Two 'noobie' questions on the FDR-AX100

Ron Evans · December 1st, 2015, 01:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Henderson

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Here is a link to a baseball video shot in 4k that someone pointed me to. I am at a loss to explain why it looks so good. I see none of the judder/stutter that should be appearing in this type video.

Sony FDR AX100 Video: Baseball in 4K on Vimeo

Alan

Most of the video is nicely controlled camera movements that would not exaggerate the slow frame rate. However look at all the pan shots of the fence vertical posts in the background if you want to look for some judder. Since ones eye is focused on the player they are not obvious and far away. For me though I like smooth movement and 1080 60P would be better for my eyes even for bat swings and runners. If you are only going to shoot HD then the CX900 is the same camera really. I got the AX100 as I thought it would hold its value better.

Ron Evans

Alan Henderson · December 1st, 2015, 02:25 PM

I like the 4K option. Was price checking and B&H is jacking their prices up for X-mas shoppers. The AX100 is now $1698. Was $100 cheaper yesterday.

Ron Evans · December 1st, 2015, 04:15 PM

If you do not have camera movement and not lots of movement in the image then the 4K is very nice and downscales even to 60i very nice for DVD or Bluray.

Ron Evans

Dave Blackhurst · December 1st, 2015, 07:52 PM

If you look at (pause) some of the frames where there is motion (like someone running though the frame), you see motion blur - again this helps quite a lot to eliminate the stuttering effect.

The best way to explain it is that 4K is so much sharper it easily starts to look like a series of 30 stills per second, so any "motion" appears to be frozen rather than smooth. Setting the shutter speed to 1/30-1/125 (roughly) will allow a bit of natural motion blur in each frame so that the frames begin to look more continuous instead of sharp stills... easier on the eye.

The shimmer/stutter is pretty painful at faster shutter speeds, my initial impressions of the AX100 before I started fiddling with the shutter speed were not so good, almost unusable. Once I got a handle on running manual (semi auto really, mainly riding the shutter and the ND filters to control aperture), the camera has been excellent.

One really needs to have a solid grasp on the fundamentals of manual control with the newer "enthusiast" Sony cameras, they aren't really the best for a noob "point and shoot" approach, though they may get decent results in auto.

Also, FWIW, the HD Vimeo looked pretty rough on my 4K system/monitor... once you've viewed 4K on a 4K system, even a cheap one like I've got, you re-define "sharp". Things that looked "OK" before look borderline to horrible! I was watching some Basketball "highlights" the other night (Kobe's retirement reel), and the SD stuff was so bad, even on a 1080 HD TV that I was wondering why they bothered. It's amazing how much our expectations have changed in a relatively short time!

4K TV's have come down a lot, and monitors are getting a bit more reasonably priced - I use a Seiki 39" TV, not perfect, but works fine for me, and didn't break the budget. Saw their newer 42" for under $350 for holiday specials!

December 1st, 2015, 02:25 PM	#17
Alan Henderson Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Athens, GA Posts: 96	Re: Two 'noobie' questions on the FDR-AX100 I like the 4K option. Was price checking and B&H is jacking their prices up for X-mas shoppers. The AX100 is now $1698. Was $100 cheaper yesterday.

December 1st, 2015, 04:15 PM	#18
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,220	Re: Two 'noobie' questions on the FDR-AX100 If you do not have camera movement and not lots of movement in the image then the 4K is very nice and downscales even to 60i very nice for DVD or Bluray. Ron Evans

December 1st, 2015, 07:52 PM	#19
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	Re: Two 'noobie' questions on the FDR-AX100 If you look at (pause) some of the frames where there is motion (like someone running though the frame), you see motion blur - again this helps quite a lot to eliminate the stuttering effect. The best way to explain it is that 4K is so much sharper it easily starts to look like a series of 30 stills per second, so any "motion" appears to be frozen rather than smooth. Setting the shutter speed to 1/30-1/125 (roughly) will allow a bit of natural motion blur in each frame so that the frames begin to look more continuous instead of sharp stills... easier on the eye. The shimmer/stutter is pretty painful at faster shutter speeds, my initial impressions of the AX100 before I started fiddling with the shutter speed were not so good, almost unusable. Once I got a handle on running manual (semi auto really, mainly riding the shutter and the ND filters to control aperture), the camera has been excellent. One really needs to have a solid grasp on the fundamentals of manual control with the newer "enthusiast" Sony cameras, they aren't really the best for a noob "point and shoot" approach, though they may get decent results in auto. Also, FWIW, the HD Vimeo looked pretty rough on my 4K system/monitor... once you've viewed 4K on a 4K system, even a cheap one like I've got, you re-define "sharp". Things that looked "OK" before look borderline to horrible! I was watching some Basketball "highlights" the other night (Kobe's retirement reel), and the SD stuff was so bad, even on a 1080 HD TV that I was wondering why they bothered. It's amazing how much our expectations have changed in a relatively short time! 4K TV's have come down a lot, and monitors are getting a bit more reasonably priced - I use a Seiki 39" TV, not perfect, but works fine for me, and didn't break the budget. Saw their newer 42" for under $350 for holiday specials!