Pdw 700
 

Has Sony released any preliminary prices on this camera?

No, but some speculation has it at around 38K for the body/viewfinder.

-gb-

I Just saw this....

http://www.roithner.at/webcontent/download/PDW700.pdf

I dont know how old it is or how accurate but it suggests 30,000 euros or about $44k usd at todays rate.

Ben.

Was playing with a 700 yesterday, it's a nice looking camera that sits on your shoulder very well. Very sensitive too. Quite a bit bigger and heavier than F350 but very well built. The VF was sharp and clear. Lots of interesting audio features. Uses the optical block from the HDC1500.

Hi Alister,

How extensive was your play, Did you get to shoot/review any 422 50mb footage?

Ive been shooting on a 350 for a while now and love it but I do have three complaints. The much discussed lack of low light sensitivity, the noise with gain in and the lack of Dynamic range tolerance in high contrast situations. There has been a lot of discussion on these boards and others in regard to these issues and the 1/2 inch CCD tends to get the blame, tho sometimes it is suggested the compression could also play a part.
I guess I'd like to know did you get a sense that the 700's 2/3 inch chips and 50mb compression would do away with my niggling little complaints?
And one last thing and firmer idea on a delivery date?

thanks for you time.
Cheers,

Ben.

well it's certainly more sensitive than the f350 and from what I could tell the dynamic range is better. I didn't do any gain up tests so can't comment on that. I have used a F355 with the new low noise firmware and that dramatically reduces the noise in the current XDCAM cams, so that problem is going to go away. I have never found the F350 dynamic range to be lacking. The current XDCAM's have good latitude considering the price point. I have not seen any 50Mb footage but would imagine that it's going to look very good.

Did you by any chance saw the power rating on the camera serial # plate? With all these added features compare to the 1/2" XD HD and with its 2/3" CCD, it has got to be pretty power hungry.

Thierry.

It's a very hungry beast that draws 40 Watts!

frame rates
 

Hi Alister,
What about frame rates (24p?)
Thanks

There was no serial plate, it was a pre-production model. I only had it running at 50i. The LCD is very nice, much better than the F350. The CRT viewfinder was also very good, not sure but it may be the same CRT VF as the 750 HDCAM. The camera has better balance than the F350 as it is a little longer at the rear. The menu controls are much like the HDCAM and Digibeta cameras, small toggle switches under a flap, plus the rotary control at the front.

Price
 

I was talking to our Sony rep today while demo'ing the 355. He just got back from Japan and said the 700 will come in at $28,000 with out viewfinder, so $32,000 total without lens.