OTish: Sony FDR-AX100 4K Cam and XAVC-S Codec

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/23/2014, 1:04 PM

Hey all,
This is not strictly Vegas related, but given the makeup of the forum, it seems a good place to get this question answered.
I do event videography (live theatre, children's events, etc.) and have been using Panasonic GH3s and GH2s for years now. I'm looking to switch back to a camcorder workflow, though, and to 4K, mostly for cropping purposes (I still intend to deliver in 1080p) and also for the sharpness it produces.
Anyone here have any experience with the Sony FDR-AX100, and the AX1, the big brother? How does the new XAVC-S codec behave in Vegas?
And any input on workflow, ergonomics, etc. is welcome.
Getting tired of the quirky workflow and ergonomics of DSLRs....

Comments

OldSmoke wrote on 12/23/2014, 1:16 PM

I have the AX100 and XAVC-S works well in Vegas 13 but for the 4K you need a very good machine if you want to edit native files, proxies are fine. There is no "big brother" yet to the AX100, the AX1 has a much smaller sensor and I wouldn't buy it. The PXW-X70 is the pro version of the AX100 but the 4K upgrade is not released yet. Keep in mind that 4K will only be 29.97p which is why I don't use it for my usual figure skating video work but I did make a stunning video from my trip to the Grand Canyon.

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/23/2014, 1:26 PM

Hey, thanks for the response. I had no idea the AX1 had a SMALLER sensor. Who would have thought the bigger pro camera would have an inferior imager?
All the footage I've seen on Vimeo and YouTube looks pretty stunning, even at 1080p and 1440p.
Impressive cam. What do you think of the ergonomics for event work?

OldSmoke wrote on 12/23/2014, 1:33 PM

The AX1 isn't very good at low light due to the smaller sensor. I also found that while you can crop quite a bit from the 4K footage, you cant go much below 2k, 2560x1440, as the result becomes very grainy. I would go with the PXW-X70 and later upgrade to 4K when it is available or wait a bit longer, I am sure there will be a bigger pro version with the 1" sensor or something that is more on par with it.
The AX100 has absolutely no time code feature at all which can make multicam work a bit more troublesome but it can be done and there is no XLR on it.

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/23/2014, 1:40 PM

Well, cropping in to 1440p is still gonna look better than the cropping I've been doing - into a 1080p frame! ;-)
And no XLR isn't an issue - been doing separate sound for years with the DSLRs...

OldSmoke wrote on 12/23/2014, 2:09 PM

Here is a AX100 4K sample straight from the camera.

Streamworks Audio wrote on 12/23/2014, 2:38 PM

Here is my low light test with my FDR-AX100.

Personal I thought it performed very well. The sensor does allow a lot of light without having to crank the gain too much. But even then, the gain applied with the FDR-AX I find does not produce a lot of noise.

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/24/2014, 2:30 AM

Wow. Crazy detail. Ordered it already btw.

OldSmoke wrote on 12/24/2014, 9:42 AM

Yes, the details are amazing. Let us know how well your machine can handle the 4K footage.

MarkHolmes wrote on 12/30/2014, 12:49 PM

Just to follow up on that last response.
My system, a 2010 MacPro 4,1 (Intel Xeon 2.79 Ghz, 16GB RAM) with an AMD Radeon HD7950 handles it fairly well, as long as I don't load up on effects and cropping. Once I have two tracks of 4K for multicam, it starts to struggle a bit, dropping from preview full to auto helps.
For comparison sake, though, I tried running same clips in both Premiere Pro CC 2014 and Final Cut Pro X, both updated to latest release, on the OSC Mac partition, and timeline playback and response in those NLE's was horrendous. Actually, everything in OSX Yosemite has been bogging down. Apple lately has me constantly running back to Windows 7. That's one advantage to a dual boot system: you get a constant comparison between the two platforms. Windows lately is winning....