Sony PXW-X70 Pro's and Con's Review

We are currently out on a shoot in Chandigarh, Northen India this week. We have taken out are Sony F5 as the main camera but also popped our recently acquired Sony X70 in the bag as well. I popped outside the hotel for an hour this evening shortly after we arrived to grab some shots with it, as we haven’t had much time to play with it really. These are the results (see VIMEO clip) , and we are pretty happy with them. A camera at this price point is always going to have some shortcomings, but I believe these are easily outweighed by the many advantages the camera brings. Light, portable, good zoom range, discreet and fun to work with! See what you think about the images in this 90 second clip – we were pleasantly surprised. There are lots of cameras out there as you know, but it’s great to be able to have a second unit this small and light that can produce pictures you can happily cut into your main feature.
https://vimeo.com/117176816
 
The nicest footage I have seen from this camera to date. Very nice! Obviously graded right? Can I ask what frame rate you shot at? I am wanting one of these little gems real bad. Thanks for posting.
 
Thanks for posting this. Some truly LOVELY clips in amongst those 90 seconds. Sure, highlight handling is something to be careful with, but I find it amazing that a cam of this price point can produce images so blumming good - and we've yet to see what Sony blesses it with when the 4K firmware upgrade comes out - supposedly this March. I was seriously interested in this X70... thanks to that clip, now more so. Have fun - in one of my favourite countries!
 
Thanks guys. I just used picture profile 6 for the India clip. The great thing it was shot in AVCHD 1080/25p (I can't edit with the 50mbps MXF files until they sort them out) and the pictures still look lovely. I pretty much set all the camera's settings manually - I set DB to zero - shutter speed to 1/50 (you have to be careful using the camera on aAUTO as it moves this around, and always wants to up the gain too). I often ask the camera what iris it wants to use , then stick with this if I am happy, but more often than not I have to open it up a little more - esp if you are shooting outside as the camera wants to expose for the sky. The big thing to so is make sure you manually focus so it is spot on.
I am going to try to shoot some more on this when I am out here and will share the results. I am really pleased I bought this camera. With results like this, and with 4k to come, it's a cracker!
 
Sparky874 said:
I set DB to zero - shutter speed to 1/50 (you have to be careful using the camera on aAUTO as it moves this around, and always wants to up the gain too).
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Thank you so much for te video! I have a couple of questions:
Can you set a max gain value on the X70?

Is there an AE Shift (EV compensation) dial on the X70?

Does the X70 increase gain vs opening iris in (semi) auto expoure mode?

Thank you, Miki
 
Thanks for sharing Sparky. I think you did an excellent job shooting these clips. The only thing bugging me is the lack of real fine detail. Just like any other X70 footage. Comparing it to my F3 it's lacking in that regard.
 
I factually find the detail in the shots pretty good actually, esp when you watch the footage on a full screen. I don't think you can afford to be too picky when you consider the cost of the camera. You can go anywhere with it and capture shots you couldn't with the F5/ F5 etc. It's basically a great little B camera. x

x70 india 2.jpg
 
Miklos Nemeth said:
Thank you so much for te video! I have a couple of questions:
Can you set a max gain value on the X70?

Is there an AE Shift (EV compensation) dial on the X70?

Does the X70 increase gain vs opening iris in (semi) auto expoure mode?

Thank you, Miki
Click to expand...

You can set the AGC (automatic gain control) from off to 24dB in 3dB increments.

You can assign a button to activate AE Shift, and then use the menu scroll wheel to adjust the AE Shift from -2.0EV to 2.0EV in 0.2/0.3EV increments

One of the excellent features of the X70 is that you can set gain and/or iris to either manual or automatic (only in camera manual mode) using their assigned buttons, so you can choose whether you want to use iris or gain to "brighten" the exposure.

Hope that helps
 
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plegilink said:
You can set the AGC (automatic gain control) from off to 24dB in 3dB increments.

You can assign a button to activate AE Shift, and then use the menu scroll wheel to adjust the AE Shift from -2.0EV to 2.0EV in 0.2/0.3EV increments

One of the excellent features of the X70 is that you can set gain and/or iris to either manual or automatic (only in camera manual mode) using their assigned buttons, so you can choose whether you want to use iris or gain to "brighten" the exposure.

Hope that helps
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Excellent, Rob! It helped a lot: So, I can set AGC LIMIT to a max value, shutter to 1/100 (for example), I keep both iris and gain AUTO, and then I can use the AE SHIFT assigned button and the menu dial to brighten or darken the scene to override automated exposure. I guess, when I apply AE SHIFT to make the image brighter, the X70 first opens the iris; when iris is fully open, it starts increasing gain up to the limit. When gain limit is reached, AE SHIFT will not get brighter image any more.
I hope I've understood. The X70 seems to be an exceptionally brilliant camera. Thank You!
 
Here is another nice gran with some nice detail from X70 India shot:
x70 india.jpg
I think the skin tones and detail look pretty good on this happy chappy..
 
Sparky874 said:
I factually find the detail in the shots pretty good actually, esp when you watch the footage on a full screen. I don't think you can afford to be too picky when you consider the cost of the camera. You can go anywhere with it and capture shots you couldn't with the F5/ F5 etc. It's basically a great little B camera. x
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WOW, that's an awesome screen grab !.............. :thumbsup:

I sure hope Sony doesn't disappoint with the 4K "upgrade".
 
you're right, the 4k upgrade should be awesome. I hope they don't charge too much for it! It could be a great little timelapse camera with it too.
 
Sparky874 said:
you're right, the 4k upgrade should be awesome. I hope they don't charge too much for it! It could be a great little timelapse camera with it too.
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Anyone else think the 4K upgrade "should" be no/minimal cost? I'm hoping Sony steps up and really delivers a knockout punch to the industry.
 
F5 aside:cheesy:, anyone been able to compare to other cams in same price range? Thoughts on audio? Bokeh?

Regarding the upgrade, I'm guessing the cost and timeframe will be determined by how the competition plays out. Paid might mean a small amount.
I do wonder whether the electronic stabilization scheme can work as well when 4k of the chip is devoted to basic image.
 
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Are you folks assuming that the 4K upgrade would allow internal or external recording? I find it hard to believe they would have 4K to SDHC card recording on this camera but hey what do I know.
 
BrianMurphy said:
I find it hard to believe they would have 4K to SDHC card recording on this camera ...
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Why??? The AX100 -- its cheaper little brother -- already has it. The surprise (for me, at least) is that the X70 didn't have it at launch -- I'm hoping this is because they're planning something better, like 100 MB/s or more, maybe 10-bit... fingers crossed.

(BTW, it takes SDXC cards.)
 
Thanks its the 10 bit part I m interested in. Sorry SDXC I stnd corrected. I m considering buying one to add to my PMW300 kit s the SDI out works for me in my live hit shoots.
 
Thanks onemanband. Like you I can't believe you can't record the XAVC 50mbps codec either, and you know what, I have this sad feeling that this will never get sorted, just left behind. Sony just have too many cameras on the market to give it enough attention. I was just sent a SONY PXW-X200 to review today. That records XAVC files at 50mbps and guess what, they inport into my system seamlessy for editing. Why did the X70 have to be any different!
Here are three frame grabs from a shoot I did in Abu Dhabi recently. I like the look. The X70 is more than just a B Cam in my opinion.
x70 frame grab 1.jpgx70 frame grab 2.jpgx70 frame grab 3.jpg
 
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