Well, one of the best Sony cameras to date is certainly the Sony RX10. It’s a camera that has no competition and that can do many things right in one simple package. The team from TheCameraStoreTV tried to understand if the RX10 can also replace high end camcorders. Just watch the video to get the answer!
And if you want the camera keep in mind that in US you get $240 of free Select Accessories with the Purchase of camera at Amazon and SonyStore.
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Smartphones killed low end (>$500), DSLRs killed higher end (>$2000). Thats been true since the T2i came out
The one thing that prevents me from embracing the RX10 for video use is the lack of a real manual focus. The focus-by-wire without hard stops kills it. For me, a NEX of m4/3 body with proper manual capable lenses is a more appropriate choice for myself.
Not a huge fan of the 50/1.8 for the same reason…
The biggest flaw of the 50mm F1.8, no doubt.
BTW, is it cheaper or what to produce lenses with focus-by-wire? They are simply horrible to use to manual focus.
It is, and you need a much larger motor for the focus to be mechanically coupled and af capable.
Mine is excellent for video. Unfortunately I cannot use RAW for stills because this camera still isn’t supported by Aperture!
i must agree that everyone will disagree with this!
People still use camcorders?
I never used a camcorder but maybe it’s still having better with ergonomics. Like a full-sized DSLR/SLT to a NEX-/4/3rd-system?
For me the only drawback is the 29min time limit.
Do you really need that length of continuous video…I used the NEX-7 solely to complete a mini-film( yeah, amateur grade) even though it overheats itself after about 13 min of video. I’ve never actually come to that limit except when recording a show.
Well, we’re talking about using the RX10 as a normal camcorder, i usually record my daughter theater presentations and musical performances, mostly for her because she always want to see the whole show again. that is the main reason.
I also own a Nex 5n, GH3 and a OM-D and i was suffering from overheat with the Nex 5n at random times.
Oh, that…for that purpose most people seem to use their phone to cover it…
most people are easily pleased 🙂 , the video quality of the GH3 is excellent
Sony is always good with handycam, it’s not surprise if their camera also good for video. However I’m kinda old fashion, so if I want to take photo I use camera, if I want to take video I’ll use handycam/camcorder. Not intend to bash Sony cos I’m a sony shooter too.
Agree, for me Camcorder won’t be replaced ever.
The CameraStore videos are always great, informative and un-biased. I wish there were more reviewers like this.
They made a good comparison video here, however… I do feel they downplayed the importance of the zoom range. I’ve shot a fair bit of home video (Sony CX12) and, at least for me, some of the best video footage is that which captures emotion.
In order to capture emotion, you sometimes need to be in close enough to capture subtle facial expression, and you want to be able to do that from a comfortable distance so as to not make your subject to self-conscious, and for them to remain relaxed and natural. And of course in some situations you simply can’t get close (some school concerts, sport games, etc.).
That’s why I’d like to see Sony offer a 1″ camera with interchangeable lenses (yes, I know we’ve got more than enough mounts in Sony-land… but I think this is needed not for the still shooters, but more for the video and hybrid shooters).
Ha, you see Samsung giving you just that!
There are rumors of an upcoming Nikon V3 with new 18mp sensor .There are a decent selection of lenses for the Nikon 1 system, and the opertaional speed eyc is really quite impressive if the new sensor is at least as good as that in the RX10/100 it could tick a few boxes
C Mount lenses are ideal
un-biased!! they fight anything with Canon on it
I have completed 4 video productions for schools and a one university since December using the RX10 and am very happy with the results. I agree with this video. I think the RX10 is a great camera for people looking for a single lens video camera with many very good even excellent features. The AF was very good and I had no need for manual focusing (I have yet to experience any situations where the AF hunted). I do wish that the zoom had a variable speed (faster). Of course Sony always withholds features and protects their high end video cameras so we get the same old codec. I think it is a capable stills camera but I use other cameras and lens for paying still jobs.
I don’t think so. It wasn’t until I actually handled one that I found out where the camcorder really shines. It’s the stabilization. I tried a really crappy little low end handycam a few months back, which took disastrous stills worse than my phone and mediocre quality videos, but the steadyshot totally blew me away. You could literally swing it around and get really smooth pans, and serious hand shake becomes invisible. You don’t get that with ordinary stabilization like the OSS on e mount lenses, you don’t even get half of that stabilization effect.
Bull Spit! This thing is not going to kill the camcorder due to the different form factor.
You are right it is a different form factor, but as they mentioned in the video the RX10 form factor is more convenient.
well done Sherlock….
i just wish we can shoot things continuously on our cameras.
Since year 2000 (maybe earlier), I got a Sony DV video camera. What I use for is during long duration of recording when on a bus during tour. I like the extended zoom and also, the battery life from the extended batteries. RX10 might be good choice for video but keep in mind, battery life and 30 minutes are the cons. That’s why, I still brought a PJ660 even I got a RX100. You never know when you need the extra recording and also, the batteries which can support it. 😀
Trouble with the RX10 is the codec, so its not really a big video upgrade for existing Sony users (even though it seems to be using an averaging matrix at last, rather than good old Sony Alpha line skipping).
I request the admin to create a poll that we (video enthusiasts) will boycott all sony cameras till they get rid of AVCHD and implement H.264 with higher bit rates. Even the clean HDMI is not 10bit 4:2:2. Just pathetic. Sony is miles behind the competition and i can’t shoot even a simple video with clean image with my a57.
I think you are mixing some of the terminology at the moment AVCHD uses the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 algorithms for video compression.
AVCHD is a low quality h.264. I meant the pure h.264 the Canon uses or MOV formats other system manufactures have moved to.
No its not. Its just compressed further. that makes it better for the same filesize if you do not edit it, but worse if you want to edit the footage (AVCHD is so efficiently compressed that there is less wriggle room left for exposure/color editing).
Ive used uncompressed formats and high bitrate H264, and let me tell you, they are *way* overkill for personal stuff or stuff you wlll be putting on the web, and the cameras that use them tend to be unreliable for constant use with them (so may failed SD cards its unbelievable!). I think what we actually need is AVCHD with higher bitrates, and the ability to use a flatter profile (which possibly includes a custom ‘video DRO’ setting that keeps the encoder from killing the blacks). The other issue is Sony’s god awful video line skipping. that kills distant detail and makes 1080p look like up-rezzed 720p (its not the AVCHD causing that!).
Back to your A57… have you tried using a low contrast filter or using DRO (not sure if your model does DRO in video, but the A77 does)? You may find that at least prevents macro blocking, and the lift can be used to protect your highlights if you want to protect those instead.
I do agree with you over all those things but still i don’t think higher bitrate alone would solve this issue. I think the problem is with the way AVCHD compresses the footage especially in still cameras. Most of the pros i know dislike AVCHD and have always been critical of the quality that comes out and sony roll out these even in other video cameras. My a57 does DRO in video, the problem i face is not during colour correction but the footage itself is muddy, jittery and they judder when i pan the camera. I do follow 180 rule as well.
I dont think he is. AVCHD uses H264, but compresses further by splitting the frame into a mosaic of smaller squares and applies different compression on each element to reduce filesize further than raw H264 does. AVCHD thus tends to replace dark areas with a black square (which can cause macro blocking) and replaces nearly solid color with actual solid color (which can cause banding).
Thats fine if you will not be editing the AVCHD stream (AVCHD is actually better than the same H264 stream for the same bandwidth) *unless you change the footage by changing exposure or color*, which then shows up the AVCHD compression effects,
Sony use AVCHD on the assumption that nobody will be editing their footage in this way, but that assumption is way out of date, which is what the OP is probably saying.
On the flip side, you can fix macro blocking on Sony cameras by using DRO (it lifts the blacks so the encoder treats them more like mid-range rather than shadow). Yup, DRO works in video (and emulates a low contrast filter)… see my post: http://howgreenisyourgarden.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/sony-alpha-dynamic-range-optimization-and-video/
Also, I now own the Olympus Stylus 1, and that uses 20Mbit/s MPEG4 H264, which is worse than 28Mbit/s AVCHD that Sony uses. I also own the GH2 and that gives me 100Mbit/s AVCHD, which is fine for most of my editing (although the GHx cameras dont really allow you to shoot particularly flat, so I have to use a Tiffen low contrast filter to do the job instead).
AVCHD is not automatically always bad, and H264 is not always good: you’ve got to consider the bitrate and how flat the camera allows you to shoot.