Sony FDR-AX100

[Ben Kazez]

Hi friends, please forgive me if this answer is posted elsewhere. I've been manually adjusting exposure settings and then switching to smartphone control in order to check shots that I myself am in. This seems to revert the camera back to auto exposure. Is there a way around this?

[Adriano Moroni]

Can Sony AX100 rec in 10 bit or 8 bit only? Thanks

[Noa Put]

8 bit only.

[Glen Pinno]

Will there be a new release of this Cam any time, as i am kind of ready to plunge on the new AX53 when we get it here in Australia.

Love the 1" sensor, but how about the BOSS stabilization inside one of these Cams.

[Paul Anderegg]

You would basically be having to GIMBAL a sensor assembly that would be 4x the size of the AX53 sensor...........not feasible.

Paul

[Glen Pinno]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

You would basically be having to GIMBAL a sensor assembly that would be 4x the size of the AX53 sensor...........not feasible.

Thanks Paul, so it appears the BOSS system can only be used with these small sensors, shame really, at least make a stabilization unit for the AX100 something similar, because the BOSS really seems to be pretty dam good.

Cheers

[Paul Anderegg]

Originally Posted by Glen Pinno

Thanks Paul, so it appears the BOSS system can only be used with these small sensors, shame really, at least make a stabilization unit for the AX100 something similar, because the BOSS really seems to be pretty dam good.

Cheers

Click the "" button next to reply.....once it turns yellow, click reply, quotes then appear :)

[Noa Put]

Having a "boss" like stabilization implemented in a larger sensor camera that is equally effective is possible but then it has to be done on the sensor side like Olympus has done with the em series, so instead of the lenshousing moving around to extra compensate for shake the sensor moves around instead.

[Paul Anderegg]

The O in BOSS stands for OPTICAL........my A7sII has a balancing sensor, works about as well as STD Steadyshot on all my camcorders. Those little tiny sensor cameras cant afford to use any pixels for ACTIVE Steadyshot, especially when they are low on MP count to start with. BOSS on an X70 would be sweet as heck though!

Paul

[Dave Blackhurst]

Somehow I expect an AX100M2 with the newer BSI/buffered sensor that showed up in the RX100M4 and RX10M2.... IF Sony decides to continue this design, and of course that is a big "if". I suspect it might depend on whether the small sensor AX53 turns out to have acceptable image quality vs. the 1" class sensor, which I sort of doubt, but we will see soon enough.

The physics of a "BOSS" type gimbal for the larger sensor block are actually rather daunting - keep in mind that ALL the components are larger and heavier by a substantial amount, meaning bigger gyro/servos, more power to run it all, and so on... Just the bigger lens would add a huge amount of mass to the assembly!

[Ron Evans]

I have BOSS on my NX30U with both standard and Active. In active mode it uses both balanced optical as well as electronic image stabilizers and in this mode because it crops into the sensor has a little longer reach on the zoom. The CX700 has optical and active but no balanced servo system is a lot lighter and smaller because of this though the sensors are similar. My NX5U also has optical stabilizer as well as active too. So does the XR500. Both my FDR-AX1 and AX100 also have optical as well as active too . All have optical stabilizer lenses but only the NX30U has the balanced system . There is a difference if one is hand holding and moving.

Ron Evans

[John Nantz]

The picture of the B.O.SS system for the AX53 on the Sony web site has arrows that show horizontal and vertical movement, presumedly for the objective lens. The only detailed picture I’ve been able to find of the BOSS system is for the HDR-CX430 cam and it was announced or released on or about January 7, 2013 and that’s three years ago. That’s a long time in technology years.

There is a nice picture of the CX430 BOSS system on the Crutchfield web site; URL page says the CX430 is discontinued but the picture is still there:
Sony HDR-CX430V High-definition camcorder with 32GB flash memory at Crutchfield.com
Sony AX53 site: AX53 4K Handycam® with Exmor R® CMOS sensor | FDR-AX53 | Sony US
What Dave says about all the mass that has to move is a concern.

The BOSS system on the AX33 has been shown to be pretty good and that cam was announced or released two years later on or about January 1, 2015, and now we have the announcement of the AX53 cam.

Hopefully the reviews indicate the AX53 cam lives up to expectations.

[Dave Blackhurst]

The big question will be whether Sony has managed to get a really good 4K image out of a small sensor - so far I have yet to be impressed with the results from a "handycam" sized (roughly 1/3") sensor. The new Panasonics seem to be pretty nice, and the demo footage from the AX53 looks promising. I'll wait to see some "real world" tests.

You're correct that in "tech time", things change really fast, and there are usually incremental improvements, some small, others major. 4K is relatively quick on the uptake, but as is typical, there are good and not so good implementations. The AX100 and the RX's produce some incredibly sharp images, and the AX33, well, not so much, but still better than "HD"...

The BOSS system is a straightforward gimballed mount, that uses gyros and motors to keep the lens-sensor block pointed physically at the "target". It's not that big, but as those links show, it requires a bit of a "cage", and if you were to try to make a large enough cage for the 1" class sensor, it would be significantly larger, and the mass of the larger parts of the imaging block would likely create some challenges, and a much larger camera!

[Prapas Dimitrios]

Not too late I hope, I would like to add my opinion on the practical use of the Sony’s image stabilization modes, called SteadyShot (SS), offered today in many Sony’s cameras and camcorders. In particular, I will focus on the three stabiliser modes available in the AX100 camcorder (identical modes also found in its sibling CX900), since it has been so often reported that the Active SS mode switches on "Clear Image Zoom" and degrades the image sharpness.
Degradation of the image sharpness has been invariably observed in almost all optical and digital stabilisation systems in the past. Referring particularly to the AX100 camcorder, Wacharapong Chiowanich reported that: “ … I wish I could get a usable panning shot at a shutter speed above 1/50th. Unless I do a very slow creeping pan for a cooking show I really can't see myself using a shutter speed that high (1/120, 1/125....etc.) and get a usable footage.… Actually this camera's stabilization in the standard/optical-only mode is nowhere near impressive and the active/digital+optical mode though more effective, reduces the resolution by cropping and re-scaling and as you say may interfere with the motion when panning the camera. ….I feel this is quite similar to what I got when zooming in near the tele end when in active steadyshot mode in 4K. At the wide end or close to it the difference in resolution is not really noticeable in practice.”
Contrary to the prevailing view of certain image degradation, referring to those camcorders Alister Chapman noted that “There is no drop in resolution when you use the active steadyshot. The sensor is super-sampled so you can crop in to the image at the sensor level without loosing any image quality. However I prefer to turn this off as it can make pans stutter a little more as the electronic stabiliser tries to hold on to motion within the frame.”
Based on my limited video-shooting experience, I would propose that due to their characteristics the three stabiliser modes available in both camcorders should be well understood and best used as follows:

1. SS–Off
Should only be used with a sturdy tripod, otherwise terrible wobbling and shake will most likely ruin your footage, particularly when zoomed in heavily to your subject (the use of a tripod is probably the most recognizable technical feature of classic cinema).

2. SS–Standard: In this mode camera shake is compensated by sliding movements of the CMOS image sensor, horizontally and vertically.
2a. If used with a tripod and without any camera movement, there should be no difference to the results produced by the SS-Off mode. Still, the use of SS–Standard mode is strongly advised with a flimsy tripod, since it would eliminate any possible erratic micro-trebling that would otherwise show in the SS-off mode (the use of SS–Active is not advised in this case).
2b. If you keep shooting handheld without deviating from your initial shooting axis (practically, if you are predetermined to keep the lens axis of the camcorder constantly aligned, thus allowing only zoom-in and zoom-out movements during shooting), SS–Standard mode would make a lot of difference compared to SS-Off, since you may achieve a “tripod-like” look of your footage.
2c. If you do a handheld or tripod mounted camera movement, i.e. panning, tilting or any combination, you will get a periodic robot-like image jittering, since the SS–Standard mode will resist to such a movement by trying to create, well, a steady shot, until it abandons it and starts the vicious image tethering circle again. The alternative of turning to the SS-Off mode will have better panning results on tripod, whereas SS-Off handheld shooting usually produces a more distracting wobbling, both admittedly without the robot-like “nervous” image tethering of the SS-Standard mode. Clearly when handheld, set to the SS-Standard mode today’s camcorders have no means to know whether your intention is to pan (pun intended) or you are just shaking. So, without a tripod you are up to now helpless for a panning/tilting take.

3. SS–Active: This mode keeps a certain amount of the edge pixels of the sensor "in reserve”, the more you zoom-in the larger the reserve. Although not shown in your screen, a portion of those perimetrically reserved regions are constantly used by the digital stabilization processor to “correct” your movements, either intended or not intended. In particular, if you start trebling the SS–Active mode will immediately compensate for it, whereas if you start panning/tilting (preferably at a steady linear course) the SS–Active mode will not only diagnose it almost immediately but it will render it more gracious, e.g. with the panning movement appearing at an approximately steady angular speed, both the above actions within limits of course.
Theoretically, by applying the SS–Active mode you're not losing quality per se, but you are left with fewer pixels to make up the final image, particularly at high zoom settings, since the image is cropped to create some playroom for digital stabilisation. Consequently, the image quality is deteriorated, even in the case of the CX900 and AX100 camcorders with an image sensor of approximately 20 Mpixels (only 14 of which are said to be used for video), this degradation being undoubtedly perceived as rather blurry and less dynamic image at high zoom settings. Still, I have not observed any visible degradation at small zoom settings, e.g. at equivalent focal lengths of 30 to approximately 100 mm, probably because the amount of the “reserved” edge pixels of the image sensor is small at those small focal lengths.
It finally looks that my experience agrees totally with Wacharapong Chiowanich and partly with Alister Chapman (at small focal lengths). Aesthetically, I would rather take a more stable video that has perceptibly less detail only at high zooming than take a disturbingly shaky higher detail video. In conclusion, if you want the image to pan smoothly without the use of a tripod, I believe your single choice with both the Sony’s CX900 and AX100 camcorders is the SS-Active mode, which seems to have evolved considerably even for shooting demanding HD videos, most probably due to the high pixel count of the image sensor, combined with a fast and evolved image processor.
Dimitris

[Andy Smith]

An excellent analysis, I wish I had seen it before my trip to Switzerland in July. I shot everything in SS-standard in the belief of maintaining image sharpness. My big issue seems to be small little rotational moments handheld, however hard I try most shots have an element of rotation. I use Vegas to edit down to 1080p Blu-Ray and use the Sony stabilizer in Vegas (Mercalli v2) to take this out. If the overall movement is small it does a great job in very gently floating the image which looks excellent. Of course you loose a little resolution but as I am downsizing to HD it makes no difference. From your review it seems the best option for me (for hand held) is to keep with SS-Active. I always do very slow pans in wide angle. The Blu-Ray transfers from this camera are just stunning, the only post correction I do is with the Sony levels filter to spread the RGB pixel distribution over a wider range.

Andy

Oh, I thought I would say something about the autofocus of this camera. during my trip I filled 3x64 GByte cards with hundreds of shots all of which were in pin sharp focus. What I really like is that when it locks on it does not keep micro adjusting the focus. All my previous cameras kept constantly adjusting focus spoiling the image. OK it may take a while to move to an alternative focus point but this has never been a problem to me with this camera. My only down point is at the end of the zoom for long distance where the contrast falls off significantly giving a mild milky look. This can be improved in post though. At close range the zoom end is great and produces stunning close up flower shots.

Easily the best camera I have ever had.