07Jan Sony FDR-AX100 4K Camera for $2000
CES is in full swing right now and Sony just announced a 4k prosumer camera. At a list price of $2000, the Sony FDR-AX100 is currently one of the lowest priced 4k cameras to be announced to date. The FDR-AX100 appears to be based around the same 20.2MP 1″ Exmor R CMOS Sensor used in the Sony RX10 and uses H.264 level 5.2 video encoding under the label XAVC S to record 3840 x 2160p to SDXC cards.
This camera brings good news and bad news. The good news is that compression technology is getting to the price point where 4k can be offered in a prosumer camera that records to SDXC cards. The bad news is that XAVC like AVCHD was in the early days, isn’t widely supported yet. Infact direct codec support for XAVC isn’t currently supported by most NLE. XAVC editing is likely to be very processor intensive. Sony doesn’t actually give any specific requirements for real time playback but does offer up this statement.
the increased complexity of modern coding schemes do demand more computational power, which could be a major challenge when migrating the production infrastructure and associated workflow from one generation to the next. The amount of processing power requirements to decode a certain compressed bit stream is extremely critical when multiple files are simultaneously used in an edit session.
Without coming right out and saying it, it seems Sony is implying that you’ll need one hell of a machine in order to edit XAVC natively. While the Sony FDR-AX100 offers the ability to record 4k, it seems it could be awhile before a standard desktop is up to the challenge of editing it.
January 7th, 2014 at 10:47 am
Time to sell your macbook for a real computer 🙂
January 7th, 2014 at 3:58 pm
Considering how much computing power it takes to even edit DSLR AVCHD footage natively, I predict that there’s going to be a lot of angry consumers. Maybe you should start blogging about workarounds since that’s probably what a lot of people will be looking for on Google.
January 7th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Adobe CC should have support, Sony’s promising to provide a free plugin, also Resolve Lite can open 4k XAVC files which could be used to render out 1080p proxy files, until such time as the XAVC format is more widely supported. No idea on real time playback. I’ll see if I can hunt down some Sony S55 XAVC sample clips and come up with a free simple workflow.
January 11th, 2014 at 7:49 am
Sony Vegas 12 has support for this codec. In practice, I use one codec for capture – whatever the gear has that delivers the highest quality capture. Another codec for post, cineform, has the greater bit depth for effects, crop, green screen, etc. The third codec is the one on the distribution media. The blu-ray renderer in Sony’s DVD Architect Pro 6 has proven itself for both theatrical and streaming distribution.
January 11th, 2014 at 9:01 am
You’ve used a lot of XAVC 4k footage in Sony Vegas? If so can we get some computer specs and info on real time playback?