New Sony camera with variable ND filtering

riredale wrote on 8/7/2014, 5:24 PM

I received an email today from Sony, promoting a new XDcam, the "180."

As described here, the camera can do a lot of pretty cool stuff. Two things that caught my eye were (a) control via smartphone, and (b) variable ND filtration, from 4x to 128x (7 stops!).

Which brings up the thought: wouldn't it be cool if the autoexposure system could leave the lens wide open (for minimum DOF and maximum resolution) and just adjust the neutral density automatically? I know that limited DOF is one of the fundamental limitations of conventional camcorders when compared to Hollywood's big iron.

Comments

richard-amirault wrote on 8/7/2014, 9:26 PM

" ... and maximum resolution ..."

????

ushere wrote on 8/8/2014, 4:50 AM

well, until i get it in my hands on one to try out, this might well be a replacement for my aging z5 (which is still going strong and delivering great pics).

i might just be able to persuade my clients to give up tape in exchange for relatively cheap sd cards...

rs170a wrote on 8/8/2014, 5:31 AM

" ... and maximum resolution ..."

Incorporated into the PXW-X180 are three 1/3-inch Full HD sensors which achieves high resolution, high sensitivity, low noise, and wide dynamic range. Each sensor has 2 million effective pixels and achieves Full HD 1920 x 1080 shooting providing fine image quality settings for detailed, beautifully textured results.

Mike

rs170a wrote on 8/8/2014, 5:36 AM

Pre-order price at B&H is $5,000 U.S.
32 GB. XQD memory cards are $200 each so I won't be giving those away :(

Mike

ushere wrote on 8/8/2014, 7:34 AM

hi there mike,

certainly not qxd cards, but proxies on cheap sd - that way the client gets them overnight in the post, and if they don't come back i'll simply bill for them.

OldSmoke wrote on 8/8/2014, 8:27 AM

That's basically an upgraded HXR-NX3. The major changes for me would be XAVC and 10bit 422 but at the cost of the more expensive QXD media. The 25x zoom seems good too but as one says, I would like to test one first. I am not sure if that all justifies the higher cost as the HXR-NX3 does output 422 too.

I ma still waiting for 3chip 4K camera.

rs170a wrote on 8/8/2014, 10:13 AM

Leslie, now all you have to worry about is your client having the proper codec on their computer to be able to play the proxy files :)

Mike

DavidMcKnight wrote on 8/8/2014, 12:56 PM

Does anyone else wish the sensors were bigger than 1/3"?

OldSmoke wrote on 8/8/2014, 1:00 PM

[I]Does anyone else wish the sensors were bigger than 1/3"? [/I]

Oh yes! 3x 1" just like the one in my AX100. now that would be nice but at what cost?

Anyway, the HXR-NX3 has actually a slightly bigger sensor, 3x 1/2.8" if I am not mistaken.

riredale wrote on 8/8/2014, 2:04 PM

I mentioned increased resolution in the original post because small image sensors are diffraction-limited if the lens is even slightly stopped down. I recall that for 1/3" chips one begins to see the effects if the lens is stopped down to f4 or smaller.

I think I can dig up the particular article if anyone is curious.

MikeyDH wrote on 8/8/2014, 2:19 PM

Does anyone else wish the sensors were bigger than 1/3"?

No, but I wish it came with a $2000 rebate...;>)

farss wrote on 8/8/2014, 4:04 PM

[I]" Oh yes! 3x 1" just like the one in my AX100. now that would be nice but at what cost?"[/I]

As always there's competing factors at play here. As sensor size increases so does the length of the optical path which has an impact on lens design and cost.
With 3x1/3" sensors it seems pretty easy and cheap to have a 20:1 zoom.
With 3x1/2" sensors that drops to a zoom ratio of around 10:1.
With 3x2/3" sensors one can get zoom lenses with a 20:1 ratio but that's mostly through the inclusion of a doubler and the cost of the lens is greater than the camera.

The other approach is to use a single Bayer pattern sensor but even doing this has an impact on optics, there's not (any?) many 20:1 zooms made that'll cover a full frame sensor. I suspect that's one of the reasons 16mm was the format of choice for ENG.

So what we're seeing is a return to sanity, Sony and others are making cameras that target specific needs. Those of us shooting ENG and events need affordable, light weight cameras with a lens that lets us shoot from the front of the auditorium or the back. For those shooting set pieces there'll be a different line of cameras using large single sensors.

Bob.