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Tuesday, March 04, 2014

When comes the Sony NEX-VG4(0)?


So Sony has 4K projectors, $30K 4K cameras, 84" 4K Monitors, 30" 4K monitors, $16K 4K cameras, an $8K 4K camera (if you ignore that fact you have to spend a lot more to actually record in 4K), a $5.5K 4K camera, a $4.5K 4K camera, and they will shortly start shipping a $2K consumer camera, the FDR-AX100.

Which got me to thinking; surely they will come out with a 4K version of the NEX-VG30 body pretty soon too? They've already had the VG10, VG20 and VG30 in pretty quick succession, so it must be a popular camera design. Surely, the only question is when - it's not an NAB type camera, but surely before the end of the year? And what will they call it? - the VG40 sort of ties nicely to 4K...though maybe they should drop the '0' at the end?

Except that Sony has killed the NEX brand name for their 'still' camera line, so it's likely that the new model will have a different name altogether...

Sony FDR-AX100

But if an "NEX-VG40" is coming, and you want a 4K camcorder that won't break the bank, should you skip the FDR-AX100 and wait for the NEX-VG40 instead? The NEX-VG models have interchangeable lenses and a large sensor size, but the FDR-AX100 is pretty intriguing for two reasons; it has built-in ND filters, and while it's sensor isn't the size of the NEX-VG models, it's a 1" sensor, which according to one site, actually is 13.2mm x 8.8mm [Why, oh why, do manufacturers like to use obscure sensor measurements? Most people might assume that a 1" sensor would be 25.4mm wide (i.e., an inch wide.) Nope - that's not so - Ed]

Anyway, 13.2mm x 8.8mm is smaller than APS-C (~23.6mm x 15.7mm) and Four Thirds (17.3mm x 5.32mm) but almost double the size of the 1/2.3-inch (6.17 x 4.55 mm) sensor in their large FDR-AX1 camcorder, so it will be interesting to see how it performs.
Sony FDR-AX1