NX5U for ENG News

[Michael Johnston]

Curious if anyone out there is using the NX5 for TV news?
If so, how do you have have your camera set up as far as mounts, shotgun mic, wireless, etc. With ENG, it's a somewhat permanent setup. I have mine set up this way and will show pics soon as soon as the mount I ordered comes in.

[Glen Canning]

CTV Atlantic here in Halifax uses the NX5U for some of their work. Not so much for ENG but they were trying a new feature and wanted to step up from the older Sony Beta cameras. The set up wasn't really anything out of the ordinary.

I've used mine a couple times for ENG assignments but not on a daily basis so there's nothing permanent. I mount my wireless receiver on top of the handle and would probably work towards a better place for it if I used it like that everyday for news shooting. My shotgun is always in it's place.

I have an LED light for the front and it doesn't interfere with the LCD panel.

Love to see your set up Michael.

[Michael Johnston]

I'm off the next few days so I'll get the pics and/or video up to demonstrate.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Michael Johnston

Curious if anyone out there is using the NX5 for TV news?

Unless your budget is really tiny, I'd argue in favour of the EX1 (at least) as a minimum. Averaged over the lifetime of the camera the difference in cost is tiny compared to other factors - wages, transport etc alone. Against that, the EX is a far better camera, more suitable (manual) lens, bigger chip (hence better low light), and most importantly the codec makes for far easier editing without transcoding.

[Michael Johnston]

Originally Posted by David Heath

Unless your budget is really tiny, I'd argue in favour of the EX1 (at least) as a minimum. Averaged over the lifetime of the camera the difference in cost is tiny compared to other factors - wages, transport etc alone. Against that, the EX is a far better camera, more suitable (manual) lens, bigger chip (hence better low light), and most importantly the codec makes for far easier editing without transcoding.

I mainly shoot with a station issued EX3 for news. I personally own an NX5U. I've shot news with both and edit on FCP. As far as codecs, it takes the same amount of time to transcode a a clip from an EX3 as it does a clip from the NX5U. As for lens, the NX5U wins in my opinion. 20x optical versus 14x on the EX3. Longer lens matters when stuck behind police tape far from the scene. In addition, because the NX5U is a newer model camera (came out after the EX1/3) it has far more menu options and control over picture/sound than the EX3. The ONLY advantage the EX1/3 have over the NX5U is the bigger chips and SLIGHTLY sharper LCD screen. The bigger chips are preferred in breaking news situations after dark BUT I still have to gain up all the way to 18db on the EX3 in those situations which produces a lot of grain/noise. Obviously, I have to gain up on the NX5U in similar situations which also produces grain and the diffence in grain/noise between the two is not really noticeable to the average viewer. What I prefer about the NX5U is the image stabilization for hand held shooting. EX1/3 has it to but it's better on the NX5U. Furthermore, the EX3 is clunky/bulky with it's LCD/viewfinder combo. If you shoot NPPA style for news, the NX5U is smaller and allows you to get the camera in situations where you can get creative shots you can't get with the EX3 or a full size ENG camera. The NX5U also has a solid build and doesn't feel plastic like the EX3. Just my opinion.

[James Kuhn]

Michael...thanks again for your insight. I like the 'NX5' for all of the same reasons you mention. Even though the 'NX5' is touted as a 'handheld' camera, I wouldn't want to 'hold' it for over an hour or two. Its home is on my tripod. Heh, heh!

Regards,

J.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Michael Johnston

I mainly shoot with a station issued EX3 for news. I personally own an NX5U. I've shot news with both and edit on FCP. As far as codecs, it takes the same amount of time to transcode a a clip from an EX3 as it does a clip from the NX5U.

Obviously a lot depends on the computer, but I'm surprised you need to transcode the EX3 footage for news editing? I know a lot of people who edit it natively - so NO transcoding time - but would struggle to do the same with AVC-HD.

[Ron Evans]

Edius on the PC will edit EX3 and AVCHD native files. I regularly shoot multicam with EX3, NX5U, XR500 and SR11. With Edius I run 4 tracks multicam edit realtime with native files no problems. My PC is an i7 2600K on a Z68 motherboard, 8G RAM, WIN7 Home Premium.

Ron Evans

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

Edius on the PC will edit EX3 and AVCHD native files.

A lot depends on the power of the computer - and on how involved the edit may be, how many tracks etc. All that can be said in general is that any given PC will natively manage a more complicated edit with XDCAM than it will with AVC-HD. For the least powerful systems you may need to transcode both, for the most powerful you may be OK with both natively. For quite a lot, XDCAM may be OK natively, AVC-HD will realistically need a transcode.

[Ron Evans]

Yes my old computer a Q9450 Quad core would not run well with native AVCHD files but all the i7's seem fine. My current computer that I referred to is an i7 2600K, Z68 motherboard 8G RAM WIn7 Home Premium not an expensive PC. Edius is version 6.06. I also have Vegas 11 and Adobe CS5.5. They don't quite match Edius for realtime performance.

Ron Evans