I never did understand that either. I remember the pre-release docs for the HD1000 listed it as a DV/DVCAM/HDV shoulder mount but it is not. I am guessing they decided to scrap the DVCAM in favor of getting it released at the price point they hit. Who knows?

I want to see that on a t-shirt!

pd 175
 

Maybe, just maybe, Sony knows something regarding the blue ray market, perhaps, that"something" may not be happening, so it brings out a native 16x9 sd camera.

I'm pretty sure it's not really native SD Lee. The lens and chip-block assembly will be straight from the Z5 to save on production costs and the camera will be in permanent downconvert mode, onto tape and out the Firewire socket.

Yes, Sony's own brochure confirms the chip and nearly everything else is the same.

http://www.humanvalues.net/hdv/pdf/S...gust_26_EU.pdf

The PD-175 will NOT be released as a NTSC model. The main market for the camera is developing countries such as Africa and India where HD is still a long way off. These developing countries are all PAL countries. Certainly in Europe if you sell off old DV and DVCAM kit to a dealer much of it gets shipped out of the country to these markets where the demand for SD products is very strong. In most of Europe and the USA the demand for new SD only products is very small compared to the demand for HD and HD ready products.

FYI, I find my Z5 does as well or better in low light than my VX2000 (w/.65 WA lens). The lens on the Z5 is also wider than my VX w/.65 WA adapter. Really satisfied with it so far. I like the feel and handling of the VX a lot better though. VX/PD is truely a classic.

Mark Goodsell

Interesting you say that Mark as Sony themselves rate the VX a lower lux camera (the Z5 is rated at 1/25th sec, so 'cheats' by a stop).

The VX with a 0,65 converter lens is 3.9 mm, so it's a shorter focal length than the Z5 at full wide-angle.

C'mon, you must like the Z5's top screen a lot more than the VX's tiny side screen, or isn't this what you mean by 'handling'?

tom.

I know what you mean. But to me, the image looks better indoors in moderate-to-dimly-lit situations. Colors are better, noticably less noise.

I'm just reporting what I see through my camera. Maybe the VX LCD and VF is cutting some off that the Z5U is showing. I guess I haven't intercut the same side-by-side tripod shots. But the view 'appears' a little wider than the VX w/ .65 lens. Maybe that's what I should have said.

Actually, that's one thing I wish Sony would have done different. It yields little room to mount accessories on the front hot shoe and still be able to unfold the LCD. Plus, anything on the L of the cam, won't work very well. For example, I always have a Blimp/furry mounted on my VX. Can't use it on the Z5 due to the room it takes to open the screen. It's also more work to unfold. The VX was nice in that if you needed, you could transition from the eyepiece to the LCD quickly and easily during a shot (if you needed to) like say you decided to lift it up and shoot a crowd, or go down to ground level. This could be done w/o even hardly jiggling the camera. That would be hard to duplicate with the Z5. The PWM-EX1 LCD fold-away arrangement is pretty decent, or Canon's AH. But, it's a small quibble and there probably isn't a 'perfect' way anyway. I use the VF probably 85% of the time.

What I meant by 'handling' is the balance and nicely padded strap. All my comments are purely anticdotal, obviously. I think if I were doing it all over, I would give the Z7 hard consideration. I didn't do my home work well enough I guess. I thought the lens was ONLY manual. It's got automatic modes. No buyer remorse though.