The Sony HVR-Z1 is a professional, broadcast quality, HDV camcorder. It is popular for producers of documentaries and other television programs because of its small size and relatively low cost. It records in 1080i. It uses the DV recording format however it can record in DV, DVCAM and HDV versions of the format. It can also record in PAL (25 frames) and NTSC (30 frames).