New Sony NEX-EA50EH Announcement

[Paul Rickford]

NEX-EA50EH (NEXEA50EH) : Product Overview : Sony Professional

At Last a Large APS-C sensor Run and Gun with zoom lens.

[Tom Bostick]

oooooooooooo i want to know more!

if it has built in nd filters then its really exciting

I wonder if Alister has had the chance to play with one yet?

[Matt Davis]

Not to put a downer on things, but it's less than GBP3k:

1) No NDs
2) No stills in video mode (must switch modes)
3) Image quality not quite FS100 - there will be aliasing

At its heart, it's related closer to the VG20 than to the FS100.

But of course the form factor looks great - put the FS700 internals in the EA50 body and call it the 750? Please Sony?

[Paul Rickford]

NEX-EA50 NXCAM Camcorder: Product Introduction Video : Sony Professional


Here's the Promo Video

[Andy Wilkinson]

Oh no, not yet another proprietary memory card format from Sony!

The slide out shoulder mount looks like a good feature - albeit the whole cam looks a bit flimsy on the demo video. If the image quality is nearer to the VG20 (I don't know if it is or not) and there is noticeable aliasing then I certainly won't be getting too excited by the announcement of this cam.

[Matt Davis]

+1 @Andy - I was told deffo NOT FS100 quality, no free lunches and all that. I don't think this was ever planned to be 'our camera'. I do hang out over at Mr Bloom's forum where there's lots of people who just reiterate over and over again that the FS100 is out of their reach and even S/H is a bit of a struggle. This plops it bang in the DSLR category and the Event Videographers who need something a little bulkier to stand out from the crowd to get their shots.

However, if they were to put an FS700 in that body... (says he, about to pull the trigger on a shoulder mount system). Who needs an EVF, Tilta rig et al with this style? I loved the JVC HD100, this has the same feel.

BTW, the card format - you can put either SDHC or MemoryStick Pro into its slot, ditto FS100/700. I'm up for the new mirroring memory stick for interviews and the like... check out the specs:

Sony Global - Memory cards - Mirroring Memory Stick

[Piotr Wozniacki]

OK, so it looks like the FS700 users will get something to play with for their zoom rocker :)

We the FS100 users don't have a zoom rocker, but this new announcement made me wonder if the servo zoom can be controlled with LANC (which we do have)... If all the electric connections are there already, a simple firmware upgrade could actually make it happen!

[Matt Davis]

I still have my Zoe Bebob LANC controller for Z1, apparently those will work! (inc Variable speed zoom).

[Piotr Wozniacki]

And I long sold away my 2 Manfrotto LANC controllers - one integrated tripod handle, and a clamp-on:(

BUT, if it turns to be true, the cost of a new controller will only slightly increase that of a new servo zoom lens (of course, I'm talking about some really fast one - not the F3.5-6.3)...

[Piotr Wozniacki]

According to Alister here: New Sony NEX-EA50EH shoulder mount 35mm camcorder. Power Zoom lens for FS100 and FS700 |,

- no need for the LANC (but one can be handy, nevertheless)!

[Andy Wilkinson]

OK, if you can use SDHC cards then that's not so bad then. Thanks for clarifying that Matt.

[Glen Vandermolen]

I've heard the rumor of this camera, I just didn't expect it so soon. The zoom lens is the most intriguing thing about it - according to Alister, it has a small zoom rocker built it (I can't make it out in the pics). That'd be perfect for my FS100.
Actually, this might just replace my FS100. The form factor is a lot better. I don't shoot any broadcast video with my FS, so a slight degradation of the video isn't that bad. It's still more optimized for video as compared to the NEX-5N.

[Matt Davis]

Glen - the EA50 has the NEX-5N genes, so you're going to see VG20 style aliasing on near-horizontals. I'm holding onto my FS100 and continuing to invest in its shoulder mount. But yes, this form factor is very good.

The small zoom rocker 'may be' a fixed speed or two speed switch, not a variable control like a LANC controller. OTOH, maybe there's some ramping in the software with a soft start and stop - that could be enough for some.

Alister Chapman demonstrated the other end of this scale yesterday - a full-on broadcast ENG lens with its zoom controller powered off a V-lock (yes, mounted to an FS100/700). You get the range, the par-focal nature of a video lens, the DoF and the performance of an ENG (albeit with the doubler applied, so you're getting a 18x8 lens start at 24mm (2.4x magnification factor) up to super telephoto. Lens and adaptor can cost more than an FS700, so it's not for everyone - but... "!"

And consider this: what about software zoom? If you have a 4K sensor and you're shooting 1080p, even if it's a 2x zoom factor, that might be enough for an interview, and suddenly all your primes and non-parfocal zooms can do that 'creep-in' trick during an interview, or that slight adjustment to framing during a pan. All with super-clean accuracy and ramping beyond human control. Not as a replacement, but as an extra blade in the swiss-army-knife approach. A new brush in your paintpot.

But all this is conjecture. Just like 'tap focus' and 'face detection' was last year. :-)

[Glen Vandermolen]

Mike - yeah, this is more of an super-VG20 than it is an FS100 replacement. Still, Alister says the video processing is better than the NEX-5N's, so there's a little hope.
I do like that form factor, though. If nothing else, I'll grab that zoom lens.

OK, I did see the power zoom switch on the new lens. It can be used on the FS100. Sweet! Better order the zoom lens while you can. I'll bet they'll be in short supply for a while, with all the FS100/700 users wanting one.

[Lee Mullen]

Originally Posted by Matt Davis

Glen - the EA50 has the NEX-5N genes, so you're going to see VG20 style aliasing on near-horizontals.

How do you know this for sure Matt?