When I saw the specs of the Sony HXR NX70 I immediately thought of Steve Backshall and the BBCs Deadly 60s television show, this would be a perfect camcorder for all the wind, rain and dust that must accompany trips to Africa etc.
I am excited about this camcorder as it is the professional upgrade to the MC-50 we have all been waiting for, stringers will also upgrade to this camcorder it’s perfect for standing outside High Courts in the dripping wet rain. The inclusion of the XLR and full audio control will make my life a lot easier when producing interviews for my blog. I can use my Pro balanced short shotgun mics from RODE and Sennheiser without worrying about the 3.5mm plug getting pulled out.
Audio is a big deal to me as I used to work in a local radio station, Radio Clyde and the tech boys taught me how to edit tape and one of the engineers, Gerry, taught me about the importance of using the correct mic for the job. I have had to put up with inferior cables and connectors using the Sony 550 along side the Sony MC-50 but the pictures more than make up for any audio short comings.
I have become a major fan of camcorders that look small but produce pictures almost as good as any shoulder mount camcorder, the Sony MC-50 started the ball rolling it’s a great wee tool, especially for blogging, I hope my pal Rick Young is reading this and seriously decides to ditch his Sony EX-1 in favour of the new NX70.
Rick from MacVideo travels all over the place and knows only too well that weight matters when it comes to planes the NX70 might just be the job for him plus the EX-1 will suffer from RED RED, turning some types of black a muddy brown, this was only fixed half way through the run of EX-3s and does not occur in EX1Rs.
Lastly we have MANUAL GAIN, a feature badly missing from the MC-50, admittedly, due to space, it has been assigned to the menu but thankfully it’s part of the feature set. One other major feature of this wee camcorder is the ability to film at 1080 50P…this is a big leap forward and if you are editing with Sony Vegas 10 or Edius then 1080 50P is part of your software package and I hope Final Cut Pro 8 will edit 1080 50P also.
Sony will get a demo camera to me as soon as they are available and I can’t wait…SDHC cards and Sony “V” batteries are all you need to get you started, fortunately if you own the MC-50 you have both !
Phil do you have hands on one or any high res images? I’m a little confused by the audio parts of the spec sheet.
It says that there is a stereo mic and a 3.5mm input and 2 XLR. The XLR are clearly on the demountable nonIP rated handle and audio block.
But where is the stereo MIC? Is it in the front of the handle audio block like the bigger Z/NX5s? Or is it somewhere on the main body over the lens – that would make more sense as back up audio in harsh conditions.
And the 3.5mm jack? Is that what the audio block plugs into, presumably one of the Sony style jacks with phantom power to the audio block?
I was in a quandary between second hand Z1, new Z5 or new NX5. Looks like Sony just made my dilemma worse!
Just posted a bigger pic with all the details
You’re a gentleman and scholar!
Very tempting, but looks like it’s going to be around £2500 and then the NX5 looks a good deal with the 3 sensor and for the next week free Vegas 10 as well. But then you need to add the 128Gb drive, but I already have L series batteries.
Hmmm. I hate it when Sony do this!
Hey Phil – Is there an accurate ETA on this?
I will give you a fairly accurate reply on Monday afternoon
Hi
Was wondering if it had any ND filters built in.
These smaller, “larger depth of field” camcorders do not have ND filters and before you ask if you need shallow depth of field using eg. A Panasonic AF101 and are using a 50mm f1.4 lens as I do, you can balance the amount of light entering the senser using the 4 position ND filter therefore it is far more critical to have ND on a large sensor camera.
phil..ask the sony man when these cams will be in shops