New HVR-Z7 released
 

You can use CF card and HDV tape at the same time!

This is Japanease site;

http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/P...00711/07-1114/

more here...

http://www.google.com/translate?u=ht...&hl=en&ie=UTF8

Translated to english as the original is german.

I like the modular approach with removable lens - that complicates matters a little for us potential ex purchasers :)

The price position is strange.. rather close to the EX1. I think most will go straight for the EX1. CF card storage is cheaper but a tad too slow..

But that is likely to increase the size and weight. A manual fixed lens has merit for a camera with this form factor.

But hybrid tape and Compact Flash!! Excellent - cheap solid state for speed of ingest advantages, yet simultaneous tape recording for archive. Now how long before Sony put CF slots on their Vaios...........

Holy.....! Didn't see that one coming! Simultaneous recording to tape and CF! How cool is that?!

But way more than fast enough for recording, and it depends which variety of CF you're talking about. Extreme IV is rated at 40MBs (320Mbs) so well over 10x HDV bitrates. Use cheaper Extreme III and it's 160Mbs, so still over 6x HDV speeds, and here you get the choice of which to use.

It makes me even more surprised that the EX doesn't use CF itself.

Remember that Grass Valleys Infinity records to CF as well, and that copes quite happily with 10-bit JPEG2000 footage.

It seems to be 1/3" chips, still HDV codec (which I'm not a fan of . . . 25mbps CBR) and CF card transfer time is much slower than SxS.

It looks to be an excellent HDV camera if one really likes that direction though.

While the EX1 competes with the HVX200. This camera seems to compete with the JVC 250.

My own hunch is that in about a year (NAB 2009?) we'll see an "EX2" with interchangeable lens and possibly XDCAM MPEG2 50mbps 4:2:2.

Competition is good and it looks like Sony is aggressively pursuing all competitors.

CF is fine for Infinity, so it will be fine for this. You won't get anywhere close to the maximum tyransfer speeds of any of these cards such as SxS until bottlenecks like hard drive speed are increased.

Pretty amazing. Sony release a camera that records onto media that you can purchase from any electronics store, and they still get moaned at!

Yes, it is HDV. But this is an established codec, with software that supports it across the board. The last thing we need right now is a new codec! For higher bitrates there is the EX etc.

This camera is for people that already work with HDV, who still work with tape, and who might also like to work tapelessly without having to change their workflow.

My query is: why did Sony opt for the highly expensive SxS card system for the EX1 and not for the much cheaper CF card system? Is it possible that the SxS cards are more robust and more error-free? I thought CF card video recording was not possible but both Sony and Infinity are proving otherwise.

This is precisely my case... I've been looking for a shoulder mount camera that can fit into my current workflow. The fact that it can also record to CF is a real plus... In fact I've wondered why this format was not looked at by manufacturers before..I guessed it was data rates.. but looks like I was wrong... I'm really looking forward to this camera.

Regards
Gareth

The answer to the first question, I suspect, is because the EX is the first member of what will turn out to be a much larger family.

As far as robustness goes, CF have a proven track record with professional still photography, the branded cards at any rate. The error issue causes confusion: much flash memory may have bad memory locations, but these DO NOT cause data errors. Controlling electronics "maps" them out. You can get zero defect memory - but this gives no fewer DATA errors. It avoids the mapping processing, and is hence slightly faster. Nowadays the underlying performance is so good that the use of zero defect memory is hardly necessary.

As far as CF video recording goes, it's not just Sony and Infinity, but Convergent Design and Red as well. Not just CF either, SD is being used increasingly at the consumer end with AVC-HD.

Well if you follow the logic of an old hand I listened to yesterday this CF card thing is a bad move on Sony's part. He made an excellent point. He can rattle of EVERY recording format that Sony have used, and the final one that really gets him going is the very nice F23, records to the SR1 in a way that no other Sony deck can read. Really nice if you just paid a kings ransom for a HDCAM SR deck.

Panny on the other hand have 3 tape acquisition formats and one tapeless recording medium. Even their soon to be released uber expensive HD camera still uses P2 cards. Now personally I think P2 cards are past their use by date but Sony seem to be having a go at everything that comes along, what next, recording to Rev disks?

Still I'd take SxS cards over CF cards any day in a device where they're going to be swapped out very regularly.

I'm not quite sure the Infinity is selling as well as Panasonic P2 cameras or Sony XDCAM. That doesn't speak to the technology but clearly people aren't "jumping" to a camera because it uses CF.

This post is in the XDCAM EX thread so I can only assume it's for comparison otherwise it would be in the HDV thread.

Sony's Juan Martinez has said the EX1 WILL be able to take cheaper 8GB cards (now going for about $200) once they certify the specific cards and offer the EX1 firmware upgrade. While such cards may not be in the typical electronics store there certainly will be cheaper cards than the Sony/Sandisk SxS cards.

The MAIN difference will be transfer speed and that is certainly critical for some of us. Even with the "bottleneck" of the hard drive SxS transfer speed will be very fast.

That's not "moaning" it's just not the same target market and purpose.

XDCAM is also uses an "established" codec. It's a codec that handles certain things better than HDV. Again NOT necessarily the same target market so I'm not sure of your point here. Nothing unusual about using established codecs. P2 mxf is also established and so will AVC Intra.

RED will also do just fine with its proprietary codec.

If NLEs support it that'll do just fine. It's all workflow and NLE support IMHO.

I work in tape now and I don't want to work in HDV. To me, handing a client an HDV tape is a recipe for disaster. Between Canon, JVC and Sony so many formats don't match. Now that's an example of no "established" uniform tape deck that can handle all three variations.

FZ7 Quick Specs
 

Translated from Japanese:

NTSC color, EIA standard method, 1080/60 i system

1 / 3 type 3 KURIABIDDO CMOS sensor <br /> total pixels: about 1.12 million pixel effective pixels: 16:9 video shot at about 104 million pixels

minimum subject illumination 1.5lx　（1/30） 1.5 lx (lux) (1 / 30 second shutter speed fixed, auto - iris, OTOGEIN)

ND filter [1],[2]1/4、[3]1/16、[4]1/64 [1] Clear, [2] 1 / 4, [3] 1 / 16, [4] 1 / 64

Lens:
KARUTSAISURENZU KARUTSAISU "Barrio ZONA * T" lens
　 Focal Length f=4.4-52.8mm （35mm、16:9 f=32.0-384mm、 4:3 f=39.5-474mm） F = 4.4-52.8mm (35mm conversion, 16:9 at f = 32.0 - 384mm, 4:3 at f = 39.5 - 474mm)
Zoom Optical 12X
Focus AUTO / MANUAL AUTO / MANUAL
Blurring hand correction Optical hand deflection correction
Filter diameter 72mm 72 mm
HDMI OUT
2 XLR Inputs

Recording:
The physical format FAT32
File formats HDV MPEG2-TS（.m2t） MPEG2 - TS (. M2t)
DVCAM/DV DVCAM / DV AVI Type1（.AVI）/Raw DV（.DV） AVI Type1 (. AVI) / Raw DV (. DV)

Recording media (optional) Type1×133　2GB CompactFlash Type1 x 133 2GB or more
i.LINK Transfer rate (average) i.LINK connection when 110Mbps @×133/4GB 110 Mbps @ x 133/4GB
The corresponding video format HDV1080：60i/24p/30p DVCAM/DV：480/60i HDV1080: 60i/24p/30p DVCAM / DV: 480/60i
Recording mode (DVCAM/DV Interval (DVCAM / DV only), a loop, cash (approximately 14 seconds)
i.LINK I.LINK 6-pin x 1
Battery NP-F570/770/970 NP-F570/770/970 (optional)

I Know it is a bit scattered, it's the best I could do. Blurring hand correction is OIS.
No HD-SDI out on the Z7 as far as I can tell. Not native progressive, uses the 1080/60i "wrapper".