Sony HXR-NX5U and HDR-AX2000 Camcorder

[Robert M Wright]

Well, this should put some downward pressure on HMC150 street prices.

[Lukas Siewior]

I was just browsing through B&H site and found this in their prosumer category: HDR-AX2000. It's a consumer brother of NX5 and it comes with XLR inputs. But the price is the most shocking - it'll sell for $3500 !!! That's only $300 more then the new FX1000 a year ago - or $500 now. Also it is muuuch cheaper solution then Z5 with optional memory recorder.

[Mark Goodsell]

That's a lot of cam for the $$. Damn, I just bought the Z5 too! Wonder if it has GPS too...

[Michael Liebergot]

The only major strike against it is that there is now way to really get redundant video out of it, as it does not have firewire out.
It does have HDMI, but yo need to spend the bucks for a HDMI recorder, providing there is one out there.
It would have been nice if I was able to still use the MRC1K and also record on camera, as a just in case.

But I have to agree it's nice to finally see Sony launch a prosumer model camera with truly pro features, such as built in XLR inputs.

[Jeff Harper]

Hmmm, the only issue I see with it is it is AVCHD. Let's see...when I have a dozen 3 cam weddings waiting to be editing, I'll be transcoding, wasting time while my tape brethren are happily editing away.

No thanks...you're better of with the Z5, IMO.

[Dale Sexauer]

I noticed yesterday that B&H now has the NX5U listed for pre-order at $3,990. That's $500 less than a few days ago. They say your credit card is charged when you place the pre-order. I wonder what happens with the people who pre-ordered theirs at the higher price?

[Ron Evans]

Jeff, I can transfer AVCHD to PC and transcode to Canopus HQ a lot quicker than capturing the same time from tape. An example is I transfered 2 hours and 15 min from my XR500 in 12 mins and transcode to Canopus HQ took just over an 1 hour. That means I was an hour ahead of a tape based system capture. Considering a multicam shoot with multiple tape cameras it may be hours ahead!!!! We use two FX1's a SR11 and XR500. I can transfer both SR11 and XR500 and transcode before I would have captured the tape from one of the FX1's. The longest time for me now is waiting for the tape capture from the FX1's!!!!! IF you are using Firestore etc the cost is considerably more but I admit one could then edit from the Firestores or DR60. If you use Edius Neo with Booster you don't need to transcode at all but would not have multicam edit just multiple tracks. Can't wait for the Booster technology to be included in Edius. I will get the NXcam and retire my FX1 as the XR500 single chip AVCHD picture is better than the FX1 a lot of the time anyway.
I edit single track AVCHD native in Vegas too.
Ron Evans

[Graham Hickling]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

Jeff, I can transfer AVCHD to PC and transcode to Canopus HQ a lot quicker than capturing the same time from tape.

Ditto for AVCHD to Cineform avi. Way faster, at least on an i7-920.

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Hmmm, the only issue I see with it is it is AVCHD. Let's see...when I have a dozen 3 cam weddings waiting to be editing, I'll be transcoding, wasting time while my tape brethren are happily editing away.

No thanks...you're better of with the Z5, IMO.

Jeff while I agree about the ability to start editing quicker with the Z5. Keep in mind that it's HDV and not as high resolution as what the AVCHD image will be from the AX2000/NX5.

With the Z5, I still have to rewrap the files using ClipWrap, but that's not a time concern.
Otherwise with AVCHD footage I am transcoding to ProRes LT anyway. So the time saver for me is that my MAC can trasncode the footage faster than real time, plus, I can simply load the files into a batch, covert, and walk away. No babysitting the deck is needed to change tapes. So if I wanted to I could capture while I sleep. Something that I can't do with tape.

For me the biggest workflow issue is storage of media for use. Without tape I either have to backup on two drives (one for work, one for redundant backup), or purchase enough cards to store like I would tape.

With tape looking like it will be going away, what I see in the future is that SD cards will be almost as cheap as tape is currently. Until that time, use removable drives to store data will have to be the workflow. Just everyone remember, there is no guarantee that your drive will sip up properly and data saved properly, if you don't store them properly, as well as spin the drive up every couple of months.

[Jeff Harper]

Ron, you are kidding....the XR500 is sometimes better than the FX1? Under which conditions...this is intriquing...I need a new small cam!

[Ron Evans]

Jeff, I use the SR11 and XR500 as fixed cameras in theatre shoots full stage or where i know the action is going to be. They are usually set at AE shift -4 for the XR500 and manual exposure for the SR11,with focus set by spot focus ( touch the LCD where you want it to focus, once set it stays there for the whole show) With good stage light the XR500 is sharper, XR500 is 1920x1080i with "R"sensor Exmor CMOS chip and it shows over the FX1 at the same wide setting. The XR500 has better shadow detail since the FX1 does not have black stretch, so the stage looks more real than the FX1 shot. When stage goes black the SR11 will show gain but the XR500 is OK. Signal is very clean. At 18db gain it has about the same gain noise as the FX1 at 12db depending on how it got to this gain setting ( with AE shift it seems to have less noise, full manual one can get the same data code but gain noise is more. Don't understand but its repeatable !!!)
For close up work the FX1 is still better because of the control but its a small difference. If I had to take just one camera it would be the XR500 over the FX1. So you see why I am enthusiastic over the NXCAm !!!
One other thing I didn't mention in the other post. I can run the XR500 for about 6 hours with the Fh100 battery since it has enough HD for 14 hours of 1920x1080 I would have to change batteries to use up the storage. The NXCAM is even better, just keep changing the memory sticks for ever!!!! or flash unit is about 11 hours, battery again is like the FX1 so will run for about 6 hours again before changing. With tape it is at most 80 mins before a tape change and I bet its always at an inappropriate time!!!!
The Z5 can be tapeless but I think the AVCHD 1920x1080 of the NXCAM is better.
I am sold on tapeless.

Ron Evans

[Dave Blackhurst]

The XR500 is a pretty significant step in the small cam arena, it has pretty amazing image quality and low noise, along with good low light performance - you may want to look at the XR550 and CX550 that were just announced - probably be great "B" cams for the AX2000.

There's a thread in the AVCHD part of DVi on these cameras - perhaps Chris should consider giving them their own area alongside the AX2000 - used to be one, but it got bumped to HDMom... so these cams sort of get discussed in the AVCHD area - Canon gets it's own forum sections, perhaps time to let Sony have dedicated threads again??

[Ron Evans]

Originally Posted by Michael Liebergot

For me the biggest workflow issue is storage of media for use. Without tape I either have to backup on two drives (one for work, one for redundant backup), or purchase enough cards to store like I would tape.

Once in a tapeless environment one needs to think like an IT group. I bought a Quantum HH LTO3 tape backup drive( about $1000 Can) and tapes are about $25 for 400G native since with video there is little opportunity for further compression. I put all project files in a folder and back up to tape. Tape transfer or recover is as fast as the hard drives will go. In my system that's about 65MBps sustained so a few hours of AVCHD is very quick !!! Data tapes are archival quality with redundancy tracks and if one is concerned about reliability a second tape is not that expensive and the EMC Retrospect Professional Backup software I use allows for multiple copies. Much cheaper than HDV tapes and more reliable. I keep recent finished project DVD's on hard drive for quick access and don't worry about a hard drive backup of this.

Ron Evans

[Jeff Harper]

Thanks Ron and Dave. I'm heading over to the AVCHD area now...I absolutely hated my experience with the Panasonic HMC 150, nice camera but I never got the hang of the AVCHD...I thought I tried the best workflow, but maybe not.

[Ethan Cooper]

Originally Posted by Jeff Harper

Hmmm, the only issue I see with it is it is AVCHD. Let's see...when I have a dozen 3 cam weddings waiting to be editing, I'll be transcoding, wasting time while my tape brethren are happily editing away.

Jeff - might also want to keep in mind that when HDV came out a few years back people were bemoaning the fact that it was very hard to edit in it's native form & now it's just as easy as DV was before it. AVCHD will be there too in a little while.