Sony FDR-AX100

[Peter Siamidis]

Originally Posted by Ken Ross

Pete, it seems that people that are using that mike do like it.

Yeah it's cool although that's mostly my backup mic. The one I'll probably use most often is the same one I use with my vg900, which is the xlr-a1m adapter along with it's ecm-xm1 mic. I attached pics of both with my little scorpion handles.

[Derek McCabe]

That Sony XLR-K1M Adapter and Microphone Kit looks perfect on the handle.
I might upgrade and get a stereo shotgun instead of the stock ECM-XM1 mic.

Lightweight and easy to move handheld.

[Adriano Moroni]

I'm sorry if I'm OT.
I know there are some led lights for video cameras with a staining control (Color Temperature Adjustable with dimming knob), that is 3200±300K-5600±300K. Do you have some experiences with them?
I have seen a led light here: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Bi-Co...710553025.html
Thanks for some ifo

[Clive McLaughlin]

This is the first real low light footage I've seen.

Its hardly DSLR quality, but I didn't expect it to be.

SONY FDR-AX1 Gdansk Poland. Ultra low light test. 4K, 3840x2160 II - YouTube

Also, considering what others are saying about the 4k potential limiting the low light capture - I wonder if the non-4k CX900 might actually be a better low light camera?

[Ron Evans]

That video is from a FDR-AX1 not an AX100. I have an AX1 and it is about 2 stops slower than my NX5U. Used as a wide full stage camera for theatre it is just about a stop slower than my NX30 or CX700 but gives a very good image when down converted. Cropping is not really viable in really low light though as the focus and noise level are obvious if not downconverted.

Ron Evans

[Clive McLaughlin]

Ugh! Stupid Youtube search giving me non-exact searches. Hate that!

Looks like theres still no footage out there for the AX100 in proper low light.


Some people are claiming low light, but in my view is just indoor light, not really low light.

Some of us are planning to shoot wedding dances with this. We need to see how it copes!

[Ken Ross]

I actually thought some of the scenes in those AX1 night shots weren't too bad. We could say they weren't DSLR quality in terms of how a fast lens would have handled those scenes, but we could also say, from the standpoint of detail, they were much better than DSLR quality. :)

[Cliff Totten]

Originally Posted by Peter Siamidis

Yeah it's cool although that's mostly my backup mic. The one I'll probably use most often is the same one I use with my vg900, which is the xlr-a1m adapter along with it's ecm-xm1 mic. I attached pics of both with my little scorpion handles.

Quick question:

When you add the XLR adapter and attachment, does the AX100 still display those horrible "triangle" level meters?

I was hoping that maybe Sony would let it flip over to "real" calibrated audio meters when it is connected.

CT

[Peter Siamidis]

Originally Posted by Cliff Totten

Quick question:

When you add the XLR adapter and attachment, does the AX100 still display those horrible "triangle" level meters?

I was hoping that maybe Sony would let it flip over to "real" calibrated audio meters when it is connected.

CT

Yeah it still shows the 5 triangle meters with the xlr attachment, which is odd since it seems to be locked to 2 channel audio in 4k recording mode anyways so 3 of the triangles don't do anything at all.

[Ken Ross]

Someone had once mentioned something about the color controls on the AX100. I'm not sure how many are aware of this, but within each white balance selection (AWB, outdoor, indoor etc) you have a button called 'option'. Under this option you have the ability to shift the color balance via an onscreen grid toward the amber, blue, green and magenta.

This will be a familiar option among those that regularly use a DSLR and some more pricey camcorders, but it's an option easily missed on the AX100 if you don't know it's there.

[Adriano Moroni]

About digital ZOOM

Hello, can you tell me how much possible is to use the FDR-AX100 digital Zoom withouth noticeable loss of video quality? For example is 20x good on 4k video?

[Ken Ross]

I'm.not a fan of any digital zoom and never use them. On the AX100, you're better off using the Active stabilization which automatically increases the zoom to an 18x device. You'll take a slight hit on resolution at the upper end of that zoom range, but it should be far better than using digital zoom.

[Steve Mullen]

Since Sony calls it "Clear Zoom" I assume the 18X is the limit of the digital zoom before the image gets bad.

But linking this digital zoom option to stabilization is, I think, new for Sony. And, calling this kind of stabilization ACTIVE is strange too.

It implies the other mode isn't active. Which I've been assuming is our old friend Optical Stabilization -- OIS. It's slower in response but handles large movements. Seems simpler to call it "Optical."

Then Active -- which places a window on the CMOS chip -- uses sensors to move that window around to handle jiggle. Seems simpler to call it "Optical + Electronic."

My question is when one engages Active, does the window crop the image to smaller than 8MP -- and if it does, how much smaller. Since the chip has so many pixels, I would hope it would not be necessary to start with a window smaller than 8MP. Buffer space for stabilization would then come from the area outside the 8MP. But, if the initial video downscale winds up with 8MP, the stabilization buffer space must come from the 8MP and thus the window would be smaller than 8MP.

The smaller the window crop, the more digital zoom that must be applied to get image back to 8MP size. I don't trust the word Clear. Of course, the crop still reduces the angle of view. In other words, Clear Zoom wouldn't really start at 1.0X.

[Ken Ross]

Steve, one guy did a test on another forum and found the crop factor ranged from 5% at the wide end to about 54% on the tight end. He shot a resolution chart and found little difference between the chart with Standard OIS or Active IS.

I need to do some A/Bs myself. I think to judge the real world impact of Active IS, it's important to keep framing the same between the two methods of IS. Since the crop factor and therefore the magnification changes with the amount of zoom, the test needs to be done in stages to maintain the same framing.

[Adriano Moroni]

Do you know if AX100 can use NP-FV70 or NP-FV100 batteries? I don't know if they there are, but I'd like to know if it be problematic to use them. I need to know if AX100 will loss of balance.
thanks