New camera: Sony PXW-X320

[Glen Vandermolen]

I saw this on the live Sony feed, just a quick glimpse.
It looks like the XAVC replacement for the PMW320: 1/2" shoulder mount cam. It looks a lot like the PMW320.

[Jack Zhang]

PXW-X320.

Somehow this is odd they're releasing that first instead of the X300 replacing the PMW-300.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Originally Posted by Jack Zhang

PXW-X320.

Somehow this is odd they're releasing that first instead of the X300 replacing the PMW-300.

Thanks for the correction. My bad.

The 300 can be upgraded to 10-bit, 100mbps through firmware. I think it's an XAVC codec. But not sure it can do 1080/60P or 50P.
Have you heard of an upgrade to the 300?

[Glen Vandermolen]

Originally Posted by Jack Zhang

PXW-X320.

Somehow this is odd they're releasing that first instead of the X300 replacing the PMW-300.

Thanks for the correction. My bad.

The 300 can be upgraded to 10-bit, 100mbps through firmware. I think it's an XAVC codec. But not sure it can do 60P or 50P.
Have you heard of an upcoming replacement to the 300? The 320 has been on the market longer.

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Glen Vandermolen

Thanks for the correction. My bad.

The 300 can be upgraded to 10-bit, 100mbps through firmware. I think it's an XAVC codec. But not sure it can do 1080/60P or 50P.
Have you heard of an upgrade to the 300?

It cannot do 50p/60p 1080. The sensors are incapable of using that frame rate.

Edit: And the press conference is over. Guess the only big announcement was this and the 3-chip 4K studio camera.

Sony UK link: http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/product/br...p=scl-cc-11506

Also, no 50p/60p 1080 on this neither. It's just an XAVC upgrade to the PMW-320 with the existing picture formats. Better off to get a PXW-X200 in the 1/2'' department which actually has 50p/60p 1080.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Jack Zhang

Also, no 50p/60p 1080 on this neither. It's just an XAVC upgrade to the PMW-320 with the existing picture formats. Better off to get a PXW-X200 in the 1/2'' department which actually has 50p/60p 1080.

Well, depends if you want the 50/60p..... No broadcasters are broadcasting such yet AFAIK?

I've got a PMW320 and am highly satisfied with it. (For the price it's unbelievably good value for money.) But my only reservation has always been the lack of the XDCAM422 mode to make it fully broadcast acceptable, which this obviously solves. (And more, with the XAVC option.)

Yes, a 2/3" camera can only be better, but the PMW320 is so much cheaper and so far the XDCAM EX codec has been OKfor my purposes. I actually prefer it to a far more expensive 2/3" camera that I use with one client because of the PMW320 viewfinding arrangements.

It's horses for courses, but for me the ergonomics of the PMW320 are far more important than 50/60p. I appreciate others may have different requirements.

[Jack Zhang]

I cannot disagree with ergonomics.

There is a "broadcast platform" now supporting 50p and 60p: YouTube. And with everything heading to the internet anyways, it'll be nice if professional equipment supported 50p and 60p more for 1080 workflows.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Originally Posted by David Heath

Well, depends if you want the 50/60p..... No broadcasters are broadcasting such yet AFAIK?

I've got a PMW320 and am highly satisfied with it.

It's horses for courses, but for me the ergonomics of the PMW320 are far more important than 50/60p. I appreciate others may have different requirements.

Interesting, that I have a PMW-300 that I rented out to a local company. The company also has a 320. In the end, the camera ops preferred the 320 because of the ergos, and decided not to rent my camera for the next shoot. Ergos came before codec. Oh, well.

[David Heath]

Say "ergonomics" and people think first of how the camera can be held and how easy the switches are to operate.

It's a lot more than that, and I'm thinking of the way peripherals handle and are powered etc - radio mic receiver, camera top light, even radiocam back for ENG.

The point about the PMW/PXW320 is that it handles such as well as a 2/3" shouldermount - but at the price of a much smaller camera. If you want the shouldermount form, but don't need 2/3" (for lens compatability reasons, say) the 320 makes a lot of sense.