Mike Beckett's NX70 owner's report
 

Update: It's here!

Just a pity I have to do a day's work before I can get a proper play with it.

All I can say at this stage is "crumbs, it is tiny!" Feels very well made, very solid, not plasticky or flimsy at all, and feels great in my hand.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Mike thats great you got the camera and it feels solid. Please let me know how it does in low light, also if it let's you set your gain. And a big thing is how it auto focuses. And let us know how it does all around if you don't mind. Thank you very much. Gerry

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Really looking forward to your reports Mike (and all you other lucky people!)

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

It's one thing getting it home...

..then I have to wait for the batteries to charge! Aaaaagh!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

What you didn't pre order a wasabi battery and charger and had it ready to go. Just kidding. I hate the wait of charging battery's can't wait to hear your review.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Have also received my NX70 today, impressed - great little camera!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Verrrrry nice piece of kit.

I only got 10 minutes to play with it before the supplied battery gave out, so it's charging now.

Very solid. Very well made, just lovely. All the dials and switches are postive, LCD quality is great, and the viewfinder is the best I've seen for a while. Auto focus seems pretty quick. Focus assist is great, and I'm so glad to have the guide frame and histogram, I really missed them on my Panasonic HMC41.

It's very intuitive to use, I didn't need the manual to set it up or start using it.

Only annoyance so far: no UK power lead in the kit. Bah. Not a huge problem, I have spares lying around.

Philip Johnston reports the zoom rocker as not being pressure-sensitive. The manual says it is, I can't say I've noticed yet, I will try later.

The menus seem pretty good, and the touch screen is tolerable. Even the "funny menu" makes sense, where it exits completely after changing some settings. It's a bit of a pain when you're doing all your setup stuff, having to keep going back into the menu, sure. But if you are out shooting, then it is really useful to be able to quickly change a setting and not have to press Exit a few times.

More anon... I am sitting here watching the battery charged. Like a more expensive and exciting version of watching paint dry!

Update: just reading the manual, seeing as I have to wait 3 hours for the battery to charge. It's the first camera I've owned where there is a "drain" feature mentioned in the manual, where water can escape from around the zoom rocker!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Mike/Simon, i'm most interested to see what you think of the picture on max telephoto.

I'm hoping Sony have improved through the firmware and/or better quality control on the pro line, the red fringing and slight softness at max zoom that I have found so far on two CX700's and a returned CX560 which seem to share the same lens as the NX70.

Thanks and enjoy your new cams!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

195 minutes to charge the battery.

At least I might be able to try the low light performance before I have to go to bed!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

This is the main annoyance on my CX700. It would be nice to have an option to be able to exit or go back to the last page. Look forward to more reports.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Mike,

Think we've been having a battery charging race. My FV100 from my NEX-VG10 is now charged on my Sony dual charger and the NX70 shows 8hrs 56m!

First impressions:

I've had the TRV900 and HC1 in the past and loved the small form factor. My last camera was the Sony EX1 and although an amazing piece of kit wasn't exactly low key. Now, the NX70 is compact, was worried it was going to be bigger - a smile crossed my face when I saw the small box Sony package it in.

Build quality is spot on and the camera certainly feels like it lives up to the rugged hype. Not as heavy as I thought it would be. The lens is certainly nice and wide and the zoom range seems reasonable for the size. The rocker is touch sensitive and you can vary zoom speed with pressure but I found that you can zoom too quickly fairly easily - maybe a menu setting. The focus ring in manual mode works and focusing with the small sensor is so fast when compared to my VG10.

Unpacked the manual so thought I better read it in a minute, taking the camera to beautiful Norfolk this weekend so will try to take it for a stroll along the river and grab some shots.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

The expanded focus feature on the CX700, when set, expands the focus when the wheel is touched for focus then when released goes back to normal view. Does the NX70 work this way as I find it a lot more convenient than the on or off button on the NX5U.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Simon is spot on.

Build quality is superb, I have to keep saying that. My Panasonic HMC41 felt very plasticky. This has the same rugged feel as my Sony V1E a couple of years back, only more so, maybe because there's no tape mechanism to rattle around.

I nearly "cacked myself" when our receptionist came down with the box the courier left. I asked her where the rest of it was! The box itself is tiny, less than 30cm wide!

The camera is _remarkably_ small. Very small for a "pro" level camera. Take the XLR+mic+handle off, and it's a consumer cam, unless you have a trained eye. Magic.

The rocker _is_ pressure sensitive, I agree that it is very light to the touch. I think it's something I will get used to.

I like the "my buttons", where you can tap the touch screen and some of your favourite features can be quickly accessed without burrowing into menus. I have Gain and Shutter on mine at the moment, but I need time to get used to all this.

While we would all like an army of buttons and switches on the camera body, we have to be realistic. This is a small camera, there's a limit to what you can put on the body and still have it small. I think Sony have a good balance of functionality versus size here.

The wide angle is fantastic. This is 26mm - my Panasonic HMC41 was about 41mm, the JVC HM100 is similar.

EVF is great, just superb. There's maybe a bit of a problem when you use the big eye-cup, where it squishes sometimes and it goes out of focus to one side. I am getting the hang of it, and it's becoming less of a problem. The Pansonic was much worse in this respect.

Now it's getting dark here, and non-camera life is getting in the way for an hour or two. I hope to get some test footage shot either today or tomorrow - I want to get this baby on my insurance before I start wandering about too far with it.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Ron,

Expanded Focus works the same as my Sony V1E. Press the button and it goes into Expanded Focus mode, then stays that way until you press it again. It doesn't seem to hook into the ring.

I don't see any settings to adjust this. From the manual:

"Push the EXPANDED FOCUS button to
magnify the center of the screen by about
2.0 times. It will be easier to confirm the
focus setting during manual focusing. The
screen returns to the original size when you
press the button again"

I like the way this works, I'm used to it from before.

It has adjustable peaking too (on/off, red/white/yellow, and peaking level low/medium/high).

I am beginning to appreciate some of the nuances with the menu - when I go back in to Camera/Audio, it remembers that it was at "Peaking", and saves me having to scroll all the way down again. Nice little touch.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Mike thats great it has peaking does it have a zebra function to, I use those both all the time on my canon xa10. Thanks guys for all the reviews so far.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Nice to know they have put the "My Buttons" back into the menu system that other Sony consumer cams have. Looks like they have fixed a lot of the things I wish they had done for my CX700. Check the backfocus though would really like to know if this is improved from the consumer version. You will find that it almost sees in the dark if it like the CX700 with virtually no grain at least compared to my NX5U.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

On the CX700 the focus has to be selected for ring operation for the feature to work and I wonder if that is the same on the NX70 and whether there is the option to override and set to on if the ring is not currently assigned to focus. The CX700 also has peaking and zebras. Would make a nice set!!!

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

My cx560 was the worst for focusing in low light it was always hunting for something to lock onto, and was very very slow in normal light. My nx5u had focus issues in low light but nothing like the cx560. Hope the nx70 is much better. So far it sounds very good how is the image stabilization.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Focus tracking is pretty fun and fairly accurate, frame an object press the screen and a box appears around the object and the focus locks on until you press to cancel focus tracking!

Face detection also works except on my wife who wasn't very happy that the camera doesn't see her as human...

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Camera also has a low lux function that gains up to 24db - grainy.

Image stabilisation in my opinion is very good.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Simon will it let you set gain manually to 0 or even like -3 , or -6 gain. Low lux must be an auto type function to jack it up to 24db. Good to hear that the OIS is great like most sonys.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Manual gain is from 0dB to 21dB

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

That is the range on the CX700 of course it cannot be set manually.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

It does indeed have zebra, and it is adjustable (70%,80% etc.)

The active steadyshot is quite simply amazing.

I have taken some test shots (not a masterpiece) to see if the fringeing is present on telephoto. I use a house across the street with a TV antenna and chimney, which always causes problems with fringeing.

I do think I will need to buy a couple of ND filters soon, but time will tell.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

That is very good

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

I like this camera more and more cant wait to see some clips.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Can't wait to shoot some...

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

OK, here's a couple of stills looking at fringeing. Disclaimers: I do not know this camera inside out yet, this was handheld and I need a lot more time to work this all out. I need to get this on a tripod and think a lot more about it. Probably not even exposed correctly!

There _is_ purple fringeing at full telephoto, with a very bright background (bright sunlight) and fine detail (TV aerial and lead flashing on the chimney).

In my opinion, this is no worse than I saw on My Sony V1E. Pixel-peepers may be annoyed by it, but it's an extreme condition which is far from typical. I saw similar on a BBC News report (when the Queen was in Dublin, they zoomed in on a tower at Dublin Castle), and I'm pretty sure they have bigger and more expensive cameras than this!

The two pictures are at f5.6 and f8, straight dumps from Premiere Pro.

I'd like to try this with an ND filter or two so I can keep the iris a bit wider, but that will have to wait.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Although I could be wrong, it is my understanding that lens diameter affects purple fringing, also known as Chromatic Aberration. The smaller the lens the more noticeable the C.A.

The NX70 has a 37mm lens. For comparison, Canon's XA10 and XF100, both have 58mm lenses.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Mike, I have a variable ND filter that works well with my CX700. Don't know whether exposure values are present on the LCD like the NX5U, can't tell from the manual but that would make setup a little easier than the guessing for the CX700 !!! I have some really good shots with the CX700 on my ski trip using the variable filter and skiing down next to my grandson. The image stabilizer makes the shot really steady. Even for an old guy like me hand holding the camera out in front as I ski. I expect the NX70 to be as good or hopefully better.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

How are you guys liking the Picture Quality so far

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

From the framegrabs, it looks like the lens is optimized at the wider apertures, maybe from the max f/1.8 to about f/4. If this happens to be the case then a variable ND would be needed. Most clips I've seen on the web shot by either the CX700V or CX560V that contain high-contrast scenes like tree branches with bright skies in the background show very noticeable, and in a few cases quite extreme, CA.

Then I was thinking how any of the vari-ND filters (with two individual sets of polarized filters attached to each other) available in the market could cope with the conditions the NX70 itself could, e.g. facing salt spray on the deck of a boat or out in the rain somewhere? Maybe a set of plain ND filters would do?

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Seems pretty good, excellent for the size of camera. I've been out for an hour along the river taking random shots (handheld, I'm afraid). Can't wait to get back home tonight to see the output.

(1080 25p only for now, I'm afraid - My CS5.0 doesn't do 50p!)

The camera handled really well, I'm pleased with it - apart from the need for an ND filter, as it was very bright today and I had to change the shutter to 100 or 200 to control the exposure a bit better. I think a vari-ND might be a good call for sunny days, I will look into that.

I had to use the viewfinder at times because the sun was just too bright to see the LCD. You can adjust the LCD's settings, I just didn't have time on my lunch hour to do much. The viewfinder is great, the only loss is you can't access the touchscreen options on it! I took off the large rubber eyecup and it was just fine. I would need the cup if I was wearing my glasses.

To be perfectly honest, the weather forecast gave rain for us, and I was actually quite disappointed I didn't get the chance to get both me and the camera wet!

Edit:
On-camera mics may be problematic - anything much longer than the supplied XM-1 mic may intrude on the picture. I put a 12cm Rycote softie on it, and the fur was intruding on the picture. Same with my 12cm Rycote mini windscreen. I have ordered a 10cm mini windscreen and am hoping it is better. This is the widest lens I have experienced on a camcorder of this type.

You could use an accessory bracket (like the stuff from the Rycote universal camera kit), but fear it would make the camera too ungainly to use. No point having a tiny camera if you're going to keep piling things on top!

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

I have a 49mm variable ND and a step up ring from the 37 filter thread. For protection of the ND in bad conditions I guess a clear filter on the outside may do. You have to take off the lens hood though of course.

On my ski trip the CX700 was in full auto, I would just back off the ND until the image started to go dark then turn back a little. Seemed to work fine. Whole trip was shot in 60P. Hopefully with the NX70 there are some indicators to go by.

Ron Evans

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

Just for information, I fitted a standard B+W MRC 37mm UV filter under the lens hood no problems. Stacking more than one filter would probably not work, not that it's a great idea anyway.

Re: The new SONY HXR NX70 “Water & Dust proof”
 

OK... so that was kind of weird.

I know I've seen the NAB demo, the CVP video with the cam-shower, but standing out in the rain today with the NX70 exposed to the elements... just felt weird!

All was good though. Exposure is going to be a problem, like any of the small cams. It was very easy today to get up to F9.6 and be overexposed (gain was at zero), so I had to bump up the shutter speed to compensate. I ended up leaving the cam on auto a lot of the time and it coped really well. I have yet to review the footage, and I need to wait for CS5.5 before I can edit it!

I've just received a fixed ND filter, so that will get tried out next.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but it is absolutely chucking it down with rain!

Compression artifacts at 24mbs and 60p?
 

How well does the camera handle motion within the scene? I worry that the imagery will be blocky at 60p with only 24 mbs data rate. That would make it about half the bits per frame of the other AVCHD cameras on the market which shoot 24 mbs for 30p or 60i.

Can someone try shooting a scene with a lot of fine detail motion within the frame? Blowing grass, trees.

Rick

Re: Mike Beckett's NX70 owner's report
 

Hi Rick,

50p shoots at a higher bit-rate, 28Mbps, they have an extra "PS" shooting mode for this.

I'll try to get some footage - it'll have to wait until tomrrow maybe.

Re: Mike Beckett's NX70 owner's report
 

AT 60P there is less motion between each frame so the differences are less for the encoder. The move from 24Mbps to 28Mbps allows for this difference I expect. I took some 60P shots with my CX700 when I got it and this is the Vimeo reference though they will now have been downconverted to standard Vimeo from the originals. I will try and take some more of trees today and post.


Ron Evans

Re: Mike Beckett's NX70 owner's report
 

This a shot from my CX700 at 60P of grass blowing in the wind. Seems to have lost the title in Vimeo somehow. Should be similar to NX70. You can download the raw files and see how it looks on your system. Playback from the internet never seems to be as good, at least on my system.



Ron Evans

Edit: Reference the correct 60P file