HXR-NX100: 1'' sensor NXCAM

[Michael Liebergot]

Monday does the lack of 4k bother you on this camera?
I thought that you were shooting 4k these days.

[Monday Isa]

Originally Posted by Michael Liebergot

Monday does the lack of 4k bother you on this camera?
I thought that you were shooting 4k these days.

Hey Michael! For what I want to use this camera for no. Next year I do expect to shoot quite a few 4K jobs but for smaller jobs, yearly camping trip I do, and some corporate stuff this cam in HD makes the most sense especially at $1700. The HD out of the AX100 is just beautiful up to 12db but absolutely frustrating to use manually. This bigger body with complete ease of manual shooting has me strongly leaning towards it. Hope all is well.

[Mark Fry]

Originally Posted by David Peterson

Would be nifty to see a very detailed comparison between all these 1" options, there are so many! (Especially of you throw in RX10 / RX10 mk2 / FZ100 / etc)

I have an FZ1000 (chosen over an RX10) and it's a really nice stills camera. I've tried using it for video, and it's OK for certain things. Good as a complement to a proper video camera, but I wouldn't consider it, or an RX10, instead of a video camera.

[Kyle Root]

B&H and Adorama both have the NX100 available now for shipping out today.

I'm still debating, as this is now my 'off season' from weddings... I'm thinking of picking up the NX100 to replace my NX5U. I can probably sell the NX5U w/ FMU128 and almost buy 2 NX100s.

I might want to do the same with my NX5U w/FMU128. I just hope the NX100 allows you to have both the LCD display and the viewfinder active at the same time, like the NX5U does. I know the NX3 does not, it's one or the other with this.

[Noa Put]

That figures again, at b&h the nx100 is 1700 dollar which usually translates to the same amount in euro where I live which also includes 21% tax. Only the price I see here in a Belgian videostore is 2300 euro...

edit: found another store offering it at 2000 euro, it looks like some stores are trying to make a profit from it because it's so new. I also wonder why there is so little talk about this camera.

[Kyle Root]

maybe because it's not 4K, it's not getting talked about much?

I saw some newer YT videos yesterday and the bokeh looks very nice for this model, which is what is pushing me towards it... nice video focus and nice "shallow" dof look at telephoto end... super convenient having a nice zoom range as well.

[Rick Miller]

This cam sure looks interesting, especially for the price. I am not in need of 4K, which seems to be the one big con. Low light shooting, and 1" sensor interests me most. Not much info out there, even though it has been released. Found a short review video on YouTube, but not much else other than preview info. If anyone has a review, or even a PDF Manual, please le me know. Thanks.

[Monday Isa]

I definitely will be picking one up but only once my event season picks back up. That's starting in March. Wish it was released in the summer :( oh well.

[Ron Evans]

I expect the camera will perform much like the AX100 or X70 since it likely has the same sensor. As a comparison last week shot a theatre show with NX5U, NX30U and AX100. The NX30U was full stage and the following are the data codes from the cameras for the same scene.

NX5U F2.8 , 9db
NX30U F2.8 , 21db
AX100 F4.0 , 24db

All at 1/60th shutter. My wife was using the AX100 for closeups and the framing for my NX5U shot and hers was about the same for the data codes above. So you can see that the larger sensor is not that more sensitive than the NX30U and not as good as the NX5U for low light shooting. The AX100 like the NX100 lens starts at F2.8 and ramps ( hence the F 4.0 in the shot ) One has to consider though that the NX5U starts to get very noisy at 12db but the NX30U and AX100 are still clean at 24db.

I am sure that NX100 will be a nice camera just don't expect it to be fantastic compared to 1/3", 3 chip cameras like the NX5U or certainly the newer versions. Now if Sony came out with a fixed lens APS-C to compete with the Panasonic DVX200 that would be nice !!!

Ron Evans

[Dave Therault]

I have then NX100 now and it does not appear to be good in low light... worse than the AC90.

[EDIT: Scratch that. I more controlled test showed NX100 to be a little better than the AC90.]

[Jack Zhang]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

I am sure that NX100 will be a nice camera just don't expect it to be fantastic compared to 1/3", 3 chip cameras like the NX5U or certainly the newer versions.

One, the depth of field is automatically better, even than a 2/3'' sensor.

Two, 1/3'' only takes you so far in terms of sensitivity before the rules of optics favor against you. For 4K and onwards, the minimum size I'd even consider is true 16:9 1'' with no EIS.

Three, the plaguing issues with the AX100 and the X70 are all due to poor highlight handling that can be tweaked if S-log came into play. The sensor's not bad, but the highlights don't have a proper gamma to map to for Rec709. I guarantee you S-log will not come to the X70. They're saving it for the NX100 4K version.

[Ron Evans]

The depth of field will be shallower. That is not what I want quite the opposite I want big depth of field for what I do. So large sensor in this regard is a slight disadvantage depending on the lens it has. Second since I do have an AX100 all the 1/3" cameras I possess have better low light performance ( other than the FDR-AX1 which is the worse ) . My NX5U ( 3 x 1/3" sensor ) is noticeably better in low light than the AX100. Reason is number of pixels and lens. My NX30U and CX700 are just slightly better in low light than the AX100. I am sure that if the Sony 1" sensor had a large appropriate lens , likely costing a lot more than the camera and had just the right number of pixels for UHD then it would most certainly perform great. But it doesn't. Not yet anyway. I too will look for Sony to bring something out to compete with the Panasonic DVX200. The Panasonic hits most of my needs apart from the zoom range in UHD 60P being too narrow and a few of the operational points like focus assist not working in record etc. The operational things will likely change with firmware updates but the zoom range is fixed by design .

As far as highlight issues with the AX100 it is actually very little different to all the Sony cameras I have. They all need to be underexposed a little. I run the smaller cameras unattended a lot of the time with AE shift at -0.7 or -1.0 and even in the theater with wide swings in lighting they manage fairly well. Easy enough to bring up the detail in shadows in editing but highlights are preserved.

A 1" sensor version of the NX5U with all the same controls, nice big appropriate lens ( better lens than is currently on the NX100, X70 or AX100 ), UHD spec like the FDR-AX1 would be top of my list !!! IN other words a better version of the FDR-AX1.

Ron Evans