Sony PXW-X70 announced: Pro XDCAM version of AX100

[Tom Grushka]

How I settled the size question?
1. It is an XDCAM (a longstanding, recognized Sony professional brand).
2. It is a broadcast grade camera (which might be in your project proposals).
3. With the handle, shotgun mic, and possibly wide converter, as Dave pointed out, it's larger than a DSLR.
4. Even high budget films and TV shows, such as House, have been shot on DSLR (a "small cam").
5. At least one, Paul Andregg, is shooting broadcast news for a commercial TV station with this cam. He says sometimes he gets looks but wears station clothing.
6. Get a shoulder-mount to "look good" but mediocre video quality for $1,000. Get the next size up XDCAM for 2x the price of the X70. Get a decent shoulder-mount for 3x the price of the X70. Or, bring two or three X70's to your shoot instead of one "equivalent" shoulder-mount, and fit them all in one bag!
7. The pictures really can be stunning, and quite sharp -- be sure to check out Paul's color correction settings, they help.

Two minor cons:
1. Ergonomics. Planning ahead and assigning buttons will help you avoid "fiddling" with the menus and settings during shoots. But this can be an advantage: it forces you to think about which settings are really important and which ones you can pre-configure or let the camera manage.
2. The lens hood. This thing looks cheap as crap, Sony! Surely there is a cooler looking bayonet lens hood out there that would fit?

[Anthony Lelli]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

I was wondering about that though. . .I keep reading how tiny the cam is. Has anyone received any flack on jobs where people/clients are like "is that a toy? Are you kidding me? We're paying you xxx thousands of dollars for this job!"?

I know camcorders have been on the small side for years and people are probably used to it but you still hear about that kinda stuff (or used to). Big camera = professional, etc.

you can buy a big shotgun (even if you don't need it, but it will look good)
and then a big hat

http://www.gravitypope.com/accessory...4_0_1_1024.jpg

if you go around like that then the camera will positively absolutely shoot better

that helps?

[Josh Bass]

thanks. one minor quibble there, though, is that while its true some shows and movies have been shot on dslrs, i BELIEVE those are exceptions and not rules, more of a novelty/one-off/trying to make a point kinda thing (ONE single episode of House, I believe, one movie ---Valor?), possibly a big promotional deal for the camera maker than anything else. the exception that i know of being Wilfred which is done on one of the 5ds and always has been.

[Tom Grushka]

Well, to each his own. The undeniable fact is that more and more independent work -- and great work at that -- is being done on small cameras. No one sits in a movie theater/corporate boardroom watching a film/company video and says, "gee, this is the best film because of the camera it was shot on" -- except people like us maybe. :)

I'd say there's benefits to both:
Shoulder cam: better ergonomics, better on the wrist if you stand for an hour somewhere shooting, more stable without tripod, really beefy, "old school" appearance;
X70-type: more portable, fit in tight spaces, can use lighter tripod, new, slick, "2015-wow-tech-has-come-a-long-way" appearance.

Just imagine: 20-30 years ago "camera bloat" wasn't an option. Today, it is!

[Josh Bass]

No, don't get me wrong, I don't mean the X70 vs those giant cams, more the "standard" sized cams like EX1, HPX170, AC160, etc.

[Anthony Lelli]

Originally Posted by Tom Grushka

Huh? Codec fraud??? LOL!

I don't think that's funny, and given the situation it makes some sense, actually.
XAVC gives "highest picture resolution and frame rate" (from Sony , in writing) so you shouldn't work that hard trying to catch the difference with the "regular" AVCHD , no?
it should be obvious, no?
or not?

Originally Posted by Tom Grushka

XAVC-L "just doesn't work" seem to be a bit confused

well, XAVC files from the PXW-X70 actually don't work with vegas. AT ALL. what's "confusing" about that?

[Josh Bass]

ok, doy, I just saw that a place in town has the cam in stock so I can go look at it, shoot some footage and compare it to ex1 footage.

[David Dixon]

Just today I saw someone post on the X70 Facebook group that they had a response from Sony. He had been complaining that it was taking so long for the 4K upgrade.
Here's the actual quote from Sony:

"we will be confirming the 4K upgrade details by the end of this month. The plan was for the upgrade to be available ‘early 2015′ and the exact detail we will confirm in due course."

Now "early 2015" might mean April 31st, but just getting some details would be great.

So, I hope this info is correct, and also wish the upgrade would include
-some tweaking of the highlight/Knee settings - they have a lot of quirks that can't be fully controlled by the custom settings
-1080p120fps
-waveform option in addition to the histogram

...but that may be dreaming.

[Jack Zhang]

I was just speaking with some producer friends and Discovery Channel is now requiring 4K 60p for acquisition on it's major programming. This puts pressure on this cam to see if 4K 60p is possible since the broadcasters are already asking for 4K at 60p and nothing less.

[Andrew Smith]

The 60p seems a bit over the top.

Andrew

[Jack Zhang]

That's what they said. You're required to shoot 4K 60p for major programming for Discovery.

[Charlie Steiner]

I'd like to see that "requirement" confirmed...

[David Dixon]

To add to my "dream list" for the 4K upgrade from a few posts back, I'd like to add:

Some kind of Log (S-Log or whatever Sony calls it) setting like on the higher end Sony cameras and the Canon C series. I'm trying to approximate that with custom Picture Profiles with some success, but would love a flatter setting built in.

[Jack Zhang]

I'm adding that 4K 60p requirement was pitching for "wildlife programming." Reality TV programming may have different requirements.

But considering this cam might only be getting XAVC-L 4K, it is essentially the same at the moment as XAVC-S picture wise (8bit 4:2:0) but the added audio channels and 24bit audio would be a nice addition.

Sony doesn't seem like they will make XAVC-L 4K with 10bit 4:2:2, which is mandated by broadcast.

[David Dixon]

For Mac users, there is a new option for getting XAVC-L to ProRes which has more options than Catalyst Browse, although no image editing of course. EditReady, from divergentmedia.com - the makers of ClipWrap now supports the X70 and X7s XAVC-L.

It's only $49, and the company says they have not seen any gamma/contrast shift like is caused by batch transcoding in Catalyst Browse. I have not had a chance to test that, but it will even play back the clips.

EditReady : Transcoding Without The Hassle - divergent media

There is a free trial that is fully functional but only transcodes the first 60 seconds of each clip.