First Impressions: Sony FDR AX1–The First 4K Camcorder With an Auto Mode

Somebody make a Black and Decker toaster commercial with those graphics and music.

YOUR BREAD. IN 4K DETAIL.
 
looking damn good! wonder how much the media costs? is this the SxS card scenario by chance where you pay serious premium? hope not. its still got my attention in a good way!

david
 
david_p said:
looking damn good! wonder how much the media costs? is this the SxS card scenario by chance where you pay serious premium? hope not. its still got my attention in a good way!

david
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A quick search comes up with $188-238 for a Sony 32Gb card, $297-378 for a 64Gb card. I also found a 64B card for a whopping $880. Not sure why the discrepancy in price.
So far, I've only found Sony and Lexar cards. I believe these cameras require the S series cards.
 
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Jadotch said:
Not to be a Nay Sayer, but didn't JVC come out with a 4K camcorder with auto everything a while ago. I am sure the sony has the performance edge, but the claim is a little disingenuous.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/839193-REG/JVC_GY_HMQ10U_GY_HMQ10_4K_Compact_Handheld.html
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Well, but that JVC is pretty much an abomination of a camcorder. It pretty much flopped on the marketplace.

So yes, while JVC did beat Sony to market way back in 2011 in bringing a 4k camcorder to market that cost under $5k, it was with a camcorder so awful that no one wanted to buy it.

.
 
Sony has come out with a new XQD card, the N series, that is cheaper and can be used by the AX1.
32GB - $109, 64Gb - $219.
They should be available in October.
 
LanceOregon said:
So yes, while JVC did beat Sony to market way back in 2011 in bringing a 4k camcorder to market that cost under $5k, it was with a camcorder so awful that no one wanted to buy it.
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Which is, again, pretty much history repeating itself. JVC came out with their HD camcorder almost a year and a half before Sony introduced their first, the FX1. JVC's was 720/30p only, and was kind of despised, but hey, it was first, and first by a long margin. Lots of folks don't seem to remember that when the JVC came out, it wasn't marked "HDV" because "HDV" didn't exist. They introduced their own format entirely; when Sony introduced the FX1 they announced that they had joined with JVC to create the new "HDV format" -- even though the two were nearly completely incompatible...

JVC occasionally beats everyone to the market by a large margin, but frequently it's with products that seem half-baked (like recording 4k to four separate HD streams on four separate SD cards...)
 
joe1946 said:
http://www.thephoblographer.com/201...-ax1-the-first-4k-camcorder-with-a-auto-mode/
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Thanks for the link... but this was a terrible article, the title refers to the auto mode, the introduction talks about the potential customers who would use it then tells them not to buy the camera without explaining why. It complains about people who don't know what the buttons on the side are for, yet the author couldn't even see the focus mode switch and there was no picture of the XLR outputs (sic)
 
I watched this nicely made video by Charles Michel of Videoacademy about the AX1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqryZ1u7Wb8He very kindly provided some XAVC-S footage from the camera. It has a lot of detail but more noise that I would have liked. It was filmed indoors so it may have been quite dark.I am hoping to use it outdoors at very bright racing circuits so I haven't written it off just yet, but I was a little disappointed.
 
"To us, Sony is the company that often pushes the fold and gives us things before we even believed that it would be time for them to hit the market."

It's not like I've ever agreed with anything Phoblographer said, or considered them intelligent (here they are falling for a photoshop "visualization" (fake) that was CLEARLY LABELED AS SUCH FROM DAY ONE: http://www.thephoblographer.com/2013/10/03/could-this-be-one-of-sonys-new-full-frame-nex-cameras/), but this may be a new level of absurd.
 
JoeJITSU said:
After researching Pxw-Z100 is about $2000 more and worth it.
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Yes, it is much better, PAL/NTSC switching is ver important for me. But until they get a Long GOP version of the XAVC codec it is pretty much unusable, 10 minutes on a 64GB card!!!!
 
The FDR-AX1 also has all the frame rates. Differences appear to be Codec, HDSDI, timecode plug and wireless control cabability with dongle. If the PXW-Z100 already had the firmware update announced for next year then it would be the better deal. For really long record times then the XAVCS would have to be used and so the PXW-Z100 would become a FDR-AX1 !!!

Ron Evans
 
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