Sony HXR-NX70U NXCAM Professional Camcorder

Overall, end product (film quality) is great. G series lens lives up to its rep. HOWEVER:

HUGE HUGE HUGE Problem with this camera is the zoom. It's beyond terrible. The see-saw zoom button that rocks back and forth is so bulky and unpredictably inaccurate it's worthless. you have to depress the button half way (which is a good quarter inch) until it does anything and then it's so sensitive that it zooms in out out super fast out of your control. Even worse, the zoom ring on the barrel of the lens is unusable. THIS PRODUCT SHOULD NOT EVEN HAVE BEEN SHIPPED LIKE THIS. In my eyes, it's broken right out of the box. The reason you can't use the barrel zoom is because when you turn it ever so slowly for a creeping zoom, it steps in little tiny jerk movements. In other words, it zooms in like this: "zoom, pause, zoom, pause, zoom, pause,"etc. It renders your footage worthless. And I'm not talking super slow either. I'm talking at a medium speed it does this. So it's either super fast zooms or no zoom. How could a conglomerate like Sony ship these with such a design flaw is unfathomable. I have read other reviews of this camera with the same gripe so it's not just me. So there is really no usable zoom on this almost $3000 camera. Lastly, it's only a 10x zoom which is nothing. Gimme a 20x at least like all the other cameras in this price range (It has a digital zoom but we all know you cannot even use that in a professional end product. It looks like utter garbage I don't even know why it's offered, it's just "cropping" the frame, it's not actually zooming). Anyway, all the pros to these cons can be found in any other cameras in this price range (IE 24-60i frame rates) so i wont mention them. Here are a few notable unique pros worth mentioning:

Pros: it is supposedly water/dust proof which I'll never use (or be confident enough to attempt ruining my new camcorder)

The wide angle G series lens operates at low light very well. Night shot might prove to be useful one day, the user interface is laid out very intuitively. Reminds me of my Nikon D90 DSLR menu ... kind of... and I am a big fan of the on board analog mixer which has a 10db and 20db pad for the condenser mic. In the end the half inch sensor in this beast gives me incredible imaging so I'll keep it, but damn it Sony, you better come out with a software update to fix the zoom so i can change this review and give you 4 or 5 stars!!!! Until then, I would only recommend this camera to people who will not be zooming in or out of the subject they are filming. Which is no one.

P.S. For almost $3000 you can give us the longer lasting FV100 battery. It's like a $30 difference sheesh. how cheap are these guys?

I've been a pro videographer for over 10 years and always look for video cameras that perform extremely well without having to pay 5-10K. For the money, this cam is extremely good. The claimed features and specs are real. The depth of color is outstanding. Plus, the low lux setting is much more than a small enhancement. There's a definite improvment at venues with lower lighting. Very good cam. I would add 2 features: Controls for the zoom speed & streaming video out/firewire. We proudly use this at XoomworX.

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We bought this camera for a high school to shoot events and such. It is a GREAT camera!!! WE LOVE IT!! The Menus are easy to access and get around. The option for internal storage or SD Card is GREAT!!! I shoot a football game on the internal storage for the team and halftime events on the SD Card. I agree with the other review the zoom control sucks. FORGET about a smooth slow zoom. I have stopped using the zoom controls and now ONLY use the ring to control zoom. Even this does not produce a smooth zoom and the zoom ring is backwards to me. BEST product we have bought in a long time!!!

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I wasn't sure about buying this camera. The rain/dust proof feature is quite important to me, but didn't want to spend 3K on something with bad reviews... Well, last month Sony released the so waited firmware update, solving a lot of the main problems exposed here... I bought the camera 2 weeks ago, and I'm really happy with it. Of course it lacks the features found on 5K $ cameras, but this one has more than enough to me. It's a great product....and rainproof!!!

UPDATE months later: I enjoy more and more this little camera! Image quality is fantastic (check some at my Vimeo page for a small sensor camera. The trend today is dslr video, but if you're looking for a very easy way to capture good footage, this camera is great. No need for lens changing, great sound, zebra, peaking, histogram, acceptable manual controls for everything when you need... I'm happy with my choice to document our canoe trips and even some paid jobs.

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HXR-NX70U Firmware Upgrade

Sony is offering a firmware upgrade for NXCAM Camcorder "HXR-NX70U". The applicable products are with the firmware version "Ver.2" or earlier.

Additional HXR-NX70U features*

1. Improvement of zoom rocker operation(Selectable zoom speed)

2. Dual Recording for Simultaneous Rec. to its internal memory and memory card

3. Added 1920x1080/30p and 1280x720/60p.

4. The EXPANDED FOCUS and HISTOGRAM buttons are now assignable keys.

5. Added Last Scene Review feature.

6. The Display ON/OFF button now also controls display of the Face Detection Box onto video output.

7. Display ON/OFF optionally overlays Zebra and/or Histogram display onto video output.

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