The Official Sony cx760 / cx730 / cx740 Owners Thread - Page 3

I saw the notorious "blue dot" in the video. There was a whole thread devoted to this artifact from Sony camcorders. It is due to reflection from sun rays. It is one reason that Sony now provides a big lens shade with their 710, 760 and 580 cameras. It looks like you do not use the shade - you should. It completely solves the problem.

Thank you Bill. Lots of practice and taking the time to choose the best segments from the raw video helps make the final product look pleasant.

Ronlhodges - I hit the record button before each flight and let the camera take care of the rest.

Bsprague - The camera is aimed by how I "point" the helicopter. The trick is to fly the helicopter smoothly and direct it to where I want the camera to aim. Out of a 10 minute flight I might only want to use one or two minutes from the raw footage.

I do have a switch that allows me to pan the camera up and down. You can see a few shots in the video where I do that for a bit more variety. Most of the time I keep the camera level so I can see the horizon.

Slimoli - I agree about the quality of the video from this camera. I am totally satisfied with the performance of the camera. The 60fps is a huge plus to allow me to slow the video down to half speed and still have smooth playback

markr - Good suggestion on the shade. I may use it more in the future to see the difference. The "sun flare" or blue effect dot does not really bother me. I would imagine just about any camera will have this happen in some form without a sun shade.

I'm surprised too. I thought the new stabilization system would generate a lot of discussion. There has been minimal traffic here lately (it has picked up in the last couple days). On Amazon there are only 12 customer reviews, the most recent of which is a month old.

It is difficult to find examples of how good the BOSS stabilization system is because the all most all videos on youtube or vimeo with the 7x0v typically involve people walking or driving with the camera, or standing still but constantly panning and/or zooming, which makes it hard to detect which movement is intentional (walking/panning/zooming) and which is not intentional (unsteady hands that BOSS couldn't completely offset). Of course the Sony promo videos make it look great but I prefer to rely on videos made by ordinary users. There was one video on youtube by "twalkman", who posts here, that did keep the camera still while comparing it to a Canon HF100. That video has been the most useful BOSS test for me. It showed some unintentional movement with the 760v, especially when zoomed in (as expected), but noticeably less than occurred with the conventional stabilization system in the Canon.

Has anyone here found another 7x0V discussion forum that is more active than this one? I haven't found any via google searches.

Price. 60% more (street price) than the consumer flagship from Panasonic (x900). Retailers don't discount Sony products as much as they do with Panasonic.

At one BestBuy I visited, they had a very nice display with the PJ710 (same as PJ760 without the viewfinder). You could of course take videos with it using the built-in 32GB, but they also placed a nice white flat surface near the camera so you could also project the video using the buit-in projector. Lots of fun,and in the bright store the image was quiet colorful and easy to see. Its also fun to watch the whole lens move around inside the frame by looking into the front of the camera. You can shoot at the long end and test the stabilization, but the attachment prevents putting in your own card and taking the videos home (I gues one could direct copy to disc if one had the proper cable and your own portable disc drive - so, any takers?).
Edited by markr041 - 8/6/12 at 4:56pm

I think you "hit the nail on the head".

Just to get back in the press, NASA had to send their version all the way to Mars. Once there, it has to crawl around and, so far, the video is not even close to as good as yours.

Any chance you can post the make and model of the helicopter?

Bill

I did some looking. The helicopter is a CineStar 6 made by FreeFly Systems http://www.freeflysystems.com/. The only place to buy them in the USA is Quadrocopter, LLC http://www.quadrocopter.com. They cost about $5,000 for a ready to fly version, and less if you want to build a kit.

tastyseabass, who put up the video for our entertainment, has or works for a company called Great Lakes Imaging http://www.greatlakesimaging.net/, where you can watch more of their cool and inspiring work using the camcorder that is the subject of this thread.

Bill
Edited by bsprague - 8/7/12 at 9:31am

Yes, the price of the CX760 is steep, I agree. I am hoping that later this year or early next year, the price will drop if there is an announcement of the next camcorder to replace this one from Sony at CES. Of course, if that happens, then I hope I can resist the urge to consider the new one.

Still, if this current camcorder is that good, one would expect that more would be said about it in these forums.

Mike

"I am hoping that later this year or early next year, the price will drop"


Yes, but so will the value of your current camcorder. Did you check its current worth?


"Still, if this current camcorder is that good, one would expect that more would be said about it in these forums."


The number of people posting about a camcorder does not reflect very well its popularity or quality.

For example, if I did not acquire a GW77, or if I did but was not a poster here, there might be 0 postings about the GW77. The number of contributors here is actually quite small, and not representative. But it's a good group!

Hi Mark. Yes I did look up what I could get for my SR11 at BH. Right now a friend is thinking about buying it from me, for more than what I could get at BH....plus my friend would be getting a great deal from me.

You are correct on your other points, it is just that I see many more postings on other current camcorders. From what I can figure, it has to be the high price Sony is asking.

Mike

I agree, the price is high - it's very tempting even to me - the new stabilization and improved sharpness, even the projector. But it is expensive and I am happy with my latest acquisition, which is more useful for the things I do. Good luck on the sale; the private transaction benefits both parties; much better than the store "trade-in" if one can accomplish it.

There is another set of forums you might look at - the professional version of the CX760 is the NX30. There might be discussions on that camera (which is very new) elsewhere (dvinfo.net, dvxuser.com, etc.). It is the same as the 760 but with an added audio capability - nothing else. That Sony believes the camera would be bought by pros gives a little more confidence in the quality.


http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nxcam-hxr-nx70u/507570-sony-hdr-cx760v-warning.html


https://vimeo.com/39824407

http://youtu.be/phyrmmfDPYI?hd=1
Edited by markr041 - 8/8/12 at 11:56am

Well, my friend is waffling a bit on buying my SR11, so I showed him a video that I had shot with it (he was impressed), so maybe he will still come around. If not, maybe i will just keep it and use it along with the CX760 on multi camcorder shoots. Hopefully the two camcorders will work together well enough to provide somewhat similar or compatible video images.

Mike
Edited by Railfan - 8/9/12 at 4:59am

Mike,

It sounds like you are buying one. Please post your impressions of the image stabilization system when you can.

Thanks.

Bill

Someone on the dvinfo.net forum asked the same question - why not more discussion of the cx760. So, more discussion ensued:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-discussion/509811-what-about-cx760.html

Well, I am clearly considering buying one. It is just a matter of deciding when. Again, I am not in a big hurry, but when I do (if I really do get one), I will post my impressions.

So to recap, this cam will work for me because:

1. It has spot focus which will help me during close up shooting (like when I shoot model railroads).
2. The video advancement since my SR11 will make my videos look even better than they do now (thanks to a better lens, processer, not to mention my excellent shooting and editing skills).
3. The optical stabilization will help with hand-held shooting when in the field (although I mostly use a good tripod).
4. The improved low light capabilities will help extend the shooting time in a 24 hour day of shooting.
5. Has a viewfinder in addition to the LCD.
6. Hopefully because I would be staying with the same company as my other camcorders, multi-cam shoots would still work out OK.

My only gripes that I can think of so far, are:

1. Price (just beyond my current budget).
2. Limited zoom (would have liked it to be at least 20x since, among other things, I shoot wildlife also).

So now it is just a matter of saving a bit more $$, while waiting to see if the price drops at all in the next couple of months. I will also be watching for other opinions and experiences with the CX760. Would love to just get my hands on one just to try it out, but my BB doesn't have anything remotely close to it. Oh well.

Mark. That thread was posted by me. I realize that even though a number of people here are also on that other site, there are many who only seem to be on one or the other.

Mike

Here's a video that shows the great handheld stability of the camera:

https://vimeo.com/41892902

Fun video. Love to see as many video samples as possible. Where was that shot? Do you know?

How is the physical size of the CX760 compare to the physical size of the SR11?

Mike

Universal Studios Singapore.

The CX760 is bigger.

SR11: 3 3/8 x 3 x 5 1/2 inch

CX760: 4 1/4 x 3 1/2 x 6 5/8 inch

About the same weight.
Edited by markr041 - 8/9/12 at 10:52am

This should clinch the deal:

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&identifier=S_Disney_Gift_with_Purchase

I want both the had and the ears.

As much as I like Disney, I don't think I need any of that stuff. Now if they were to reduce the price of their park fees by a substantial amount, then hey, you bet.

Read a review of using the CX760, and the reviewer stated that they had a problem downloading the 1080-60p video shot with the camcorder into their computer. don't know what editing programs they had (if any) or if they were using the Sony program that came with the cam. I guess they were shooting at the highest bit rate. Would hate to think that one would have to reduce the bit rate or whatever in order to download your video into the computer to edit it.

Mike

"Read a review of using the CX760, and the reviewer stated that they had a problem downloading the 1080-60p video shot with the camcorder into their computer. don't know what editing programs they had (if any) or if they were using the Sony program that came with the cam. I guess they were shooting at the highest bit rate. Would hate to think that one would have to reduce the bit rate or whatever in order to download your video into the computer to edit it."

This is complete and utter nonsense. I have edited 108060p, 28Mbps videos on a netbook computer. If the guy had an Apple computer, then maybe; because Apple has not supported the AVCHD standard.

The term "downloading" is not appropriate: you take the sd card out of the camera, put it in a slot (reader) attached to you computer and you copy the digital file. The "video" clips are just digital files - a computer does not care what the content or format of the digital file is, what the bitrate was or anything. You can also attach the camera by usb to the computer. The computer will see the files on the card just a like a regular reader. And then you just copy them to the hard disk on your computer. This is really silly.

If you are talking about editing, almost all Windows editors support 108060p video. Period. The included Sony software will in fact edit the 108060p files losslessly - that is, you can cut/trim the clips and combine them and the resulting video will be exactly the same quality as the original clips. Because there is no transcoding the process is almost instantaneous.
Edited by markr041 - 8/9/12 at 2:41pm

The $60 Adobe Premier Elements runs on PC or Mac. Both versions are in the box. I have had no issues with 1080p60. Yes, I had to learn a little about what 1080p60 means, but that is all. If you have a PC, the $60 version of Vegas is popular too. Made by Sony, it handles Sony output well.

There is an enormous difference between "The software does not work." and "I don't know how to work the software>"

Bill

Thanks guys. As I said, it was a review that I read from someone else. I do know that I have never had a problem with any of my camcorders when it comes to editing and so forth, but I was curious about what this guy said.

Thanks again for the responses.

Mike

The NX30U also has a 3.5" lcd instead of the PJ/CX760 3" screen, can shoot in 1080/30p & 1280x720p mode, has a fixed-shot mode, a timecode function and a few other options not included on the PJ/CX760 models.

The point is that the video quality, and control over that quality, is the same from the CX760 and the NX30u (same sensor, lens, processor, and set of manual control options). And, the specs on the Sony sites indicate the LCDs on the NX30 and the CX760 are the same - 3". Can you point to a source that says they are different?

• 3.5” touch-screen XtraFine™ LCD display (921K)

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-HXRNX30U/

However, I looked at the Sony USA retail site and it does say '3.0 type' for the lcd panel, so if I had to guess I'd say 3.0 is probably accurate as it looks like it might've been updated from the Sony pro website. This reminds me of when early Sony specs indicated the NEX-VG20 included options to tweak the image only to find out it was released without these features. Honestly, I can't believe Sony uses a 3.0" display as the competition (TM900, HF G10, XA10) offers a 3.5" screen. And yes, I'm sure the PJ710, CX/PJ760 are identical to the NX30U in terms of video quality.

Thanks.

Just bought the NX30, since it's basicaly a cx760 I don't think it deserves an owner's thread. I will be around posting my questions and observations. I wanna thank you guys for the information supplied.