Henry Gentles Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 Anyone tried one yet? At $2300, with everything you need, XLR inputs, ND Filters, Zeiss Zoom, soon to be released 4K, variable codecs, could be a real winner? Could be the cheap 4K Camera to beat?? www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1072752-REG/sony_pxw_x70_professional_xdcam_compact.html Ratguity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henry Gentles Posted October 15, 2014 Author Share Posted October 15, 2014 ah, just found this!! http://www.eoshd.com/2014/08/sony-a7s-x70-pinewood-studios/ Ratguity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevonChris Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 It looks like a great camera, though, as always, there are one or two gotchas with it. This site has some detailed reviews about it. This is just one of his articles about the X70: http://www.hdwarrior.co.uk/2014/10/07/sony-pxw-x70-update-on-lanc-control-and-user-info/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenstreets Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Just picked my x70 up a couple days ago. I have not had a chance to shoot much yet. But my initial impressions: - It's heavier that you might expect from it's size. I don't totally mind that. The build quality feels very good. - focus peaking seems very precise! much more accurate than what I have been using on my G6 with Pany 12-35mm lens - focus magnifier works while rolling, which is very cool. Button for it is in a good place. - Sony recommends UHS-I Class 10 U3 cards, which I don't have yet. The cards I have only allow me to shoot AVCHD. Will have new cards soon to take advantage of XAVC. I think these are the recommended cards: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1071443-REG/sony_sf64uz_tqn_64gb_sdhs_uhs_1_u3.html - I do miss having a zoom ring, but it's a sacrifice I am going to try to make. - focus ring needs a lot of turning to get from a near focus to far focus. and given that it is quite small, this feels clumsy to me. it would be nice if there was some sort of speed-proportionality to it, so turning it faster would cause accelerated travel - I think there is a term for this but it's not coming to me right now. I can update here once I've done a bit more with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ebrahim Saadawi Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Okay great. Now how does the image look? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenstreets Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 One of my main reasons for wanting to go with this camera are its ergonomics and size. And I am willing to sacrifice a ittle on image for that. I have had a chance to play with it a bit now. I would say it's roughly on par with my G6, but only after working on tweaking for a while, and they are simply different images. I think it's major weakness is in how it handles highlights. On the default settings, blown out highlight areas look like crap. But after playing around with picture profile settings (which I do feel are a bit limited), I can bring them into a mostly acceptable range for myself. This won't be the case for some. There is nothing groundbreaking in terms of image. So if that is what you are looking for, keep looking. I am not going to post samples or go into detail because it's not my strength. I will post a couple of Alister Chapman's reviews below, where he goes into more detail, including addressing the highlight issue. Dynamic range is middle of the road. I have seen some aliasing and moire - maybe more than my G6. In addition to the links given above, you could look at: http://www.xdcam-user.com/reviews/cameras/sony-pxw-x70-review/ an earlier post with a bit more discussion: http://www.xdcam-user.com/2014/07/the-sony-pxw-x70-sometimes-good-things-come-in-small-packages/ Video review: http://www.sony.hr/pro/article/broadcast-products-videography-pxw-x70_video Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ebrahim Saadawi Posted October 19, 2014 Share Posted October 19, 2014 It looks good for the price. I am looking at camcorders now. But, with the latest price drop on the Sony FS100 (2499 body) doesn't it make it a better option for filmmakers? I can see this one only useful for those who want a broadcast approved codec, and fast one-lens shooting. The FS100 has a s35 sensor with internchangeable lenses, better lowlight, better image overall in a nice camcorder factor. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sevenstreets Posted October 20, 2014 Share Posted October 20, 2014 Well I did this little test for myself, and (contrary to what I said above) thought I would share it. The link below is a Potoshop file that I used to compare my G6 to my x70. You can turn the layers on and off to compare. For each camera I have included a ungraded and graded image. I am not a colourist, so this is just a little experiment. I did the colour adjustments in photoshop - so results would be different if properly graded. Lighing conditions for this test were overcast/flat. Camera Setup: Both cameras were recording 24p AVCHD 28. (at the moment I don't have fast enough cards for XAVC in the x70). In general both cameras have sharpening turned down and saturation slightly reduced. G6 settings: Lens: Lumix G 12-35, f/14, 1/60, ISO 400, Daylight Photo Style: Portrait, Contrast -5, Sharpness -4, Saturation -3, NR -2 x70 settings: Lens: F/11, 180 degree shutter, 0dB, no ND, Daylight+1 Picture Profile: Black level: +10 Gama: ITU709 Black Gamma: no change - all 0 Knee: Manual point 75% slope 0 Color Mode: ITU709 Matrix Saturation -2 Color Phase 0 Color Depth: no change - all 0 Color Correction: off WB Shift: LB-CC all 0 Detail: Manual, V/H-0, B/W-Type3, Limit level 2, Cripening level 4, Hi-Light Detail level 2 Colour Correction in Photoshop: The corrected layers have a bit of sharpening added. Not sure if I value sharpness as much as some, but I wanted to see what would happen. Otherwise I just adjusted levels a bit, and added a bit of warming. The file: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15090697/Panasonic_G6%20Sony_x70%20Compare.psd Hope this is useful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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