Sony FDR-AX100

[Joey Atilano]

Does anyone know if Vegas 11 Pro will be able to edit XAVC S videos? I can edit the gopro 4k videos. I have been looking for a XAVC S clip to download but I can't find an un-edited clip to download.

[Ken Ross]

Originally Posted by Joey Atilano

Does anyone know if Vegas 11 Pro will be able to edit XAVC S videos? I can edit the gopro 4k videos. I have been looking for a XAVC S clip to download but I can't find an un-edited clip to download.

Joey, I just took a quick look on the Sony site and the only software they specifically advertise as supporting XAVC S (for both import & export) are Movie Studio Platinum and Movie Studio Suite.

That may not necessarily mean that Vegas doesn't offer compatibility through some update it may have received, but at least the Sony site doesn't indicate that Vegas supports XAVC S.

[Ron Evans]

Vegas Pro 12 will edit and render to XAVC and XAVC-S

Ron Evans

[Ken Ross]

So Ron, was this a software update or did it always have that ability? I guess their information is incomplete. Looking at Vegas 12 on the Sony site, here's what it says:


Opens: AA3, AAF, AIF, ASF, AU, AVC, AVCHD, AVI, BMP, BWF, CDA, DIG, DLX, DPX, DV, EXR, FLAC, GIF, H.264, HDP, IVC, JPEG, M2T, M2TS, MVC, MOV, Sony MXF (XDCAM and HDCAM SR), MP3, MP4, M4A, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, MPO, OGG, OMA, Panasonic MXF (DVCPRO, AVC-Intra) PCA, PNG, PSD, QT, R3D, SFA, SND, TIFF, TGA, VOX, W64, WAV, WDP, WMA, WMV

Saves: AA3, AC3, AIF, ATRAC, AVC, AVCHD, AVI, DPX, EXR, FLAC, H.264, HDP, MOV, MP3, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, MP4, M2T, Sony MXF (XDCAM and HDCAM SR), MVC, OGG, PCA, W64, WAV, WMA, WMV

Now here's what it says for Movie Studio:

Import

AAC, AA3, AIFF, AVI, BMP, CDA, FLAC, GIF, JPEG, MP3, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MVC, OGG, OMA, PCA, PNG, QuickTime®, SND, SFA, W64, WAV, WDP, WMA, WMV, XAVC S

Export

AAC, AC3, AA3, AIFF, AVC, AVI, BMP, FLAC, JPEG, LPEC, MP3, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MVC, OGG, PCA, PNG, TIFF, QuickTime, W64, WAV, WDP, WMA, WMV, XAVC S

[Dale McClelland]

Just to confirm, I just checked my Sony Vegas Pro 12 (latest build). The "Render As" and "Import Media" dialogs both show Sony XAVC and XAVC S as options. I don't know if they were originally there in the first version of VP12.

[Mark Rosenzweig]

Originally Posted by Joey Atilano

Does anyone know if Vegas 11 Pro will be able to edit XAVC S videos? I can edit the gopro 4k videos. I have been looking for a XAVC S clip to download but I can't find an un-edited clip to download.

1. Sony Vegas Pro 12 edits XAVC S clips. I have done this.

2. Here is a downloadable XAVC S file I made (from a pro 4K *original* shot by someone else) using Vegas Pro (to be just like the one produced by the AX100, though it is higher bitrate):

Cineshops Sony PXW Z100 4K Video: Edited in Vegas Pro 12 on Vimeo

[Dave Blackhurst]

@ Ken -

About that "elephant"... they are OBVIOUSLY trolls being paid by some Chinese company selling a "$150 4K camera", so that no one buys the expensive name brand stuff when they can get the same thing from WiFU, the great new camera company that will rule them all!! Cameras for the people! What, you say you want cell phones...?

BTW, I just made that up... and have no evidence whatsoever to support my opinion, but I'm sticking to it anyway to benefit "my people"! The people must know!!

Or not...

Meanwhilst, I look forward to some actual hands on reports to see how this pup handles. I'd probably get one for "sentimental value" just because it reminds me of the HC1, but I'm hoping that it turns out to be a good initiation into 4K. If not, there's always the CX900, I'm sure the 1080 60p will be a big step up over most any other sub $2K camera, in some ways that may turn out to be the sneaky "secret weapon" here - higher bitrate 1080p at a consumer price... who woulda thunk the evil manufacturers would let "us" have something like that?!

[Noa Put]

About the cx900, don't know if this has been mentioned already, but on the feature list on Sony's page this camera is missing the following item: Manual Exposure Assist : Zebra Pattern Display. The ax100 has it but not the cx900, so it looks that if want you to use this camera professionally you need to get the 4k version, unless you want to guess where your exposure is.

who woulda thunk the evil manufacturers would let "us" have something like that?!

They certainly know what to take away to steer whoever needs it to their more expensive 4k version :)

[Ron Evans]

I cannot remember if it was in the original build of Vegas Pro 12 or not but I know I edited sample XAVC files last summer before I got my AX1 in the November and then I know it did both XAVC and XAVC-S.

Ron Evans

[Peter Siamidis]

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

Monday, I agree, it's truly amazing. I just sit here and scratch my head in amazement. Some people seem to be expecting $100,000 broadcast camera performance out of a $2,000 consumer camcorder.

What's interesting about your comment is that I notice all kinds of issues on video footage from numerous high budget tv shows. Just yesterday I was watching a show on HGTV and on some of the footage the edges of the screen were completely messed up to where white was splitting up into the colors of the rainbow. It looked utterly terrible like a 30 year old broken crt display, yet there it was on a high dollar tv show for all to see. Or issues like moire and aliasing are heavily present on all manner of shows on tv, and not just minor amounts but very heavy aliasing, stair stepping and moire that looks terrible. Yet there it is once again on these high dollar tv shows. Or I'm watching a show on the History channel where they are showing some ancient ruins and the camera is panning across them only to show a blurry mess. But there is it, that's what their high dollar gear and big budgets got them and they were ok with it.

Which makes me wonder, here we are pixel peeping a $2000 4k camcorder for our work yet in the tv world they are using "expensive" video gear for their high budget productions that produce all manner of errors in the footage and they seem ok with it. In the uber budget movie world they seem to go all out to make things look good using top gear, but outside of that it's quite easy to find video flaws in most everything out there. In spite of that though it doesn't stop these companies from broadcasting them for all to see with all the flaws intact, and still have a viable business. Like the popular exercise videos P90x, Insanity, T25, etc, all of which I do. Those sell hundreds of thousands of copies pulling in millions of dollars, yet the video footage from them quite frankly looks terrible!

I guess my point is that it's interesting how critical we are of video gear like the $2000 4k AX100, yet I see more flaws in tv footage from far higher budget productions and video gear than in the footage I've seen from the AX100 so far. If multi million dollar tv shows, exercise videos or whatever can work and earn money with all the flaws they have, then maybe others can as well. When you read all these forums after a while you start to think that it's impossible to create a video business unless you shoot in raw 4:2:2 at 600+ mbps. But everything I see on tv along with my own business proves otherwise. I think sometimes people need to step back a bit, figure out what they need for their work and go with it, and not worry as much about all the minutia.

[Joey Atilano]

Originally Posted by Mark Rosenzweig

1. Sony Vegas Pro 12 edits XAVC S clips. I have done this.

2. Here is a downloadable XAVC S file I made (from a pro 4K *original* shot by someone else) using Vegas Pro (to be just like the one produced by the AX100, though it is higher bitrate):

Sweet ! Thanks Mark. I'll download it when I get home and see if my old Vegas 11 will let me edit it.

[Ken Ross]

Originally Posted by Peter Siamidis

What's interesting about your comment is that I notice all kinds of issues on video footage from numerous high budget tv shows.

Peter, you're absolutely right. I too have seen many artifacts and many issues with PQ on high budget equipment. Of course you never know if the issue is related to something within the broadcast chain or the camera itself.

But it does bring up an inescapable irony. It seems that some will tend to judge a $2,000 camcorder more harshly than a megabuck piece of equipment or the equipment of their choice. What it boils down to is if you are determined to demean a piece of equipment, you'll demean that piece of equipment whether the points are valid or not.

As an example, on another forum, we've got one guy who absolutely goes catatonic when he sees 'superwhites' on the AX100. He pointed to the original Sony demo, which most thought was really excellent (so excellent that some continue to say it was faked or manipulated), but zoned in on a couple of clouds on the horizon that were overexposed in one or two scenes. Were these clouds the subject of the video? No. Was the subject of the video properly exposed? Yes. If you watch videos produced by his equipment, you can easily find the same superwhites in some scenes. But those don't count. The 4K version of his camera has also displayed these superwhites in some posted clips. However in his mind, the camera can do no wrong and if it does, it's simply OE. And so it goes. This is the internet. :)

Over the years I've learned to block posters like this (where the forum allows that choice) rather than wasting time reading their nonsense. When I see someone on a mission to obviously disparage a camera or piece of equipment, I know there's generally an ulterior motive. I'm not talking about someone who points out some flaw we all know exists, but rather those on a 'mission'. They're usually pretty easy to identify.

@ Dave

I KNEW those trolls were the Chinese pushing their $150 4K cameras! And here I thought I was the only one that figured that out. ;)

[John McCully]

Ha ha, this thread is certainly going all over the place with contributions form hard core professionals (you know who you are even if I don't) to idiot lay-about bums like me who are just in it for the fun. When the snow is 1.5 meters high out there and the temperature would freeze the bails of a brass monkey then us fun-loving folks delight in fussing over the minutia, and even getting downright outraged about Sony's marketing strategy, conspiracies, disdain for their customers, customer-focus - it's all good fun, keeps us off the streets and out of the pubs while filling our hearts and souls with the odd spot of righteous indignation.

Seriously, when I think back to a few short years ago and the gear we happily praised and loved...and today my biggest issue is whether to buy the FDR-AX100 or the GH4 (or both) or get a decent EVF for my BMPCC (naw, it's too noisy) or wait for the pro version of the FDR-AX100 (naw, waiting is not me) and that's all I've got to worry about!

So in the meantime we talk about it, and why not. Right here and now the low cloud is breaking up, the sun is almost here, going to be another hot one and I'm off out with the RX10 to see what I might shoot down at the marina now that I almost have this thing figured out.

All good fun isn't it?

Great thread :-)

[Ken Ross]

Good post John and good timing. It does sometimes tend to get a bit hot & heavy.

BTW, what temperature is it that a brass monkey's balls freeze at? Is there a wind chill factor in that? :)

[Joey Atilano]

As an update - I downloaded the video and was able to render out with a custom template in 4k so I'm set !

That was my final worry now put to rest.

I really want to see a video of the 120fps mode and Nightshot. I wonder if it has the old 240fps mode because I used it a lot on my HC3.