We recorded a short evening sequence on a dull humid night, in 4K (and 1080p slo-mo), mastered to 4K with LUTs applied, using manual settings but auto-focus.
The colour science on the camera is pretty good, and the noise controlled quite well
Category: Sony PXW-Z90
More On The Sony PXW-Z90 Auto Focus
We continue to test this compact video camera, using scenes from a surf event at Sandon Point, NSW. We filmed the first half in SLog 3, but noticed the final results were a little less sharp than expected, yet this changed when we went back to standard profiles (PP4) or HLG (PP10).
The auto focus is excellent and the camera, which we operated in manual exposure mode, handled the difficult lighting situation and fast moving images, even at extreme close-up using clear image zoom.
We find this camera performs really well, and in 4K, despite the 4.2.0. colour depth, the images are excellent.
The Camcorder Is Not Dead – Sony PXW-Z90 Test
We had the chance to test the new Sony PXW-Z90, a small “professional” camcorder with 4k UHD (25/30p) 4.2.0. and 1080p Slow-mo and 4.2.2 10 bit HD. The focusing on this camera is excellent, including face recognition, and it has good reach with 12x optical and up to 18x with clearview. Good optical stablisation, and plenty of custom buttons. It has a full size HDMI port, as well as a SDI port. Plenty of network connectivity options too.
We use a Canon XF200 for much of our corporate work, which has no 4k. The Sony Z90 is proving to be an excellent replacement with similar form factor (but lighter), and has MXF file wrapper which is good for broadcast, but harder to edit. The colour science is pretty good – we used pp4 for this test, but there are options of HLG and SLog3.
Here is a quick demo of the results we got shooting in 4K (and 1080p slo-mo up-scaled).