I got Watson batteries from B&H for my CX900.
No problems at all.
Exactly the same behaviour like the originals.
And I used these for more than a year.

Hello, I was in a theater with Sony AX100 camera. I was recording in HD when suddenly the camera monitor began flashing strangely. I removed the battery and replaced it with another one. Then the camera has recorded correctly but in that time my camera recorded a strange clip and it is impossible to open and view it. It is a clip of 2.56 GB. I tried to add that clip in Edius 8, then in HandBrake too because I liked to convert it into another format but these programs even don't open it. However the clip has an extension .MP4. Could I solve that problem and view that clip? What else could I do? I'm worried.
I add the MediaInfo of that clip.
Thanks for your info.

Generale
Nome completo : C:\Users\ExploringWorldFogar\Desktop\C0091.MP4
Formato : XAVC
ID codec : XAVC (XAVC/mp42/iso2)
Dimensione : 1,17 KiB
Modo bitrate generale : Variabile

Video
ID : 1
Formato : AVC
Formato/Informazioni : Advanced Video Codec
Profilo formato : High@L4.2
Impostazioni formato, CABAC : Si
Impostazioni formato, ReFrames : 2 frame
ID codec : avc1
ID codec/Informazioni : Advanced Video Coding
Modalità bitrate : Variabile
Bitrate massimo : 60,0 Mb/s
Larghezza : 1.920 pixel
Altezza : 1.080 pixel
Rapporto aspetto visualizzazione : 16:9
Modalità frame rate : Costante
Frame rate : 50,000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Spazio colore : YUV
Croma subsampling : 4:2:0
Profondità bit : 8 bit
Tipo scansione : Progressivo
Lingua : Inglese
colour_range : Limited
Colori primari : BT.709
Caratteristiche trasferimento : IEC 61966-2-4
Coefficienti matrici : BT.709

Audio
ID : 2
Formato : PCM
Impostazioni formato, Endianness : Big
Impostazioni formato, Sign : Signed
ID codec : twos
Modalità bitrate : Costante
Bitrate : 1.536 kb/s
Canali : 2 canali
Frequenza campionamento : 48,0 kHz
Profondità bit : 16 bit
Lingua : Inglese

If it is still on the original card in the camera let the camera do a database repair. If you have taken it off the card I am not sure if it is recoverable if the camera will not play it.

Yes, I have that corrupted clip in the original card. My Sony AX100 camera has option to repair but maybe I make some error to use it. The option is: "Repair f.dbase im.". I insert the SD with many clips in which there is also that corrupt clip (but it is not seen by the camera), when I click on "Repair f.dbase im.", after some seconds a writing tells me there are no clips to repair. Ugh! I don't know what I can do. Thanks for your reply.

You could try one of the data recovery software that is available for your card. I know that Sandisk and Lexar cards I have came with recovery software that can be downloaded.

I have just tried it but it doesn't work. I have a Sony SD card. The software worked for many minutes, it see that file but did was not abled to restore it.

Adriano

Welcome to the world of dead batteries. Your problem sounds so much like mine and that is why I tried a test to see the problem.
I too tried to recover in camera but no use. Possibly one has to do it before recording any more. I also searched for and tried several software fixes, including a Sony fix for my Sony card,to no avail. Nate had suggested software from a Spanish firm, for use on Mac. Cost was way to high for my purposes and still no guarantee. I still have the 28GB file....just in case there is a fix. Meanwhile I have apologized to customers and ensured I am using Sony batteries for the future. Mind you when they arrive I will run a similar test and at least have a benchmark for the future.

Good luck

It seems incredible there is no solution for that problem of that corrupted file.

Maybe try this one?: Sony Global - Memory Media Portal - File Rescue Software (http://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/datarescue/download3d.html)

Maybe try this one?: Sony Global - Memory Media Portal - File Rescue Software (http://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/datarescue/download3d.html)

I used that Sony foftware but it was not able to solve the problem. Anyway thanks.

Noa

I now use an iMac but dragged out my old windows 7 computer and downloaded the file you mention to use on my sony memory card, but did not work. With a shot. Try almost anything..... Thanks

Have you tried importing the file with sony playmemories home?

Tried Playmemories but the subject clip would not show up

I have just installed Playmemories but the software doesn't see that corrupted file. What a pity!

EDIT: I have just solved my problem with this website: Video Repair Tool (http://mp4repair.org/pwt6/preview.html)
I paid aroud 100 euro for 7 minutes but now I view my file perfectly.

That's good to know, does the file also import, edit and export well in you NLE?

And how does it actually work? I see you can select a clip in the browser to get a free diagnose, what happens after a damaged file has been analysed, are you then able to view it or does it just tell you weather it can or cannot be repaired?

Adriano

Glad to hear you were able to get your file back, even at a cost.

This seems to be the same program that Nate mentioned earlier. However the name appears different. Treasured was the previous name, but the idea and the people seem to be the same. Obviously cost has to be balanced against the need. In my case a one hour file was not economic.

good for you.

PS I now have two Sony branded FV 100 batteries.

And how does it actually work? I see you can select a clip in the browser to get a free diagnose, what happens after a damaged file has been analysed, are you then able to view it or does it just tell you weather it can or cannot be repaired?

Edius 8 did not succeed to charge that damaged file. Now my file is perfect, like all other files.

How I get that file problem: In the meantime I recorded the screening of my camera has began to blink. I turned off my camera and I changed the battery. I finished my work without problems but I get problems with my file even if I did not lose any frame..

There is a program called Convert V4 which is available at hdcinematics.com. You can download a free trial. Try to re-wrap the corrupted file to a MOV. file and see if that will allow the file to be recognized by your NLE. It seems that you have attempted everything else. It's worth a try at least.
Perhaps this will help,
Denny

I thank you but I have solved my problem sending t efile to a private video laboratory.

HandBrake and Sony AX100.

I use Sony AX100.
I don't know HandBrake very well and I'd like to ask a question:
I have just created an unconpressed AVI (YUY2) 4K file and now I'd like to create a new file 4K file with HandBrake. I'm insecure if In Framerate (FPS) Option I have to choose 30 or if it is better more than 30. I'd like to get a very good video.
I attach a pic.
Thanks for some info.
Thanks

Error, moderator please delete.

(From July 2014) "Bottom line, 4K is "new", it's "developing", it's going to have teething pains.... There's a reason that the AX100, the Seiki 4K TV/monitor, and the Intel integrated graphics chipset are ALL 30p "solutions"... #1, I'm cheap, and these were all "affordable", and #2, they will all likely be mostly OBSOLETE in 3-5 years, they will look "dated" as 4K/60p becomes feasible and the norm. BUT, if it opens the door to 4K to mere mortals on budgets... it ain't so bad! And I can't argue with what I can shoot and process RIGHT NOW.

THIS is the state of technology, learn to embrace, use, and enjoy it... or stick with "tried and true" HD "solutions"... or be prepared to spend A LOT more for "professional" solutions. I'll take the "bang for the buck" of my current system over what it replaces any day of the week, even with a few limitations. The "old stuff" had limitations TOO..."

Dave,

As you know from another post you kindly replied to I just bought an FDR-AX100 on amazon for 1200 EUR.

With the advantage of hindsight, what do you think of your words at the time, three years ago? Has the technology evolved so much?

Not that I would care if my recently acquired camera is already obsolete, because it is good enough for my needs, but I would appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

JA

Interesting question Jaime!

Considering that the AX100 is still in the current Sony lineup, that says quite a lot...

I was expecting 60p to become "standard" rather more rapidly than it has... still waiting, 5 years looking like the timeline, as 3 has pretty well gone (unless you count the GH5... tempting, but I'm not ready to completely switch systems!).

I'm still running a "cheap" Seiki TV, had to make sure it had the ability to turn off motion compensation (firmware update), it's supposed to handle 60p, but I've found the laptops that "should" drive it are hampered by the Intel video chipset that somehow just won't go over 30p, even if they have NVIDIA chipsets available...

I'm shooting RX10M2 and M3, which use a similar sensor to the AX100, just a generation or two later, with some minor improvements. Aside from the form factor ("still" vs. "video" camera shape), in my mind they are just a "camera", and capture what I want quite well. The results look stunning, I'm comfortable with the technology and how to get what I want out of it, so even if I have to wish that we had "better", I can't complain!

Adriano...select the "same as source" option for framerate.

Dave, 60p at FHD was and is reserved for basically "home video cameras", as 1080 60p is not a broadcast standard or delivery format. Given that 4K production is mostly for 24p TV shows, and the need for HDMI 2.0 to pass 4k 60p, and you end up waiting for the infrastructure of cheapness to trickle down.

I think 60p is the PERFECT framerate, as it works for 720p60, for 1080p60i, and perfectly fine doubling up on 30p 4K stuff. I have never liked 30p...either looks smeared at 1/30 shutter or jittery at 1/60 shutter...a bastard framerate.

Paul

All my projects are in the theatre with minimum of 1 hour at a time. I have run my AX100 for 4 hours on the Sony FV100 battery . I would not trust aftermarket batteries only use Sony for my Sony cameras. Why risk not getting a shot for poor batteries. Have run the AX100 on mains power all day for shows. 2 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon and evening. Absolutely no issues with heat.

As I have said somewhere else, I have the same opinion about Sony batteries: I bought an NP-QM71D for my HDR-HC1 in 2005 or 2006, and used it regularly (but not intensively) until end of 2013. Since then I had never used it or even charged it.

Last week I charged it again and there was no issue at all with it. I know no Lithium ion battery that can do that, stay 3 years and a half without recycling and still work.

Someone had once mentioned something about the color controls on the AX100. I'm not sure how many are aware of this, but within each white balance selection (AWB, outdoor, indoor etc) you have a button called 'option'. Under this option you have the ability to shift the color balance via an onscreen grid toward the amber, blue, green and magenta.

This will be a familiar option among those that regularly use a DSLR and some more pricey camcorders, but it's an option easily missed on the AX100 if you don't know it's there.

anyone come across a detailed howto on this as I would like to bump up the saturation thanks

Be aware that when using this WB offsetting, you will create an offset to the AWB/ATW system as well. It is a feature/function best reserved for MANUAL kelvin or dialing in after you set an A or B or whatever it's called on the AX100/CX900 series.

Paul

Dear friends, I post here because all you gave me very good suggestions in past time.
I'm a lonely traveller and I'm using a Sony AX100 for my ethnic documentaries around the world. I shot in 4K ans I make UHD videoediting. The next month I'd like to replace my Sony AX100 with Panasonic GH5.

Does anybody use GH5 and Sony AX100? Is there a very improvement in the video quality really?

I'm afraid to make an error to buy GH5 for my documentaries. I'm not expert in cameras and I'm afraid to make an error because a camera isn't so immediate and fast like a videocamera to shot. Can you give me some info please? May be it possible to make a good documentary with a GH5 in the bush or in the forest? I mean about its handling, etc.

Has GH5 a better steadyshot than Sony AX100?

Is it very hard to use the zoom with GH5?

I know GH5 comes with a 12-60 mm object. Can you tell me how much is a 12-60 mm focal compared to a videocamera focal (precisely)?
Thanks

Hi, Ax100 newbie here. My time readout says that I have 4 hours and 30 minutes of recording time left @ 4K. Someone said that the remaining time display was “optimistic” but I did not ask him to quantify that. How do I relate the remaning time display with how much recording time is actually left? I’m using a 128G card.
Thanks

The ax100 doesn't guess what remaining recording time is, it is what is says and it's correct, the only thing that can deviate is remaining battery life.

Thanks!! Simple math should have told me that.

Why does the ND filter symbol blink when the switch is in any position other than off when in manual? it actually says “ND off”. This confuses me, because I think the filter is on.

It is telling you to switch the filter to OFF as it does not need it to control exposure. If you have the filter in any position other than OFF then it is selected for some value ? If you need the filter it will indicate which value to choose to get within exposure range. You can of course ignore it and make your own decisions.

Like Ron Says the camera is basically telling you you have a nd filter applied but there is need to do that, just like the camera will also tell you when to use a nd filter.

I’m recording a dance recital and the stage lights are LED. I’m watching two cameras, one fixed on the tripod wide and the other does pan and zoom on the kids faces. The pan and zoom is in motion almost the whole time and I look over at the wide shot and adjust in and out. Consequently both cameras are on auto. When I tested out the AX100 the other day the ND filter on 2 seemed to tame the harsh nature of the LED lamps. Even if the scene was moderately lit the occasional spangles on the costumes and white sections of the costumes burned out without the ND filter. My deep skill set is as a sound guy and dance music editor. I just got the AX100 and aside from turning steadyshot on and off and selecting the recording mode I haven’t spent quality time with it yet. I haven’t noticed where I’m told that I need the ND when it’s off.
The ND makes a major, positive, difference in the image. If the camera is telling me it’s not necessary by blinking, what does it really want? I’m not looking for an in depth videography course but if there is a “look here for that, and adjust accordingly” kind of answer that would be great!

I really appreciate the help!!!!!!!!

Try the following. ND OFF, Set shutter to 1/60, Set WB to indoor, set AE shift to the dial and set to about -0.5, use manual focus and use the touch focus to set focus once you have set the zoom range you want . That way it will not try and refocus every time the lights go up and down and will maintain the brightness you have set with the AE shift. I find -0.5 to -0.7 is about right for theatre show. If it is on a tripod turn steady shot off. ON the AX100 steadyshot will give you a little more zoom range though but has issues with after movement on pans.

When you let the camera handle exposure it will always try to keep the f-stop at it's optimal value which should be around f4, if the camera needs to close the iris further down towards f11 to compensate for strong incoming light it will start to suggest a ND so it can open the iris up again, in this way it will try to prevent to diffraction which can result in a softer image if the iris is almost completely closed.

Indoors you normally don't need to use a ND because those lights don't have the same intensity as the sun but incase you have to shoot with very strong stagelights then just watch your f-stop, if you see it goes to f9 or f11 then it's time to use a ND but I never had the need to use a ND indoors.

About whitebalance, like Ron said a indoor preset usually works best for stageperformances but don't expect that to be true for every performance, todays use of LED lights can give you very weird colorshifts where I have found situations that a outdoor preset gave better results, in any case ALWAYS go to the rehearsals and try different whitebalance presets and see what works best, forget about taking a whitebalance on stage because you most likely will get a error as the camera won't be able to take a reading.

About the AE shift Ron is suggesting, Sony camera handicams usually overexpose a bit when using autoexposure, with AE shift set to -0,5 or -1 you are forcing the camera to constantly underexpose what it thinks the best exposure should be. By assigning it to the front wheel you can controll the camera's auto exposure behaviour.
This is not the same as manually exposing though but it is a good way to controll 2 camera's simultaniously by yourself, the camera will always be quicker to respond to drastically changing lightconditions and with the ev assigned to the front wheel you can correct the camera's judgment if needed.

Wow... Those were fast and detailed responses! One thing I noticed is that the autofocus “hunting” is much more pronounced than my HC-9. Significantly so. When I used the ND on 2 it seemed to be the best image when I was experimenting. I will experiment with the AE shift and other techniques you’ve mentioned. When I set the ND at 3 the focus went berserk and almost never settled, just hunting and hunting. That was OK since 3 was too dark so wouldn’t have used it anyway. I’m about to “dump” a bunch of video into FCPX - is there metadata in the AX100 files that let me compare the image I’m seeing with the settings?
Thanks!

Of course the AF is going to hunt if you have too much ND applied. The camera has to actually be able to see an image to focus on it. And the focus is based on contrast detection, so a really underexposed image isn't going to have enough contrast for the AF system to work properly -- thus the hunting. If you ask me, it seems like a total waste of time not to work on getting a correct exposure first with the camera -- and then moving onto other features of the camera, such as AF, white balance, paint menus, etc.

[QUOTE=Peter Durso;1944196]When I used the ND on 2 it seemed to be the best image when I was experimenting. /QUOTE]

BTW, the best ND filter to use at a given time (if any at all) is totally dependent on how much light there is. Each one of the ND filter positions will produce the "best image" under different circumstances. Once you learn how to expose correctly it will be obvious which ND filter is the best one at any given time, and then you won't have to rely on the camera nagging you to change the setting.

Never use a ND3 for indoor stageperformance, in fact, set it to off when you shoot indoors, if your camera, Ron and I say to set the ND to OFF there is a reason for that :)

If you want to know what your camera was doing at a particular moment just play the file in camera and watch the lcd screen, you get all the info like whitebalance, f-stop, shutter and gain, if you have been using nd3 there is a high chance the gain was close to 30db all the time which results in a lot of noise.

Also using a ND does not improve autofocus, unless it is used to keep the f-stop around f4, if you play the file incamera where it went berserk, can you tell us what cameradata you see on screen at that moment? Or maybe take a picture of that screen with a smartphone and post it here, it will help to determine what is going on.

Yeah, I get that the ND and other settings would vary based on the individual conditions. Cool.
I will check out the info in the viewfinder when I get back to the studio later.

The other thing I forgot to mention is I set the gain limit to at most 18db. If I know the show I may even set it to 15db. That way you are giving the camera a limited range to operate. When the lights go to black the camera will not try and see in the dark with 30db + of gain and then have to close way down quickly when the lights go up again which will result in it overshooting a lot before it finally decides on exposure.

The other thing is I never use auto focus for a show. Especially for the camera being unattended. I assume you are using it as a full stage camera. Just set up and use spot focus at some point on the stage and then leave it there. I have peaking on so I can see what is in focus. At wide angle all of the stage should be in focus all the time.