Here's a Pro's and Con's review I made of the PXW-X70:
http://youtu.be/x49xcnATxPI
Any comments and opinions welcome.

Watched it right through. Excellent overview and highly useful regarding the cameras features, operation etc. Thanks for posting Rob.

How are you finding the image quality? Some have mentioned "lack of detail" with this camera.

I haven't noticed the "lack of detail" perhaps someone could provide an example.

Rob
Thanks for the great video review.
I really enjoyed it and appreciated the detail.
I have one comment on the Audio CH1/CH2 issue you mentioned in the cons section:
The switch in question is labeled "Input 1", so I read it as sending input 1 to only CH1, or to CH1 + CH2 (such that both the R and L tracks are filled if you drop this audio onto a stereo track in your NLE)
Anyway, to me it makes sense to be set up as it is.

Thank you for shooting the charts as it was helpful. I thought that I would add to this discussion with footage of a typical special job. Here is a video of an event that took place on the shortest day of the year. The Kensington Market Winter Solstice Festival took place in Toronto and started at 7:00 pm. It was shot under typical street lighting. The parade moved to a park for the fiery finale with the fire performers.

I wanted to try this camera instead of my DSLR or F-3. I got the camera from Joe Sutherland Rentals because Andrew suggested that I try it with a Raynox 0.5 Super Wide Angle Lens adaptor: The adaptor was perfect for a few wide shots. The camera took a few seconds to focus occassionally. I used a Steadi-Pod monopod that I got from NAB last year to quickly get different angles. The Steady Shot feature on the camera was very effective in smoothing things out.
It was a fun and easy shoot. Everything was on auto including the audio. I had a boom mic but decided to see what the camera could do with the internal audio.
AVHD 60i FX was used as I did not have one of the new cards.
I did restrict the gain to 28db but changed it a few times when it was very dark.
The reach of the zoom lens was very good. I was able to get close ups from the edge of the inner baseball field. I basically shot from one spot at the end.

Judge for youself to see if the footage is acceptable. I know that I had a good time because the camera was such a joy to use.
Winter Solstice Parade in Kensington Market by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, Toronto, Sunday, December 21, 2014 on Vimeo

On my X70, when I put the switch up to CH1/CH2 it sends channel 1 XLR audio to CH 2 and also keeps CH1. Switch down, only get CH1.

Paul

Great video Rob, really appreciate such an in-depth look at this camera.

Very useful review. Thanks.

Thank you for shooting the charts as it was helpful. I thought that I would add to this discussion with footage of a typical special job. Here is a video of an event that took place on the shortest day of the year. The Kensington Market Winter Solstice Festival took place in Toronto and started at 7:00 pm. It was shot under typical street lighting. The parade moved to a park for the fiery finale with the fire performers.

I wanted to try this camera instead of my DSLR or F-3. I got the camera from Joe Sutherland Rentals because Andrew suggested that I try it with a Raynox 0.5 Super Wide Angle Lens adaptor: The adaptor was perfect for a few wide shots. The camera took a few seconds to focus occassionally. I used a Steadi-Pod monopod that I got from NAB last year to quickly get different angles. The Steady Shot feature on the camera was very effective in smoothing things out.
It was a fun and easy shoot. Everything was on auto including the audio. I had a boom mic but decided to see what the camera could do with the internal audio.
AVHD 60i FX was used as I did not have one of the new cards.
I did restrict the gain to 28db but changed it a few times when it was very dark.
The reach of the zoom lens was very good. I was able to get close ups from the edge of the inner baseball field. I basically shot from one spot at the end.

Judge for youself to see if the footage is acceptable. I know that I had a good time because the camera was such a joy to use.
Winter Solstice Parade in Kensington Market by Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, Toronto, Sunday, December 21, 2014 on Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/115314149)

You have the same problem as I had when filming Thai monks in low light- NOISE. I, by mistake on iA, went up to +33dB which is hopeless, I now restrict to +21dB and have invested in 'Neat' noise reduction prog.

I have one comment on the Audio CH1/CH2 issue you mentioned in the cons section:


The observation in the test is correct. In AVCHD mode only there was a bug. L & R channels were reversed.
This has since been corrected with a firmware upgrade. Rumor has it that there were some other 'tweaks' to the camera's performance. As yet I have seen no evidence of this. The upgrade has definitely fixed the swapped audio channels though.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

I now restrict to +21dB and have invested in 'Neat' noise reduction prog.

Mike I use Neat video here as well but don't bother with Neat if the end product is purely for MP4 web delivery. Obviously I try to avoid to much noise in the footage in the first instance but I just render out the master as is. If shooting AVCHD then that becomes an XDCAm 8-bit 422 master. If it's shot in XAVC then the master render out is XAVC - I frame 422 10-bit.

For the output for the web I use Handbrake. In Handbrake there is an option menu for noise reduction. Depending on the amount of noise in the video I use Weak or Medium and it does an amazing job of killing noise with minimal effect on detail. It does this dynamically frame by frame as it renders the final MP4. The two pass render gives me a better noise reduced product than I can get with Neat Video. Using the noise reduction in Handbrake adds very little extra time to the Handbrake render times.

As you know with Neat Video to get the best results you have to process each clip individually by picking suitable areas for noise sampling which often means numerous attempts to get the best selection. The other big downside with Neat is it dramatically increases render time. Bypassing Neat on the timeline dramatically speeds up output, now add that to the better dynamic noise reduction in Handbrake and for me it's a win all round.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Chris,,
interesting, I'l do a comparison soon, when I get back from Oz ( Perth WA ) in 2 weeks, but likely the footage will be in bright sunshine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49xcnATxPI&t=14m40s

Excellent review: it's a reference work. Some people say that stabilization is not that hard on the wide end. Could you comment on the efficiency of the stabilization on the telephoto end? I've watched the section starting at 14:40 a number of times. Thank you, Miklos

I expect the stabilization in this camera to perform the same as the ax100 and I don't find it very good, even at the wide end I still get small jitters when shooting in 4K. I am somewhat spoiled though with the boss stabilization Sony had implemented on the smaller cx line.

Noise seems to be the same issue as well, the ax100 is also noisier then my cx730 at high iso's yet the low lightperformance is the same. A few weddings back I had to apply neat video on some scenes during a ceremony which I never had to do with any of my other camera's.

About lack of detail, I imagine people start comparing 4K camera's downsampled to 1080p with native 1080p camera's, once the x70 gets 4K you will understand why people think the x70 currently is not so detailed.

Thanks for the review. Very helpful as I'm in the market for a new camera and this is currently at the top of my list.

In general, are X70 owners happy with their purchase? Or are there other cameras in this price range that are worth looking at?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks so much for the comprehensive review, Rob.
Can you please tell me what the "bits" you need are to connect the camera to a pan-bar controller? Are those LANC controllers you're using?

Thanks

Mark

There doesn't seem to be anything close to this price range with same feature set and especially possibility for 4K (I know people are whining about 8 bit 4:2:0 etc. but unless that looks really terrible--and I'm betting it doesn't---many of us would probably be fine with that). Next price point up with comparable features seems to be about $3500.

That said, I did get to play with this cam and record some footage. Seems generally nice, two things I didn't like were the amount of time it takes to go from one end of focus to the other in manual (very long), and I would swear the image is a little soft compared to an EX1 or similar cam. Maybe I set something wrong, but it just seems a little less crisp. The lens, maybe?

Closest competitor would be JVC HM200
JVC Pro Specifications (http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/specs.jsp?model_id=MDL102319&feature_id=03)

I suspect 4K is 4:2:0 but it's at 150mbps.
HD is 4:2:2 50mbps
Lens apature range is F1.2 to F3.5 (curious how it performs in low light compared to X70)
I'd bet the recording work straight in FCPX and Vegas.
Price is $2695 feature complete at B&H (preorder).

My mistake, didn't think of JVC. Can I bring up the elephant in the room and say that JVC generally seems unpopular as a professional brand? Maybe it's a Houston thing but I've only ever known of one guy that even used one. Everyone else is Canon, Sony, Panasonic products (and usually the Canons are only of the large sensor variety, with a few exceptions I've run into over the years).

IMHO......

JVC is all about the "connectivity" and features, such as being able to make a 1/3" CCD camera become a triax studio camera, at the expense of quality, pretty much the WORST picture quality available on most of their ProHD gear.

Sony is exactly the opposite, the are all about the quality, and charge you up for little mods and hardware, such as buying a 50pin output for our PMW320 if you want a 2x digital extender, 24p paid options etc, but quality and chip size is better across their range.

Panasonic is right in the middle, making mid range products that can be used effectively for more than they were intended, like HPX370's shooting for ABC 20/20. Their top end products are just that, top tier, but most of the time a bit less than Sony with more "included" useful options.

The HM200 looks nice, I was considering replacing my X70 with one for the iris ring and gain/w-b machanical switches, but then I saw it is rated at f5.6! That is 3 1/2 stops SLOWER than my last 4:2:2 30p SD camera, a Panasonic SPX800 from 2005, which rang in at f13@2000. :-\

Paul

Interesting.

The other cam that's caught my attention (that I all but ignored when it came out) is the Canon XF200/205. Although of course that is ONLY HD, no 4K option. And $1200 more than the Sony. But generally gets good reviews.

I looked at the XF205 as well, the reviews I read all said excessive noise even at 0db gain, and very poor in low light. I really wish they put another dial and flip switches on the X70, those are the main reasons I want to ditch mine.

Paul

ah, too bad about the canon. what do you mean about the x70 switches etc.?

I now feel I REQUIRE quicker ways to select gain and iris, than toggling buttons that all control the same dial. The gain is the worst, as if I need to go from 0db to 33db, say from a nigh SOT to a zoom in across the street, I need to press so many buttons it's ridiculous. To set to 1/30th, then open the iris if not already wide pen, then scroll 3db per step all the way to max. I LOVE the JVC and Canon controls and the basic size of the rigs, but great control of crap is still just crap. You can't put 20's on a Pinto, but it's still junk.


Paul

sigh. just no winning at these lower price points is there?

Hi Rob, nice summary of the pro's and con's. Two things, that bug me big time:
A) As soon I monitor through the smartphone, I loose pretty much all of the controls on the camera. So, it's either way control with a smartphone or get an external monitor. Just having the image on the phone's display for a 3rd person watching would be nice.
B) The eye sensor on the EVF can't be switched off. At least I haven't found a way to do it. In run and gun situations, I like to have both options, the LCD screen and the EVF, always available. But shooting from a low angle close to my body always switches off the LCD screen. Very annoying.
Otherwise, great little camera, I'd say.