Sony FDR-AX-33 just arrived

[Luis A. Diaz]

Testing the new 4K cam from Sony all handheld the BOSS steady shot in this thing ROCKS!!!

YOUTUBE AND VIMEO 4K - YouTube

Thank You for Watching

Luis

[Dave Blackhurst]

Interesting "first samples". Just curious if you have a 4K TV or monitor and have looked at the clips on that? Not sure if it's the YouTube compression, but seems like I'm seeing the same smeary foliage and macroblocking that I've seen with some of the Panasonic sample footage (the little LX100 notably doesn't seem to have the same things going on).

I'm comparing to AX100 stuff I've shot (can't wait for the firmware update to 100Mbps), while the results from the AX33 look "pretty good", I'm not seeing that same "through a window" feel... Probably a bit much to expect of a $1K 1/3" sensor cam, but one can always hope! I know I saw some 4K Action cam (using same sensor) footage at a trade show, and it looked quite good.

[Lou Bruno]

Getting mine this week! I also have the K2 audio module I use on the XA 100 which will fit as well. The sensor is 1/2.3 on the AX33.

[Luis A. Diaz]

HI DAVE:
No I don't have a 4K tv or Monitor yet and the the best I can do is on my Apple
27 inch thunderbolt display, however I was able to hook it up to a Sony 65 inch
4K TV at a Best Buy store with my own footage and I almost drop to my knees with that Wow!! experience. I have done comparisons with the AX-100 and I really see very little difference in the "window like experience".

I guess your eye gets trained to seeing 4K video after a while, One thing I must say I have always been a Canon guy up to this time but Sony really did a really good job on this one, the color fidelity and saturation is outstanding, the BOSS stabilizer for shooting 4K is a must. I am still in the testing arena to get all the potential of the camera

Canon must have taken a sleeping pill, they really disappoint me this time.

Thanks

Luis

[Lou Bruno]

Now I can't wait. I am going to use this camera as a smaller vacation camera. Hopefully, it will arrive this week. I know there are shortcomings but this is for travel purposes. Small.Compact. Familiar menu. Great stabilizer. Time will tell

[Miklos Nemeth]

Originally Posted by Luis A. Diaz

HI DAVE:
I almost drop to my knees with that Wow!! experience. I have done comparisons with the AX-100 and I really see very little difference in the "window like experience".
the BOSS stabilizer for shooting 4K is a must.

Hi Luis, Thank you for the quick first impressions. Exactly this is the kind of camera I am waiting for after I've seen Joe Caneen's review of the Sony NX30 and read his ebook Run 'n Gun Videography
I am very much looking forward to reading more details of your camera. Here are a couple of things I'd love to learn:
- Is there any overheating issues when recording long 4K video. Can you shoot a one hour 4K video without overheating, for example?
- How long 4K video can you record on a 64G card?
- How do you evaluate the quality of the EVF?
- How did you find the efficiency of BOSS in 4K on the telephoto end?

Thank You so much, Miklos

[Luis A. Diaz]

Hi Miklos:
No overheating problems with normal shooting I don't know about shooting for one hour non-stop something that I may never do anyway,
I think you get about a 2 hour video in 4K out of a 64GB card but I maybe guessing,
The EVF is good a tad smaller than the AX-100 but very usable given the smaller form factor.
The BOSS at the tele end is superb I really thing you need this level of stabilizer in order to shoot good 4K.

I am still testing they still have not publish the pdf manual for download so i will post other samples in a little while

Hope this answers your questions.

Thanks,

Luis

[Miklos Nemeth]

Originally Posted by Luis A. Diaz

No overheating problems, The EVF is good... very usable, The BOSS at the tele end is superb

Brilliant! Very helpful, thanks, Luis.
Since you are a gear enthusiast, too, I give some more details why I am so much interested in the AX33 and longish (even 2 hours) non-interrupted video recording.
I'd like to use the AX33 4K as an unattended/unmanned "B" camera to record an entire concert. I'd like to use my Sony A5100 camera for (extreme) close-up shots/footage in my hands. Since, this way, I'll have a massive 4K footage for the entire concert, I could freely/liberally experiment with the A5100 with my favorite high-speed manual-focus telephoto lenses the Nikkor AIS 180mm/f2.8 and Canon FD 80mm/f1.2L on a monopod; these are terrific lenses for low-light/in-doors (concert/stage) videography.
Before or after the concert, I'd like to make short (vox pop style) interviews with the performers, some people from the audience, teachers; all recording handheld with the AX33, this is where BOSS would play a big job, since no way I could setup a tripod. Two assistants (son and friends) would help me holding LED lamps (Aputure HR672S and AL-H198C). I'd use either the XLR-K2m (on top of AX33) or my Rode NTG-2/Tascam DR-60Dm2 (AX33 mounted on the Tascam) mic/recorder for audio. I'd use the AX33 with 4K at the wide end to have room/space to reframe during editing.
I'd love to read the next parts of your on-going testing/experimenting with the AX33.
Thank you and all the best, Miklos

[Luis A. Diaz]

Hi MiKlos:
Glad I cleared some things for you, I just returned from a short trip and I took the AX-33 with me to continue testing so i will post some more.

I am concerned about your plans for the use of 4K as this will require a hefty fully packed computer to do all that editing in 4K. I use a New Mac Pro 2013 with Dual Fire Pro AMD D-700 graphics cards with 6 core very fast 32 gigs of memory and it handles 4 K pretty well but I really doubt other computers can handle 4K editing well unless they have very fast graphic cards.

Editing 4K is not as easy as 1080p, just be aware that's all.

Luis

[Noa Put]

One stream of 4K handles just fine on a 2 year old pc, the problems start when you edit 2 streams of 4K in a multicam sequence. In Edius, you don't even need a dedicated GPU card to edit 4K in realtime.

[Ron Evans]

To add to Noa's comments. I can edit 1 track of 4k from my FDR-AX1 in 30P like the AX100 or AX33 XAVC-S at 60Mbps on my i7 4970K, Win 7, 16G RAM and no GPU cards at all just the on board Intel graphics with EDius 7.4 in a 4k or 1920x1080 project. Will do the same for 60P 150Mbps too. In a 1920x1080 60i multicam project adding a track of AVCHD it will occasionally stutter but good enough for me to edit with. In this case of course EDius has to scale as well as perform multicam. My PC will not manage 1 track 4k 60P 150Mbps and 3 tracks of AVCHD, my normal show setup in a 1920x108060i project. Since the AX1 is a full stage cam I disable the AX1 track until finished multicam editing using one of the AVCHD cams as a full stage guide and then replace with the AX1 track when finished, scaling and panning the AX1 as needed.

Ron Evans

[Sauro Scroglieri]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

One stream of 4K handles just fine on a 2 year old pc, the problems start when you edit 2 streams of 4K in a multicam sequence. In Edius, you don't even need a dedicated GPU card to edit 4K in realtime.

..and, worst case, one may set proxy mode, whose automatically generated files are just 1/50th of the originals.

[Noa Put]

Or just transcode to edius own intermediate HQX avi files and preserve the quality :)