Finally I get a chance to asses the Canon XF100 since I have just bought one. The camcorder has a lot of features packed into its small body and non more so than full broadcast CBR 50MB/s 4:2:2 (CBR=Constant bit rate), this wee chap is a lot bigger in features than at first glance.

Before we go any further the Canon out of the box is far to noisy but you can improve you pictures 100% by following my instructions below…

UPDATE : Having thought about this setting I had a look at some real life footage and setting it to 4 makes for a fair bit of NR added which is fine for still but not so good for live action so my updated setting would be setting the noise reduction to number 2. Note the different contrast and white balances can be ignored if anything it helps to exaggerate the noise problem. You can experiment yourself but in Automatic mode the camera adds a fair bit of noise.

Lets start with the lens this is one feature that left the NX70 standing, although sharing a similar 10x optical zoom the Canon is far superior starting at f1.8 at the wide end and f2.8 at the tight, this lens lets in a ton of light compared to the NX70 which goes from f1.8 wide but f3.4 on the tight end and that makes such a difference when you need that extra light at the tight end. In order to get the same exposure as the Canon I had to put the gain up to 6dBs.

Chromatic aberration is something that has not hindered any of my filming with both my NX70s but it does seem to be a problem for some shooters so here is a test I have done with this problem in mind.

Chroma fringing is part of a low cost lens I am afraid but it only happens on the outer most part of both lenses, at under £3000 per camera this has to be expected, I could do the same test with expensive Nikon glass and the results would be the similar, but its not the problem some people seem to think it is.

Zoom rocker, if you are an NX70 owner like me you will cringe at the word zoom rocker, due to the waterproofing the NX70 was fitted with a component that affected its variability giving us a fast zoom, this has been addressed and Sony will update that feature in March 2012 with a firmware update. The Canon has no such problems and even has extra menu features allowing you to get smooth starts and finishes through its very smooth variable zoom range.

The HDMI on the Canon is full size but is badly placed just under the hand grip while the NX70 has a mini HDMI socket which is more fiddly to use on a shoot if you want to use an external monitor. The viewfinder on the Canon is far to small unlike the NX70s viewfinder which is very usable in those bright sunny days.

The audio switches are far better laid out on the Canon, simple to understand with the audio pots on the top of the camera. Both cameras have professional XLR inputs but the Canon has a more robust handle and a 1/4″ screw allowing you to attach a small magic arm if needed.

Conclusion…

Without labouring on the subject both cameras delivered very high quality footage and although the NX70 does not have the luxury of 50MB/s 4:2:2 it does have 1080 50p. The one thing that does stick out is the Canons lens having f 2.8 at the tight end of the zoom does give you far brighter pictures in low light while the NX70 is having to use 6dBs of gain to even compete.

You have to dig deep in the Canon web site to find this CF card compatibility chart.

Ergonomically the Canon is in my opinion better laid out with both gain and shutter buttons on the outside of the camera and one of my gripes with the touch screen as used in the NX70 is how grubby it gets after a days shoot.

The Canon is more expensive to run using CF cards against the NX70s SDHC cards, that said you do have 2 card slots on the Canon which you can set to record to both, that is a great feature for archiving purposes, the NX70 has only one card slot and as yet has no way of recording to card and internal memory simultaneously but will be added in a FW update in March 2012.

The Canon does have syncro scan something I have missed as both the NX70 and the FS100 do not have this feature and the Wave Form Monitor (WFM) feature on the Canon is great for exposing your shots allowing you to see if your whites are clipping.

As usual both cameras will not match as they have their own colour profiles as I have a fairly large documentary coming up about diabetes I have decided to go down the Canon route with a C300 on order from H Preston Media, the XF100 will be a good cutaway camera and be less imposing for some shots and hopefully match the C300 better than keeping my Sony cameras.

The NX70 does give a great account of itself when you consider its up against 50MB/s and the superior 4:2:2, once you eradicate the inherent noise given off by having the noise reduction switch set to automatic the Canon excels with a very solid, punchy picture, the Sony produces a more natural red with the Canon producing a more pleasing skin tone. The external gain and shutter on the Canon does it for me as the NX70 can be a bit of a pain having to access many of the cameras functions via the touch screen.

I have enjoyed my two NX70s but time to move on lets hope I get the same pleasure from the Canon XF100 six months from now !

This is an interesting move by Sony as this DSLR is clearly directed at the video marketplace even although Sony have all angles covered with their VG10, FS100 and the F3.

The A77 DSLR sports a brand new sensor as yet we don’t know if it’s full frame or APS. A 3 million dot OLED LCD that has a swivel function…very useful. FULL HD recording in 60p, 50p, 25p and 24p. Conforms to AVCHD Two, this is a 28mbps rate rather than 24. Thats all the technical info we have at the moment.

UPDATE : According to rumors the A77 is supposed to feature dual BIONZ image processors, a 24MP image sensor, HIGH ISO performance (really high), a quick AutoFocus system with 11 AF points, an electronic OLED viewfinder with a whopping 3 million dot resolution, capabilities for recording full HD (1920 x 1080) video are expected, GPS functionality, and finally built-in USB 3.0 support (USB 3.0 offers up to 10x the performance of USB 2.0, and USB 3.0 is faster than FireWire 800).

Info from Sonyalpharumorsc.com

Before you run out and order the A77, have a read at my next blog (Friday) which involves two Canon D60s and a Sony FS100…this sobering story may save your bacon one day.

While I was down at Haydock Park last week I had a play with the new Sony HXR NX70, this was a working model and not some trumped up plastic demo unit with no gubbins.

Sony let me film for about 45 minutes getting a few interviews and shots round the show so how did the new baby perform…

When I tried the camcorder side by side with my MC50 the first thing that struck me was the lack of light compared to the MC50, this was disappointing as I had been assured by Sony that it was using the same chipset as the MC50. I decided to dig deeper and discovered that the last person to play with the camcorder had set the shutter to 1/2000, so that was my discrepancy solved the shutter had been on with no indication in the viewfinder.

The first thing that strikes you is the new home screen I did not have time to photograph it so this is thanks to CVP who have also done a good review of the NX70. All the above are touch screen the same as the MC50 but with far more manual over rides, gain, shutter, iris to name a few. As a note the “Camera/Audio” icon is not as you first think a menu for the “Audio” it’s the main menu for the camera functions and the audio.

This camcorder is just bristling with features the main one being it’s ability to produce 1080 50p pictures…unheard of from such a small professional camcorder until now, with Sony Vegas 10, Edius 6 from Grass Valley and the new Final Cut Pro 10 you can now edit the “holy grail” of  1920 x 1080 Full HD 50p.

I decided to let the 1080 50p pass by me till I get my hands on my own NX70 but from all accounts it’s a further step up the HD ladder that will be hard to climb down from and will even give dearer camcorders a run for their money but time will tell.

The camera is bigger than the MC50, thank goodness, but it’s still small enough to give you that ease of use of a hand held but with all the big Pro features and more. There is no slacking in the audio department with phantom powered XLR inputs and gain pots, you also get audio level indicators on the viewfinder…fantastic.

The SD card slot is easily accessible and the camcorder comes with a built in 96GB of memory which can record simultaneously with the SDHC card giving you a nice back up feature.

The camera performed flawlessly and it was great to be able to set your gain to 0dB giving you a very punchy picture indeed. I am a big audio buff and having balanced XLR inputs is a joy, I will be doing a full video review when I get my own NX70 possibly by the end of May but this wee camera will find it’s way into some big HD productions. From weddings to broadcast there is no doubt in my mind that Sony have produced a cracking jewel in their crown and I hope Japan can keep up with the world wide demand on such a perfect wee camcorder.

Last weekend we filmed a band performing at Brodick Hall, Isle of Arran, using two cameras, one being our Sony EX-1, which had a direct feed from the sound desk.

The output from the desk could hardly be described as “Line Level” since with the camera input set to ‘Line’ the on board control had to be set full-up to 10 to register a half-decent level. With the microphone input level set to -41dB, I got a more realistic signal, however, anticipating concert sound levels increasing during the course of the evening, I calibrated the input as low as it would go (-65dB). The concert got under way with full audio modulation at a midway setting of 5 on the camera, so everything seemed spot on, although neither my trusty old headphones nor my ears can cope with excessive acoustic levels these days, so I was relying on visual monitoring of sound levels. By the end of the night, this had never wavered, so seemed fine, although I was shocked to note that towards the end, the signal appeared very highly compressed. That should have alerted me to a potential problem.

Imagine my disappointment upon discovering that as the audio level was increased (perhaps 20dB) during the course of the concert, my recording had become more and more clipped due to overloading the input. However, at no time did the viewfinder monitor reach the red markers, because the input level had clearly been close to clipping from the start. Luckily I had backup from three microphones, so all was not lost, but this was a preventable problem.

I have since invested in some excellent noise-cancelling headphones (only £40 from Lindy) and will stick to the real ‘Line’ input for similar projects from now on, even if this means whacking up the gain on the camera. As for my ears, I’ve lived with them for nearly 59 years, so they’ll have to do.

HDW : It is important when recording live audio from a sound desk to record a back-up onto an audio recorder like a Tascam  DR100 which records onto SDHC cards, that way if your camcorder gives you a bum recording as happened to Chris you have a clean back-up.

When I film the odd theatre production I always use a solid state audio recorder to back-up my sound, most sound technicians will give you a clean feed out of their mixing desk but you have to be prepared to have a bag of gender changers ie. XLR male to XLR male. The obvious lead would be a 1/4″ jack to XLR as some older desks only give you 1/4″ jack outs.

It’s a bit like the Scouts “BE PREPARED” arrive with a professional attitude to the job and you won’t go wrong, another expression is “BELT AND BRACES”

I received an email from a fellow professional who bought into Sony’s Z7/MRC1 system this is what he had to say…

“Hi Philip, i have recently purchased 2 Transcend CF Memory Cards, 32 GIG,400 speed, pleased with the price, but having nothing but grief when using them with my Sony Z7 Camcorders and the MRC 1 Memory recording unit.

After searching the internet I discover CF recording problems all over the place along with corrupt footage using the Sony MRC1, it seems to be an unreliable unit and is possibly a reason why it’s the only unit in Sony’s range to use CF cards.

It was a bit unnerving to say the least when Dennis Lennie showed us a deliberate but potentially fatal mistake during the making of his NanoFlash tutorial. We see a shot from his EX-3 footage showing a cameraman and all the viewfinder info is also in the shot.

I emailed Dennis to confirm he was using HD-SDI…so be warned…especially those of you who hire EX-3s that you need to have the SDI Out Display to the “OFF” position when using the NanoFlash otherwise you will record all the viewfinder info as well !