Sony launches PXW-Z100 4K Handheld XDCAM

[Alister Chapman]

You need the S series XQD cards for the Z100. These are twice the price of the T series. Don't under estimate the amount of data this camera will produce, especially at 50/60P or 4K.

An EX1 or PMW-200 shooting on SxS cards at up to 50Mb/s will cost less per minute as a Z100 shooting HD at 120Mb/s on T class XQD cards (and that's just regular 25/30P HD). Admittedly the XAVC codec is almost certainly a better codec, but XDCAM is still a very capable codec. More will depend on the quality of the images coming off the sensor.

I think XQD is a good media choice for this camera, for the market this is aimed at SxS would work out too expensive per minute. 4K at 60fps or higher is a scary proposition, 64GB cards lasting less than 15 mins. Even with XQD it isn't going to be cheap to run, but it needs very fast media.

[Gints Klimanis]

Ron Evans wrote "If only it had a touch screen and touch spot focus it would hit all my wants !!"

I would upgrade form an EX1 if a powerful suite of metering and focusing aids were added, including superior viewfinders. The touch spot focus or exposure setting would be very useful and would reduce much of the manual focus hunting. It's about the only way to control an iPhone despite Apple's omission of an exposure/focus lock.

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Ozgur Iskin

I don't think this is innovation. I find Sony's approach VERY unethical before everything else.

Too bad we don't have a non japanese company that will do what Apple did in 2007 and teach these people their true lessons...

A manufacturer wants to deliver a working product and make money. How many SDHC cards should Sony test? We don't really know what kind of additional tech is in the Sony SxS, but it may well be that they are selling a higher capacity card that allows reliable recording for the stated SxS capacity. As many don't know, flash memory writes can be delayed as much as 300 - 1000 milliseconds (needed to write that out) as the card reaches 90% capacity.

Apple has been selling more portable devices with a fixed amount of flash memory. Need more? Buy a new device.

[Ron Evans]

[QUOTE=Jack Zhang;1811526]Remember that those are the bitrates for XAVC-S, not XAVC intra. The intra bitrates are way higher than that.


Yes the XAVC bit rates are likely 4 times the XAVC-S bit rates, instead of a 150Mbps it would be 600 Mbps. Fill a 64G card in short order !!! That is why I am more interested in the FDR-AX1 !!

Ron Evans

[Bruce Schultz]

Can someone post a link to the specs on this camera - specifically frame rates?

[Ron Evans]

I have not found any detailed spec on the PXW-Z100 but the information I posted early are from the Sony Consumer US site for the FDR-AX1. Sony 4K/60p Ultra HD Camcorder | 4K Camcorder Review | FDR-AX1 | Sony USA

Ron Evans

[Mark OConnell]

This sounds great, but I wonder how you'll focus it? Hopefully the EVF will be up to it. I've gone from feeling like there were no good options for me for upgrading from the EX1R to having two. Now I'll have to decide between this and the PMW-300.

[Bruce Schultz]

Thanks Ron, couldn't locate anything like that for the Z100 specs. I'm assuming that the frame rates for it will be identical but at 4096×2160 sizes.

[Glen Vandermolen]

[quote=Ron Evans;1811559]

Originally Posted by Jack Zhang

Remember that those are the bitrates for XAVC-S, not XAVC intra. The intra bitrates are way higher than that.


Yes the XAVC bit rates are likely 4 times the XAVC-S bit rates, instead of a 150Mbps it would be 600 Mbps. Fill a 64G card in short order !!! That is why I am more interested in the FDR-AX1 !!

Ron Evans

600mbps is...a lot. But I think the Z100 will also get a long gop codec next year, correct?

edit - yes, the Z100 will get a free, less data intensive long gop codec in mid 2014. I'm assuming it's the same one on the AX1.

[Derrick Williams]

I hope you can select XAVC-S as one of the codecs. Need that flexibility in case i'm in a bind for space.

[Alister Chapman]

Yes XAVC-S will come as an update next year but won't be available at launch, it will be XAVC I frame.

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Mark OConnell

This sounds great, but I wonder how you'll focus it? Hopefully the EVF will be up to it. I've gone from feeling like there were no good options for me for upgrading from the EX1R to having two. Now I'll have to decide between this and the PMW-300.

For me, the lack of full manual is making me lean towards the PMW-200 fixed lens replacement with XAVC 1080/50p/60p. That has to be coming down the pipes, so that's my next move. 4K broadcast acceptance is still another couple of years away.

[Philip Lipetz]

It is a shame the SOny will make Z100 users wait until the middle of next year to get lower bit rate options, this is the major problem with the Z100 (assuming image is fine) that prevents it from being a universal workhorse.

[Matt Davis]

A fairly random selection of factoids...

On frame rates:

This is a 'world camera', so supports 50/60Hz.

24fps is (according to FCPX) 23.976 ("23.98" in the menu).

In 25fps mode, you get 1/3, 1/6, 1/12, 1/25, 1/50, 1/60, 1/100, 1/120, 1/150, 1/215, 1/300, 1/425, 1/600, 1/1000, 1/1750, 1/2500, 1/3500 - is anyone reading this? - 1/6000 and 1/9000.

In 24fps mode, you get

In 60fps (89.94) fps mode, you get 1/4, 1/8, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60, 1/90, 1/100, 1/125, 1/180, 1/250, 1/350, 1/500, 1/725, 1/1000, 1/1500, 1/2000, 1/3000, 1/4000, 1/6000 and 1/9000.

There's 24/30/60 and 25/50 modes for DCI 4K, QuadHD 4K and 1080 resolutions - I don't *think* there's any odd gaps there - but please take note that my loaner is running a fairly old beta of the camera firmware, there may be some changes.

There's the usual numbers (very reminiscent of the FS100) for S&Q motion - yes, S&Q at 4K!

One should mention that the Z100 has a WIFI facility (borrowed from the F5/55?) and a camera control app that enables remote control of the camera via tablet. NOTE WELL: no, this is not going to provide a 'wifi EVF', but it does provide a sort of Camera Control Unit, so you can control recording (not just rec start/stop), camera settings (shutter, f-stop, focus, zoom, white balance) and other functions. However (and I haven't been able to confirm this yet) I don't think you can add 'essence markers' or mark shots. This may be a limitation of my early software, but I don't see these functions in the camera's menu structure.

On the body, yes - there's a separate AC in, so like the EX1, you run off AC with a 'backup battery' should someone pull the plug, you can change batteries whilst plugged in, and so on.

[Philip Lipetz]

Matt,

Hope I didn't miss this earlier in the thread, but what is the extent of manual control, and what auto functions does the Z100 drop?