Next Best thing to the CX730?

Noa Put · January 31st, 2014, 07:15 PM

The only thing I always do manually is the exposure with the small dial and I do use spot focus during a ceremony when I zoom in a bit just to make sure it doesn't start hunting but often the focus and other settings are in auto. I do however find spotfocus less reliable then on my xr520, the 730 often gets it wrong, both of my 730's display this behavior so it's no malfunction. I always use a lcd magnifier to check focus after I have set it.

When I turn that dial if the exposure is assigned to it in bright light the camera keeps the iris at f4.0 where the camera will provides it sharpest image and it will adjust the shutter accordingly, the darker it gets the shutter will go down to 1/50 and then the iris will go down until the lens is wide open, after that the gain starts to increase up to 21db and if low lux is enabled it will go up to 24db and the shutter is changed to 1/25.

At 24db with the lens wide open my cx730 had almost the same low light performance as my canon 550d at 1600 iso with a f1.4 lens but it was cleaner. The image does become softer at very high iso's.

Also, don't use active stabilization but just standard when shooting handheld, in active mode it crops the image and you get a resolution hit, they say active is better if you are walking around while shooting but I don't use the camera in that way so haven't tested but I did see the image becomes softer in active mode.

I also just read about the coming cx900, didn't hear about that one before, that looks like it's going to be a worthy cx7XX replacement, but I think it will come at a premium price.

Ron Evans · January 31st, 2014, 07:31 PM

List price on the CX900 is $1499.99, $100 less than the PJ790 !! Of course the PJ790 comes with the balanced optical stabilizer, projector and a case and spare battery. The FDR-AX100 4K version is $1999.

All my projects are in the theatre hence the use of automatic as the cameras are left unattended and with all the lighting changes a fixed exposure would not work for me.

Ron Evans

Dave Blackhurst · January 31st, 2014, 08:35 PM

There's a whole thread on the AX100 and to a lesser extent the CX900... they should both be a decent complement to the RX10.

When you consider the higher bitrate 60p and the larger sensor, the CX900 doesn't seem like too bad a deal, though it's missing that pretty "4K" on the side (and $500 in the list price!). I'm on the fence about keeping a PJ7xx around, will have to wait to see how the AX100 performs in real world terms. I do feel like the RX10 has already spoiled me a bit - really like how the footage looks thus far, just wish I had more time to shoot with it!

@Clive - definitely dig into the menus and turn on low lux, it should improve things quite a bit! You'll feel much better about the low light performance...

January 31st, 2014, 07:15 PM	#16
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	Re: Next Best thing to the CX730? The only thing I always do manually is the exposure with the small dial and I do use spot focus during a ceremony when I zoom in a bit just to make sure it doesn't start hunting but often the focus and other settings are in auto. I do however find spotfocus less reliable then on my xr520, the 730 often gets it wrong, both of my 730's display this behavior so it's no malfunction. I always use a lcd magnifier to check focus after I have set it. When I turn that dial if the exposure is assigned to it in bright light the camera keeps the iris at f4.0 where the camera will provides it sharpest image and it will adjust the shutter accordingly, the darker it gets the shutter will go down to 1/50 and then the iris will go down until the lens is wide open, after that the gain starts to increase up to 21db and if low lux is enabled it will go up to 24db and the shutter is changed to 1/25. At 24db with the lens wide open my cx730 had almost the same low light performance as my canon 550d at 1600 iso with a f1.4 lens but it was cleaner. The image does become softer at very high iso's. Also, don't use active stabilization but just standard when shooting handheld, in active mode it crops the image and you get a resolution hit, they say active is better if you are walking around while shooting but I don't use the camera in that way so haven't tested but I did see the image becomes softer in active mode. I also just read about the coming cx900, didn't hear about that one before, that looks like it's going to be a worthy cx7XX replacement, but I think it will come at a premium price.

January 31st, 2014, 07:31 PM	#17
Ron Evans Inner Circle Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Posts: 4,220	Re: Next Best thing to the CX730? List price on the CX900 is $1499.99, $100 less than the PJ790 !! Of course the PJ790 comes with the balanced optical stabilizer, projector and a case and spare battery. The FDR-AX100 4K version is $1999. All my projects are in the theatre hence the use of automatic as the cameras are left unattended and with all the lighting changes a fixed exposure would not work for me. Ron Evans

January 31st, 2014, 08:35 PM	#18
Dave Blackhurst Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Apple Valley CA Posts: 4,874	Re: Next Best thing to the CX730? There's a whole thread on the AX100 and to a lesser extent the CX900... they should both be a decent complement to the RX10. When you consider the higher bitrate 60p and the larger sensor, the CX900 doesn't seem like too bad a deal, though it's missing that pretty "4K" on the side (and $500 in the list price!). I'm on the fence about keeping a PJ7xx around, will have to wait to see how the AX100 performs in real world terms. I do feel like the RX10 has already spoiled me a bit - really like how the footage looks thus far, just wish I had more time to shoot with it! @Clive - definitely dig into the menus and turn on low lux, it should improve things quite a bit! You'll feel much better about the low light performance...