Sony PXW-X70 announced: Pro XDCAM version of AX100

[Bill Petropoulos]

Sony Announces PXW-X70 XDCAM Professional Compact Camcorder at DV Info Net

Turns out it will have 4K... as a paid upgrade in 2015.

[Les Wilson]

Finally, a nice B-camera camcorder with decent codec and large sensor. Love the SDI out and WiFi control of iris and recording. 1" sensor and nice set of CODECS including XDCAM. Hope the DR is good.

[Petter Flink]

Nice camera indeed.

It seems to be able to record all frame rates as well; 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 instead of those PAL/NTSC framerate fees Canon charge for the XF-series.

Too bad Sony didn't went with the same three ring design Canon uses on their new XF200. On the other side the X70 offers a 4k future - although for a fee.

[Mark Fry]

Originally Posted by Petter Flink

It seems to be able to record all frame rates as well; 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 instead of those PAL/NTSC framerate fees Canon charge for the XF-series.

The interesting thing will be which frame rates are available in 4K. The AX100 is unable to squeeze 50/60 fps at 4k - at the moment. OTOH, if the X70 can do 50/60 fps at 4k post-upgrade, maybe the AX100 will get an equivalent upgrade at around the same time?

[Lawrence Bansbach]

Unless I missed something, it's not clear whether the 4K upgrade will be 10-bit 4:2:2 XAVC, or only 8-bit 4:2:0 XAVC-S.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Official Sony UK press release about the PXW-X70 on the link below - it's a bit easier to read than web translated stuff too!

http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/press/pr-s...p=scl-cc-10324

[Petter Flink]

Yes the information about the future firmware upgrade is a bit austere.

The Sony press release page states 20Mpixel sensor while their Features page say 14.2MP.
3 levels of mechanical ND-filters is great though.

[Bill Petropoulos]

Some sample footage:

PXW-X70 Teaser Video. | XDCAM-USER.COM[/quote]

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Mark Fry

The interesting thing will be which frame rates are available in 4K. The AX100 is unable to squeeze 50/60 fps at 4k - at the moment. OTOH, if the X70 can do 50/60 fps at 4k post-upgrade, maybe the AX100 will get an equivalent upgrade at around the same time?

I don't see that happening for the ax100 if they where able to enable 50p for 4K, it's a way for Sony to only give the higher end models extra features for a much higher price.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Bill Petropoulos

Some sample footage:

PXW-X70 Teaser Video. | XDCAM-USER.COM

Honestly, I have seen better looking downsampled ax100 footage.

[Tony Maceo]

Thanks to dSLR and mirrorless cameras, this smaller form factor is more client -acceptable when they're paying profession fees these days. Not the case for me several moons ago. The AX100 didn't tick all the right buttons for me and I wanted to make a 4k upgrade when I had all the supporting gears such as storage and 4K monitors, capture cards, etc. I like the 4k upgrade fee when you're ready... Hope it's priced right shipped. Please Sony, we'll love you to all ends.

[Bill Petropoulos]

Originally Posted by Tony Maceo

Hope it's priced right shipped. Please Sony, we'll love you to all ends.

Based off the price of 280,000 Yen that was posted on some Japanese sites, we should get it for under $3K.

[Lawrence Bansbach]

Originally Posted by Bill Petropoulos

Based off the price of 280,000 Yen that was posted on some Japanese sites, we should get it for under $3K.

Unclear what the 4K upgrade will cost. It would be nice if the 4K upgrade had a 4,096 x 2,160 option in addition to UltraHD, 10- or 12-bit 4:2:2 XAVC, and 12-bit compressed raw (e.g., CineForm RAW) over the 3G-SDI port.

[Jack Zhang]

It is highly unlikely we will see 4K60p from this camera since it shares the same encoders as the AX100. The ASICs could be hard-coded to be limited in 4K to 30p. Try to encode 60p and the thing would overheat. Remember the TM700's active fan?

I'd also expect the same amount of skew as the AX100, which isn't really desirable for sports stuff.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Second SD slot, that's handy, but why the delay on 4K capability.... hmm, are they trying to squeeze out 50/60p perhaps? Hopefully they are taking into account the few criticisms of the AX100 and pushing for better performance...