I'm currently investigating the PXW-X70. The various reviews from users on this forum have really been helpful. And I've also read through Sony's user guide, but found some details missing.

First, shall I assume this unit has a shutter option of 1/48 when in 24p (23.976p)? All I see in the manual is the min/max shutter for 60i and 50i. My assumption is that in 60i mode with 24p framerate, you'd have at least these shutter options:

1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/48, 1/96? (or 1/100?)


Second, the color bar and tone option section doesn't mention the duration of the bars/tone. So one would need to first switch it on, then manually switch off? Was thinking it may be nice that when set on, it would record the bars/tone for a few seconds, then automatically turn itself off.


Finally the section of the guide on "Adjusting the exposure" (page 41) is quite confusing. If I read it correctly, it simply means that when in manual mode, you can have one, two or all three settings in manual mode (remaining settings in auto). Is that correct? Why Sony attempted to use a state-transition diagram to describe that is a mystery.

Thanks for any assistance on these questions.

In answer to your queries:
Yes shutter speed goes: 1/6, 1/12, 1/24, 1/25, 1/40, 1/48, 1/50, 1/60, 1/96, 1/100...

Tone/color bars remain on until turned off in the menu.

In manual mode you can select to have iris, gain, shutter and white balance set to manual or automatic independently.
Plus you can also choose to set AE Shift (Auto Exposure compensation) from +2 to -2
All these settings do make this camcorder quite useful in run and gun situations!

Thank for you very much for clarifying, Rob!

If you look at the buttons on the side (lower area), those are for iris, gain, and shutter. Each one is adjusted manually by the same small dial up in front of them. You can press each one to toggle the stated feature into A mode. At the bottom of the LCD, you will see this A, and to the far right on the display, you can toggle into AWB, which is indicated by a lack of an icon. :)

Paul