I think the ClearVid CMOS page is actually not that relevant, as it's about a single chip, whereas these are three chip cameras.


I did read the article.

I do believe you are exactly right, Michael. A prism is being used to do a three-way color split of the incoming light to the three imaging chips in the NX5 and AX2000, so talking about how the Red, Green, and Blue pixels are interleaved on a single chip is irrelevant.

My concern, if I were in Sony's shoes, is that Canon will come out with a camera with a 1920 x 1080 sensor block, and a codec engine derived from the Canon 7D/5DM2/1DM4, able to go all the way up to 40+ Mbps. There are indications Canon is going to make a major announcement around NAB.

I think the chances of Canon going 1920 x 1080 are high, given the XH-A1/G1 had a sensor block of 1440 x 1080, natively supporting the full resolution of HDV.

The thoughts about the codec are pure speculation on my part.
But it certainly would be a pro bitrate in a pro video camera.
And they have already demonstrated the technology in real products.

B&H has already cut the pre-order price of the NX5U to $3990. That was an awfully quick $500 price drop! For goodness sake, the cam hasn't even not been out yet for a couple weeks! They also cut the price of the 128GB recoding memory thingy by $50 (to $750) and now there's a $500 mail-in rebate on it, making it a whole whopping $250 when all is said and done. That's cheaper than using SDHC cards even. Apparently Sony wants to enter the professional AVCHD camcorder marketplace a wee bit aggressively.

With the NX5U priced at slightly under $4k already (and what amounts to an all-day recording memory module available for it cheap-a-cheap), the stripped down AX2000 starts looking pretty lame at $3500. I've got to think the AX2000 and HMC150 might just wind up well below $3k by the end of the year, especially if Canon comes out with a real strong offering too (and they usually do, on those rare occasions when they introduce an entirely new prosumer camcorder).

It's only January 16th, and this is already starting to look like a banner year for prosumer HD video cams!

My concern, if I were in Sony's shoes, is that Canon will come out with a camera with a 1920 x 1080 sensor block, and a codec engine derived from the Canon 7D/5DM2/1DM4, able to go all the way up to 40+ Mbps. There are indications Canon is going to make a major announcement around NAB.

I think the chances of Canon going 1920 x 1080 are high, given the XH-A1/G1 had a sensor block of 1440 x 1080, natively supporting the full resolution of HDV.

All good speculation, and I'm interested to see what Canon does too. Though if their camera is a replacement for the XH-G1s and is priced similarly, then it will be around $7,000, which places it in the category of the EX1.

Similarly, at $4,000, the jump from the NX5U to the EX1 is much further (and interestingly, that's basically the same drop from list to actual selling price as the HVR-Z5U, and I think suggests that the AX2000 will be about $3,000 too.)

As interesting as all this is, I'm trying to figure out if these cameras are evolutionary or revolutionary.

You are correct in that reference is for the single chip version however the layout is the same, there is no offset for the three chip version. There are less sensors in the 3 chip version. It takes a little bit to understand how the extra pixels are interpolated but once you see how its done its obvious. Looking at the array its like a set of diamonds. Imagine a smaller square in the middle of the diamond which then leaves 4 corners, top, bottom and sides. Now add the corners from the adjacent diamonds and you will get another square of the same size as the one in the center of the diamond. This is the pixel that is interpolated from the four surrounding diamonds. When you add the squares in the center of the diamonds and the squares created by adding the corners left from the diamonds after taking the center square, you will get 1920x1080 pixels. The advantage is the diamonds are large for light gathering and the DSP creates the pixels from the data. The square will be simplistically half the level from the diamond the DSP then has levels from 4 adjacent diamonds to create the level for the interpolated pixel. I am sure its a lot more complicated but that is the core of what is happening. This is true for all primary colours which would not be the case for pixel shifting.

Ron Evans

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.

Your tape brethren have to first capture that footage at real time which in my experience take way longer than transcoding... then editing in a much friendlier format will save time compared to HDV editing...

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.

Not to put too fine a point on it but correct me if I'm wrong:
Is there an NLE solution that allows for ingestion of HDV material over Firewire, straight cut editing that requires neither rendering or a degradation of image and subsequent output of a full quality signal again over Firewire to a record deck?

That's what I was able to do almost exactly 11 years ago with an Apple G3 Blue and White at 450 MHz with DV. My HDV experience is certainly more complicated than that today.

HDV editing has come a long way but DV became a standard for a decade due to the straight forward nature of acquisition, edit and output, NOT it's "outstanding" quality - DV is certainly inferior in quality to the BetaSP format that DVCam has pretty much replaced.

... They also cut the price of the 128GB recoding memory thingy by $50 (to $750) and now there's a $500 mail-in rebate on it, making it a whole whopping $250 when all is said and done....


I would have expected the price on this to come down.
Given you can already buy 32GB SDHC cards at very reasonable pricing, and the camera will accept two of them, that gets you almost six hours of record time. So how many people were going to buy the unit at $800? or even $750? They were never going to get what they charged for the MRC1K, which broke the far more severe time constraints of a tape for HDV shooters.

As interesting as all this is, I'm trying to figure out if these cameras are evolutionary or revolutionary.


Evolutionary.

They took a HVR-Z5 and ...
1) They updated the codec from HDV to AVCHD.
2) They updated the recording medium from tape to flash MS Pro Duo / SDHC.
3) 16 bit PCM audio isn't just for DV anymore.
4) They updated output options with HDMI + HD-SDI.
5) They removed FireWire but added USB.

That's it. The lens and sensor block, for instance, appear to be the same.
It's still a pretty good list.

I do think it announces the day of the XH-G1, were Canon initially charged ~$3000 USD premium for the Jackpack, is over. For that kind of extra money people will go to the EX1. In a pro video cam, this is becoming the kind of stuff people simply expect to be there.

In fact, checking prices (B&H), I see the XH-G1s is $7000 and the XH-A1s is $3400, the Sony PMW-EX1R is $6300.
Good luck with that, Canon...

Pretty amazing that Sony ha already dropped the price by $500 on the MX 5.
I originally saw the price of the AX2000 at Sony listed as $3,199, so I wouldn't be surprised if the AX2000 came down to that price.
EDIT: Just a not that Sony has seem to have taken down it's pricing on the AX2000 on their site. So a new price might very well be in the works before it's released.?

I was originally leaning towards the AX2000 at the current pricing. But if the NX 5 stays at it's B&H price point, I will pick this up with no hesitation. As a $500 price difference between the two is a no brainier for me and I send a little more for more camera.

If Sony doesn't drop the price of the AX2000 now to around $3,199, then I feel that many like me will bypass the AX2000 and go the NX 5 route. As a result Sony might very well be killing potential sales of the AX2000 before it's even released.

In any way I think that with the upcoming camera crop from Canon, that Sony might very well be getting into a price war with Canon and Panny. But then again Sony might not even care, as they always seem to release a large crop of cameras that seem to compete against each other. Sort of a throw everything against the wall and see what sticks sales approach. I guess this approach works for them somehow, but seems like a waste of company funds and time. Canon seems to take the opposite approach and bides it time before releasing only a small amount of cameras.

Is there an NLE solution that allows for ingestion of HDV material over Firewire, straight cut editing that requires neither rendering or a degradation of image and subsequent output of a full quality signal again over Firewire to a record deck?



Womble as a low cost and Vegas will both do editing without re-compress. There may be others but they are the one's I have on my PC. Clearly if the cut is in the middle of a GOP a new GOP will have to be rendered. Vegas will even do a fast re-compress from CBR HDV to VBR for Bluray. I mainly use Edius as an editor and edit native HDV, multitrack, as fast as I did DV. Same is true for Vegas. I will accept that for DV I would output back to tape and to do this for HDV is slower since the NLE's all create a file first and then export to tape whereas I could go straight from the timeline to tape before with DV. But since I don't go back to tape anymore but to some disc format( or backup to LTO3 data tape) this is of no concern to me. Ingest time, editing speed and encode to format for disc is more important. Tapeless is much faster ingest to the point that transcode to an intermediate ( Cineform or Canopus HQ in my case or I imagine ProRes for MAC) is still faster than tape ingest by a considerable margin for a 2hour program. On my Q9450 Quad Core I can ingest over 2 hours of AVCHD and transcode to Canopus HQ in about 1 hour and 20 mins. I then have easy editing just like DV in a format that is better for effects etc. For single track editing I just edit native AVCHD in Vegas. Edius Neo with Booster will edit AVCHD native at full resolution and I can't wait for this booster technology to be available in Edius Pro.

Ron Evans

I originally saw the price of the AX2000 at Sony listed as $3,199, so I wouldn't be surprised if the AX2000 came down to that price.
EDIT: Just a not that Sony has seem to have taken down it's pricing on the AX2000 on their site. So a new price might very well be in the works before it's released.?


I think you might have confused your Sony pages! I'm pretty sure the page @ Sony Style never had a price (or if it did, it was $3,499.)

I think where you saw the $3,199 price - and it's still there - was the Sony business to business site. Though I don't know who can get that price...

Sony | For Business | HDR-AX2000 (http://b2b.sony.com/Solutions/product/HDR-AX2000)

Hmm...well I'm still trying to get my head around it.

I think the ClearVid CMOS page is actually not that relevant, as it's about a single chip, whereas these are three chip cameras.
That's true - but the diagram of the 45 degree rotation is still valid - just ignore the references to red, green and blue. That's applicable to the single chip version, but not here. Here there are three identical sensors, the colour splitting done via a beam splitter, and each sensor has about 1 million photosites.
So they must be offset from each other (but still overlapping.) Are all three offset from each other, or is it two and one (perhaps Red and Blue aligned while Green is offset?) This would give you accurate brightness for a 1920 x 1080 grid, but color would not be as accurate as a true 1920 chip.
No offset, no overlap of any colour w.r.t. any other - any given photosite on the red chip has an exact equivalent on both the green and blue chips. That's very important since it means that colour resolution is equal to luminance resolution (unlike the situation with a single chip or pixel shifting). You may not think it matters as the chroma resolution gets reduced for recording anyway, but a problem with Bayer or pixel shifting is that either luminance resolution or colour aliasing has to be compromised.

Another way to look at it (with reference to the 45 degree diagram in the above link) is to try counting across a row. You either count pixels touching corner to corner (and get 960) or count right-down, right-up, right down, etc to get 1920. Do it the latter way and it's obvious there's a horizontal overlap, which is why the resolution must be less than 1920 - even though it lends itself to 1920x1080 processing. Same happens for all three chips, (to get r, g, b images) then final output is derived in the normal way.

As far as the Canons go, then if they are full 1920x1080 1/3" then yes, the resolution will be better than such as these cameras - but each photosite will be half the size, with a corresponding effect on sensitivity. That's why I previously said that IMO 1 megapixel is a good compromise for 1/3" chips. 1920x1080 is a good thing in principle, but it really needs to be matched with bigger chips - as with the EX.

They also cut the price of the 128GB recoding memory thingy by $50 (to $750) and now there's a $500 mail-in rebate on it, making it a whole whopping $250 when all is said and done. That's cheaper than using SDHC cards even.


This is probably a good explanation of why the price dropped.

TOSHIBA TO LAUNCH WORLD'S FIRST 64GB SDXC CARD (http://www.toshiba.com/taec/news/press_releases/2009/memy_09_572.jsp)

Granted, SDXC will be expensive initially, but the price will drop over time.
Two 64GB SDXC cards and you don't need the HXR-FMU128 Flash Memory Unit.
Which ends up meaning the HDR-AX2000 folks don't really miss the HXR-FMU128.

Even if the price was the same, I'd much prefer using that memory module to little postage stamp size cards. SDHC cards are just plain too small for my liking.

I sure hope it was a typo, and Toshiba means "minimum" where they talk about "maximum" write speeds.

Bill very true about the upcoming release of 64GB cards, which was inevitable.
But one thing to remember about the 128GB recording unit, is that it enables you to have redundancy with your recording. As well as the ability to record in 2 different formats if you desire AVCHD and SD) Something that you can't get with the AX2000.

This was what was nice about the Z5U, in that you had the peace of mind knowing that you have redundant backup of tape (which is most likely the backup source) of CF card in case of recording failure.

It's funny how tape now seems like a safer bet. =)

Even if the price was the same, I'd much prefer using that memory module to little postage stamp size cards. SDHC cards are just plain too small for my liking.


I bet you'll still take the price cut ;-)


I sure hope it was a typo, and Toshiba means "minimum" where they talk about "maximum" write speeds.


I don't think so. Reading the fine print yields this:

"Supports UHS104, a new ultra high speed interface in the new SD Memory Card Standard Ver. 3.00, which provides 104MB per second bus speed on the SD interface, and realizes maximum write speed of 35MB per sec., with a read speed of 60MB per sec. "

My reading of that is that the limits are baked into the bus interface specification.

I got some answers to questions I had about the HXR-NX5U from Sony.

The HDMI is 4:2:2, and the 24p is native (not interleaved). The 60i/50i upgrade was done to prevent gray market sales, and will cost about $300. I was also interested to learn that the reason the Active Steadyshot mode crops part of the image is because of vignetting - the lens moves much further than in regular Steadyshot - not because it's doing any kind of electronic stabilization.....

I wrote up the details here: Notes On Video: HXR-NX5 Q & A (http://notesonvideo.blogspot.com/2010/01/hxr-nx5-q.html)

$500.00 mail in rebate on the HXR-FMU128 Flash Memory Unit Brings the price to approx. $249.00

I like the comments that the imager actually records 1920x1080@60P. I can see an upgrade coming in the future for a full 1920x1080P60 output. I am hoping that Sony have the same FMU promotion in Canada

Ron Evans

For anyone interested, you can get the NX5U manual (PDF) here:

http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/nxcam/manuals/FINAL_HXR-NX5U_Ops_Manual.pdf

I like the comments that the imager actually records 1920x1080@60P. I can see an upgrade coming in the future for a full 1920x1080P60 output. I am hoping that Sony have the same FMU promotion in Canada

Ron Evans

I notice on the B & H page about the Sony HDR-CX550V under "Specifications":

"Video Format High Definition

MPEG AVC/H.264
1,920 x 1,080 (60 fps)"


And under "Features":



"1920 x 1080 High Definition Video Recording
1920 x 1080i high definition resolution lets you record your memories in exceptional high definition quality. Capable of 1080/60p playback via HDMI and compatible HDTV providing stunning clarity and incredibly detailed playback of your memories"

Further down under "Features":

"1080/60p Playback Via HDMI and Compatible HDTV

1080/60p playback via HDMI and compatible HDTV providing stunning clarity and incredibly detailed playback of your memories"

Could the NX5U and the CX550V have the same video format?

I guess the information on the B & H site comes from Sony. Perhaps the author got mixed up between 1080i and 1080p.

Andrew Gyles

I think that the latest Sony cameras start off as 60P from the sensors but then are formatted after by the DSP and recorded as 60i. So I think B&H are technically correct but it is recorded as 60i. However the playback at 60P over HDMI is likely correct, conversion taking place in the camera from 60i to 60p. I would just like the recorded file to be 60p !!!! By implementing 60i to 60p in camera Sony are potentially avoiding poor deinterlacing in the TV.

Now more information is starting to appear it will be more difficult for me to decide whether the AX2000 or NX5 is for me. I would like the ring assigned exposure control on the AX2000 ( not on the NX5) if it can also set gain and iris limits with shutter set to manual. This may be a better solution for me rather than the smooth gain change on the NX5. Will have to see a comparison in detail. At first the NX5 looked the most attractive but now I am not so sure !!

Ron Evans

Well the pricing rollercoaster is still in full force.

Did anyone notice yesterday that the price of the NX5 went back up. Went from $3,995.00 to $4,295.00.

Sony | HXR-NX5U NXCAM Professional Camcorder | HXR-NX5U | B&H (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/672423-REG/Sony_HXR_NX5U_HXR_NX5U_NXCAM_Professional_Camcorder.html)

Hmm... now it's

Price : $ 3,995.00

Your right.
Seems that they changed it back to what the pricing was originally lowered to.

Man Sony drives me nuts sometimes.

Hey, Mike. Haven't been on this forum in forever. The pricing is fluctuating constantly, with many resellers still near the 4500-5000 mark. Some units are already in the US and set for delivery the first week of February and I should have one during that time with a few more -hopefully- soon to follow.

The pricing is supposed to be at or just above $4K for the NX5U and low-mid $3K for the AX-2000. The NX5U 128G Reader can be purchased for varying amounts between $650-800 in most instances.

The current Sony rebate is $500 towards the reader and for purchases by March 31st.

For Sony financing, which is done through LeaseDirect, it's 12 months at 0% but just keep in mind that they will do the following three things in the agreement:
1> There's a $99 processing fee
2> You must have the financed equipment insured or they will charge you a per-month insurance on the equipment
3> They will collect sales tax on each payment due so be sure that if you're paying tax on the purchase through your reseller, you're not double-taxed. And come tax time, you don't get hit a third time, either.

Interesting, as Sony never officially posted a release date for the camera.
As the only release date for their AVCHD lineup that I saw was on Amazon for the AX2000 and a release date of Feb. 8th.

I'd love to get my hands on one of yours and hear some feedback from you first hand.

Nothing cools off my interest in a cam as quickly or more effectively than raising the price. JVC did that a few years back with the HD100U. I had been looking at it very seriously, but when they raised the price, I never considered it again (or even paid much attention to it after that either). Same thing with the HMC150 awhile back. The NX5U definitely has my attention at this point and I could see perhaps getting one before the year is out. If the price of the NX5U goes up however, more likely than not, I'll probably never own one.

Interesting, as Sony never officially posted a release date for the camera.
As the only release date for their AVCHD lineup that I saw was on Amazon for the AX2000 and a release date of Feb. 8th.

When they announced the cameras officially at CES, the NX5U was supposedly shipping "this month", while the release date for the AX2000 was "sometime in March". Sony said the NX5U was shipping last week when I spoke to them....but I don't know in what quantities.

Since then, Amazon has the ship date of February 8th for the AX2000, but Sony's website still just says "Notify Me" about availability.


Re: NX5U pricing: So far, it's not the list price that's changed. That's still $4,950. It's the selling price that's been fluctuating a bit.

Nothing cools off my interest in a cam as quickly or more effectively than raising the price. JVC did that a few years back with the HD100U. I had been looking at it very seriously, but when they raised the price, I never considered it again (or even paid much attention to it after that either). Same thing with the HMC150 awhile back. The NX5U definitely has my attention at this point and I could see perhaps getting one before the year is out. If the price of the NX5U goes up however, more likely than not, I'll probably never own one.
Well something to consider is that originally the NX5 was announced at $4,490, then in only a few days the price was reduced by $500. Then it went back up again a few hundred dollars and in under a day back down again to $3,990.
So it seems that Sony never really came up with a price point for the camera and is trying to gauge and adjust on the fly.

It's really simple, the more affordable any product is, the more they will sell. This economy or any economy doesn't make a difference. People always respond better to bargains and affordable products, over expensive ones.

What I am curious about is if/when the price point will drop on the AX2000, as with only a $500 price difference between it and the NX5 will drive many people to the NX5. Realistically, if there's a $1,000 difference, then many will opt for the AX2000 or like myself one or a few, NX5's and one AX2000's.

I don't think the Sony list price changed at all. You can't blame Sony for dealer price changes.

Ron Evans

Sony hasn't changed the pricing as MSRP is still intact. Unlike the EX1 where resellers had to stick to a minimum selling price, it's the dealers who are constantly changing their prices right now, all, I'm sure, based on the unknown as well as pre-order demand. It's like with anything in our industry....buy a tiny little three-cent bracket from a certain company for $500 or buy a complete lighting truss for $200, whereby the metal can be melted to make 100 of those three-cent brackets. If demand warrants the price, then there ya' go.

Does anybody bought the camera (NX5) yet?
There are some confusing details on the internet about this camera. I was hoping that it will have all the options from the Z5, as anybody says is they are practically the same. But the reviews of the prototypes showed that some functions are missing. When I read the manual from NXCAM microsite I was surprised that those functions didn't actually appear (shot transition, histogram, Extended Clear Scan, copy Color Profiles from/to memory cards, interval recording, Color Correct function on Picture Profile settings). I found also the manual in multiple languages and for PAL region, it says the same thing.

BUT...

I looked at the AX2000 web page. And there I saw some of the functions missing from NX5 (histogram, shot transition, interval recording). On bhphotovideo AX2000's page, Features tab, it clearly states the Histogram function. So, does anybody know more details that clarify the mystery? Clearly there is a mistake somewhere. I don't see how only the AX2000 would have the Histogram, or the interval recording.
Sony says that NX5 don't replace the Z5, maybe they really ripped off those functions to make a difference between the two. I don't know, I just hope that the final NX5 product will include ALL the functions/options from Z5, it doesn't seem fair to be otherwise.
I watched the 'Open Box' clip for the NX5 on Vimeo Sony HXR-NX5N Open Box/ on Vimeo This guy is from Taiwan and he said it's the final product, but didn't answer to my questions about the functions on NX5.

If you know some additional information, please share with us.

Cristi

the NX5 does have the histogram function and everything Cristian mentioned. I meddled with the prototype about 3 weeks ago. I'm getting the production model this Friday for another test run.

He's saying the AX2000 is uncertain to have the histogram. Not the NX5.

See? "I looked at the AX2000 web page. And there I saw some of the functions missing from NX5"

He's saying the AX2000 is uncertain to have the histogram. Not the NX5.

See? "I looked at the AX2000 web page. And there I saw some of the functions missing from NX5"

Please excuse my English, it's not native for me. Sean understood what I was trying to say.
I will try to explain it differently:
NX5 should have all the functions/options from Z5.
Here is the NX5 operating manual:
http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/files/micro/nxcam/manuals/FINAL_HXR-NX5U_Ops_Manual.pdf
If you compare to the Z5's operating manual, you will notice some differences.
The NX5 manual doesn't say anything about the following functions: shot transition, histogram, Extended Clear Scan, copy Color Profiles from/to memory cards, interval recording, Color Correct function on Picture Profile settings. And there are more.
AX2000 shouldn't have these functions either because it's the stripped version of the NX5. But on AX2000 official web page I found this information: "ASSIGNABLE BUTTONS - This feature allows you to assign features ... Marker / Peaking / Pict. Profile / Shot Transition." Also, on bhphotovideo - AX2000 page, you will see this: "Histogram Display - When the histogram feature is turned on, a graph of the image's brightness..." And finally, in the official press release, AX2000 product specification there is specified somewhere: "Interval Rec. - YES"
So if AX2000 has this functions, then NX5 should have them too. But obviously somewhere is a mistake. There are two options:
1. the manual is wrong because it's not the final version or
2. the press release and the web pages mentioned are wrong and they should be corrected.

According to Sean, the histogram and other functions I mentioned are present on NX5. I just wish that he is right. AX2000 doesn't concern me.

I had a few hours of hands on with the NX camera at an event in Austin earlier this week. My overall impressions were very positive and that 128gb flash drive is very nice. Only two things that I noticed which were of concern.

1. The scroll wheel on the side of the camera doesn't give enough traction for your finger. I found that I needed to use the edge of my fingernail to reliably scroll through the menus. If I used enough finger pressure to 'grab' the wheel, I would end up with inadvertent pushes of the scroll wheel, causing me to 'select' things that I didn't want to select.

2. Could have been just THIS camera, but the optical stabilization when turned on resulted in a lot of noise emanating from the camera body. Sounded like my coffee pot when it's heating water. (Note: If the NX camera does serve hot coffee, then I'll forgive the noise.)

The LCD screen is very sharp, but you get the option of having peaking turned on in 3 levels of sensitivity and a choice of colors, making focus very easy.

The camera's power button is on the zoom handle where your right hand thumb rests and has a record button in the middle of it. I found that it was too easy to inadvertently press record with that button. Having a bit more recess would help eliminate that issue.

All in all, a nice little camera package.

-gb-

Was that with the new Active Stabilization, or even with the regular stabilization?

From the manual, the power button arrangement appears to be the same as every other Sony cam. Did you find it somehow different?

the NX5 does have the histogram function and everything Cristian mentioned. I meddled with the prototype about 3 weeks ago. I'm getting the production model this Friday for another test run.

Sean, are you sure that NX5 does have the options I talked about?
I wrote an e-mail to Sony concerning my questions and somebody replied and kindly gave me some answers:
-Histogram and shot transition are not supported in either the NX5 or the AX2000
-Interval recording is not actually supported in the AX2000
-The NX5 features the ability to change the gamma curves in a similar way to the HVR-Z5E. It does not go to the same level of picture profile settings as the XDCAM EX cameras

He gave me a link with the manual, and is the same i found on the internet. No extra options.
I admit I am a bit disappointed. Still, I will buy it, I don't see an alternative.
So, when you got the production model, please give us your impressions about the camcorder, and maybe some (raw) footage, if you have the time.

@ Michael - That's was with either of the two modes. A bit noisier with Active Stabilization as the servo was working harder.

@ Adam - I only pointed out the power switch because it was the record button within it that I was truly speaking of. Sorry for any confusion on that.

BTW, one other little titbit just came to mind. The battery looks like the other Sony L series batteries, but is different. The contacts are different and require a different charger.

-gb-

Hmmm... AX2000 is shown as "In Stock" at B&H?

BTW, one other little titbit just came to mind. The battery looks like the other Sony L series batteries, but is different. The contacts are different and require a different charger.


-gb-

The manual and all the other data I have seen says that the batteries are the same. The charger is new though. The NP-F570 which is the stock for the AX2000, NP-F770 stock for the NX5 and the NP-F970. All have been around since the FX1 that I have which came stock with the NP-F570 ( just like the AX2000, typical cost cutting from Pro to Prosumer model) and I bought a NP-F970. I have the AC-VQ850 charger which will charge L and M series batteries. The investment in batteries and charger, LANC controllers is one reason that I have stayed with Sony as buying a whole other set of chargers and batteries really adds to the cost of a new camera. I just hope they really are the same as the NX5 is likely my next camera to replace the FX1 which is starting to not look so good next to the video from the XR500.

Ron Evans

Sony has used the NP-F series for a LONG time, without changes in their pro/prosumer cams, I'd be surprised to see that change.

OTOH, on the "consumer" side, they change model #'s and fiddle with compatibility - the NP-FP series that fit the HC3 wasn't compatible with cameras that use the NP-FH series, and the newest top of the line XR/CX550V seem to be using a NP-FV battery that's "new" - looks physically compatible with the NP-FH (the NP-FP was "close", but they changed the tabs slightly so they wouldn't quite fit the FH cavity - you could alter the tabs on the battery, it would start the cam but give an error message - something like "go buy all new batteries you cheapskate"...). I'm suspecting they are going to do something to electronically (and perhaps play with the tabs again) lock out the FH series from working in the newest cams.

I was comparing the battery and charger for the NX camera to those used in the EX cameras. They look similar, but are different.

-gb-

I only pointed out the power switch because it was the record button within it that I was truly speaking of.
No, I got that part. What I'm curious about is that this seems to be the exact same REC button/POWER arrangement as every Sony I've had for the past 20 years or so. I guess I'm curious as to whether you find the generic arrangement too easy to inadvertently push the REC button, or if this particular execution is somehow different from all the other Sonys in this class? I see that it is a completely different arrangement from the EXes, but appears to be identical to everything with a Z (V, FX, AX, VX, PD) in the name.

A minor point but puzzling.

Sean, are you sure that NX5 does have the options I talked about?
I wrote an e-mail to Sony concerning my questions and somebody replied and kindly gave me some answers:
-Histogram and shot transition are not supported in either the NX5 or the AX2000
-Interval recording is not actually supported in the AX2000
-The NX5 features the ability to change the gamma curves in a similar way to the HVR-Z5E. It does not go to the same level of picture profile settings as the XDCAM EX cameras

He gave me a link with the manual, and is the same i found on the internet. No extra options.
I admit I am a bit disappointed. Still, I will buy it, I don't see an alternative.
So, when you got the production model, please give us your impressions about the camcorder, and maybe some (raw) footage, if you have the time.

My apologies Cristian, you were right! There is no histogram function. Only peaking and one zebra. I'm disappointed too but looking at the price position, that is something they did not include to differenciate the gap.

I didnt find any interval recording except for a smooth slow rec function which is like slow motion/overcranking.

The video is being uploaded now and I will release it here once its up. I did not manage to pit it against the z5 as I had no access. It is not fair to compare it to an EX1 so there was no comparison this time.

No, I got that part. What I'm curious about is that this seems to be the exact same REC button/POWER arrangement as every Sony I've had for the past 20 years or so. I guess I'm curious as to whether you find the generic arrangement too easy to inadvertently push the REC button, or if this particular execution is somehow different from all the other Sonys in this class? I see that it is a completely different arrangement from the EXes, but appears to be identical to everything with a Z (V, FX, AX, VX, PD) in the name.

I'll readily admit that I don't have a lot of knowledge regarding the other Sony camera lines you pointed out. I'm only saying what happened as I was handling the camera and noticed that I had started recording. Whether there is more or less thumb pressure required on this cam than the ones you mentioned is something I'm not qualified to answer. It might be a non issue to someone who has used any of the other camera models that you mentioned.

All that aside, I would still like the record button to require more pressure to operate, and/or be more recessed in the power switch ring.

-gb-

Got it. Thanks for the clarification.