I was out all day filming with the Sony NX70 and its only in such situations that you get to see the real camcorder. The one thing that I had already discovered was the lack of control over the speed of the zoom using the cameras on board rocker switch so I was very glad I had the Manfrotto 521 zoom control on my Miller tripod handle.
Having full control over the camcorders zoom speed is rather essential on a corporate shoot. The one thing I did notice was how accurate and locked-on the auto focus was, all day I used the camcorder in auto focus and with one exception when I was filming a motorway about half a mile away and a van drove past the camera did the autofocus falter. I am not an autofocus fan, far from it, but this camera is exceptional at not hunting and possibly more accurate and faster than my older eyes that I took the decision to keep it on all the time…very impressive.
The size of the camera allows it to be used in various situations like the one above when Dave had to pull the pallet of irn-bru, giving me a nice perspective. The menu is very user friendly having the gain (G) and shutter (S) available to hand was a real boon, it’s a simple touch of the (G) ikon and you can set the gain and this is also available to you while the camera is in record mode.
At one point I had to record Dave doing some pretend talking to someone at the end of a mobile phone so I plugged in my RODE NTG-2 with softy as it was a rather windy day and what a joy to be able to use XLR inputs once again, better still to be able to control the audio level was superb.
The Sony NX70 coped admirably with all situations thrown at it and the 1080 50p pictures on my 50″ Panasonic plasma were truly breathtaking, solid and sharp as a tac, in fact this wee camera produces better pictures than camcorders 4x it’s price, I kid you not. I am so glad I plumbed for the NX70 though I saw its potential at Haydock last month and put my name down for a camera after that show. One disappointment is the “G” lens used on the camera although its very sharp you loose 1.5 stops of light from wide to tight and that can be really annoying, the MC50 has the same problem we were all hoping Sony would give us the same type of lens seen on the EX-3 but alas. Most retailers got stock last Tuesday and already most of them are sold out, H Preston Media are getting more NX70s next Tuesday but don’t hang around they are flying off the shelves like hot cakes at the new lower price of £2562.
Your report on using this camera is interesting, but in the interests of your health I wish to draw attention to the risks of working all day surrounded by Irn Bru – even your hi viz jacket has turned orange!
Hi Phillip
Nice to get some “real world” feedback on the NX70. How does it stack up against the EX1/3? I’m especially keen to hear about its low light performance.
Thanks,
Scott
hi Phil, the video quality is same as mc50? thanks
Not if you film in 1080 50p its not, nor the fact that you now have full control over the gain so it is in real terms a lot better than the MC50.
Well spotted !
I might get a second hand EX3 next week so I will compare the two cameras but please remember the EX3 is 1/2″ chips and is very good in low light and 2.5x the price of the NX70. Also the EX3 has a constant f stop lens where as the NX70 looses 1.5 stops from wide to tight.
Hi Phil, hopefully you’ll be posting some video footage once you have tied up that shoot. Thanks for the updates on this camera.
Phil,
Have you tried the ’70 out much in bright light?
I was out at the weekend on a grey, bright day and I found it quite hard to control exposure. I like to keep framerate low (50, or 100 tops, I always thought that best), and even with the iris almost closed it was overexposed a lot of the time.
In full auto, it obviously used auto shutter to control exposure, but it took the framerates up above 600!
I’m not sure how much of a problem this is with the end result, I haven’t reviewed all the footage yet. I have bought an ND, and am waiting for a 37mm variable ND to be released from Lightcraft Worskshop in July.
It’s a great wee camera. It was so, so weird standing out in the rain with the water pouring off me and the camera, and everything still working!
Hi Phil, regarding “lack of control over the speed of the zoom” – is it just single speed or something? I have a run/gun Sony FX7 and with very fine presses on the rocker you can get a quick or slow zoom – can it not do this?
Jared,
It _is_ a speed sensitive zoom, it is possible to do slow or fast zooms. It’s just (to me) hyper-sensitive and a bit hard to control at first, but it can be done. I’ve got slow zooms, but not super slow/crawl zooms so far.
Phil I watched your reviews of this camera and I am really interested….BUT…can I ask a quation that is constantly overlooked on virtually all review sites; How does it cope with fans?
The reason I ask this is I want to buy an HD camera that uses CMOS/MOS chips but I mainly shoot aviation.
Now one of the thing in Aviation and air-shows are fast moving propellers. Currently the only way to test if a Propeller will look ‘authentic’ is to film a fast moving indoor fan and seeing what happens when you ramp up the shutter speed.
Currently I have seen Can MKV D2’s cope as-long as the shutter speed isn’t above 1/200th as the fan then appears distorted on one side.
A friend of mine using a Canon XF105 gets reasonable results at 1/300th but I wonder if this camera is capable of similar results?
This video shot on the Canon MKV shows the results of the problem just after 2 minutes in:
I wonder if you may be able to test the NX70 as apart from that (and the hopeful Zoom update) this would be a great camera for me, cheers, MP
Hello, I wanted to ask whether the wedding would be a good shooting it. Its compact size good for now I like to use the VX 2100 has come time to change the camera.