Interested to hear others findings on this, here is my findings so far... Which is better for Video only - Sony cx730 or CX760 vs DSLR Camera such as 600D 650D 7D 5D ? DSLR - 600D 650D 7D 5D: + Has better manual control. - Weight is much more (1kg in total, with lens) - Has 12 min record limit - Has very limited stabilisation (depends on lens used, but none will come close to cx760 stabilisation) - lenses can be expensive if you buy a few. - can not zoom in flight (not easy to do, but you can install a servo with belt to zoom lens in flight) - Must get your manual settings right on the ground, as you can not change in flight. + Perhaps has sharper, crisper footage with a bit more punch (more color saturation out of camera). Sony cx730 cx760: - Has limited manual control (but once you know the options available it does not limit aerial shooting IMHO). + Weight is much less (550g total - more flight time) + Can record for 7 hours full HD 50p with built in 96gb flash drive. + Excellent stabilisation on all axis (except roll, but the radian will keep roll perfect for you). + Can easily zoom in and out while in flight (LANC or IR controller). No need to buy extra lenses, built in lens has very good wide angle, and more than enough zoom for aerial work. - Must get your manual settings right on the ground, as you can not change in flight (can use full auto mode, but pros will not want to do this, hard to cut footage in post if exposure keeps changing). + No jello effect at all (unless you break a prop or have a multi that is flying terribly). + More keeper footage. Cleans up vibrations due to wind or thermals, etc. Please keep your comments on topic, only mentioning DSLR vs cx760 (no other mirrorless, or GH3, NEX5 or anything like that for this thread pls).
One additional advantage of the Sony is that you can shoot at 1080p60, but reduce it in Premiere to 1080p30 and that reduction makes the footage much smoother. Another issue that might be worth raising is the respective dynamic range of the two choices. I'm not sure what they are for the cameras you suggest. The manual settings for both cameras is a good point -- and, as it's common to both cameras, I think the question becomes, which camera has the better automatic settings? Do the DSLR you mention not suffer from rolling shutter issues? Andy
All DSLR's with CMOS sensors (all current DSLR's) do suffer from rolling shutter / jello effect. Even the RED Epic suffers from rolling shutter. But the Cinestar is an excellent platform, and if the vibration system is setup correctly, and the Radians installed, there should be no rolling shutter in normal flight with any of these cameras listed. When this is some vibration, however, from a gust of wind, or thermal, etc, then the cx760 stabilisation will handle that a lot better than the DSLRs. Dynamic range is a very important point, and glad you mentioned it. For stills, its the dynamic range in RAW that really sets the DSLR cameras apart from all small cameras. But how this applies to video, and which is better between the DSLR's dynamic range and the cx760 dynamic range, in video more, I do not have than answer for you. Sorry. My gut says about exactly the same on both options.
No votes why??? I have the 550D and i want to buy a camera that shoot 50P or 1080...! So i am thinking of the CX730 .. what you think it will be better from a DSlr?? Also is there a way to cgange the video settings via laptop like canons??
Don't you guys having problems with the stereotyped clients who doesn't know any cam but 5D Mark II & 7D? The perception of CX760 or even Nex5N / NEX7 is "pitty" for these clients just because of the camera's physical appearance. If you put a 5D Mark II on the ship, they say "woav!", otherwise "hmm, what kind of handycam it is?". Of course I''m talking about only for videos. For stills, I'm using NEX5N / NEX7 with 19mm Sigma F2.8 lens which I'm quite happy and sometimes a Canon 7D. For this kind of clients, I just have 7D on the hand and will change it to Canon 6D.
Yes Ozkan, have had exactly that feedback from clients in the film industry. I offer both 5Dmkii, 7D or cx760 footage, but I then show them footage from the cx760, and explain the stabilisation. I leave it up to them to decide which camera they prefer. Of course, if it was me I usually choose the cx760, but if you asked me 1 year ago, I would laugh at the idea of using any camera but a "proper" SLR for the job. A 5Dmkii is quite cheap these days, around the same price as a cx760 or NEX7, so if your clients expect you to have one, then you should have one IMHO.
Yes sure, but when i show them some exemple of CX730 Aerial shoots, they said to me all is Ok man you can shoot with this small cam.. So in a close future, may be, i' ll shoot with GH3 for videos (my radians are now fine tuned...), I fly 7D or 5D just for pictures.
Guys can you tell me how you tune the camera??? Is there a way to tune it via laptop?? Or i have to remove the cam every time ? Thank you
Hi, I'm in the same dealemme, I hesitate between the GH3 and the Sony CX 7XX. I read some company like Yonder Blue Films use the GH3, Gravity Shots (Jeff Scholl) use Everything ! The CX 7XX and the GH3. So can you give us some feedback about the camera. Of course what I need is the best camera for the 1500$ price range (If I want better I'll rent them), in term of video quality, and the possibility to color grade the footage in post. The stabilization of course, but I saw awesome result from the GH3 (). Ps : I've got an AV200. From what I've read : The GH3 Pro : The gh3 have high bitrate video, good dynamic range, 1080P 50/60FPS Professional setting The GH3 Cons : I don't know so much about the stabilization. The price with lens ! (I've got a Canon T2I, and the need to buy every lens again is annoying !) The sony CX 7XX Pro : Have an awesome stabilization system ! 1080P 50/60FPS. , The sony CX 7XX Cons : Have an AVCHD codec who seems to be lower quality ? more difficult to grade (I grade all my shot, so the codec is very important for me). The dynamic range seems to be lower than gh3. The lens on the Sony seems not to be an ultra wide angle, I read it starts about 28mm. So for the people who have both what is the best for my criteria ? ! Thanks a lot. Mikaël.
This is a test with our new Cx730 we did..! Its RAW FOOTAGE 100%...! No post stab used, No Tripod used
So are you sure you don't want to include mirrorless in this discussion? Not sure why. Just take the comparison of Canon 7d DSLR vs Sony Nex5n. Aside from being 1/4 the weight of Canon 7d, the Sony Nex5n (and newer 5r) beats the 7d in almost all areas of image quality. It has a slightly LARGER sensor, better dynamic range, better color depth, better low light capability, lower noise, etc... etc...http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon_EOS_7D-vs-Sony-NEX-5NOh, and its 1/3 the price.The GH2 -3 image might be even better than the Sony Nex series.Also about AVCHD.I pulled this explanation below from another site:AVCHD, certainly the implementations in Sony's higher end cameras and Canon's C100, provides BETTER results than DSLRs for two key reasons: 1) AVHCD is a 'modern' codec, able to do 'more' with 'less bit rate' but it needs heavy duty processing both to encode and decode - hence AVCHD can match XDCAM-EX for standard run & gun stuff. MPEG2 (as in XDCAM-EX) is an older codec, with lower processing requirements but requiring more bandwidth to do its stuff. 2) DSLRs have less processing power in them than 'grown up' video cameras. Therefore, they tend to take liberties with taking the raw information and compressing them down to disk (line skipping, lack of Optical Low Pass Filtering and so on) and end up doing 'less' quality but with 'more bandwidth'. Although the AVCHD codec is basically a very precise subset of H.264, H.264 is a very broad category from high end to low end, thus you'll find H.264 using the 'low processor power' functions. Also, when shooting continuous material without too much action, 'Long GoP' material does save a huge amount of space. It's just a pig to edit, hence the idea of shooting in a LongGOP format (such as AVCHD - and there's a 4:2:2 version!) and editing in an I frame format (each frame being its own little entity rather than relying on the previous frames). LongGOP isn't to be feared, and neither is AVCHD. BUT all this is just technical BS. Will you be able to sell your video? When selling for higher bucks, people are looking for 4:2:2, rather than the native 4:2:0 - especially if they're looking to the broadcast market. Quite frankly, you're not going to see the difference on most shots when you're publishing for the web or even for indie film screenings. However, broadcast TV has a production chain that minces video quality and it's a sad fact that 4:2:0 falls apart quicker than 4:2:2 - that's why broadcasters demand it. Yeah, it looks fine leaving you, but by the time it hits the viewers' screens, it's full of blocky artifacts, mosquito noise round edges and posterised 'roller painted' skies. And yes, you can tell a 4:2:0 shot in a 4:2:2 codec - watch the vectorscope (when the ear's in shot). If you transcode your material from AVCHD to ProResHQ (don't bother with LT for mastering unless it's quickie web stuff), 5dtoRGB from Rarevisionwill do some chroma smoothing. It will help, but it may not pass muster for the broadcasters (who have engineers that check for this kind of thing). John,
That makes 4 of us, although i REALLY want to get the 5D footage acceptable, I just can't reach it for many purposes. -m
Hi Brad. QC says the issue was the FC (In my case). They replaced it, added the extra gimbal plate (which was NOT the issue, but I asked them to leave it on in case I fly a bigger Sony), and made some interesting changes in the radian and a few MK settings. Jeff flew and recorded using a 5D/24IS combo (my gear) and if course it was "Jeff" smooth, and I accepted it. Due to the weather up here and some other circumstances, I have only been able to fly it a few times. The first flight was extremely encouraging, the second was so-so and the 3rd using the 760 was not as much. But I I just tossed up the 760 and didn't reset the radian gains so I'm not too worried. SO, is it fixed? I **THINK** so, but have not been able to confirm 100%. -m
Sony new camera are coming like the PJ780VE and the PJ650VE. They seems to have a better stabilization, specially the PJ780VE. Someone bought one ? Please share your experience with these camera if you got one !