It has been brought to my attention the price difference between the Sony USA price for the 4K upgrade licence for the Sony PXW-X70 and the outrageous UK price for the exact same paperwork.
You could in theory get a friend to buy the USA paperwork and email the contents over to you saving you a massive £273.
As usual Sony Broadcast can’t give any reason for the discrepancy but its in my opinion a disgrace that once again UK professionals get the raw end of a bad deal that should never have been £446 for 60mbps 4K upgrade, for a camera that was brought to market too soon. It took a year to bring out the 4K upgrade that comes FREE with the 100mbps domestic version of the same camera.
Just get another make of camera next time and leave the thieving Sony camp behind, you’ll be better off for it 🙂
Ditch Sony… go Panasonic!
I know it’s a rip off. If you put the pressure on a dealer in Oz you will get the upgrade for about AU$700.00 down from a list price of AU$797. This equates to about 359 Stirling which is still way above the US price of US$250.00. In AU$$$s we pay the equivalent of US$522.00. A total outrage at over double the US price of US$250.00 bucks. My advice buy it from BH Photo for $250.00.
Not sure why you guys in the UK don’t just do what we in Africa have been doing for years . . . buy it from BH Photo Video in New York instead?
Unless it’s a US specific purchase – which does happen with some items.
I’ve just placed an order with B+H (Adorama have them too but with higher shipping cos
ts) Even with the shipping cost and maybe the duty in Thailand it’s still going to save me a lot of money
Thanks
Thank you, very interesting.I had reluctantly decided not to upgrade my PXW-X70 to 4k. Instead, when I record in 4k I use my GH4 or DVX200 and of course my little Osmo. I seem to be drifting away from Sony, pity.
http://Www.invernessaudiovisual.co.uk
Hello Philip, I posted on your site here more than a year ago the Sony USA were offering early adopters of the PXW X70 a rebate of $300 to early purchasers of the X 70 against the 4k upgrade,
This difference is a rip off, sure, but the upgrade is really worth buying!! I use this for one year now and even with “only” 60Mbps Long-GOP the quality is really great!!
And no, it’s not the same coded as in the AX100 since that is XAVC-S Short-GOP.
FHD on the X70 always looks like defocused in contrast to the UHD results and don’t forget that many people even rate the FHD quality very high
I instituted a never-buy policy with regard to Sony a while ago, for both professional and domestic products, and have not looked back. I’m the customer, it’s my money and choice and there are always alternatives.
I ordered the upgrade from B+H and it is due in Thailand on 21st. I asked B+H if it would work on a camera bought in Singapore (It was not available in Thailand) They said no, but the Sony Asia site redirect you to a US site if you want to buy the upgrade and charge $499. Sony Germany say it will work. We will find out next week.
HDW : A friend of mine also bought it from B+H from USA and it worked fine on a UK camcorder.
I live in Germany and was wondering the same thing. Has anybody bought the upgrade at B&H and successfully installed it on a X70 bought in Germany?
Thanks!
Got mine from B+H, all went well with ECSpert but my camera couldn’t find the key, I spent 2 hours on email last night but could not gt it fixed. Took i it into Sony Chiang Mai today, they spent hours on the phone to Sony in Bangkok and fixed it, but they charged me 2659 Baht ( £53) So £199 from B+H including shipping, £40 to Thailand and £53 to get it fixed. £292 in total. Best way is ,if you have a friend in the US get him to copy/ photo the purchase key, faster and will save around £63, but be prepared for some hassle
Hi Philip
Just to let you know that the 100 Mbps Version 3 firmware is now available which I downloaded and it worked fine. You can get it here https://www.pro.sony.eu/pro/lang/en/eu/support/software/SET_150526_PSG
Best wishes
Matthew