I have also ordered the 700, rather than get the 550. Screen size means nothing. I want the 60P, and 96 gig of flash. Zebra will be nice.

I have a friend who has the 550. So, when I get the 700, I want to try a test. I want to take both cameras and record with them side by side. I then am going to a friends who has a 72 inch LCD which I believe takes a native 1920X1080P signal, which I hope will take 59.94fps also. Either way, I will pump in the 1080i from the 550 and 1080p from the 700 and see if I can see any difference on the large screen.

If we can see a difference, he plans to sell his 550 and buy the 700.

Interesting, another forum has a person with the 700 who has blasted it and sounds like is sending back for the tm900. I guess the VF on the 700 is 4/3 not 16/9. The manual controls can only be done one at a time.
Says did not like the picture quality. Boy can folks flip flop fast on this stuff

Thanks for the responses.

Jim - I got the CX700 on March 13 and put it through some functionality tests. I couldn't live without manual control, so I just returned it.

I love small cameras and I love how pro features are being incorporated into these tiny bodies nowadays. I shot an entire feature film with a Canon HV20 and it blew me away with the high quality footage it delivered, so I was expecting the CX700 to be even better with 1080/60p and a beautiful 26.3m wide angle lens.

I need full manual control and a simple way to access it. I think that's not too much to ask.

I need full manual control and a simple way to access it. I think that's not too much to ask.
that's why I'm waiting for HF G10, there will be full manual control, not sure though about simple way to access :)

Jeff,

I started testing a CX700v last night. What did you think of the image quality? I'm finding it softer than the Panasonic TM700 so far, but haven't really given it a thorough test drive yet.

Pat

Pat,

I had returned my CX700v as soon as I found out I couldn't get full manual control out of it, so I did not give the camera any significant quality tests.

Of the little I DID shoot, here are my thoughts:

1080/60p was gorgeous. I shot on auto mode, late afternoon, exterior -- I wish FCP7 could transcode Sony's 60p. The Panasonic TM700 is really good, as well -- that's too close to call for me.

1080/24p looked fantastic as well on automatic. I was able to transcode the 24p clips to ProRes in FCP7 and watched it on a 24" HP monitor. I would compare the 24p of the CX700v to the Sony Z5U - it looked that good. Sony sure screwed up not giving full manual control with this camera.

That last thing that impressed me was the Low Lux mode. Aside from the Night Vision, a handy feature the Panasonic cameras lack, the Low Lux mode on the Sony was better than my Pany HMC40 and Canon HFS200.

I think the CX700v is the ideal camera for people who shoot live concerts in small venues and have no control over the environment. You can sneak this camera in your pocket, have an ultra wide angle lens for tight spaces, and the automatic mode will compensate well for the concert lighting. BUT if you want control, this isn't the right tool to use.

Thanks Jeff,

I shot some more test video yesterday indoors and outdoors. In auto this camera seems to operate with a wider aperture than the TM700 in the same lighting, which may account for the softer images I was seeing (softness was more pronounced on the frame edges). Using landscape mode outside gave me a crisper image, and the footage looks much better than it did earlier. There is a fair amount of CA at full zoom - it was particularly bad in full auto, but improved somewhat in auto mode/landscape mode.

Pat

What reference point are folks making comparing to? A 100K professional camera? A 1.3K camera?
If I look at what we get for our money compared to what I spend on my HDV camera just 5 years ago, this stuff is just amazing!

I have the camera and starting to play with it. So far I like the view finder since it can be used to turn the camera on and off. Pretty neat. Like the audio icon on the LCD display so I can see that audio is being recorded in 5.1. Have set the video to max recording, which means the picture mode does not work. Anyone know if you put a SD card it, can it be pointed to for pictures and work?

If it's like the CX550, nope, the 24Mbps must consume all the available processing and buffer, so it can't do dual mode (shoot stills while shooting video).

I cannot say enough good things about the camera... My only real complaint is I had to wait from when I ordered it on January 5th until it arrived on march 9!

I was a previous owner of a xr500v, and was pleased with it as well.

I have no problems with the manual controls on this camera, as they are far superior to those on the xr500V. I do understand, fully, though that is a consumer-oriented camera... Not even a prosumer camera.

This camera was designed for the techno-dude in the household that likes a top of the line camera with a few extra sprinkles of "pro" stuff. Think a top of the line point and shoot digital camera vs. A Nikon D300.

In my opinion, it was never designed by Sony to make movies or to replace a $225K F35. Do I wish it had a "ring" on the lens rather than the little knob? Sure. But then it would be bigger. I love the compact size of this camera and was very pleasantly surprised at just how small it was when it arrived, considering I had bought it sight unseen.

Please keep in mind that there seemed to be a leap in manual abilities and technology from my xr500v (which is now two years old) and the cx700V. I skipped the cx550. I am thrilled to be able to set my shutter speed at 60 and leave it there! I actually think the response on the little knob for focus or exposure is not too bad at all. Considering the market the camera was designed for, i have really only three gripes....

1. The zoon can be a little laggy. Move the zoom rocker and theres an almost inperceptible delay, but enought to bug me a little....
2. It seems to take a while to boot up. The XR500V was up from dead and ready to shoot in like 2 seconds. This one is more like 4-5 but feels like forever.
3. I miss the ability to use the viewfinder while the LCD is open and flipped around! I hope this gets fixed in a FW update. I got some of my best and funniest videos of my young children when I flipped the LCD around so they could see themselves. On the XR500V, I could then use the viewfinder to see what I was shooting, On the CX700V, they took this out for some reason!

Stacy, great post. I have always had larger Sony cameras in the past. I always had to carry these around with a shoulder strap and the wife never wanted to use them. But when I put the 700 in her hand last night she had this big smile and loved it. So, even though some things are "different", the trade offs that Sony made to make the unit as small and light as possible is huge for the market they are going after.

I had not run across the LCD out and viewfinder goes dead. I agree this is not ideal, but maybe this is so the battery life is as long as possible? Again, trade offs for what the majority want. And if I am the designer, small size, light weight and Maximum battery life would be my first design musts.

After reading the manual, not totally sure how and what to use to dump my video clips to an external disc.
I assumed the built in USB would be this, but the manual to me implies I need to purchase the optional USB cable. I also need to find the part number for the HDMI cable which is not included. Real tight of them to not put in the Svideo cable. Clearly they want to make us spend a bunch more money. :o(

But so far, am glad I finally went from a tape work flow to a tapeless. Now I am all ready to take pictures of my second Granddaughter who will be born in a few weeks.

Too bad one cannot leave the camera in max quality and still take pictures to an SD card. Will have to see how quickly I can change this.

Question for the smile feature. I have heard if you are not using this but leave it enabled, it can focus on faces which might not be what one wants to do. Are folks leaving on or off this feature if you are not using?

Dave,

I also am using the camera, exclusively, in 60p mode so I don't get the pictures. On the other hand, when I was using the XR500V, I ended up deleting most of those pictures anyway. You can easily stop video and take a picture.

I did have one other gripe.... the transfer speed when using Picture Motion Browser. Normally, the included software with pretty much any product is pure crap. PMB, however, is REALLY good software!

However, it is so slow I could watch my grass grow during the transfer. I did some testing and found the following:

1. When using the full PMB software on the PC, it is the slowest. Think like 3GB in 1.5 HOURS. Totall unacceptable.
2. When using MTP USB mode and using the PMB Portable and transferring that way, it's better but not what I'd call fast. It did 3GB in about 40 minutes.
3. If you just set the USB to Mass Storage and drill down and copy the files yourself, that is blazing fast. The 3GB transfered in under 2 minutes.

As far as I can tell, there is a translation going on with the file names. The file names on the camera itself are 00001.MTS, 00002.MTS, etc. But when you use the software it renames the files with the date and time they were shot. Way better. This method seems to be what's talking so long.

More interesting than that, it doesn't seem to just be a bug in the new version of PMB becuase I used the old trusty XR500V, compensated for the lower bitrate by shooting longer to get right around 3GB and that transfer worked very fast inside the latest version of the software that is so slow on the CX700.

So frankly I'm stumped. I've tried all these tests on three different PCs (one with Win7 x64, one with Vista x32 and one with Win7 x32). All pretty much extactly the same.

As far as the HDMI cable, I just bought one off of amazon. You don't need a special Sony cable. I bought this one Amazon.com: Mini HDMI 1.3 Female to HDMI Male Digital Video Adapter: Electronics and it works great.

Yes, you need a special cable (for crying out loud) to use the "internal" USB to copy to the external drive. It's like $30. Quite a lot.

But again, other than these gripes, most of which are not really THAT much of a deal breaker, I highly recommend this camera to anyone. The 1080p60 looks amazing on TV and edits quite well. I was surprised.

Stacy, thanks for this data. I hope to play with the transfer stuff soon, so will take your inputs as I try.

That adapter part is great, but 2.95 shipping for a 1.18 part, ouch, I will try and find at Frys.

I plan to have lots of data to transfer, so I need to find a working fast process.

So, did you have to use the 30 dollar cable to transfer to an external USB hard drive for the fast speed, or could you use the internal connected one?

I had assumed I could just hook up the USB to my windows box, and just SMB the files over w/o
any special s/w, or a different USB cable needed. Is this not true? :o(

You don't have to have the special USB cable. I don't

Just use the built-in one on the hand grip. It's the same thing. I think the special cable is for when you want to hook it up to a external drive that's designed to copy without a PC.

The speical cable is a not to the Type B (Flat) it's to the Type A (which normally ends at the device instead of the host).

If you use the USB in the grip, please let me know what your success is on the transfer speed, please.

Regarding the HDMI cable..... Do you know what you're going to pay for a "non-generic" cable? Probably like $40 if you buy from Best Buy or Sony. a total of $4.50 is pretty good.

Will try to give a transfer a try soon.

Here is one cable I think would work?

Amazon.com: AmazonBasics High Speed Mini-HDMI to HDMI Cable with Ethernet (9.8 Feet / 3 Meters): Electronics

Stacy -
Are you trying to use the USB out that is built in with that little pigtail, or the socket on the side of the camera? I'm going to venture a guess that the socket is designed for transfer to an external drive, and may be somehow limited, where the USB pigtail is for "regular" transfers - otherwise it's very odd that you're seeing slow transfer rates. I don't have a 700 to play with :-(... but that's a guess from the description and that oddball dual USB out setup.

Second, do you notice a difference in startup time between "first" startup and subsequent ones? If Sony retained the design used previously, the first startup is a little longer, then when you close the LCD it goes into a "snooze/fast restart" mode for want of a better term, so any reopening of the LCD will reboot the camera much faster, within a set amount of time (I have no idea what that "standby" period might be). I know some earlier Handycams had a button for quick restart you had to press, but then I noticed the button disappeared and you could tell they made it an "auto" feature.

With 60P you should be able to do clean frame grabs of around 2M pixel, might be enough for stills, usually the "dual mode" is somewhat limited, and I suspect interpolated anyway, so frame grabs might be "better"?

Finally, I find it REALLY strange that the flipping the LCD 180 turns on the VF on feature has disappeared - that's a feature I'd think would be a "must" with Japanese consumers, for the very reasons you've mentioned - the ability to flip the LCD so kids can see themselves while you "monitor" via the VF was a surprise the first time I discovered it, but it does get you some great footage! I just double checked though, and the CX550V ALSO no longer has this feature, so I guess they eliminated it after the XR500... bummer.

Yep, have the VF on, and when I open the LCD, off it goes.

Stacy, need to make a larger file but. When I copied a 140mb file via SMB, it took a while and it called the file .MTS

When I used PBM, it seemed to be much quicker, and call the same file .m2ts

Playing this one my PC via VLC, the video is not smooth, even thought the audio is. With is full screen, the video is choppy. But, if I make the size smaller, it is fine.

Playing via media player, the audio is messed up. (But I might need a PC reboot since have heard this before playing other type of files)

If I play the same video via PBM, audio and video perfect.

Wow can recommend a good camera bag to carry the camera with lens hood on, batteries, and cables.
Would like to have something as small as possible, but fit all the needed stuff for a trip

Been playing with the GPS information. I tried the update it said it could do, but do update and nothing I can see seems to happen.

But, is there anyway to get more info like streets? It zooms in and out, but without streets, not worth too much. BUT, with street info, it would be another great tool.

.................

Please keep in mind that there seemed to be a leap in manual abilities and technology from my xr500v (which is now two years old) and the cx700V. I skipped the cx550. I am thrilled to be able to set my shutter speed at 60 and leave it there! I actually think the response on the little knob for focus or exposure is not too bad at all. Considering the market the camera was designed for, i have really only three gripes....

1. The zoon can be a little laggy. Move the zoom rocker and theres an almost inperceptible delay, but enought to bug me a little....
2. It seems to take a while to boot up. The XR500V was up from dead and ready to shoot in like 2 seconds. This one is more like 4-5 but feels like forever.
3. I miss the ability to use the viewfinder while the LCD is open and flipped around! I hope this gets fixed in a FW update. I got some of my best and funniest videos of my young children when I flipped the LCD around so they could see themselves. On the XR500V, I could then use the viewfinder to see what I was shooting, On the CX700V, they took this out for some reason!


MY CX700 came yesterday, waiting for the fog to lift to give it a good test today, the new menu was a bit of a shock, seems to have fallen in line with the NEX range but footage taken so far in 25p with cinetone is the best i have seen from Sony, this is a fantastic little camcorder, image seems to be sharper, with perhaps a little more edge sharpening than the MC50, Just put the mic from the MC50 on top and hey presto!, finally got the cam that the MC50 should have been!

Agree with Stacy's gripes, zoom rocker is very slack, and adding to the gripe list- the lens hood gets in the way of the manual control button

What does cinetone give you? What are folks suggestions as to which defaults to change?

Stacy, need to make a larger file but. When I copied a 140mb file via SMB, it took a while and it called the file .MTS

When I used PBM, it seemed to be much quicker, and call the same file .m2ts

Playing this one my PC via VLC, the video is not smooth, even thought the audio is. With is full screen, the video is choppy. But, if I make the size smaller, it is fine.

Playing via media player, the audio is messed up. (But I might need a PC reboot since have heard this before playing other type of files)

If I play the same video via PBM, audio and video perfect.

Dave, I think it's a glitch in vlc. I have the same issues, vlc stutters where windows media player in win7 plays it just fine.

What does cinetone give you? What are folks suggestions as to which defaults to change?

Cinetone just increases the contrast and pulls up the saturation. I would say it's analogous to on a nikon slr setting to vivid mode.

MY CX700 came yesterday, waiting for the fog to lift to give it a good test today, the new menu was a bit of a shock, seems to have fallen in line with the NEX range but footage taken so far in 25p with cinetone is the best i have seen from Sony, this is a fantastic little camcorder, image seems to be sharper, with perhaps a little more edge sharpening than the MC50, Just put the mic from the MC50 on top and hey presto!, finally got the cam that the MC50 should have been!

Agree with Stacy's gripes, zoom rocker is very slack, and adding to the gripe list- the lens hood gets in the way of the manual control button

You are right about the lens hood. But its so cute :-). At least my wife says that...

Been playing with the GPS information. I tried the update it said it could do, but do update and nothing I can see seems to happen.

But, is there anyway to get more info like streets? It zooms in and out, but without streets, not worth too much. BUT, with street info, it would be another great tool.

Dave,

Actually the amount of info you get now on the camera is way better than just a couple of years ago. I think it would take just too much memory to give the full street detail on the camera. I just updated my garmin gps and it like 2GB

Stacy -
Are you trying to use the USB out that is built in with that little pigtail, or the socket on the side of the camera? I'm going to venture a guess that the socket is designed for transfer to an external drive, and may be somehow limited, where the USB pigtail is for "regular" transfers - otherwise it's very odd that you're seeing slow transfer rates. I don't have a 700 to play with :-(... but that's a guess from the description and that oddball dual USB out setup.

Second, do you notice a difference in startup time between "first" startup and subsequent ones? If Sony retained the design used previously, the first startup is a little longer, then when you close the LCD it goes into a "snooze/fast restart" mode for want of a better term, so any reopening of the LCD will reboot the camera much faster, within a set amount of time (I have no idea what that "standby" period might be). I know some earlier Handycams had a button for quick restart you had to press, but then I noticed the button disappeared and you could tell they made it an "auto" feature.

With 60P you should be able to do clean frame grabs of around 2M pixel, might be enough for stills, usually the "dual mode" is somewhat limited, and I suspect interpolated anyway, so frame grabs might be "better"?

Finally, I find it REALLY strange that the flipping the LCD 180 turns on the VF on feature has disappeared - that's a feature I'd think would be a "must" with Japanese consumers, for the very reasons you've mentioned - the ability to flip the LCD so kids can see themselves while you "monitor" via the VF was a surprise the first time I discovered it, but it does get you some great footage! I just double checked though, and the CX550V ALSO no longer has this feature, so I guess they eliminated it after the XR500... bummer.

Only using the built-in USB. Honestly, I can do without the little cable. I find it useless and constantly have to use tehe built in extender. Now it's just one more cable I have to take with me..... Since i always carry a mini USB anyway. By the way, I also tried my transfer tests without using the extender and it was still the same. The external cable has the wrong connectors as it uses the proprietary connector on the camera end and the square USB (typa a I think) on the other end. That would just mean TWO more cables I have to take with me.... Yuk

Cinetone just increases the contrast and pulls up the saturation. I would say it's analogous to on a nikon slr setting to vivid mode.

I guess Cinetone is not to everyones taste, but I have always used it on the Sony's to crush the blacks a little.

Been out with the cam for a few hours this morning, mostly still 25p, tried a bit of 50p and 50i, sharpness seems to be about the same on 25p and 50p, better motion on the latter of course.

Active Steadyshot still degrades the image a little as it did on the MC50, not a problem on wide but it does zoom in on the chip quite a way at max telephoto, Seems to be the Same G lens as last year, still a bit of purple fringing at max telephoto, that's me being very picky - The overall Image is fantastic for the size and package

I have set the display to keep all the information on during shooting, in the default setting although the screen was clearer, I found the imposed zoom and record controls took up to much of the left side of the LCD and made framing difficult, apart from that the slightly smaller LCD from last year is just as easy to use

The Instant follow focus is very handy, all in all still very pleased.

Stacy, I was thinking about the size of my files on my street atlas also, but when I have 96gig flash, I would have no issue taking a few gig for street maps!!!! This would really then make this a great overall tool in one unit. Video, camera, and a usable GPS would have been great. sure would be cool again if there was some way to make it work to show streets.

Just come back from a week ski holiday with the CX700. I used it on full intelligent auto most of the time and with either a UV filter or a variable ND filter. Left the lens hood at home. I am really impressed with the image stabilizer over the XR500. I skied down next to my grandson taking video and the image is amazingly solid. Had a few instances where it wasn't quite sure of the WB but soon corrected itself. I learned to not start recording immediately in the trees with sun shining. All video was shot 60P. As noted earlier in this thread the transfer speed seems to be slower than the XR500. Transfer the holiday video of 145 clips of 11G in about 15mins. This is slow compared to the XR500 which would normally transfer twice that in less time. I will video a show next week with both cameras so will be able to do a direct comparison. Will shoot in 60i to get a direct comparison as all other cameras will be 60i anyway.

So far do not like the menu system compared to the SR11 or the XR500. Backward step for me I think. Do like the zebra, peaking, extended focus, audio display though, will be useful in the theatre.

Ron Evans

So Ron, I am really stumped as to why your transfer was so much faster than mine. I was only getting about 3GB in 1.5 HOURS. I would kill for 11GB in 15 min!

Were you using PMB with the out of the box USB setting and using the nubby USB thingy in the handle.

I am seriously beginning to wonder if I have a dud.

The menus look like "two steps back", when compared to the CX500/520/550, which all have a "my menu" option when you go to the menus, the first press brings up six things YOU decided were important - it was a good step up over the XR500, and better integrated the menu system, bummed to see the reduction in usability, you'd thing they'd have learned from the NEX3/5 fiasco, where the menus were roundly criticized for user unfriendliness.

I think they continue to refine the OIS - the XR500 was very stable for pitch and yaw, but the later CX'x managed to control "roll", which is more important IMO, because it gets away from the "seasick" feeling - just keeping the horizon level make the video much better, even if there's some side to side or up and down movement (seen all the time on "reality TV" cable series shot handheld - the pro shoulder rigs have those two handles spread out to keep that horizon level, but the CX Sonys manage to do pretty well! On a shoulder rig, darn close to Steadicam!

Glad to hear it performed well, hope you had a fun time! Will be interested in further reports on the download times. Have you checked file sizes yet? I'm thinking that when you shoot 60P you effectively double the file sizes, and that may be the cause of the additional download time. I know that shooting 60i 24Mbps on the CX550 (vs. the 16Mbps on earlier Sonys) there is a substantial increase in the file sizes (actuall almost 50% increase - 8G sticks are "too small"!! Even 16G probably won't record an hour at top rez...), though I never really paid attention to downloading times, as they are still way faster than "real time".

A quick mental caclulation would suggest that a 1 hour file on the XR500 would be around 8G, but closer to 24G in 24Mbps 1080 60p - WOW! If that's not a brain fart, that would suggest files are 3x as large?!?! So a 96G flash storage is "the same" as 32G was in the CX500V. The CX560 is looking less and less attractive, as is that "flash only" EU version of the CX700 (690). You actually will NEED that 96G memory, plus 32G Memory sticks if you're doing event work!

So Ron, I am really stumped as to why your transfer was so much faster than mine. I was only getting about 3GB in 1.5 HOURS. I would kill for 11GB in 15 min!

Were you using PMB with the out of the box USB setting and using the nubby USB thingy in the handle.

I am seriously beginning to wonder if I have a dud.

I was wondering the same thing - since you've tested on multiple machines from your description, I presume you can rule out the port speed? Depending on your system specs, you could have a bottleneck in the system bus or slow HDD performance, but I'd be surprised f that was on multiple machines.

I know fast HDD's are important. See my comments above about file sizes - they could quickly choke you if there's a bottleneck anywhere in the transfer chain - you're only as fast as your slowest component, and even 2-3 years difference in HDD technology makes a surprising amount of difference.

My file transfers were glacially slow until I uninstalled Picture Motion Browser (PMB), the software that comes with the camera. I'm not sure, but I think it is analyzing and cataloging files as you transfer. It is looking for faces and trying to find "familiar" ones. That's my guess anyway.

I find that OIS is noticeably better than on the Panasonic TM700. The manual controls are very nice as far as they go, but are in some ways dumbed down compared with the last Sony I bought (HC-7)

There is substantial CA at full zoom for many subjects. It seems worse than the HC-7 and maybe on a par with the HC-1 (I know, that was a long time ago). The TM700 doesn't have this issue.

Curiously, I seem to get the best resolution and focus across the frame when shooting at F4.0 (fixed). I'm talking about shooting in good light. Both 60p and 24p are very nice.

I will use this for nature and landscape work, but I actually got it primarily for 60p underwater. In this setting, I won't need full telephoto, and the OIS and wide angle will be very nice. The accessories brochure that comes with it says it is compatible with the Sony SPK-HCG Sports Pack underwater housing, and Gates has expressed interest in producing a housing for this camera.

The fact that it will work with the Sony housing confirms for me that Lanc control is possible if you buy a third-party AV to lanc converter.

I'm starting to like it a lot more than when I first started testing it.

Pat

The full download was 57 mins and 21 sec all 60P as well as 16 times 4MB stills for a total of 10.6G. The original estimated download time was 17 mins and it actually did it a lot faster at just over 15mins. I didn't accurately time it to the sec. This was not the fastest download as it was to the desktop just for the test after you asked I checked again. This was then of course to my boot drive. If you want I will try a test to my RAID to see if it makes a difference but I think the bottleneck is the camera. This is twice as slow as the XR500 which normally transfers close to 18G in 12 mins or so after a 2 hour show. On Monday I will be shooting another show and will shoot in 60i to match the other cameras and then will have a good check on download speed for the same time and data rates.

Edius V6 properties show it to be H.264/AVC VBR 25000000 / 25999360 bps

Equivalent rates for the last show I did give
XR500 properties are H.264/AVC video VBR 16000000 / 16000000 bps for 17Mbps setting
and NX5U video H.264/AVC VBR 21500000 / 21999616 bps at 24Mbps setting with PCM audio

Ron Evans

EDIT: Having read this again I want to make it clear that the length of the video was 57min and 21secas well as 16 still images of about 4M each for a total of 10.6G and download time was about 15mins.

Pat, you can cancel the analyze function if you want and I do not count this in the download time as it can go on in the background and you can disconnect the camera and do something else even use the files. For me the Sony software is essential as I use this as my archive and for sorting and playing all the family videos. For the shows I cancel analyze and do not use the calendar or archive functions. But for the family videos I have all the video and stills from our cameras and my daughters cameras Sony still cameras, SR7, SR11, XR500 and now the CX700 so can go back by calendar view and see all the history of the grandkids and our holidays for several years searching by date or now GPS or faces.

Ron Evans

Thanks Ron!

Pat

A quick mental caclulation would suggest that a 1 hour file on the XR500 would be around 8G, but closer to 24G in 24Mbps 1080 60p - WOW!

According to the manual, in PS mode (used for 60p) the data rate is 28 Mbps (not double 24 Mbps.) This would result in approx. 12.6GB for an hour (vs 10.8GB for 24Mbps and 7.2GB for 16 Mbps.) This calculation matches the quoted recording time in the manual in PS Mode for 16GB of 75 minutes.

Sony eSupport - HDR-CX700V - Manuals / Specs / Warranty (http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=HDRCX700V)

An update on the CX700. Shot a 2 hour theatre show last evening. I used my NX5U, CX700, XR500 and SR11. NX and CX were at 24mbps 60i the XR500 and SR11 are of course 17mbps. NX5U and CX700 resulted in total files of 18.2G and the XR500 and SR11 were 14.8G. Transfer times to the PC were 12 mins for the FMU128 from the NX5U, 11mins for the SR11 and XR500 and 30 mins for CX700. I will do a check and see how fast I can get the same files transferred using a Class 10 SD card. I am now doing an internal copy from internal memory to the card and it says it will take 1 hour and 15 mins to do that !!!! . I may use a 32G SD card most of the time to improve transfer speed.

Impressions so far. The picture is beautiful outside in the snow or indoors. Stabilizer is amazing. Auto intelligent exposure is very good. As a point and shoot then plug into TV to watch its great. Gives the NX5U a real test for picture quality. It got fooled a little for WB in the snow but quickly stabilized to the correct value and in the theatre I set manually to indoor preset for all cameras anyway.

The operation of menus and transfer speed is many times backwards and I hope there is a firmware update to improve as for me this is a step back to before the first AVCHD cam I got , the SR7 which had far better menu operation and transfer speed.

From the little pieces of information the new small NXCam to be announced tomorrow by Sony may be based on the CX700 hopefully it has better controls and transfer speed !!!!

Ron Evans

Ron, unless the price is close, the quality, useability, size, and cost for the CX700 is pretty hard to beat. The boss factor is very important to me now. But, shall be interesting to see what they are tomorrow.

The CX700 for the price has a wonderful picture and is easy to use as a point and shoot. I like it very much. All my cameras are Sony's and I have a sort of love hate relationship with Sony products !!! They seem to take 3 steps forward and 2 back each time!!! I had a V801 single chip Hi8 camcorder that had full manual control just like the 3 Chip VX3 I had as my main camera at the time. Sony still have not got to this point in their present lineup of cameras. I would love a full manual control single chip, a CX700 with real controls would be great but I will be surprised if this will be the case. Always hope !!!

Ron Evans

So, any links to the pictures, info on the new NAB cameras?

Okay Ron, is the HXR-NX70 the one to compare against the cx700? Looks very interesting. Decision while I still might be able to return my cx700

So, any links to the pictures, info on the new NAB cameras?

Funny you should ask.....

Sony | Micro Site NXCAM & AVCHD (http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-nxcamsite/resource.latest.bbsccms-assets-micro-nxcam-solutions-hxrnx70ulanding.shtml)

Sony | Micro Site NXCAM & AVCHD (http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-nxcamsite/resource.latest.bbsccms-assets-micro-nxcam-solutions-nexfs100ulanding.shtml)

The x70 looks substantially larger than the cx700 and I'm sure costs more.

Ouch, 3200 bucks

Okay Ron, is the HXR-NX70 the one to compare against the cx700? Looks very interesting. Decision while I still might be able to return my cx700

Almost 3 times the price of the CX700. More a single chip competitor for the NX5U !!! For the difference one could get a true underwater housing for the CX700, expensive tripod, wireless mic system etc etc. It looks a nice unit though. Will wait to see if it has independent gain control otherwise one may as well get the 3 CX700's !!

Ron Evans

Ron, I agree, way over priced. If it were 2K, then I might consider. But I can go though a lot of 700's and still have money in the pocket. Now I know I am going to keep the 700, I no longer have to think about it. Wife really does not want another big camera to travel with anyways.

droool....

Well, it may not produce better image quality than the CX700, but definitely steps up the control surfaces, reminds me of the FX7 and the A1U, brings back the 3.5" screen (WITH touch!). Looks to be a nice size, although significantly heavier than the Handycams.

Perhaps more of a competitor to the Canon XA10? Seems like that one was targeted towards the small ENG market... but wouldn't that put the price about $1K too high? Perhaps they feel that the "hardened" design is worth the extra... not sure the market will agree, that's a lot of "premium". Otherwise certainly looks like a nice design, much of what we've been waiting for, except for the price!

Wouldn't mind a "civilian" version without the XLR and "proofing", sort of like the old HC1 was to the A1U!

Weren't there supposed to be 3 cameras announced though? We have the NX70U and the FS100... is there a third one?

Agree with both Dave's. At $1000 more than the CX700 I would have bought it in steady of the CX700 for my uses but $2000 more is too much. Be really interested to look at the manual when it appears on the Sony site and find out exactly how different it is to the CX700 in operation.

Ron