Anybody have FX7 footage yet?
 

Well, the FX7 has been available for a few days now... is nobody buying it or is there just no footage available yet?

I think that there has been too much hype on the recent release of the new Canon's XHA1/G1 cameras, which has stolen Sony'e thunder right now, in a big way. Even though it may have better optics due to the new 3 CMOS sensors (no verticle smear and grreater picture latitude), jury's still oput, the new Canon's have beter pro manual controls for only a few hundred more than the FX7.
Unless Sony permanently reduces the price of the FX7 to B&H's temporary promo price for Photo Expo attendees (of $2800), then the FX7 may linger in obscurity.

The same won't be said of the V1U though, which has quite a buzz around it. It's only a few hundred more than the Canon A1. And if the CMOS sensors work great as what Sony has been reporting, then the V1U will battle it out with the Canons.

Which as I said, if the price of the FX7 again doesn't come down, then sales may remain slugish. Which would be a shame, because it looks like a great consumer camera.

Wow ... still looks like no one on this message board has bought an FX7 yet, whereas the Canon A1 forum is exploding with new users ... I'm guessing Sony loyalists are waiting for the V1 to appear.

If anyone has bought an FX7, I'd be highly interested in how its lowlight performance compares to the FX1/Z1 ... though we may have to wait until December when the V1 comes out to hear about that ...

Videomaker has some FX7 clips available.

http://www.videomaker.com/blog/2006/...dr-fx7-footage

as un-color corrected clips those look pretty great.

That is pretty nice footage. The coastline clips really have a nice feel to them. But I wonder why those clips and the fruit basket clip don't have the interlace artifacts like the last clip of the seagull? Is it because only the seagull clip was handheld?

Yes you don't notice the interlacing in the other clips because they are locked off and there is very minimal subject movement, where as in the seagull clip it is hand held and the subject is moving.

I'm very impressed with the raw clips.
I'll be interested to see 'if' theres any difference between the FX7 & V1U image.

HDV files should be played on the latest version of DIVX because unlike VLC, you don’t see any of those artifacts. VLC is very good for other video sources but it’s to jerky when playing back handheld HDV footage. Play the footage on DIVX and you’ll be amazed.

The clips look very nice but nothing that we hadn't seen the HC1 do. Check out Paulo's stuff in Azores and you'll see pretty much the same. I guess the difference will come from difficult shooting conditions, such as when there's high contrast areas and so on.

Paulo,

Thanks for the Divx suggestion. It works great on playing back the files at the proper speed on my older computer. No more VLC for me.

Regards,

Dave Ferdinand,
I appreciate your comments about my footage and that’s only a small sample of what I did last year. Pond5 still has to upload the rest of my footage and because I gave them about 170 something clips on 4 DVDs, it may take a while. My best shots are not online yet so look back next month and you’ll be amazed.

The problem with Videomaker’s clips is that it wasn’t taken in a proper day for example in the hdfx7_capture_04.m2t clip you can obviously see a lot of clouds. If there were much fewer clouds you would have seen a lot more contrast and saturation. Just give me an FX7 or a V1u and I’ll show you what the camcorders is capable of.

Mark Williams,
I’m glad you’re taking my advice about using DIVX because I hear all over the place that VLC should be used when it can't even play HDV files properly.

Nero Showtime is also a really good player for HDV files.

I’ve looked at the clips. Very nice, there is no problem with the cloud cover; I like the way that looks. Looks a bit like stuff I’ve seen off the new Canons. Not quite like the FX1, but might be near enough. I will probably get the V1U, for now. XDCAM soon!

And Paulo, old chap; when I get my hands on one of these cameras I’m not giving it to you! But I shall gladly recount my delights.

These images have a wonderful anti-aliased quality about them. The fine lines of the foreground grasses are very capably rendered. Clearly this camera has bags of resolution. Looking forward to see more clips.

On the VLC comments:

I use VLC and have no problems with interlacing. VLC has many different de-interlacing schemes to suite any taste. What can Divx be doing that VLC can't be setup to do? There are only so many ways to skin a cat.

TT