Unboxing the PXW-Z100

dustylense said:
The C100 does in fact slow down well shooting 60i and putting it into a 24p timeline.

I too am anxious to see more footy from these Sony 4K's. Not everything has to be large chip capture.
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I've seen the processed video from 60i to 24P and it looks great, but it's just not slow enough. I also saw a guy on vimeo who did the same in AE but slowed down 250%. It was definitely slow, but was dark, muddy, lost all the detail and had a ton of noise.

Now if this Sony 4 cam could get 1080p 120fps, then I would jump all over it. Just having 1080p 60fps is kind of normal, even for the $2500 cameras these days, except of course, for the $6500 c100. ;) Even the new AX20 and XA25 have it. Still, if the image quality is really good, I might bite and live with 1080P 60fps in the Sony for outdoor and RNG work.

I don't want to get OT, but regarding Canon, I have been a 25 year Canon supporter. If they gave us the image quality of the c-series AND slow motion as standard across the board, they could literally corner the market. There are other ways to differentiate their products IMO.

Bring on the Sony footage. :)
 
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Is this one of those "it's technically 4K things"? Partially. Look at the JVC GY-HMQ10. 1/2" sensor, right number of pixels, but those tiny pixels require a lot of light. Odd sensor and lens combination caused the available aperture on the camera to be 2.8 - 5.6 or so. That's it. No more open and no more closed. Look at what Sony has done in the past with the HVR-Z1U and the HXR-NX5U. The first was a HUGE seller and the second is the first Sony camera to use SDHC cards and license technology from Panasonic, namely AVCHD. The HXR-NX5U was / is a HUGE seller. Sony has so much market share that the PXW-Z100 will be with us for a long time and will be a HUGE seller. If the price of this camera is being compared to a NEX-FS700 which is a different type of camera, as mentioned here, there is also the "consumer" version, the FDR-AX1 which probably will have most of the same frame rates but in typical Sony fashion, no XLR inputs. If you are focusing on visuals only, go with the FDR-AX1. Right now the FMP-X1 4k player from Sony is all about watching Hollywood or distributed content. We are not all consumers. We are producers as well. Do we just wait for our 4K TVs to have YOUTUBE widgets and a flash memory "preloader" or something to allow distribution of non-Hollywood content? As usual I am throwing way too many terms around here and am making generalizations and not clarifying... but it is an exciting time, as always.
 
Hi Matt,

Have some questions for you, I do wildlife and a handycam that makes 4k at 50/60P is wonderful, especially if BBC approves it for broadcast, normally they want 10bit, 4:2:2: at least 50mps, so I think this one will be on that list…

Can you please tell me if the camera does have pre-record buffer?

Do you know if the 500mps announced are megabit or megabyte? if they are megabyte, them I will need a lot of discs to backup footage…

Finally, how is image quality at the end zoom range?

Many thanks and regards,

Humberto Ramos
 
Don't know for sure but I think it is 500 megabits (Mbits). Haven't seen a memory card that can write 500 MBytes. Even 500Mbit is huge and not possible to most cards.
Those SDHC cards can wrtite about 30MB/s max (like sandisk extreme pro). These new XQD cards can write 180 MB/s which is a huge improvement
 
I notice the minimum lux for shooting is 3 at 24p and 4 at 60p. They talk about the sensor performance in low light, but doe these numbers speak to that?
 
Sheldon Charron said:
I notice the minimum lux for shooting is 3 at 24p and 4 at 60p. They talk about the sensor performance in low light, but doe these numbers speak to that?
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They probably speak more to the minimum shutter speed usable under those conditions. You can use a slower shutter speed at 24p than you can at 60p. I don't know what the range of shutter options is on the Z100, but that'd be my guess.
 
FWIW, my 'First Impressions' review and video (such as it can be when you have a prototype with non-reviewable picture quality!) is now up:

http://www.sony.co.uk/pro/article/broadcast-products-introducing-the-new-pxw-z100-4k

Remember - it was a prototype unit, I could test workflow, handling, menus and get an impression of its 4K, test 4K to 2K and HD, etc. But the camera's gone back to Sony for IBC, and to have its software updated - yay! Hopefully we'll get to see and test the actual images soon!

More technical info is coming out day by day, so it's still a moveable feast.
 
That was a great review Matt. Thanks a ton. I wish it had a histogram in the viewfinder, surprising it doesn't with everything else it does have. Does it display one on the LCD at least? Yhis might be the camera I've been waiting for to use for outdoor, wildlife, live events and docs.
 
Also wish WB was adjustable beyond two presets without gong into menu, and limited to 3200K at the low end, no dip into 2900K and below that is optimal for florescent bulbs.
 
I'm itching for more opinions on this cam. I'm looking for something that will get some action as a rental camera and I think this might be it.
 
If they gave us the image quality of the c-series AND slow motion as standard across the board, they could literally corner the market. There are other ways to differentiate their products IMO.
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A year ago slo-motion was hardly ever discussed on this forum. Now, it's all people seem to talk about. As if a camera without ability to do slo-mo is unacceptable. Really, how much do you use slo mo?
Yeah its great. But definitely not a deal breaker when considering a camera purchase below $10k. Once EVERY low budget camera can do proper slo-mo then everyone will find something else that's lacking in these cameras to complain about. :-) I'm not exempt from this. I'm sure I'll complain too. Just an observation, the more we get, the more we want.
 
The lens isn't very wide. f=4.1-82.0mm (equivalent to f=30-600mm) I would think that the intended market of event / wedding videographers would require more of a 'wide' than 'long' lens. 20-400mm equivalent would've been a more usable range. Really, how often are you going to use 600mm, unless you're working for the CIA.
 
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TFilipiak said:
The lens isn't very wide. f=4.1-82.0mm (equivalent to f=30-600mm) I would think that the intended market of event / wedding videographers would require more of a 'wide' than 'long' lens. 20-400mm equivalent would've been a more usable range. Really, how often are you going to use 600mm, unless you're working for the CIA.
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I think I'd be happier with the reach on the long side of the lens over the wide stuff. When I had the HVX200 and the EX1, I'd always wish the HVX200 had more reach. I think it's easier to put a wide angle adapter on for a few shots per day than a tele adapter for a full day of sports shooting.
I think their 35mm equivalent numbers might be a bit off, too, depending on which shooting mode is used.
I ordered a Z100 for rental, I'll let you know for sure when I've unboxed it and take it out for its first gig.
 
One of my clients just got one in and I checked it out yesterday.

REALLY nice. Menus were easy to navigate.

Picture quality was phenomenal. Excellent button layout.

I was impressed.
 
Matt, did you get a chance to see an image in low light conditions?
I am wondering if I should sell my HPX300 for one of these. If it can match a 1/3" sensor cam in low light, that wouldn't set me back.
 
I have the FDR-AX1 and a visual comparison to my NX5U in good light is about 1 stop slower and gets worse as the light goes down so that when the NX5U is at 9db the FDR-AX1 is at 21 or 24db with visible grain then. One has to understand that the roughly same size sensor has 8 times as many pixels sensor sites as the NX5U ( which is interpolated to HD ) so even though the sensor is back illuminated there has to be some downside. In good light the image is beautiful though and downconverted to HD is far superior to the NX5U. These are not the cameras if your need is low light performance and will not compete with the current 1/3" camcorders in low light.

Ron Evans
 
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