Well, that was quick. Right after yesterday's surprising
announcement, Sony flew its yet-to-be-released NEX-VG10 camcorder into London just in time for today's showcase event. Naturally, we had to get our hands on this shiny baby, and boy we were impressed. In case you missed the news, this snazzy device is the world's first consumer HandyCam with interchangeable lens, meaning you can share E-mount lenses with your young
NEX DSLRs, or take advantage of the abundant A-mount lenses with the help of an adapter (which will cost you extra, mind you). Likewise, there are also hot and cold shoe mounts on the mic shaft to cater your current camera accessories. Read on for our thoughts on the rest of the camcorder -- we've put together a little sample clip for you at the end as well.
There isn't much to complain about with this $2,000 (and, sadly, possibly £2,000 for the Brits) piece of kit in terms of appearance and ergonomics. We like being able to hold it by either the seemingly solid body (using the strap) or the mic shaft, and both ways provided comfortable grip without much fatigue due to the light weight (even with the bundled lens). We were also able to quickly master the jog-dial control next to the 3-inch screen, but for this price, we expected a touchscreen interface as well to make life easier. As for the bundled F3.5-6.3 18-200mm lens, we found that zooming required a bit more effort than we liked, so thankfully there's auto focus mode -- just like any ordinary camcorder -- to save us from further wrist work with the focus ring. We must also point out that unlike the
Olympus PEN, this Sony camcorder didn't pick up any mechanical noise from its lens auto focussing; otherwise, this kit totally wouldn't deserve such price tag.
Of course, what we really care about is the picture and sound quality. All is revealed in our sample reel below (remember to enable HD playback mode), but in brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio sensitivity (notice how the mic was able to pick up conversations from afar; you can also enable just the front mics to minimise background noise). You may notice some shakiness while we were adjusting the lens -- we'll blame it on our lack of practice from the little hands-on time we had. Regardless, the NEX-VG10 certainly lived up to our expectation, and we look forward to hear what the filming hobbyists think of this prosumer-level camcorder when it comes out in September.
Update: commenter aim120 dropped us a link to Sony's own sample clip. Enjoy!
posted July 15th 2010 8:34PM
we need more sony 3d cameras
@Nanosman1994
LOL for what?
@RhymeMaster
porn!!!
@dark star
Sounds kinda gross when you consider you WON'T only be zoomed in on the girls certain goodies, thanks to mediocre recording skills...(if you know what I mean)
light but wonder why this can't do 1080p?
@techlord It does 1080P, what are you reading?
@Scottydukes1
doesn't do 1080p, only 1080i in 60 frames just like sony nex-5/3.
@techlord
Where are you getting your info from? The announcement article yesterday said it does 1080p. http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/14/sony-issues-nex-vg10-first-interchangeable-lens-hd-camcorder/
@techlord
It can't do 1080p because Sony believes in planned obsolescence and protecting their product heirarchy.
Why does Sony believe in planned obsolescence?
Because its a system that generates them a lot of money off the ignorance of consumers who don't understand the difference between 1080p and 1080i, and forcing those who do require the progressive frame rates to pay extra for the innevitable release of the non-crippled version of the camera. Sony is notorious for leaving progressive frame rates off their products until competition forces them to adjust. There are some other key components worthy of addressing in this camera, but none are as obvious as the total lack of progressive frames. Is this 2003, Sony?
@techlord The real issue with this for film makers will probably be the crappy data rate. It does 24Mbps, only half the data rate of Canon's DSLRs... which means more compression and lossier images. Seems we're still quite a long way from consumer cams shooting ProRes or RAW with 4:4:4 colour space. :( *sigh*
It would also really help it to be a semi-pro camcorder if it had XLR inputs.
@Scottydukes1 FTA: "but in brief: stunningly accurate colors, sharp 1080/60i picture, and impressive audio sensitivity"
I don't see how 1080/60 can be interlaced but that is what the preview says.
@Henzapper
• FX : 1920 x 1080i @ 24Mbps
• FH : 1920 x 1080i @ 17Mbps
• MP4: 1440 x 1080i @ 9Mbps
http://www.dpreview.com/news/1007/10071401sonynexvg10e.asp#specs
also
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666239819#specifications
@Henzapper
Engadget's previous article on the camera being 1080p capable is incorrect. Every other notable film/video related site that has covered this camera has made it clear it is 1080i only. This camera is DOA to me until they can at least offer 24p.
@techlord
It shoot 1080/30p in a 1080/60i container.
It captures it in progressive 30 frames, but ou puts it in 60i.
The Euro-version will be 25p into 50i.
Any NLE can turn the 60i into 30p without loss of quality fairly easy.
But Sony should have allowed for more selection options. This camera could easily allow for variable frame rates via software.
@leonardlow
Both Nikon and Canon are expected to offer RAW recording file formats in their next generation HD enabled DSLR cameras and/or hybrid cameras. And unlike Sony, the Nikon, Canon, and soon to be released Panasonic variant of hybrid cameras will feature progressive recording.
Sony needs to stop crippling their products.
@leonardlow
24Mbps is full AVCHD spec. Canon's dSLRs has a high bitrate because their encoder sucks, so it needs to use more birate. A 24Mbps AVCHD can outperform a poorly encoded higher bitrate competition. In fact, a lot of the much more expensive camcorders also use 24 Mbps AVC HD.
Also, according to PVC, this camera's HDMI is uncompressed. Using a nanoflash you can capture compressed raw video via HDMI.
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/freshdv/story/sony_nex-vg10_announced/
@PorkchopFlavoredCupcake
This will never happen so long as Sony keeps this "we know best" attitude. We all know that it's about planned obsolescence, nothing more.
People will keep buying Sony because it's a "Premium Brand", even though they intentionally cripple functionality.
@leonardlow
most consumers probably have no idea what to do with it. lucky for you, you'll still have those 4:4:4 colour thingymajigs by those professional cameras for professional work at a price that technology allows for it.
maybe some chinese company can give you one at 1/3 price.
people want to complain about everything and this is another step towards something awesome and im sure the video quality and its video centric usage will compare quite nicely with the expensive photographic gear from canon.
companies WILL not bastardised their other products so that it ruins their top end.
its a sweet camera that finally allows you to do so much more at an affordable price for consumers. the end
@psychoace
1080/60i means that it takes 60 fields per second instead of frames per second... each field is half high resolution, one field containing the even lines and the other contains the odd lines... Each field becomes 1920x540. When they're played back, they're actually considered 30 full frames per second. On older CRT HD TV's that displayed 1080i before 1080p became popular in the LCDs, that's what they actually were displaying, 1080/60i. And that's what my 5 yr old HDR-HC1 records in. Give me 24p in this camera, sony!
What no Sony hate Engadget?
most people will be joking if you telling this plastic camcorder cost $2000
@techlord Those who are completely clueless about cameras, yes. I am absolutely stunned by this thing... I'd expect something like this to cost north at least $4000+... this looks like it could kill all of Canons and Sonys higher end offerings, if they give you all the necessary manual controls.
@kadajawi If they had developed this a few years ago I would agree with you. But this is really just a DSLR stuffed into a camcorder body with a better microphone. The lens makes up almost half of the consumer cost, so yeah, the price is close to what I would expect for this piece of hardware today.
I do like the fact that their sensor uses a global shutter, I wish more cameras got in on that action.
Nikon is coming out their new dslr that has contious focus and 1080/24p much better.
@techlord Will you have to carry around something like this?http://www.redrockmicro.com/cartpics/redrock_DSLR_3qtr_lg.jpg
@techlord Yeah, cause Nikon has shown how good they can control the rolling shutter effect. IIRC all Nikons were absolutely horrible in that department.
Cool! Someone please explain to me why this camera is $1300 more than the top of the line NEX-5? There doesn't seem to be many more features, but it's so much more money! But otherwise this camera looks really nice!
@Fluidshine interchangeable lens
@VLangs but the NEX-5 is an interchangeable lens camera also
@Fluidshine
The 18-200mm lens alone is $800. The lens bundled with this camera alone is more expensive then the NEX5 + kit lens. These 11x zoom lenses are expensive for dSLRs, $800 is around the same as what Canon, Nikon charge for their 18-200mm lenses. Aside from image-stabilization this lens comes with ultra-silent motor and aperture, so you don't here the lens moving while you take video.
If you purchased a NEX5 + the 18-200mm lens bundled with this camera it would cost $1,500 (but you'll also get the cheaper kit lens that came with the NEX5, since they don't sell the NEX5 body-only).
Aside from that you get full AVCHD implementation, external quad-microphone array, second headphone output monitoring, and there are also probably modifications to the sensor to make it more suitable for video. Such as anti-aliasing optical lowpass filter designed for video rather then stills. There is also the possibility that HDMI is uncompressed, which when raw capture via nanoflash.
@Temple oh that helps. thanks! i thought the price might have something to do with the nicer lens.
That was a beautiful, poignant piece. I feel your angst.
"Well that was quick" thats what she said
I just thought of something while reading the article...
It says "you can share E-mount lenses with your young NEX DSLRs" and the other day they said it shares the same sensor as the NEX cameras.
I know the NEX-VG10 records video at a higher bitrate the the NEX-5... but how much better is the $2000 Handycam than the $700 NEX-5 for video?
Canon 7D > All
@Plazmic Flame Cars>Motorcycles ?
Would this be good for filing's pornography scenes/movies in HD with this?
@AlO ...
video looks nice but it looks like manually zooming could be a bit of a problem. seems to shake the camera quite a bit and would take a far amount of practice to make it perfectly smooth. if only they could motorize it like every other camcorder in the world.
@Robert Harrold No pro in the world would ask for mechanised zooming. People who know what they're doing want control, which includes manual focus and zooming. Not that professionals USE zooming much in narrative work - camera movements are done with pans and dollys, not zoom.
@Robert Harrold No, focus pulling is an art as with manual zoom. regardless zoom should not be used in filming anyway. that's just amateur. pan and dolly all the way.
@TerrorX
Nothing about this camera (except the lens) is catered to film-making. 24Mbps AVCHD. Interlaced frames. Price. Sure seems like Sony is going after videographers with this camera (wedding videographers, corporate video, etc...) Those are the guys that need a servo zoom and LANC capabilities.
@TerrorX -- "that's just amateur. pan and dolly all the way."
True... but this is being billed as a consumer camera with the "Handycam" name and lack of XLR mic inputs.
In the old days... Sony had the VX2000 and the PD150 that they were basically the same camera. The latter added XLR inputs and manual iris control.
I wouldn't be surprised if they made a more prosumer version of this camera for $3000. But it still wouldn't have motorized zoom :)
Correct me if I am wrong, but the XL-H1had an interchagable lens system right?
@Spideralex90
Still does.
@Spideralex90
The XL-H1 uses a 1/3" sensor (3ccd). This camera is an APS-C sensor which is 19.5 times large. But the XL-H1 offers more flexibility in different areas, and is also more expensive to reflect that.
The attraction with this mount is that it can mount pretty much any dSLR lens via adapter. For an XL-H1 you have to use something like a Letus 35 or M2 adapter, but being that its projected onto a 1/3" sensor its not he same as having an actual dSLR sized sensor to take video.
How was the jello?
@Living Brain Donor "it's alivvveee"
This camera just looks really sweet, when is Christmas again??
Hopefully this means more lens options for my nex camera.