Sony have seriously misjudged the backlash with the up and coming firmware upgrade, and the over the top price X70 owners are having to pay for a measly licence that many of us insist should have shipped with the camera from day one.

Assuming you need 4K 25p you are expected to pay Sony a further 485 Euros for the pleasure…no chance. At least two of my colleagues own two X70s and they are thinking of now selling them on as the price for 2 licences… a whopping 970 euros is far too dear in their opinion.

To add insult to injury the AX100 (X70 domestic clone) came with 4K as standard and is being updated in March 2015 “The FDR-AX100 will also support XAVC S 4K 100Mbps high-bitrate recording through a firmware update scheduled for March 2015.”

While the PROFESSIONAL PXW-X70 will only support 60Mbps in 4K…this is shocking. Sony do say the following “We are looking to support a higher bit-rate recording mode than 60 Mbps for 3840×2160 XAVC-L in the future“

A word from one of my readers “February 24, 2015, came the news that soon will be released an update for PXW-X70 will be available 4K resolution. Just judging by the presented data, the owners of professional cameras PXW-X70 will be able to improve their equipment to the level of consumer camera AX100, with PAYMENT ???? While AX100 will soon receive improved characteristics with 4K. Correct me if I’m wrong.”

This is turning into a “Marketing Disaster” for Sony Broadcast and I for one will not be paying 485 euros for any 4K 25p frame rate. Panasonic on the other hand recently gave all their Panasonic PX270 users a late Christmas present by giving away their AVC Ultra 200 codec for free, when it was rumoured to cost at least 2500 euros.

I love my PXW-X70 and XAVC HD 1080 50p works fine for me but a lot of disgruntled X70 users are becoming very angry at not only the time it has taken Sony to arrive at the 4K licence price but the unfairness of it all compared to the AX100 !

Lets look at the Mbps of other 4K camcorders…

Sony PXW-FS7 = Best quality 4K @ 600Mbps

Sony PXW-Z100 = Best quality 4K @ 600Mbps

Panasonic HC-X1000 = 150 Mbps

Panasonic GH4 = 100Mbps

JVC GY-LS300 = 150Mbps

Sony domestic FDR-AX100 = 100Mbps (FW coming June)

Does anyone think we are going to get top notch 4K footage at 60Mbps when Sony have already announced a FW update for the domestic AX100 upping it to 100Mbps…sorry but I really feel so angry that Sony Broadcast think professional camera persons will put up with this outrageously bad afterthought when their domestic partners are walking all over us…seriously very poor marketing Sony Broadcast !!!

Further thoughts :

What were we waiting for, the price, we knew that would be over the top and we were right. I thought Sony were working on some amazing professional codec that would give us a minimum 150-200 Mbps XAVC 4K, after all…We the end user bought into the fact that our X70s are “professional camcorders”. I also hoped we would get other codecs like XAVC I for HD work, allowing me to bypass Catalyst Prepare. SDXC speed 3 cards would cope with 150Mbps easily I use them in my X70, A7s and GH4 all the time.

Sonys announcement was a roller coaster for me but to pay so much for so little in return is not cricket.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

LED lighting just gets better every year and no more so than lite Panels one of the leading companies in LED technology.

The Astra 1×1 Bi Colour is no exception with a tremendous light output and has a TLCI result of 95 (Daylight), 95 (Tungsten) which is almost perfect.

Photon Beard from Bedfordshire are makers of very high quality LED, tube and HDMI lighting, MD Peter Daffarn is such a knowledgeable man and is very passionate about his product.

The PhotonBeam 80 Red Head LED light is a fantastic bit of kit and scored 95 for their daylight phosphor on the official TLCI readings.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

First of our BVE exclusive interviews is with Alister Chapman talking about Sony’s new V2 firmware for the PXW-FS7 out at the end of March 2015.

Alister explains why the XQD series of cards comes with its own card reader.

Going over the questions with Alister, we use the PXW-FS7 for the main interview filming XAVC I at 1080 50p 185Mbps and the Sony PXW-X70 filming 1080 50p XAVC HD (LongGOP) can you tell the difference.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

Den Lennie from F-Stop Academy was delivering interviews for Kit Plus today that were being transmitted all over BVE and the US.

The Photon Beam 80 was the RED HEAD LED light of the show for me as it has a hidden feature, without the phosphor disc you get a fantastic rich blue light, great for a background wash. It also has a TLCI (Television Lighting Consistency Index) of 95 which is a fantastic score. WARNING : If you buy this LED light you MUST NEVER point the raw blue LEDs at anyone as they are very dangerous to the retina (back of your eye). Price £759

The RODE Link was the audio feature of the show, pure digital sound for £300 is a snip and even although the transmitter is a tad chunky the quality of sound output is extremely clean.

Quality German Schneider XENON glass was my pick of the show but at around £3000 per lens you need to have big pockets to afford them.

No doubt the Sony PXW-FS7 was the camera of the show, everyone wants an FS7. I told at least 6 Canon C300 owners to wait till NAB to see what Canon has to announce.

Another very popular camera at the show was the ARRI Alexa mini, even at £25,000 everyone wanted to have a look at this wee full spec Super 35mm camera.

My camera of the show was the JVC GY-LS300 4K camcorder, JVC have pitched this Super 35mm sensor camera at a great price of £2600 and with a micro four thirds mount you have a ton of glass to choose from.

Loved this wee chap the BuggyCam which was on slow mode riding around the CVP stand, you can hire this wee chap from www.buggycam.com

This handheld gimble from Shape was another show stopper and so easy to use at £500 its a steal. I took it round BVE and it was flawless.

The Alphatron Bi Colour light was the camera top light of the show, its extremely robust, priced at £180 and has a TLCI of 84 (Television Lighting Consistency Index) which is extremely high score for any camera light.

Least I forget the new range of windshields from Rycote. The Cyclone is a furry less windshield thats so easy to remove and works a treat, it lists at £416.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

Could not resist this headline, CVP have enlisted the services of Percy S Diaz a fantastic ice sculptor who hand carved this wonderful ice sculpture of the Sony FS7.

While visiting CVP I managed to bump into Badger the roving reporter who knows his fstops from his frame rates. Badger was producing a show special with intern Alex using a Sony PMW-200.

Rob Tarrant from Panasonic was on hand to give us the update on the VariCam HS 4K camcorder.

Finally we get to see the Panasonic VariCam with a 4K Super 35mm sensor and a Fujinon lens to die for.

Filming Tim at Rycote, showing us the new Cyclone that is the result of more than a decade of continuous development.

Next up was a trip back to Sony to ask the price of the PXW-X70 4K upgrade, now the upgrade is free but you need to buy a licence to enable 4K 25p on your camera. The tentative price is around 485 euros.

We have a JVC lens cloth up for grabs, how many LEDs make up this screen and its over 100,000.

Spencer from Lite Panels was on hand to show me their new panel light which is extremely powerful and retails about the £900 mark.

Adobe had a very impressive 3.9mm LED wall from CUE AV Ltd. This is the future of large panel presentations. Contact Max at max@cueav.co.uk

Photon Beard and yes I did ask but its only a coincidence he has a beard, have produced this very sexy red head.

Photon Beard say they took a long time to enter the LED market because they believed that a lot of the LED lights did not offer good enough light quality. They spent a lot of time perfecting their LEDs and the result is the PhotonBeam 80 LED. Based on remote phosphor technology the new fixture offers a near full spectrum and a high CRI light output. Interestingly from the outside it looks like an old school redhead – they have adapted their PhotonBeam Redhead casing to offer an LED solution. Consuming just 80W it provides similar output to a 300W openface Redhead. The unit can be powered from mains or 11-17 Volt DC. The PhotonBeam 80 can operate on standard V or Gold mount camera batteries with an additional battery plate that connects to the unit.

So that it from BVE 2015 I will produce a best of show tomorrow and some thoughts on the various bits of kit at the show.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

I am using BVE as a testing ground for the Sony FS7 and I soon realised the pitfalls of using the 28-135 lens for interviews.

Alister Chapman was virtually our first interview of the day, fortunately we have the PXW-X70 with us as a roving second camera to cut in and out of.

In order to get anywhere close to a mid shot you are having to position yourself further away than you would normally and the problem this causes in a busy environment is Alister being able to hear my questions.

Fortunately I had the Sony 10-18mm f4 lens with me that was far more useful for this type of interview. People at trade shows are often demonstrating kit and having a slightly looser shot is more advantageous.

Interestingly Dan Chungs cameraman was using the 24-70mm f2.8 Sony A mount lens for their interviews.

Sony also announced V2 FS7 firmware roadmap yesterday which is a free upgrade…

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

Day one at BVE was exhausting, even with three of us 2 filming and 1 photographer, the FS7 and all the ancillary gear is a lot to humph round a show like BVE.

First port of call was Production Gear one of HD Warriors sponsors, Simon (above) was on hand to show me the latest copter the DJ Inspire with 4K and 1080 50p camera on board.

Next stop was Sony where Alister Chapman gave us an insight to the up and coming Sony FS7 firmware where we hope the majority of bugs will be tweaked out. Talking to Sony about the 28-135 servo zoom lens they are hoping to do something about the 4 second fast zoom speed in a further FW.

Next we interviewed the product manager for the Alexa mini camera, next to interview him was my good friend Dan Chung.

JVC were showing off their new 4K camcorder the LS300, they also told me they would send me one up for review.

Octica had a very nifty GoPro stabiliser which works a treat and just in case you want one its £500 plus vat…fantastic.

My other site sponsor, Holdan, had some interesting show stoppers the best for me was the Alphatron camera light that claims to be almost indestructible.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

Interesting move from ARRI, the new Alexa mini, I suspect its to combat the one major problem with the Alexa in general…its a big heavy camera. No doubt DoP’s have been feeding back to ARRI about a smaller lighter camera with the same specs as the bigger camera for more interesting shots.

* may not be available at product launch, but will become available as a software upgrade later in 2015

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

One more day and its BVE 2015 at the Excel, London. We had a great time last year, in fact we had a Panasonic GH3 and a Tascam D60 sound recorder last year. Remember if you read HD Warrior come up and say hello…we don’t bite…honest !

This year we will be sporting our very own Sony PXW-FS7 to do interviews plus a Sony PXW-X70, not a DSLR in sight !

The big announcement last year was the Panasonic GH4 and brought a huge crowd to the Panasonic Broadcast stand.

Two of HD Warriors site sponsors will be at BVE 2015, Holdan and Production Gear, showing off some cool new gear, remember today is the last day for registering for free passes for the show.

Regester here  https://registration.n200.com/survey/1bhanu9jq0d6s?_ga=1.79939220.2089935954.1423684509 

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd

Over the last year we have been more involved with broadcast work, so I decided we needed a corporate look for this side of our business…4K Broadcast

Live inserts for Channel 4 news at the Labour Party Conference in Perth during 2014 with our JVC KY-HM650 camcorder.

Filming for TV2 Norway with our 10 bit 422 Panasonic PX270 camcorder.

Our most recent job was for Good Morning Britain, filming the stormy sea battering the shoreside down at Saltcoats.

We now have a camera not only fit for purpose in the Sony PXW-FS7 but one that goes beyond UK broadcast spec. We can also offer our micro studio for green screen mid shots, MCU and CU. Our iPad prompter with bluetooth remote has been re-designed to fit the Sony PXW-FS7. Deep black and white backgrounds as an alternative.

We have very competitive rates for all sectors of broadcast from live news to adverts, why not send us an email to smallvideo@mac.com and find out how competitive we are.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Company Ltd