PXW-X400 announced

[Paul Anderegg]

It's like a really pimped out PMW-400, with an OLED EVF option. :-D

PXW-X400 (PXWX400) : Product Overview : United Kingdom : Sony Professional

[Paul Anderegg]

Sony just announced the CBK-Z450UK 4K UHD upgrade "kit" for the PXW-X400. I would assume this must include a new CMOS sensor block, because the X400 has 1920x1080 sensors. Sony says that this kit converts the PXW-X400 into a PXW-Z450 4K 2160 60p UHD camcorder.

Paul

[Doug Jensen]

Yes, that is correct. With the paid 4K upgrade (available next winter) you can send your X400 back to Sony and they will swap out the three HD 2/3" CMOS sensors with a single 4K 2/3" CMOS sensor. The rest of the camera is already built for 4K.

After the upgrade, your X400 will essentially be identical in every way to the announced Z450 camcorder which will also be available next winter. So with the X400 you get HD now and the option of upgrading to 4K later.

BTW, Sony has not announced a price for either the X400 upgrade or the Z450.

[Paul Anderegg]

I've experienced a 2/3 single CMOS shoulder camera before, the HPX600......it was a pathetic piece of garbage.

[Doug Jensen]

I'll be the first to admit the Z450 didn't knock my socks off at NAB, but it was a protoype and even Sony said it was a work in progress and didn't represent what the production camera would look like. I hope to get my hands on one next winter to test drive for them.

[Christopher Young]

Correct me if I'm wrong in my thinking Doug. If the 450 has a single sensor QFHD/4K conventional type Bayer CMOS sensor once it's de-bayered it's going to have a resolution of around 3.2K... correct? Like Paul mentioned with the Panny 600, it was battling to deliver 1.6K in 1920 x 1080.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Paul Anderegg]

B4 lenses do not work well on single chip cameras......the HPX600 even with CAC HA16 lens had the left third of the screen focus point different from center and right of frame......ugh.

[Dave Sperling]

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

B4 lenses do not work well on single chip cameras......the HPX600 even with CAC HA16 lens had the left third of the screen focus point different from center and right of frame......ugh.

Sounds like something else was out of whack... Either the lens mount or a skewed element within the lens. I've had good results using a 22x B4 eng lens with mounting adapter on an F55 in center crop mode. Not something I'd do unless I needed the zoom range, but field of focus was consistent across the frame.

[Doug Jensen]

Chris,

If the camera can deliver a 3840x2160 file then it is fair to call it a 4K camera. How it arrives at that 4K resolution may not be up to someone standards, but the same could be said of the vast majority of the "4K" cameras on the market that do the same thing. In fact, you might as well question if a lot of the single sensor HD cameras are truly Full HD or not. I am in the camp that says we should classify a camera by it's output codec resolution and not the way the signal was captured because that is a whole different can of worms.

[Christopher Young]

True, that's how I understand it, that none of the Bayer pattern sensor 4K cameras are 'true' 4k in the sense of resolution. So yes I agree that it's output is what defines it as '4K.' It's the only way of looking at it from a production point of view I guess.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Sam Lee]

Yikes! I'm seeing OK results with the PX5000. It's a CMOS 2/3" cam but it has 3 of them. If I'm not mistaken, 2/3" lenses are designed for CCD with prism block right? CMOS sensor doesn't have this and they may have to artificially introduce it to make it work. Personally, the HPX-3100 with its 3-CCD has a warmer and more pleasing look than the cold and sterile PX5000 CMOS look.

I have a client who wants to do a multicam shoot with HPX-610. Based on your review, I think it's not looking favorable. Can you explain in details why it's not looking good on the HPX600? What are the problems?

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

B4 lenses do not work well on single chip cameras......the HPX600 even with CAC HA16 lens had the left third of the screen focus point different from center and right of frame......ugh.

[Sam Lee]

Everything looks great but I don't think I can afford another $25-$35K for the UHD lenses from Fujinon or Canon. I guess I can use HD lenses but afraid it will be soft at corners and full of chroma aberrations.

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

It's like a really pimped out PMW-400, with an OLED EVF option. :-D

PXW-X400 (PXWX400) : Product Overview : United Kingdom : Sony Professional

[Paul Anderegg]

This is the performance of the HPX600 using Fujinon HA16x7.6BERM CAC enabled broadcast lens, in amazing 100Mbps AVC Intra........enjoy.......and see why i returned that camera the following day.

YouTube (Short URL)

Any questions?

[Paul Anderegg]

My understanding is that 2/3 B4 lenses are designed with the intention of spraying different wavelengths of light at different focal points through the prism, and when you remove that, the colors arrive in what can best be described as the "fist light" problem the Hubble space telescope had. It's an uncorrectable form of Chromatic Aberration.

Paul

[Sam Lee]

I see major halo, plenty of chromatic aberrations, and contrast handling problems on the license plate. Overall it doesn't like high contrasty scenes (day or night) That's just not acceptable for DTV broadcast. The HA Premiere series should be pretty decent vs the economical XA series and ZA. Many people said they couldn't discern between HA and ZA in optical quality. So that leaves to the subpar camera imaging section on the HPX-600's single CMOS and other electronic enhancements, particularly DRS.

Originally Posted by Paul Anderegg

This is the performance of the HPX600 using Fujinon HA16x7.6BERM CAC enabled broadcast lens, in amazing 100Mbps AVC Intra........enjoy.......and see why i returned that camera the following day.

https://youtu.be/-PEMifRrDHI

Any questions?