Sony is taking its first step into the prosumer 4K recording market with its newly announced FDR-AX1 Handycam, a $4,500 camera capable of 4K recording at one of the most attractive prices around.
The FDR-AX1 Handycam records in XAVC S format, giving it an edge over its direct competition, which works by capturing video in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Long GOP and Linear PCM audio which then gets packaged nicely into an MP4 wrapper. The FDR-AX1 is capable to 4K/60p recording, and in order to handle the massive load of data being recorded the FDR-AX1 records to dual QXD cards. A single 64GB card will get you about two hours of 4K recording, if you scale down to 1080 recording you gain an extra hour of recording time.
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This new camera is a fixed lens handycam, meaning no interchangeable lenses but if that is not something that is important to you or what you shoot then I can see this being a great entry level 4K camera for the budget conscious filmmaker. At $4,500 this camera is within the reach of most professional shooters, and should be considered a good option for an entry level 4K experience.
I can see this being a good option for some wedding videographers, even documentary filmmakers in need of a basic 4K setup. That said, this is probably not the camera for you if you want to have control over your lenses or need more advanced 4K features.
What are your thoughts on this new 4K offering from Sony? Is this this sort of 4K camera that you might like for your projects? Let us know in a comment below.
[via Popular Photography]
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