Sony's FDR-AX100 4K Handycam ships in March for $2,000 (hands-on)

I wish for once sound would not be sony and take that little extra step with the bitrate.

4 times the pixels, with just 2 times the bitrate. really what is there to protect in their higher lines? everything above it is entirely different, from sensor to lens to body, etc...

come on sony, 96mbps, it's not even asking for more, it's asking to par the course.


Think about what happened when the switch to HD came. 25mbps minidv tapes on SD became 25mbps 1440x1080 HDV. Then it actually went down to 24mbps 1920x1080 with the switch the AVCHD.

Also, the bitrate on youtube does not go up 4x when switching to 4k.
 
Curious to see 4K footage compared to AVCHD footage lets say from the HMC150 and how it is to edit with. For example a 10 minute or 1 hour 4k clip and what the size of the file is. Also picture quality of the AX100 compared to a Pro HD camera. And also how Sony vegas would handle 4k. If it would require more memory to render and work with. If I bought this camera, I would not output in 4 k yet, most clients of mine just want mpeg 4 1080 for web or still DVD.
Never even had a request for BlueRay yet. So I assume it will be a while for people to want 4k output.

Also, if youtube excepts 4k, does the viewer need something special to see the difference between 4K and Mpeg4 1080 on there Ipads, laptops, and such?


What is the infrared night mode like on this camera?
 
Also, if youtube excepts 4k, does the viewer need something special to see the difference between 4K and Mpeg4 1080 on there Ipads, laptops, and such?

I watched what was purported to be 4k footage in origin on YouTube yesterday on a pretty mediocre PC (not mine :Drogar-Shock(DBG):) and have to admit that some of it looked really good. Definitely could see an improvement and I find that reassuring.
 
Think about what happened when the switch to HD came. 25mbps minidv tapes on SD became 25mbps 1440x1080 HDV. Then it actually went down to 24mbps 1920x1080 with the switch the AVCHD.

Also, the bitrate on youtube does not go up 4x when switching to 4k.

good thought, but those included at least some advances with the codec's efficiency. the codec of the ax100 is basically the same avchd just with 4k abilities. now, if it were the vp9 or 265, we'd have a whole different story and 60 would probably be a shoein
 
Whatever the bitrate or codec is, the demo looks much better than what I'm shooting with now, the RX10...and I love the RX10. The sharpness, detail and color are truly impressive.
 
How will the digital zoom work on this camera? I get that it's actually zooming into the 4K image to zoom in tighter than 12x. But will you be able to do that while shooting a 4K? If you can, when you bring it in to edit, will that segment simply be lower resolution? I think this might be a good camera for packing in for wildlife, but 12x won't be good enough for many shots. If the zoom gets you to say 20x at 1080p, and looks good, and can still be delivered in a 4k project, then that might be pretty useful and a good low cost solution.
 
Although not in English, this video delves into the menu system:
http://youtu.be/WUH4XO9M6Xg

It looks that, when in 4K, it is limited to 60Mbps compression.

Personally, not yet interested in shooting 4K.
I'm more excited about the prospect of 4:2:2 HD, from a 1 inch sensor in such a small form factor.
Also, my guess would be the glass on this camera has to be high quality to resolve 4K. A feature that will also benefit it in HD.
 
Looking at the latest B&H review video, it says that 1 hour would be 32gb. Wow! I think they said other 4k cameras would need more space and this camera also does not need a fan.
I am very interested in getting this camera to film very high quality shots when I need them. And for 2000$ it is not to bad price.

But, a hour of 4k video for 32GB, I don't think I will make that commitment jump to move my projects to 4K yet. With my HMC150, I can get a couple of hours more of footage on a 32GB card, and the quality is excellent for "my needs". Files storage for me is already an issue and I have about 6 - 2TB of external hard drives of source files. (This is a part time job for me.)

Do you think the quality will match and be better then the HMC150? And if I shoot with the X100, what setting would be to to match the quality and file size of cameras like the HMC150 but not set it to 4K.
(Sorry I mention the HMC150, but we could just say Pro HD camera.)

I would like to make this like a B camera, and want to make sure it will be sufficient. What worries me is they it is a consumer camera and not a pro camera.
So that is why I am interested to see how it looks compared to the Panasonic HMC150 footage. And if it matches or exceeds, and then why is it still called consumer camera?

Any idea how this camera handles low light yet?

What do you think the XLR audio jack add on would cost?

Trying to think of when I would want to shoot in 4k and not. Maybe when a speaker moves around a lot and you can pull back more of a wide angel shot and then supper sample it. And of course green screen and nature shots. For interviews and head and shoulder shots, I don't think I would shoot 4K. But I don't know yet until I get into trying this camera out. Looks like a good deal and fun to shoot.
 
Close to 800 for the XLR adapter. Do you know if they sell the XLR-A1m 2-channel XLR adapter without the microphone kit?
 
I still don't understand how the clear image zoom works. I thought it punched into the 4k image, like a crop mode, but now it seems it doesn't do that, so is the clear image zoom useable? I have never, EVER used digital zoom, so can someone explain how the clear image zoom works and if it is actually useable for professional use? I know this isn't a professional camera, but some of its footage will certainly end up on television non the less.
 
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