Sony FDR-AX100

[Troy Lamont]

All,

Remember we don't know what the proposed final recording bitrate of the camera is yet, it's never been published from Sony.

It's been postulated what it may be based on the codec, current SDXC capabilities and a comparison to the Z100. It's quite possible that it could be higher than 60Mbs but until either the camera comes out or Sony publishes the final specs, we're just guessing.

Thanks.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Troy Lamont

Remember we don't know what the proposed final recording bitrate of the camera is yet, it's never been published from Sony.

........It's quite possible that it could be higher than 60Mbs but until either the camera comes out or Sony publishes the final specs, we're just guessing.

Not true, no guessing - from the Sony website - Specifications | FDR-AX100E | Handycam Camcorder | Sony and scroll down to the section "Recording"

Video Recording Rate (ABR / VBR)

XAVC S 4K Approx.60Mbps, "XAVC S HD Approx.50Mbps", HD PS:Approx.28Mbps/FX:Approx.24Mbps/FH:Approx.17Mbps/HQ:Approx.9Mbps/LP:Approx.5Mbps, MP4: Approx.3Mbps

So 60Mbs long-GOP XAVC for 4K, 50Mbs XAVC for high frame rate HD, plus AVC-HD modes.

[Troy Lamont]

Touche.

I was going off of Sony's Press Release blog site and the American store.sony.com which still shows:

Recording
Video Resolution : XAVC-S 4K : 3840×2160/30P, 24P; XAVC-S HD : 1920x1080/60P, 30P, 24P;AVCHD:1920x1080/60p(PS),24p(FX,FH),60i(FX,FH), 1440x1080/60i(HQ,LP); MP4: 1280x720 30p

Thanks for the correction, I wonder if they've updated that recently. Interestingly I've seen specs quoted wrong between the two sites before, not that I doubt it but it seems odd all things given.

On another note, that's a really funky format/layout they're using on the UK site, almost like someone was afraid of spaces!

[Vaughan Wood]

I think both sites are probably right. Time will tell.

English specs are for the FDR AX100E, American specs FDR AX100.

Cheers,

Vaughan.

[Ron Evans]

The video interviews on Youtube also mention about an hour record time for a 32G card which is about correct for 60Mbps taken from my AX1 user manual.

Ron Evans

[Dale McClelland]

I found this short article (link is below) from a Google search. It sounds like the author has one for testing, but that's not clear. It sounds encouraging, but I'm confused by the statement:

"But I'd go back to shooting in 4K at 150 Mbits per second (there is 100 and 50 Mbits to choose from if you need extra duration)."

Is he referring to a different camcorder in that sentence?

Sony AX100 - better than it should be | Philip Bloom Forum

[Ron Evans]

I think he may be confusing the specs with the FDR-AX1 which can record 30P at 60 and 100Mbps or 60P at 150Mbps. From all I can see the FDR-AX100 is only 30P at 60Mbps.

Still cold and not very interesting outside but I am uploading a short clip from my FDR-AX1, 30P at 60Mbps. Will post when available.

Ron Evans

[Joey Atilano]

Originally Posted by [url=http://philipbloom.net/forum/threads/sony-ax100-better-than-it-should-be.23172/

Sony AX100 - better than it should be | Philip Bloom Forum[/url]

I tweeted this guy and asked if the 120fps mode was a burst mode and he said that it was.

I really want more footage or hands on reviews!!!

[Darren Levine]

It certainly remains to sound interesting. Im sitting here with the BMC 4k, and the damn beautiful image it puts out, but looking practically at the work that i typically do, the Ax100, if it lives up to hype, would get far more work

[Doug Tessler]

My big ? is can this camera do a good key since the chip is bigger or will it have the same issues as its big
brother camera

Doug

[Joey Atilano]

I found this today

4K SONY FX100 - YouTube

And his blog post translated about it.
Google Translate

Dang that cat is sharp but the jello at the end is scary.

[Ken Ross]

I downloaded this from Vimeo (see link below) and the video looks excellent despite the fact it's only a 1920X1080 .mov file.

I think this video demonstrates, to a large extent (on the downloaded version, not the YouTube version), that both the codec and bitrate are absolutely fine. The swaying branches show no mush whatsoever on the downloaded version even though at 2:19 they do on the YouTube version. Likewise the close ups of the cat, with all the fine detail in the fur, remain absolutely intact as the cat moves. BTW, the detail on the downloaded version is really very impressive.

When I played the downloaded version on Splash Pro, it reported peak bitrates in excess of 90Mbps. So the 60Mbps that Sony states is obviously an average and peaks can run much higher.

I'm very encouraged by this video and anxiously awaiting the AX100's release. I'm not concerned about the 'jello' at the end, simply because it's visible nowhere else and I'm not in the habit of violent pans which are nauseating to watch anyway.

SONY FDR-AX100 4k vidéo camera on Vimeo

[Peter Siamidis]

Cool, looks promising. I hope I pre-ordered early enough to get the first batch shipped out.

[Ron Evans]

As you all know I want 60P and was looking at proDAD reSpeeder as a way of interpolating a 60P stream from the 30P from the AX100. My application is a fixed camera of a stage event so no camera movement once set and I thought this may work. So I started to look into how much better in low light the AX100 would be compared to my AX1. These calculation are VERY rough. The sensor of the AX100 is about 9 times larger in area than the AX1. It has 14Mpixel compared to 8Mpixels for the AX1 so each pixel will gather about 5 times the light of the pixels of the AX1. One would think this would give a large advantage but there is a catch. At full wide the lens on the AX1 is F1.6 and on the AX100, which is wider, is F2.8. So for the same field of view the AX100 would have to zoom in a little to compare, ramping the lens to more than F2.8. The difference could be about 4 times more light going into the AX1 as into the AX100 !!! So the real world performance may only be 1/3 to a stop faster than the AX1. Your comments on this simple calculation are welcome. Have I got it all wrong? A big sensor needs a big fast lens which means size and cost. I think the AX100 will be a real winner for Sony but wonder if expectations are too high for performance.

It will be interesting to see the real tests when they appear.

Ron Evans

[Joey Atilano]

I checked my pre-order at B&H and it still shows end of March, but now it comes with a Sandisk Extreme pro card, Extra hi-cap battery, and a case too. I called and he added the free stuff to the order.


Watching this video many times just on my normal 1080p led TV some of the scenes are super sharp and overall the picture quality looks really awesome. I noticed a noticeable amount of shallow DOF.

I still am looking forward to this camera but I really want to see a test of the 120p fps 720p mode.