Just ordered the fx-7

[Pete Crawford]

I just ordered the fx-7. Hope I made the right choice. Currently using the zr-45 canon. Will be shooting mostly day, but will shoot at night during football games, and inside a gym for basketball. LOW LIGHT.

Hope this was an ok choice.

Any input?

[Sebastian Pigott]

Pete,

I went from a VX2100 which was excellent in low light, to a V1U which I love during the day but when the light gets low the V1U just cant cut it in my opinion. The V1U and FX7 have the same size chips which means the FX7 will perform the same. I saved my money and I now am the proud owner of a Z5U which blows away my V1U. The FX1000 and Z5U have the same chips so if you kick out a few more dollars the FX1000 would be a better choice. I know price plays a part in every decision, but if low light is a factor and you could swing it, go for the larger chips and get a FX1000.

Sebastian

[Adam Gold]

The FX7 isn't great in low light, but for your purposes it should be fine. Just make sure you do a good manual WB under the lights.

[Pete Crawford]

I didn't know if I was being too critical about football games being low light. I don't plan on doing real low light stuff like weddings.

Hope I didn't make a mistake getting the fx7, I had really thought about the z5u, but someone told me I didn't need that much camera for what I was going to do.

Pete

[Adam Gold]

The Z5/FX1000 are indeed better in low light -- almost shockingly so -- but the FX7 is the best all-around performer and value I own. I have FX7s, FX1s and FX1000s, and the FX7s are my "go to" cams in most situations.

[Khoi Pham]

Originally Posted by Pete Crawford

I just ordered the fx-7. Hope I made the right choice. Currently using the zr-45 canon. Will be shooting mostly day, but will shoot at night during football games, and inside a gym for basketball. LOW LIGHT.

Hope this was an ok choice.

Any input?

Why ask after you ordered? I think it is a bad choice, at football game if you are going to zoom in any you will lose light, this camera is the worse in low light ever, fx 1000 would be a much better choice or Pany HMC-150, or if you don't want to spend this much the consumer model like XR500 is still much better, the fx-7 is 2 years old technology.

[Pete Crawford]

Khoi....I let a friend talk me into the fx-7. He said it would be ok in the low light . I couldn't rest til I researched more. I changed to the z5u this morning thanks to all of you guy's input.

That's my final decision.

Thank you all, and I hope that is a better choice.

Pete

[Khoi Pham]

What a jump but heck yeah much better choice, read the manual good and enjoy it.

[Mel Enriquez]

Originally Posted by Pete Crawford

Khoi....I let a friend talk me into the fx-7. He said it would be ok in the low light . I couldn't rest til I researched more. I changed to the z5u this morning thanks to all of you guy's input.

That's my final decision.

Thank you all, and I hope that is a better choice.

Pete

Pete,

Good thing you did. If Sony only made that a 1/3" camera, it would be well. But I guess, they didn't want to step into the FX1 (at that time). My consumer HC3 would probably put the FX7 to shame because it is a 1/3". I do lose the ease of manual control and more pro appearance :-)

The z5u is excellent. The FX-1000 would have saved you some money, but then again, you've already changed the order, so all's well.

[Victor Wilcox]

Quote: "My consumer HC3 would probably put the FX7 to shame because it is a 1/3"."

Not so fast there. The FX7 has three 1/4" chips, giving it 2.25 times the area of the HC3. I went from using an A1U (single 1/3") to the FX7 and there's a significant improvement in low light performance. It's no FX1000, but if you learn to control the gain and avoid zooming in to tight, the results can be quite good.

[Stelios Christofides]

Pete, I bought first the FX7 (and I still have) and a few months I got the Z5 and I must tell you that both are very good cameras but the Z5 is so much better in low light situations, so you are really lucky that you were able to change your order before you got the FX7. The next thing you must do is save money to get is the MRC1 unit that fits at the back of this camera and then you have magic in your hands!!!

Stelios

[Sebastian Pigott]

Sony has a rebate going on for a $500 ecoupon when you purchase a Z5U to be used at their sony style website. Sony style is over priced in my opinion but after you get the ecoupon you can select to purchase a HVR-MRC1 for $1,003 total price. Apply the coupon which will bring the price down to $503 which is $300 cheaper then anywhere else I've found. The ecoupon is sent to your e-mail address and it came about 2 weeks after I sent off the rebate. Just something to think about. Here is the link:

Sony Business Solutions & Systems - Featured

[Greg Laves]

I shot a ballet last weekend using 3 camcorders. A V1 (FX7's cousin), and FX1000 and a Z7 with a 16x Fujinon broadcast lens. We only had 2 camera operators, however. The V1 was close to the stage and manned. The FX1000 was unmanned and was the "safety" static camera. It was at the rear of the auditorium. The Z7 was manned and was also at the back of the auditorium. The FX1000 and the V1 should probably have been swapped. But the other cameraman owns the V1 and since he was most familiar with his camera, that is what he wanted to use. When it was all said and done, the V1 and the camerman delivered absolutely stunning footage.

On occasions the stage was somewhat dark and I was pleased to find that all of the cameras could handle the low light pretty well without using more than 6db gain. There was one exception. The Z7 with the f1.4 lens was the only camcorder that could deliver a reasonable image on the one song that was lit with blacklight. Besides that one instance, my overriding impression was that the color, clarity and just plain old beauty of all of the HDV cameras just blew away my old SD stuff. I have shot this ballet for several years and until this year, I have used the VX2100/PD170 family. I will never go back to them again.

BTW, we shot tapeless on the Z7 (MRC1) and the V1 (Adobe On Location on a laptop), which really made getting the footage into PP CS3 a breeze.

I guess the bottom line is that you should get the best camcorder you can justify buying. And if that is the V1/FX7 family, congratulations. You have a damn fine piece of equipment. Now it is up to you and your skill.

[Steve Struthers]

Originally Posted by Pete Crawford

I just ordered the fx-7. Hope I made the right choice. Currently using the zr-45 canon. Will be shooting mostly day, but will shoot at night during football games, and inside a gym for basketball. LOW LIGHT.

Hope this was an ok choice.

Any input?

I just ordered one too. It should be an OK choice as long as you are aware of, and are prepared to work within its limitations.

In fairness, though, ALL CMOS-based camcorders with small sensor chips suffer from poor to mediocre low-light capabilities. Right now the only way to get around that problem is to opt for a camcorder with 1/3" or larger sensors,
and since low-light imaging is the game now, those kinds of cameras cost $$$$.

One site recommends that buyers looking for good (or at least better) low-light capability should opt for the Canon. Unfortunately, for a lot of people who fall into the FX7's target market, the Canon is just a bit too expensive.

It certainly is for me - I paid $2600CDN for my FX7, taxes in. The cheapest (brand new) Canon XH-A1 goes for $3199, from a retailer in another province where they don't have a provincial sales tax. But the federal Goods and Services Tax applies everywhere in Canada, so with that tax added in (5%), the Canon would have cost me $3500.00. No doubt it's substantially more capable, but a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks. Money that I could put into a better tripod or titling software.

I'm hoping that once I learn all the foibles of the FX7 I can pick up some corporate work and maybe a few weddings and use the proceeds to upgrade to a better camera.

[Martyn Hull]

Low light low light i owned a 2100 once and far prefer my FX-7, even for non hd, smaller than most in this category as well.
Forgot to say the cracks still holding as well so i cant let you have it yet Gary.