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I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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Thanks for your first look!
It’s no good idea by Sony only offering FullHD and 4K! The 2.7K of Gopro is very usefull in postprocessing. These 2.7K are giving, for example, room for deshaking more than 50% in a frame!
Sony Action cams have the problem, that videos recorded with steadshot are a little bit washed, they lost their sharpness and rolling shutter becomes more visible. With 2.7K without Steadyshot, recorded with 60P you have in postprocessing a lot more screws to play with for better results!
It will be very interessting to see if the X1000V has improved their steadyshot video quality.
But why should`nt Sony offer a firmware update for delivering forgotten features? Hope dies last!
Of course you could do exactly what you are saying with 4K video and then transcoding it to 1080p. Unless you are working with an underpowered computer.
Usually – in GoPro at least, and almost certainly here – there’s a drop in bitrate that accompanies the higher res footage. It’s one of the ways they manage to pull off 4K with standard memory cards etc. What that means is that 4K won’t have the dynamic range or colour depth of 1080, and so from a post-processing point of view you’re losing a fair bit by recording at 4K and reducing resolution after. 2K or 2.7K are much better compromises.
Timmy, Sony usually doesn’t work this way. For instance they have two different encoding methods in their 1080P cameras and H.264 and XAVC S. GoPro only uses H.264 and its correspondingly lower bandwidth compared to XAVC S. On the specs of the 4K cameras they list two bitrates for XAVCS 50-60Mbps and 100Mbps. These will provide better fidelity that GoPro’s current 4K offerings. Just don’t go assuming everyone does it because GoPro does it.
In essence you actually gain editing 4K with Sony as the source as opposed to GoPro with 2.7K as the source.
Well I’d prefer filming at 2.7k with 60p than 4k with 30p or 1080 with 120p… the 2.7k middleground is exactly that, the perfect middle to be able to do slow-motion and still deshake in after processing
You appear to be trolling for GoPro…because most of what you said is not true: I own both systems X1000V and GoPro Hero4 and I assure any reader that the steadyshot does not ‘wash’ out the image….the image is superior in everyway to gopro…it has 5 or 6 stops more dynamic range with which to work in post and if your machine can do 3K but not 4K…get a new machine…4K and 5 and 6K are here to stay.
Not at all true withthe Sony X1000V….bit rate of over 100 Mbps….may have been true in the past but the technlogy is now upon us….far superior to the GoPro…not just broadcast quality footage but 4K broadcast footage and far superior to the 1080P when reduced to 1080 in post from the 4K footage….when you own one…you’ll know….
Ignoring which camera is better than the other quality-wise, I can’t see any logical explanation as to why Sony doesn’t have a 2.7K option. It’s frankly just stupid.
I’m often in a scenario where I’d love to shoot higher than 1080p but don’t want to deal with the processing times associated with 4K. As others noted, 2.7K offers that balance.
Thanks for the preview but I got confused by the “Meanwhile, the X1000V and 200V’s next steps are basically 1080p resolution” sentence as I thought the 200V was a 1080p camera and after looking it up it is, so there is no “next step” for it ;-)
Other items of note I found :
– the 200V is presumably the same size as the current AS100 (yes, link to sony.fr) so it should be able to use the excellent AKA-LU1 “camcorder” case.
– The X1000V is apparently larger (yes, link to sony.fr) so will lose that compatibility and the record button now being conveniently placed on top it wouldn’t work anyway.
– There is an (optional?) buffer memory to start recording a few seconds before you actually hit record
– MSRP in Europe (link to sony.fr) is €449 for the X1000V and €299 for the 200V without the remote.
Sorry, I was meaning that the 200V doesn’t have an additional 2.7K step in there (ala the GoPro Silver).
Yup on the cases, very tiny oddities there – seemed strange to me that they had to change it.
What’s the resolution of the preview? Surely they aren’t streaming 4x 4k to a phone.
Also, highlight reel, not real.
Any word on GPS refresh rate? The 1HZ on all the action cams out now is pretty lackluster for overlays compared to the 10HZ I get by logging using my external phone and just manually overlaying — but the manual overlay step is pretty tedious.
It hasn’t changed to my understanding.
That said – what app are you getting true 10HZ logging at? And, to that end, what applications does that even translate/matter (just curious)? Meaning, what applications is your position/speed changing 10/sec that you’d see the difference?
For video overlays, it makes the speed changes and direction changes appear accurately. I have paired my 10hz external GPS with Harry’s Laptimer to produce 10hz tracks, which I then overlay onto video using Dashware. For something like road biking in a straight line it means little. But for mountain biking, skiing, cyclocrossing, or any activity where speed and/or direction change frequently it makes a pretty good difference in how that is visualized in gauges. The only downside is it requires the external gps, my phone, and a camera…and post processing requires trying to sync up the GPS and video feeds which can be tough. I would rather have 1080p and 10hz GPS than 4k and 1hz.
Here is an idea of what the tracks look like. Red is from the virb and blue is from harry’s laptimer with a dual xgps160 bluetooth sending data to the iphone: Link
OK, I don’t get it. It’s smoother, I’ll give you that, but that’s not surprising with more points. The fact that there’s no “fuzz” makes me think they’re using some smoothing internally, too.
But I care more about accuracy than smoothness, and it’s clear that it’s no more accurate than the 1 Hz. In the clearing where you can see the road, it’s clearly farther off.
Accuracy may be more a factor of placement in this case .. the virb had a clear view of the sky vs the dual xGPS being buried in my pack. What the 10HZ captures is all the weaves the trail makes around trees — which builds better video overlays, especially for calculated data that takes 2 or more points to create (heading, acceleration, speed, etc). I will see about rigging up a comparison video to illustrate it.
Hi,
Your review and some other reviews made me buy 3 of these. And I do not regret it.
One comment:
The multi-cam feature only works with iOS devices that can do Hotspot Tethering and for this you need a device with a SIM card, i.e. the mobile data enabled. I did not know, so my iPad is of no use for multi cam. That is bad and Sony should have mentionned that somewhere as a requirement…
Otherwise fantastic review. Thank you.
Your IPAD is not a cell phone: why would Sony post such information?
Umm, because every other action cam works on iOS across the board the same way without issue.
It’s just WiFi direct, there’s no reason why it needs cellular connectivity.
Okay; I see your point-thanks.
I have no clue about camera talk, just want to know when can I put one of these on my bike and it’s small and easy for non-camera people to use. Sony, Garmin, GoPro, TomTom, other? Ideally, I will also be able to control it via my Apple Watch (supposed to arrive in June)
At present none of them permit Apple Watch control. Unknown if that’ll change, but it would require one of those companies develop an Apple Watch app. Also, the communication would likely have to flow via your phone.
As for the best option, I really like the GoPro Hero4 Silver, but check out your option depending on what you want. If you want speed/etc shown from cycling, then the Garmin VIRB or Sony series is a better bet.
When is the Sony FDR-X1000V review coming? Loved the Tomtom Bandit review.
I’m torn between
Gopro4 Silver
Tomtom Bandit
Sony FDR-X1000V
Sony HDR-AS200V
Right now I’m leaning towards the AS200V as with the X1000V I’ll be paying for a lot of features I won’t use.
However I’ll mostly use it for diving and looking at amazon.com there are some horror stories about the underwater housing for the HDR-AS -line. But from what I can find, no problems with the X1000V housing while diving (using the dive door/front).
Do you know if the HDR-AS -housing has been updated as well or will I have to use the old “flood-prone without warranty” -housing if I buy an AS200V?
Also I can’t find underwater colour correction filters for the sony cams but someone said this is handled by software when setting the camera to “dive mode”. Is this true?
Does Sony’s highlights compilation work better than Tomtoms “shake ‘n bake” video editing? You didn’t seem very impressed with Tomtoms implementation…
I heard all the comments I had my Hero 2 for 2 yrs and the first time I took it under water, it got damaged. I used the same casings recommended, unfortunately out of warranty and the local distributors offered me the new Silver or Black at 3% cheaper than retailer prices. I need something simple for snorkeling my new hobby and it seems the Tom ToM Bandit operates very simple for me at 2.7K any other suggestions?