PXW=Z100, longGOP?

[Bruce Watson]

B&H lists the Sony PXW-Z100 as "in stock" so there must be some people out there who have one. Yet, not much information on this camera, at least not that I can find searching our Sony forums.

I'm wondering about a few things. First, what's up with the longGOP option? Does it ship with that, or is that an add on for "later"? Second, anyone want to comment on the ergonomics? How's it feel and handle when hand held? Finally, how's the 4k footage look? It's a pretty small sensor for 4k, so I'm wondering how the image looks on a 50 inch monitor. Or an NLE monitor? For that matter, are the NLEs ready for the footage?

Probably the people who have these things are too busy out using them to report back. Sigh... :grin:

 

[MattDavis]

A few thoughts...

1) LongGOP is on the way and IIRC it's a user upgradable thing.

2) Be aware that a 1/3" chip doing 4K at 10 bit is not going to be a low light champion. I measured it at around 75-100 ISO. Two stops down from a PMW-EX1R and 1 stop down from the venerable Z1. The corollary to this is that you can dial in gain to compensate thanks to modern noise reduction, but +12dB to get to an EX1 is an awful lot to ask.

3) The weak point of the Z100 is actually the lens, not the codec or the insensitivity. I'm seeing a lot of chromatic aberration correction going on, in addition to the detail circuits.

The 4K downsampled to 2K/HD is great. It is SO like the Sony Z1 - it brings 4K to the HD shooter. But at a cost.

I also had some Prosumer 4K cameras to play with, and really liked the AX100. To me, this is the PDX-10 of the 4K line - it actually does 4K very well, and the 1" chip and XLR bridge make it punch far above its weight. With a choice of half a dozen Sony camcorders, it was my go-to device. WIth the K1T audio bridge, the 4:2:0 8 bit 4K image onto SDXC card downsampled to the equivalent of 4:2:2 10 bit HD. The higher sensitivity and the cute handling won my heart.