Posted by Danny on Nov 18, 2009 in
Cameras
I have just heard about a new professional Sony camcorder, not much information has been released yet but it seems to be a solid state version of the Z5 HDV camcorder, and I’m extremely pleased to see that it records to Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo rather than the very expensive XDCAM EX cards. The format goes under the name of NXCAM, which from what I can make out seems to be a new name for their consumer AVCHD format but they have just increased the bit rate from 16Mbps to 24Mbps. It’s a product that I’m actually very excited about and I can see it being a very popular product, possibly more popular then the Sony Z1 was.
As of yet the only available information is from Sony Japan, you can view the translated page here.
EDIT1: More information here
Posted by Danny on Sep 5, 2009 in
Cameras
Having not looked at camcorder technology for a good while I have to say I was extremely disappointed today when I saw Sony’s current consumer line. They have pretty much discontinued their HDV camcorders to which I’m now willing to accept, AVCHD isn’t too bad to edit now that high performance processors have come down in price. Unfortunately though it seems Sony are going back to their old ways of not putting external microphone jacks onto consumer grade camcorders.
At the time of writing there is not one Sony solid state AVCHD camcorder that gives the option of an external microphone jack, my guess is that Sony want to sell more of their silly hot shoe microphones. I highly doubt that they are doing it to sell more professional camcorders, especially with the difference in price being at least £4000 – £6000 for a professional solid state camcorder.
It’s pretty common these days for consumer grade camcorders to be used in professional production environments, you see them used in broadcast all the time, for instance there used in Mythbusters, Survivorman, Bear Grylls, Deadliest Catch and many more. Even if a production had unlimited funds it’s not always practical to use professional camcorders, they can be too big and heavy for certain applications. So it’s not unreasonable for Sony to at least produce one solid state camcorder with a microphone jack!
First of all I would like to make it clear that I have nothing against Canon, I think they make great products but I generally prefer Sony due to the NP-FH batteries and “Night Shot” mode and honestly I think Sony has a little better build quality. However I’m pretty sure Sony will be losing a lot of its current HC7 / HC9 market share to Canon’s LEGRIA HF range.
So in the off chance that someone from Sony’s R&D team are reading this, please make at least one solid state camcorder with external microphone and headphone jacks!
Posted by Danny on Apr 3, 2009 in
Cameras,
Netbooks
A while back I posted HD Camcorders and Silly Formats in which I mentioned the HVR-DR60 & HVR-MRC1K HDD / CF recorders for HDV camcorders. Unfortunately these are very expensive units and are far out of the budget range for the average consumer. However after posting about the Lenovo S10E it suddenly occurred to me that this netbook would make an ideal direct to disk recorder with a couple upgrades and the addition of a Firewire Expresscard. Though I have not personally tried it, this netbook should be more then capable of capturing a single HDV feed.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10E £279.99
Crucial 2GB, DDR2 PC2-5300 Memory Module £19.54
Seagate ST9320421AS 320GB Momentus 7200RPM 16MB 2.5″ HDD £63.23
Belkin USB 2.0 and FireWire ExpressCard £56.33
So for a total of £419.09 you’ve got a hard disk recorder, with the bonus of a decent size preview monitor. Obviously the recording time is limited by the battery life of the netbook, though you can get additional batteries or power it externally. Also not to forget, you’ve also got a fully functional netbook out of it too.
Posted by Danny on Feb 17, 2009 in
Cameras
It’s not that often that a manufacturer releases a product that gets me excited, the way technology is advancing nothing is coming as a surprise to me these days. However today when I came across the new Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T90 I was quite surprised with its features, the camera starts shipping mid April at a RRP of £280. It measures just W93.6xH57.2xD15mm and it features 12.1 Megapixels, 4x Optical Zoom, 720p HD Video and a 16:9 3″ LCD Screen. The bit that got me excited was the 720p 9Mbps HD video, obviously it’s not going to be the best quality video in the world but I’m sure it will out perform many AVCHD camcorders that are out there, 1280×720 9Mbps video is just outstanding for the cameras size.
Due to how compact this camera is, I would highly consider carrying it pretty much everywhere with me, as much as you say you’ve got a camera on your mobile phone, it’s crap, and always will be, the day there is a good phone camera on the market, it will be a camera with a built in phone, not a phone with a built in camera!
I’ve been a fan of Sony’s Cyber-shot cameras for years now, pretty much everyone that’s asked me for camera advice for a compact camera has gone out and bought a Sony Cyber-shot, there great value for money and very reliable.