Anyone in PAL land buying an FS100 from USA?

PabloOzzy

PabloOzzy

Active member
Im looking to buy an FS100 but as yet, it doesnt seem to be available in Australia. In addition the price I've gotten from most vendors for when it WILL be available is around $6400 (without lens).

So has anyone else thought of purchasing one from the US? Given its available from B&H for $4700AU and can be ordered NOW, Im seriously tempted to have one shipped. Or have someone bring one over.

I know I would be giving up native 25p and I may have to buy a third party power pack / charger...but in addition to the savings in $$, one thing I love is the 60p - converted to 24p (or 23.976). I shoot a LOT of the time in NTSC mode on my canons to get that extra bit of smooth slowmo and havent had any issue.

Also in my experience the few times I've had to convert 23.976 to 25p, simply speeding it up by 4% works brilliantly and cant be noticed in any meaningful way.

Is there anything else I am missing that would make purchasing in this way a bad idea?
 
Yes I had heard that, which only increases my hate for Sony's shinanigans and long for the day when Scarlet will let us all break free from the shackles of oppression etc etc

BUT for now if this is true I have one or two jet-setting friends that would be more than happy to bring one over for me. That way they can take it as carry on and while I loose the shiny packaging, I also save an extra $250ish in customs charges.
 
I would expect the FS100 to be PAL/NTSC switchable, I'm fairly sure the EX1 was that way, why would they change it? See if you can get a hold of a PDF manual which details the menu structure and see if the NTSC version can be switched to PAL.
Also, I would doubt you'd have to buy a third party charger, they use those figure eight connectors almost universally and I've never seen a camera charger which wouldn't accept 110 - 240 V, 50/60 Hz.

EDIT Actually, everything I've found so far indicates that they have not made this one NTSC/PAL switchable. That's pretty annoying, I wonder why they would make the EX1 switchable and the newer models not? Personally, I wouldn't buy anything that doesn't shoot 25p.
 
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Its HUGELY annoying :-)

But thats Sony for you, cant be easy being them...so many products at so many levels. Make the FS100 too good and no one will buy an F3...and so on.

I just like the fact that shooting with an NTSC camera you get in essence two levels of native slow motion - 30>24 or 60>24. With PAL all you get is 50>25. Like I said I haven't had any issue for the times I've needed to speed up 23.976>25fps so to me buying this way offers more creative options, saves me over $1k and of course would allow me to get one now rather than wait for AU availability.
 
I think the 10 extra fps from 60>24 is definitely worth it
I feel sorry for the PAL buddies, they also have issues with juddering pans which NTSC doesn't seem to have a problem with
 
A friend who lives in the US ordered for me and he'll send it soon (I hope). That's 2000 euros cheaper than european model. I will tell if I have any issue...
 
speedracerlo said:
I think the 10 extra fps from 60>24 is definitely worth it
I feel sorry for the PAL buddies, they also have issues with juddering pans which NTSC doesn't seem to have a problem with
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Hate to threadjack, but PAL doesn't have any problem with juddering pans (none that NTSC doesn't also have, which usually results from too quick pans or inappropriate shutter)
 
jonatha said:
Hi how is it,NTSC work on PAL land,any flickering in 60mhz?thanks
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I guess, watch out if you're shooting interlaced footage for TV. I'm sure there's someone else here on the board who's more into this stuff than I am.

I'm only shooting 24p and 60p slowmo for web though.
 
PabloOzzy said:
I

So has anyone else thought of purchasing one from the US?
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I wish I would have.
Even though I live in PAL (Germany) land, I would be better of with 24p and 60p.

Now I´m stuck with 50i since 25p is not usable, due to jitter issues.

A friend f lyes to NY once a month, would have been easy to bring one for me.

Yeah, live and learn.

Frank
 
Hey Frank given that it's a lot cheaper in the US you could flog yours on ebay at a loss and still probably come out even on a 24p replacement.
 
Postmaster;2388743Now I´m stuck with 50i since 25p is not usable said:
So Frank. The cam is not NTSC / PAL switchable? And theres additional judder issues in 25p mode that are not apparent in 24p - as in theres something wrong with the 25p implementation as oppossed to normal motion (24/25) judder?

I was considering the FS100 an option for a greenscreen job(actually we'll be using reflecmedia), but it has to be 25P and if Im buying a camera it has to be ntsc / pal switchable.
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Depends on which country you are in... The only local dealer I've found so far that deals the FS100 here in Copenhagen charges 6000 euro before tax :O

In the end I ordered vat free, according to EU law, from the UK instead and paid a lot less... even included 2 16gb cards and a Senn G3 112. Had I ordered from the US I would have saved almost 3000 euro (after adding tax, customs and delivery) opposed to the Danish price... yep, Danish FS100 price after tax is around 8000 euro! What is up with that.

Oh well... I'm hopetimistically counting on Sony to wake up and do a firmware fix that enables all framerates on all versions.
 
Same here,

i am flying to NY next month. Buying it and flying back to Germany. Gotta Pay tax though, but still cheaper than in Germany (much cheaper). And: I will see NY for the first time :)

Good reason for a nice trip i guess :)
 
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