Got my first look at this cam today and have to say overall its pretty nice. coming out this summer. BH says theyre getting them in July.
The LCD is very sharp, have to say im hard pressed to see the difference between it and the ex1r lcd. its very sharp. Viewfinder is to my eye better than the ex1's as well. you can definitely use the nx to focus through the vf.
the dial off the lens where you pick focus/iris/zoom is nice. the auto focus was pretty accurate as well.
oddly enough, when i was holding it, as small as it was, it was slightly front heavy. probably because of the mic and the bracket that mounted it on the cam. you can take it off and utilize both xlrs with other stuff.
should be a good seller.
zoom wasnt bad either, i could get a pretty good slow zoom on it.

Thanks for the info. Did you have a chance to study any of the menu options and/or take any test clips on any card that you might have taken to the show?

Jim,

Thanks for the feedback - great for those of us who can't get to NAB! Good news about the quality of the screen and the VF, and that it seemed to handle well.

How did the camera feel to you? Solid and well-made? That "Sony" feeling?

I'm getting very "wanty" for this camera... can't wait to see what the footage looks like.

Edit:

There's another thread for this here: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/digital-video-industry-news/493466-new-sony-hxr-nx70-water-dust-proof.html

I've posted a link to the first Youtube review video there.

The Sony NAB display has the camera in a fish tank with a stream of water running over it. It made me cringe.

willl look at it more in depth today and post

The Sony NAB display has the camera in a fish tank with a stream of water running over it. It made me cringe.

That sounds like a very impressive, graphic demo of one of its key differentiators from the opposition....great marketing idea! Would love to see a pic or short clip of that somewhere!

willl look at it more in depth today and post

hehe... funny.

That sounds like a very impressive, graphic demo of one of its key differentiators from the opposition....great marketing idea! Would love to see a pic or short clip of that somewhere!

Andy, check out the German Youtube link I posted in the other thread, linked to above.

It is pretty cool!

Got it, about 2 minutes into that video. Thanks Mike!

following up on my previous post on the nx70, theyre saying mid july availability as did BH. checked the cam out at a different sony location where they point at the models. the vf and lcd are excellant. no doubt the vf is better than the one on the ex1r and is totally usable.
on the dial on the side of the lens where you can do either iris, focus or zoom, looks best to keep on iris and adjust that as you need to. you can still zoom in and hit the push focus button under that nob to get the focus set. the zoom choice is for using the ring as manual zoom, dont think this one will be used much in that you dont have that little bar sticking like you do on pro lens to do a fast manual zoom. in manual setttings this cam not letting me do much. it was a prototype. but you can set the gain manually to 0,3,6,9 and so forth, then you can use the manual iris to go up or down as you need it. the zoom did have that quick pull if you didnt control the rocker just right, but the sony guy told me that they would do an adjustment for that in the software, emphasizing the fact it was a incomplet cam being a prototype.
overall, i can see this as a great b cam or even a main cam depending on someones budget. you can remove the mic /xlr attachment and just go with the built in stereo mic, i would leave it on for my purposes. the lowlight was very clean as well. i shot in an area with very little light and i saw no grain. this one should sell very well. saw the MC50, its definitely smaller in every way. i see this cam losing ground big time to the 70.
i may get this before i get my ex1r/ex3, since i still cant decide. i know i want the 70. light, easy to hold, big lcd, excellant vf, (thank god for that), 60p at 28mb , 60i and 24p.
cant wait till july.
going back tomorrow if anyone has anything else they want to know, let me know before tomorrow morn and i will look into it.

That sounds like a very impressive, graphic demo of one of its key differentiators from the opposition....great marketing idea! Would love to see a pic or short clip of that somewhere!

Here you go...sorry about the camera shake

Jim, thanks very much for the feedback - it sounds very promising!

July or later is bad for my lack of patience... but good for my bank account. Looks like it's time to get saving.

Les - thanks for the photo. It makes me feel ill just looking at it!

Yep, thanks everyone for passing on all this info from the floor at NAB.

There's a few more seconds of footage of the demo here, in German: YouTube - NAB2011: Sony-Neuheiten Teil 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv-kSVg1GSw&feature=player_detailpage#t=23s)

Quite an eye-catcher. You have to hand it to Sony for doing something different in the "compact pro" range, it sets them apart from the Canon XF100, Panasonic HMC40 and JVC HM100.

Oh, one more thing. In talking to the Rep at the Sony display, he said that the attachment for the XLRs does not comply with the dust/water protection standard.

Les,

Yep, that's been all over their literature, like a disclaimer! I am thinking that the manual will have that writ large, for all to see!

You can sort of see why - all the pictures show the little flaps (the socket for the XLR cable, the battery compartment, headphone sockets etc.) all have a sort of rubber seal around them. It would be pretty hard to do the same for the XLR, I assume.

I don't think I will be putting it to the level of water stress that Sony are in that fishtank, but it will be good not to worry about the odd shower here and there when I'm out and about.

You get rain in Ireland? haha

Yes. The design point makes sense. At first I thought the power was also ruggedized but the rep says he stops the water and changes the battery in the display.