X70 - update?

[Harry Pallenberg]

How is it that the 2year old Sony X70 is still probably the best small 4K camcorder with XLR inputs? Even smaller if I remove the top handle. Is there some camera I'm missing? Any rumors on a new update? The Sony Z150, Z100 and Panny ux90 and 180 all seem too big.

[Paul Anderegg]

They should at least put the improved Z150 sensor package into the X70, and perhaps give it free XDCAM codec pack as well. Improving the turn to focus ratio at telephoto would be welcome as well, other than that, they have a solid little camera.

Paul

[Harry Pallenberg]

Paul - yes new sensor and free 4K would be awesome... throw in OIS and I'm totally sold... till then, I'm renting one and using it trial by fire style as it arrive the evening before my shoot... I know I'm living dangerously, but I'm sony savvy and the job is a favor not for pay... so I'm willing to risk it.

That said I'll be looking for tips on usage, settings and codecs... so any thing anyone can share TAHNKS IN ADVANCE!

[David Barnett]

It's a pretty easy camera to figure out. Only thing I recall offhand is the zoom/focus ring is shared, so theres a button to toggle between the two. However, it can be a pain if you have focus in auto, because if you use it for zoom, then push it to focus, you'll notice you can't focus either, until you also switch that back to manual. You'll have to test it a few times to get what I'm saying, but I use it mostly for weddings & in the run & gun style its a bit of a pain.

White balance also doesn't have a quick adjustment button to set it either. So you need to set WB to manual by pushing the button by the viewfinder, then dive into the menu, and in there (the first set of options) is WB Set. Click that, then you click Menu again I think to set it. Also, after you click WB Set you can use the dial wheel to rotate between the A & B presets. It took me a while to figure that out.

Most of your Menu settings are where they are in other Sonys I think. Format Memory Card seems a bit more further down for some reason. ND Filters work well. And the Power Button oddly is only in the LCD Viewfinder area, and very close to your WB & Picture Profiles buttons, a very dangerous and unfortunate place for it to be, so be careful. All in all a good little camera, prolly smaller than you'll be expecting but a good little rig.

[Noa Put]

Only thing I recall offhand is the zoom/focus ring is shared, so theres a button to toggle between the two. However, it can be a pain if you have focus in auto, because if you use it for zoom, then push it to focus, you'll notice you can't focus either, until you also switch that back to manual.

Can't you just use the zoomrocker to zoom and set the lens button to focus? That should give you control over both simultaneously.

[Paul Anderegg]

People that manual zoom with a ring irritate me. The A&E Network show Live PD has a couple of photogs doing the manual snap zoom crap, and it is seriously annoying! Why? Because they zoom in hyper quick, but then have to find focus on their PMW300. They are doing a live Cops style show on Friday nights.

For basic camera setup, use the PRO Picture Profile, change the gamma to REC709 or whatever looks best for your scene and lighting. Set knee to manual 87.5 -2 slope, and adjust detail to 0 which is pretty sweet looking. I shoot 0 for ENG, no softness. Black gamma adjusts the gain applied to the darker areas, blacks, shadows. The higher toy increase that number, the more gain is applied to the dark stuff relative to the bright stuff. If your shooting XAVC and planning to do a little adjusting in post, probably can leave it at 0.

Picture wise, to get the camera ready to shoot usably, those would be the man things to set. There are custom color correction values you can try, but if you need to get shooting right away, PRO color mode is the closest to correct colors in the menu without corrections.

Paul

[Harry Pallenberg]

Sweet - thanks... I also found an old post where you gave some pretty dialed in specific settings.

[David Dixon]

"White balance also doesn't have a quick adjustment button to set it either. So you need to set WB to manual by pushing the button by the viewfinder, then dive into the menu, and in there (the first set of options) is WB Set. Click that, then you click Menu again I think to set it. Also, after you click WB Set you can use the dial wheel to rotate between the A & B presets. It took me a while to figure that out."

But, WB can be set to a custom button to avoid menus. Have the A or B preset on the one you want to set, hit the WB button, aim, hit your custom button - done.

[Harry Pallenberg]

Just got the word that the rental does not come with a SDXC card... so, best card for 4K 100mbps?

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

People that manual zoom with a ring irritate me. The A&E Network show Live PD has a couple of photogs doing the manual snap zoom crap, and it is seriously annoying! Why? Because they zoom in hyper quick, but then have to find focus on their PMW300. They are doing a live Cops style show on Friday nights.

For basic camera setup, use the PRO Picture Profile, change the gamma to REC709 or whatever looks best for your scene and lighting. Set knee to manual 87.5 -2 slope, and adjust detail to 0 which is pretty sweet looking. I shoot 0 for ENG, no softness. Black gamma adjusts the gain applied to the darker areas, blacks, shadows. The higher toy increase that number, the more gain is applied to the dark stuff relative to the bright stuff. If your shooting XAVC and planning to do a little adjusting in post, probably can leave it at 0.

Picture wise, to get the camera ready to shoot usably, those would be the man things to set. There are custom color correction values you can try, but if you need to get shooting right away, PRO color mode is the closest to correct colors in the menu without corrections.

Paul

Never thought of that. TBH I don't manually zoom to zoom live, I only do it, out of habit, to focus. Again, prev camera method. For some reason I'm not in the habit of focus magnifier, although I do use it occasionally to double check. But out of habit, I zoom in, focus, zoom out. I like my zoom rocker on variable or slow so it isn't fast enough to do it. Prolly just due to habits I suppose and I should look for an alternative method. It's rare I manually zoom when shooting, unless I know it'll be edited out.

Originally Posted by David Dixon

But, WB can be set to a custom button to avoid menus. Have the A or B preset on the one you want to set, hit the WB button, aim, hit your custom button - done.

Myb I made that confusing, but I was referring to "Setting" the white balance. Like when you goto bridal prep or the church and need to set WB. You can't do so ahead of time, so you need to set it while there. Its a bit of fumbling around when trying to get it quickly, especially the first time or two. I think my Z5U just had a toggle switch for A/B then the Set button. No menu req'd.

FWIW the auto white balance is really good on it anyway. I use it alot. Sometimes I like having manual set as a backup, otherwise I may use it because the auto doesn't look right.

[Harry Pallenberg]

I assume this will work 4K 100mbps?
SanDisk 64GB Extreme PRO UHS-I SDXC Memory Card (V30)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...geID/accessory

[David Dixon]

Yes, anything that's Class 10 and U3.

[Paul Anderegg]

You can set a custom button for push to white function. The regular WB button toggles between preset and auto AB. When on preset, highlighting allows you to scroll through PRE/A/B the same way you scroll through gain iris or shutter. Dont forget to highlight off of WB or you might try to adjust exposure and the colors change!

Paul

[David Dixon]

Originally Posted by David Barnett

Myb I made that confusing, but I was referring to "Setting" the white balance. Like when you goto bridal prep or the church and need to set WB. You can't do so ahead of time, so you need to set it while there. Its a bit of fumbling around when trying to get it quickly, especially the first time or two. I think my Z5U just had a toggle switch for A/B then the Set button. No menu req'd.

FWIW the auto white balance is really good on it anyway. I use it alot. Sometimes I like having manual set as a backup, otherwise I may use it because the auto doesn't look right.

Now I don't understand. I was also referring to setting the White Balance manually. The menu diving you're talking about can be set to one of the custom buttons. When the light changes I just press the button (WHT BAL) inside the fold out screen, make sure preset A or B is selected, aim at something white, and press the custom button. I use button 5 at my right little finger. No menu is involved.

If I've misunderstood, sorry.

[Paul Anderegg]

I may be mistaken, but I believe if you push to white on any scene, even a wide shot of a road with trees and blue sky, you will get basically a FIXED HOLD of what you'd get with auto white balance mode. To make that more clear, if you like how auto white balance works for the most part, but hate it full time adjusting, and have nothing white to zoom in on, you can repeatedly hit push to white in wide angle at any scene until you like how it looks. I find that kinda cool actually, unlike most professional cameras that throw an error if they don't see white.

Paul