Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder

Ron Evans · March 20th, 2011, 04:53 PM

The full download was 57 mins and 21 sec all 60P as well as 16 times 4MB stills for a total of 10.6G. The original estimated download time was 17 mins and it actually did it a lot faster at just over 15mins. I didn't accurately time it to the sec. This was not the fastest download as it was to the desktop just for the test after you asked I checked again. This was then of course to my boot drive. If you want I will try a test to my RAID to see if it makes a difference but I think the bottleneck is the camera. This is twice as slow as the XR500 which normally transfers close to 18G in 12 mins or so after a 2 hour show. On Monday I will be shooting another show and will shoot in 60i to match the other cameras and then will have a good check on download speed for the same time and data rates.

Edius V6 properties show it to be H.264/AVC VBR 25000000 / 25999360 bps

Equivalent rates for the last show I did give
XR500 properties are H.264/AVC video VBR 16000000 / 16000000 bps for 17Mbps setting
and NX5U video H.264/AVC VBR 21500000 / 21999616 bps at 24Mbps setting with PCM audio

Ron Evans

EDIT: Having read this again I want to make it clear that the length of the video was 57min and 21secas well as 16 still images of about 4M each for a total of 10.6G and download time was about 15mins.

Ron Evans · March 20th, 2011, 05:03 PM

Pat, you can cancel the analyze function if you want and I do not count this in the download time as it can go on in the background and you can disconnect the camera and do something else even use the files. For me the Sony software is essential as I use this as my archive and for sorting and playing all the family videos. For the shows I cancel analyze and do not use the calendar or archive functions. But for the family videos I have all the video and stills from our cameras and my daughters cameras Sony still cameras, SR7, SR11, XR500 and now the CX700 so can go back by calendar view and see all the history of the grandkids and our holidays for several years searching by date or now GPS or faces.

Ron Evans

Pat Reddy · March 20th, 2011, 06:07 PM

Thanks Ron!

Pat

Michael Murie · March 20th, 2011, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

A quick mental caclulation would suggest that a 1 hour file on the XR500 would be around 8G, but closer to 24G in 24Mbps 1080 60p - WOW!

According to the manual, in PS mode (used for 60p) the data rate is 28 Mbps (not double 24 Mbps.) This would result in approx. 12.6GB for an hour (vs 10.8GB for 24Mbps and 7.2GB for 16 Mbps.) This calculation matches the quoted recording time in the manual in PS Mode for 16GB of 75 minutes.

Sony eSupport - HDR-CX700V - Manuals / Specs / Warranty

Ron Evans · March 22nd, 2011, 07:31 AM

An update on the CX700. Shot a 2 hour theatre show last evening. I used my NX5U, CX700, XR500 and SR11. NX and CX were at 24mbps 60i the XR500 and SR11 are of course 17mbps. NX5U and CX700 resulted in total files of 18.2G and the XR500 and SR11 were 14.8G. Transfer times to the PC were 12 mins for the FMU128 from the NX5U, 11mins for the SR11 and XR500 and 30 mins for CX700. I will do a check and see how fast I can get the same files transferred using a Class 10 SD card. I am now doing an internal copy from internal memory to the card and it says it will take 1 hour and 15 mins to do that !!!! . I may use a 32G SD card most of the time to improve transfer speed.

Impressions so far. The picture is beautiful outside in the snow or indoors. Stabilizer is amazing. Auto intelligent exposure is very good. As a point and shoot then plug into TV to watch its great. Gives the NX5U a real test for picture quality. It got fooled a little for WB in the snow but quickly stabilized to the correct value and in the theatre I set manually to indoor preset for all cameras anyway.

The operation of menus and transfer speed is many times backwards and I hope there is a firmware update to improve as for me this is a step back to before the first AVCHD cam I got , the SR7 which had far better menu operation and transfer speed.

From the little pieces of information the new small NXCam to be announced tomorrow by Sony may be based on the CX700 hopefully it has better controls and transfer speed !!!!

Ron Evans

Dave Campbell · March 22nd, 2011, 08:19 AM

Ron, unless the price is close, the quality, useability, size, and cost for the CX700 is pretty hard to beat. The boss factor is very important to me now. But, shall be interesting to see what they are tomorrow.

Ron Evans · March 22nd, 2011, 09:42 AM

The CX700 for the price has a wonderful picture and is easy to use as a point and shoot. I like it very much. All my cameras are Sony's and I have a sort of love hate relationship with Sony products !!! They seem to take 3 steps forward and 2 back each time!!! I had a V801 single chip Hi8 camcorder that had full manual control just like the 3 Chip VX3 I had as my main camera at the time. Sony still have not got to this point in their present lineup of cameras. I would love a full manual control single chip, a CX700 with real controls would be great but I will be surprised if this will be the case. Always hope !!!

Ron Evans

Dave Campbell · March 23rd, 2011, 07:54 AM

So, any links to the pictures, info on the new NAB cameras?

Dave Campbell · March 23rd, 2011, 08:03 AM

Okay Ron, is the HXR-NX70 the one to compare against the cx700? Looks very interesting. Decision while I still might be able to return my cx700

Stacy Rothwell · March 23rd, 2011, 08:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Campbell

So, any links to the pictures, info on the new NAB cameras?

Funny you should ask.....

Sony | Micro Site NXCAM & AVCHD

Sony | Micro Site NXCAM & AVCHD

The x70 looks substantially larger than the cx700 and I'm sure costs more.

Dave Campbell · March 23rd, 2011, 08:20 AM

Ouch, 3200 bucks

Ron Evans · March 23rd, 2011, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Campbell

Okay Ron, is the HXR-NX70 the one to compare against the cx700? Looks very interesting. Decision while I still might be able to return my cx700

Almost 3 times the price of the CX700. More a single chip competitor for the NX5U !!! For the difference one could get a true underwater housing for the CX700, expensive tripod, wireless mic system etc etc. It looks a nice unit though. Will wait to see if it has independent gain control otherwise one may as well get the 3 CX700's !!

Ron Evans

Dave Campbell · March 23rd, 2011, 08:55 AM

Ron, I agree, way over priced. If it were 2K, then I might consider. But I can go though a lot of 700's and still have money in the pocket. Now I know I am going to keep the 700, I no longer have to think about it. Wife really does not want another big camera to travel with anyways.

Dave Blackhurst · March 23rd, 2011, 09:34 PM

droool....

Well, it may not produce better image quality than the CX700, but definitely steps up the control surfaces, reminds me of the FX7 and the A1U, brings back the 3.5" screen (WITH touch!). Looks to be a nice size, although significantly heavier than the Handycams.

Perhaps more of a competitor to the Canon XA10? Seems like that one was targeted towards the small ENG market... but wouldn't that put the price about $1K too high? Perhaps they feel that the "hardened" design is worth the extra... not sure the market will agree, that's a lot of "premium". Otherwise certainly looks like a nice design, much of what we've been waiting for, except for the price!

Wouldn't mind a "civilian" version without the XLR and "proofing", sort of like the old HC1 was to the A1U!

Weren't there supposed to be 3 cameras announced though? We have the NX70U and the FS100... is there a third one?

Ron Evans · March 24th, 2011, 06:40 AM

Agree with both Dave's. At $1000 more than the CX700 I would have bought it in steady of the CX700 for my uses but $2000 more is too much. Be really interested to look at the manual when it appears on the Sony site and find out exactly how different it is to the CX700 in operation.

Ron

March 20th, 2011, 04:53 PM	#136
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,222	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder The full download was 57 mins and 21 sec all 60P as well as 16 times 4MB stills for a total of 10.6G. The original estimated download time was 17 mins and it actually did it a lot faster at just over 15mins. I didn't accurately time it to the sec. This was not the fastest download as it was to the desktop just for the test after you asked I checked again. This was then of course to my boot drive. If you want I will try a test to my RAID to see if it makes a difference but I think the bottleneck is the camera. This is twice as slow as the XR500 which normally transfers close to 18G in 12 mins or so after a 2 hour show. On Monday I will be shooting another show and will shoot in 60i to match the other cameras and then will have a good check on download speed for the same time and data rates. Edius V6 properties show it to be H.264/AVC VBR 25000000 / 25999360 bps Equivalent rates for the last show I did give XR500 properties are H.264/AVC video VBR 16000000 / 16000000 bps for 17Mbps setting and NX5U video H.264/AVC VBR 21500000 / 21999616 bps at 24Mbps setting with PCM audio Ron Evans EDIT: Having read this again I want to make it clear that the length of the video was 57min and 21secas well as 16 still images of about 4M each for a total of 10.6G and download time was about 15mins. Last edited by Ron Evans; March 21st, 2011 at 08:30 AM.

March 20th, 2011, 05:03 PM	#137
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,222	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Pat, you can cancel the analyze function if you want and I do not count this in the download time as it can go on in the background and you can disconnect the camera and do something else even use the files. For me the Sony software is essential as I use this as my archive and for sorting and playing all the family videos. For the shows I cancel analyze and do not use the calendar or archive functions. But for the family videos I have all the video and stills from our cameras and my daughters cameras Sony still cameras, SR7, SR11, XR500 and now the CX700 so can go back by calendar view and see all the history of the grandkids and our holidays for several years searching by date or now GPS or faces. Ron Evans

March 20th, 2011, 06:07 PM	#138
Pat Reddy Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Colorado Posts: 288	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Thanks Ron! Pat

March 22nd, 2011, 07:31 AM	#140
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,222	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder An update on the CX700. Shot a 2 hour theatre show last evening. I used my NX5U, CX700, XR500 and SR11. NX and CX were at 24mbps 60i the XR500 and SR11 are of course 17mbps. NX5U and CX700 resulted in total files of 18.2G and the XR500 and SR11 were 14.8G. Transfer times to the PC were 12 mins for the FMU128 from the NX5U, 11mins for the SR11 and XR500 and 30 mins for CX700. I will do a check and see how fast I can get the same files transferred using a Class 10 SD card. I am now doing an internal copy from internal memory to the card and it says it will take 1 hour and 15 mins to do that !!!! . I may use a 32G SD card most of the time to improve transfer speed. Impressions so far. The picture is beautiful outside in the snow or indoors. Stabilizer is amazing. Auto intelligent exposure is very good. As a point and shoot then plug into TV to watch its great. Gives the NX5U a real test for picture quality. It got fooled a little for WB in the snow but quickly stabilized to the correct value and in the theatre I set manually to indoor preset for all cameras anyway. The operation of menus and transfer speed is many times backwards and I hope there is a firmware update to improve as for me this is a step back to before the first AVCHD cam I got , the SR7 which had far better menu operation and transfer speed. From the little pieces of information the new small NXCam to be announced tomorrow by Sony may be based on the CX700 hopefully it has better controls and transfer speed !!!! Ron Evans

March 22nd, 2011, 08:19 AM	#141
Dave Campbell Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 568	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Ron, unless the price is close, the quality, useability, size, and cost for the CX700 is pretty hard to beat. The boss factor is very important to me now. But, shall be interesting to see what they are tomorrow.

March 22nd, 2011, 09:42 AM	#142
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,222	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder The CX700 for the price has a wonderful picture and is easy to use as a point and shoot. I like it very much. All my cameras are Sony's and I have a sort of love hate relationship with Sony products !!! They seem to take 3 steps forward and 2 back each time!!! I had a V801 single chip Hi8 camcorder that had full manual control just like the 3 Chip VX3 I had as my main camera at the time. Sony still have not got to this point in their present lineup of cameras. I would love a full manual control single chip, a CX700 with real controls would be great but I will be surprised if this will be the case. Always hope !!! Ron Evans

March 23rd, 2011, 07:54 AM	#143
Dave Campbell Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 568	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder So, any links to the pictures, info on the new NAB cameras?

March 23rd, 2011, 08:03 AM	#144
Dave Campbell Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 568	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Okay Ron, is the HXR-NX70 the one to compare against the cx700? Looks very interesting. Decision while I still might be able to return my cx700

March 23rd, 2011, 08:20 AM	#146
Dave Campbell Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 568	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Ouch, 3200 bucks

March 23rd, 2011, 08:55 AM	#148
Dave Campbell Major Player Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 568	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Ron, I agree, way over priced. If it were 2K, then I might consider. But I can go though a lot of 700's and still have money in the pocket. Now I know I am going to keep the 700, I no longer have to think about it. Wife really does not want another big camera to travel with anyways.

March 23rd, 2011, 09:34 PM	#149
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder droool.... Well, it may not produce better image quality than the CX700, but definitely steps up the control surfaces, reminds me of the FX7 and the A1U, brings back the 3.5" screen (WITH touch!). Looks to be a nice size, although significantly heavier than the Handycams. Perhaps more of a competitor to the Canon XA10? Seems like that one was targeted towards the small ENG market... but wouldn't that put the price about $1K too high? Perhaps they feel that the "hardened" design is worth the extra... not sure the market will agree, that's a lot of "premium". Otherwise certainly looks like a nice design, much of what we've been waiting for, except for the price! Wouldn't mind a "civilian" version without the XLR and "proofing", sort of like the old HC1 was to the A1U! Weren't there supposed to be 3 cameras announced though? We have the NX70U and the FS100... is there a third one?

March 24th, 2011, 06:40 AM	#150
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,222	Re: Sony introduces HDR-CX700v 1080p60 camcorder Agree with both Dave's. At $1000 more than the CX700 I would have bought it in steady of the CX700 for my uses but $2000 more is too much. Be really interested to look at the manual when it appears on the Sony site and find out exactly how different it is to the CX700 in operation. Ron