faces, it ensures your video subjects always look their best, even when the lighting is far from ideal.

Attach professional accessories with the MI Shoe

Our unique Multi Interface (MI) Shoe offers incredible flexibility to add lights, microphones and much more. Not only does it support standard cold-shoe accessories and flashes, but the interface also allows you to add high-performance audio adaptors such as the ECM-XYST1M stereo microphone, with power available direct from the camera.

Dynamic super slow motion

Capture moments from the decisive to the everyday in epic super slow motion to easily add drama and magic to your videos. With recording frame rates as high as 960fps, almost any moment can be captured, while adjustable playback rates let you slow down the action anywhere from 4x to 40x.

Time-lapse adds cinematic expression to the passage of time

The ZV-1 features an interval shooting mode ideal for creating cinematic time-lapse movies with the aid of our Imaging Edge^TM Desktop PC software. The adjustable shooting interval (from 1–60 seconds) and full manual camera control allows spectacular shots of flowing clouds, streaming headlights and more, across up to 9,999 shots. Add a mobile battery, thanks to the convenient USB power input, and you can capture scenes worry-free for hours at a time.

High quality 20.1MP still image capture

Capture high-quality still images thanks to the 1.0-type Exmor RS CMOS sensor and ZEISS® 24-70mm lens. The large sensor and wide F1.8-2.8 aperture lens, along with the latest-generation BIONZ X™ processor, deliver professional-quality images—with exceptional performance even in low light, and stunning background bokeh for portraits.

Create artistic imagery with Creative Style and Picture Effect

With Creative Style and Picture Effect settings, the ZV-1 offers a wide range of looks to add interest and individuality to your video. Creative Style let you adjust image parameters like contrast and colour, while Picture Effect adds amazing new character to your images, including a chic monochrome and a charming miniature effect, among others.

Send videos to your smartphone anywhere with Imaging Edge Mobile

You shouldn’t need to wait until you’re in front of your PC to share your video and stills with the world. Imaging Edge Mobile, free for Android and iOS devices, lets you remotely view and control your ZV-1, and wirelessly backup and transfer images to your smartphone even with the camera turned off. With Imaging Edge Mobile your images can be shared from anywhere, without needing to suffer the compromised image quality of your phone camera.

Movie Edit add-on trims movies and extends image stabilisation

Get your shots social-media ready right in the field with the Movie Edit add-on. Available free for iOS and Android devices alongside Imaging Edge Mobile, this simple app lets you edit your videos, and crop their aspect ratio to suit a range of social platforms—with automatic reframing of your subject. An enhanced image stabilisation tool also further suppresses any shake from your videos, for butter-smooth motion.

Vertical video tagging for easy sharing

The ZV-1 can add meta tags to vertically recorded video, allowing immediate uploading to mobile-friendly platforms—no PC rotation or cropping required.

Intuitive touch operation

The ZV-1’s touch screen makes selection of focus and tracking points, as well as other settings simple, even with the display flipped for selfies and vlogging—no more fumbling behind the camera for dials and navigation sticks. 

Shoot 4K video like a pro

Capture all the beauty and detail of the world—and yourself—with 4K (QFHD 3840 x 2160) video recording. Thanks to its high-speed sensor LSI, the ZV-1 uses a full-pixel readout, resampling around 1.7x the number of pixels required for 4K, to condense astonishing detail into each and every frame. 

Support for professional movie-recording workflows 

For more demanding productions, the ZV-1 supports a range of movie functions more typically found in professional equipment, including S-Log3 and S-Log2 gamma curves. The wide dynamic range available using these S-Log profiles is perfect for camera matching and minimising blown-out highlights or lost shadow detail. Additional options for Picture Profile and Creative Style are also available, along with advanced features like Gamma Display Assist, Zebra metering, a Clean HDMI output with Rec Control, timecode, and Proxy recording. There's everything a video professional could need in day-to-day work situations.  

Built in ND filters for precise exposure control

A built-in neutral-density filter ensures your exposure is always optimal, without throwing out any of the creative intentions in your shutter angle or F-stop. A staple in all professional video environments, the adjustable ND filter lets you capture blurred motion and expressive bokeh, where it would otherwise be impossible, such as in daylight conditions up to EV19.

Grab still images from movies

The ZV-1 can capture full-resolution still frames from your recorded movies in-camera—no PC required. Grab highlights out of any of your videos, or save time and share a full package of video and thumbnails directly from the camera.

Imaging Edge Desktop^TM

Elevate your photography with Imaging Edge Desktop. Use ‘Remote’ to control and monitor shooting live on your PC screen; ‘Viewer’ to quickly preview, rate, and select photos from large image libraries; and ‘Edit’ to develop RAW data into high-quality photos for delivery. 

Works with iMovie and Final Cut Pro X

This product is compatible with Final Cut Pro X and iMovie.