Waiting on Pins and Needles For Sony PXW-Z100 Footage and Reviews

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Sheldon Charron

Well-known member
Am I the only one anxious to see more real world footage from this camera? I'm really hoping this will be the answer for fast action outdoor/travel/wildlife/nature TV show production.

I have a four day shoot coming up in AZ calling in predators with wildlife callers and will be using gopro Hero 3+ blacks for rifle and shotgun POV's and shooter coverage, and a Canon 70 D rigged out with wireless lavs, H4n, a shotgun mic and long lenses, but if I knew this camera would perform well, especially in some of the night hunting stuff we're filming, I'd pull the pin and have ti shipped to arrive before we leave on the 28th. Just too much dough to risk it being an unknown. After all, the chip is even smaller than the 4K chip inside the Gopro 3+ Black....
 
Sheldon Charron said:
Am I the only one anxious to see more real world footage from this camera? I'm really hoping this will be the answer for fast action outdoor/travel/wildlife/nature TV show production.

I have a four day shoot coming up in AZ calling in predators with wildlife callers and will be using gopro Hero 3+ blacks for rifle and shotgun POV's and shooter coverage, and a Canon 70 D rigged out with wireless lavs, H4n, a shotgun mic and long lenses, but if I knew this camera would perform well, especially in some of the night hunting stuff we're filming, I'd pull the pin and have ti shipped to arrive before we leave on the 28th. Just too much dough to risk it being an unknown. After all, the chip is even smaller than the 4K chip inside the Gopro 3+ Black....
Click to expand...

You aren't. I'm highly interested in this camera too, even though I can't come close to affording it at the moment.

I film a lot of fast action animal stuff where a large sensor with a limited zoom is impractical. I'm using an HMC150 now and definitely have my eyes open for a future upgrade. On paper this camera sounds like it fits the bill.
 
I've noticed artifacts like stair stepping shimmering on the downtown buildings in one of videos as well as that same shimmer a few other times when viewing at 1080 but not as bad (but still there a little) when at full resolution. not sure if this is a youtube quirk or not.

the low light also was bad. I'm looking into the NX3 now. for $3,500 looks like a steal.

david
 
I saw an interview (i think it was at NAB) where someone was talking to a Sony rep about this and AX1 (tried to find the video again before posting this and couldn't). Anyway, he was asked why someone would buy a PMW200 now that the AX1 and Z100 are available.

One of the things he pointed out is that 3 chip 4k camcorders have poor sensitivity compared to 3 chip HD camcorders and the 4k wouldn't perform as good in low light conditions because the pixels on the chips are so small they don't gather light as efficiently. He also mentioned the AX1 was primarily for videographers who want to start getting used to 4k and that the z100 was mostly designed for professionals doing cinematic work with an F55 who need a wide depth of field b cam for run and gun type of shots (since the z100 has the same ultra high bitrate codec as the F55).
 
it seems a stepping stone, or rather sony's first dip into more affordable pro/sumer 4k, it looks like a darn good camera, but i would hope that the next iteration of it will go for 2/3" sensors, which should get it's low light up to where it should be. matter o fact... they have such a sensor already lying around in the rx10/rx100m2....

nigel says up to 9db is usable, and 12 okish, and 18 crap, compare that to the rx10 sensor which at iso1600 is great, 3200 good but declining, and 6400 still admirable but very noisy....

figuring such performance, them making a 2/3", which is in the ballpark of their 1" type spec, that would be something to phone home about.
 
I would think that run and gun would require decent low light options. Back in the day even Sony consumer cameras had night mode. At least with that, a news or eng camera op could get the shots he needs without a ton of light. And then there are narratives like Blair Witch, etc. Not perfect, but at least you can shoot without a ton of light. I'm not suggesting they give a night mode, but with today's sensors, they should be able to give us both at that price point.
 
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