The G lens on the NX5 at DVinfo.net

Tom Hardwick · May 12th, 2010, 01:20 AM

Just to say I've (at last) chopped in my much loved and trusted Z1 for an NX5. Going from a 12x zoom to a 20x zoom sounds like far more of a jump than it appears on screen though, wouldn't you agree?

Anyway, my point is that a) I've had to reverse the default rotation of the iris ring in the menu and b) that although this G lens doesn't carry the (expensive) Zeiss logo, it sees wider and goes further and is every bit as sharp, contrasty and well coated. Just as fast too, and much better that you can manually zoom ring it without having to engage brain and engage silly switches.

On top of that the wide end has noticeably less barrel distortion than the Z1, so well done Sony. There were times when using full wide with the Z1 I'd have to make sure straight lines didn't run along the top of bottom of the frame, so bendy they appeared. This G lens is stageringly good.

Lots more to play with. Over and out.

tom.

Niall Megahey · May 12th, 2010, 04:35 AM

Hay Tom

I too Just bought one to replace my Z1 and i love the wide angle this camera gives compared to the Z1. I have to say though i prefer the response that the z1 gave when zooming. i found it faster. i also never picked up a camera before the Z1 so I'm still getting used to the iris ring on the lens but its just practice.

I don't know what made you buy the NX5 but my main reason was the solid state format and the great lens of course. I wanted to speed up my whole post production and do some same day edits. To say its been a nightmare is an understatement!
First off i really should have done more research on avchd format then i should have. i have a 3ghz quad, 4gig ram, running Vegas 9 as my main machine and a dell xps 2.56 duel core, 4 gig ram, 512 graphics laptop.

1.First of all Avchd was killing both machines on playback
2.I downloaded neoscene HDlink and it wont detect an audio stream on both machines even after a clean install on my laptop. They now have to do a remote dial in.
3.After i use neoscene my file sizes will jump from 60gb to approx 350gb which is hard to manage if you doing alot of weddings
4.i tryed shooting in the sd mpeg format. It crashs vegas on both machines when i try to load all the footage in every time.
5.after lots of reading about both formats since, the general theme is that both acvhd and mpeg 2 are a bad formats for editing.

Its really annoying as i never once had a problem with HDV. It never let me down
I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of this camera because the last week has been terrible. How are you getting on and have you had any of the above problems? Whats your work method??

Tom Hardwick · May 12th, 2010, 05:42 AM

Niall - I'm with you on this - going from the Z1 to the NX5 means having to reappraise your entire workflow and quite possibly changing your computer and editing program. But friends of mine have also said, 'What? CMOS under tom's roof?' because they know only too well how I feel about flash banding.

But the reality is this - all cameras are going flash memory whether we like it or not, and the same thing appears to be forcing us to image on CMOS simply because it's cheaper and less power hungry than CCDs. OK, AVCHD is mightily compressed but as you know, TBs of storage are pretty cheap so you can decompress before editing and use 8 year old computers.

The main reason I bought the Z5? I was offered such a good price for my 4 yr old Z1. With Sony batteries everywhere and a LANC controller I wasn't about to rifle through the Panasonic or Canon brochures. But if you get rid of your NX, what would you go for? AVCHD is becoming the standard at this price point, so better swallow hard.

I too have shot test footage in MPEG, but why on earth isn't it bog standard DV.avi files? This mpeg2 won't work in my old, faithful, trusted and known Premiere program, so like you I must learn something else (Edius, in my case). That's all I ever seem to do - learn new programs.

tom.

Ron Evans · May 12th, 2010, 11:32 AM

Niall, Edius Neo or Pro 5.5 will edit a single stream fine on your machine native files with full resolution and frame rate on playback. I have a Q9450 2.66Mhz so a little slower than yours and one stream is fine . I can manage two streams of multicam with a little audio breakup in Edius Pro 5.5. With an i7 people are editing multiple streams.

Ron Evans

Mikel Arturo · May 12th, 2010, 02:51 PM

Why not convert AVCHD to HDV until developers publish versions that work seamlessly with AVCHD?
Quality lost? Yes. But you can deliver your works and retain the original AVCHD for the future.
Why not use something like AVIDEMUX for conversion?
Is something similar that happens with HDV in 2005: we downconvert it to SD for editing and retain the original HDV tape for future HD editions (conversion direct from de CAM, firewire).
Or MJPEG at 34-50 megabits or more megabits (interframe, full frame) at 1280x720 (proportional to full HD) or 1920x1080 at 80 or more megabits (10-15 MBytes).
Quality could be OK.

May 12th, 2010, 01:20 AM	#1
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	The G lens on the NX5 Just to say I've (at last) chopped in my much loved and trusted Z1 for an NX5. Going from a 12x zoom to a 20x zoom sounds like far more of a jump than it appears on screen though, wouldn't you agree? Anyway, my point is that a) I've had to reverse the default rotation of the iris ring in the menu and b) that although this G lens doesn't carry the (expensive) Zeiss logo, it sees wider and goes further and is every bit as sharp, contrasty and well coated. Just as fast too, and much better that you can manually zoom ring it without having to engage brain and engage silly switches. On top of that the wide end has noticeably less barrel distortion than the Z1, so well done Sony. There were times when using full wide with the Z1 I'd have to make sure straight lines didn't run along the top of bottom of the frame, so bendy they appeared. This G lens is stageringly good. Lots more to play with. Over and out. tom.

May 12th, 2010, 04:35 AM	#2
Niall Megahey Regular Crew Join Date: May 2007 Location: Ireland Posts: 96	Hay Tom I too Just bought one to replace my Z1 and i love the wide angle this camera gives compared to the Z1. I have to say though i prefer the response that the z1 gave when zooming. i found it faster. i also never picked up a camera before the Z1 so I'm still getting used to the iris ring on the lens but its just practice. I don't know what made you buy the NX5 but my main reason was the solid state format and the great lens of course. I wanted to speed up my whole post production and do some same day edits. To say its been a nightmare is an understatement! First off i really should have done more research on avchd format then i should have. i have a 3ghz quad, 4gig ram, running Vegas 9 as my main machine and a dell xps 2.56 duel core, 4 gig ram, 512 graphics laptop. 1.First of all Avchd was killing both machines on playback 2.I downloaded neoscene HDlink and it wont detect an audio stream on both machines even after a clean install on my laptop. They now have to do a remote dial in. 3.After i use neoscene my file sizes will jump from 60gb to approx 350gb which is hard to manage if you doing alot of weddings 4.i tryed shooting in the sd mpeg format. It crashs vegas on both machines when i try to load all the footage in every time. 5.after lots of reading about both formats since, the general theme is that both acvhd and mpeg 2 are a bad formats for editing. Its really annoying as i never once had a problem with HDV. It never let me down I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of this camera because the last week has been terrible. How are you getting on and have you had any of the above problems? Whats your work method??

May 12th, 2010, 05:42 AM	#3
Tom Hardwick Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Billericay, England UK Posts: 4,711	Niall - I'm with you on this - going from the Z1 to the NX5 means having to reappraise your entire workflow and quite possibly changing your computer and editing program. But friends of mine have also said, 'What? CMOS under tom's roof?' because they know only too well how I feel about flash banding. But the reality is this - all cameras are going flash memory whether we like it or not, and the same thing appears to be forcing us to image on CMOS simply because it's cheaper and less power hungry than CCDs. OK, AVCHD is mightily compressed but as you know, TBs of storage are pretty cheap so you can decompress before editing and use 8 year old computers. The main reason I bought the Z5? I was offered such a good price for my 4 yr old Z1. With Sony batteries everywhere and a LANC controller I wasn't about to rifle through the Panasonic or Canon brochures. But if you get rid of your NX, what would you go for? AVCHD is becoming the standard at this price point, so better swallow hard. I too have shot test footage in MPEG, but why on earth isn't it bog standard DV.avi files? This mpeg2 won't work in my old, faithful, trusted and known Premiere program, so like you I must learn something else (Edius, in my case). That's all I ever seem to do - learn new programs. tom.

May 12th, 2010, 11:32 AM	#4
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,220	Niall, Edius Neo or Pro 5.5 will edit a single stream fine on your machine native files with full resolution and frame rate on playback. I have a Q9450 2.66Mhz so a little slower than yours and one stream is fine . I can manage two streams of multicam with a little audio breakup in Edius Pro 5.5. With an i7 people are editing multiple streams. Ron Evans

May 12th, 2010, 02:51 PM	#5
Mikel Arturo Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Barcelona, Spain Posts: 93	Why not convert AVCHD to HDV until developers publish versions that work seamlessly with AVCHD? Quality lost? Yes. But you can deliver your works and retain the original AVCHD for the future. Why not use something like AVIDEMUX for conversion? Is something similar that happens with HDV in 2005: we downconvert it to SD for editing and retain the original HDV tape for future HD editions (conversion direct from de CAM, firewire). Or MJPEG at 34-50 megabits or more megabits (interframe, full frame) at 1280x720 (proportional to full HD) or 1920x1080 at 80 or more megabits (10-15 MBytes). Quality could be OK.