Sony's new NEX-EA50EH: A large-sensor, low-cost ENG camcorder

In the DSLR News Shooter blog, Dan Chung writes about Sony's new NEX-EA50EH, a hybrid of ENG-oriented camcorders and the FS100/FS700 style of interchangeable lens cameras with Super 35 sensors. The EA50 looks like a long, thin ENG camcorder with a FS100-style viewfinder stuck on the handle. It uses the same E-mount as all of Sony's NEX cameras and camcorders, and it accepts E-mount adapters to support Alpha lenses, as well as FD, PL, Canon, Nikon and Leica mounts.

The EA50 comes with a 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 power zoom ENG-style lens with auto focus, continuously variable iris and image stabilization. The camcorder records in 1080 at 60p, 30p, 24p and 60i, and at 50p, 25p and 50i using AVCHD 2.0 (one model handles both 60 and 50 Hz.) It also has stereo XLR inputs, time code and built-in GPS. The EA50 can record to SD cards and Memory Sticks, as well as to an optional docking flash memory unit, but it only outputs to HDMI, not HD-SDI.

Dan Chung notes some negatives for the EA50: It doesn't come with built-in neutral density filters, so the user will have to add them. Its shoulder pad design is similar to Canon's old XL camcorders, so it's likely to be tiring to hold the EA50 for long periods of time. In addition, some sites have written that the EA50 uses the same sensor as the one found in the consumer-oriented NEX-VG20, not the FS100. On the other hand, it has a form factor that doesn't require any additional hardware for field shooting, and the expected price for the EA50, including the lens, will be $4,000 $4,500 U.S. (per B&H). The EA50 is expected to ship in mid-October.

With the EA50, Sony is responding to shooters who like the flexibility and image quality of the FS100 and FS700--or, for that matter, DSLRs--but don't like all the hardware they have to add to the cameras in order to make them usable in "run & gun" situations. It should be possible to take the EA50 out of the box, charge it up and take it into the field immediately, without any additional hardware. Of course, at $4,000 $4,500, there have to be some compromises in the design--the lack of a SDI output is an obvious one, and the quality of the included zoom lens may be another. Nevertheless, even with compromises, the EA50 may be the right camcorder for a good number of users.

Sony posts details about its new PMW-F3 Camcorder

Sony's U.K. division has posted details about its new PMW-F3 camcorder, which will use a Super 35mm Exmor CMOS sensor with sensitivity equal to ISO 800 and a signal-to-noise ratio of 63dB. 1080 frame rates will be 59.94i, 50i, 29.97P, 25P, and native 23.98P. The camera also supports 720P in a variety of frame rates.

The F3 is positioned significantly higher than Panasonic's forthcoming AG-AF100/101: Its standard HD-SDI interface will output 10-bit 4:2:2, vs. the 8-bit output of the Panasonic AG-AF100, and in April 2010, a Dual Link HD-SDI option will be available that will output 10 bit uncompressed RGB and support 1080/59.94P and 50P. It will record using the MPEG-2 Long GOP codec at 35Mbps or 25 Mbps, not AVCHD. The F3 will support variable frame rates from 1 to 60 fps in 720P and from 1 to 30 fps in 1080P in 1 fps increments. SxS cards will be used for storage, and an optional adapter will support Memory Sticks and SD cards.

The F3 will have its own proprietary lens mount and will come with a PL mount adapter. Optional hot shoe interfaces will be available for Cooke /i and ARRI LDS lenses. Sony is offering some unique bundling options: The PMW-F3L will come without lenses, and the PMW-F3K will come with not one, but three lenses: 35mm, 50mm and 85mm, all at T2.0.

Both PMW-F3 models will ship in the U.K. in January. UrbanFox.TV is reporting that the "tentative list price" for the F3L will be 14,500 Pounds, and 20,700 Pounds for the F3K. Sony has also announced Japanese pricing, which converts into around $17,000 for the F3L. There's been a fair amount of push-back on the Internet to Sony's pricing. The U.S. list price for Panasonic's AG-AF100 is $4,995, and while the F3 has a bigger imager, 10-bit 4:2:2 HD-SDI output and an optional Dual-Link HD-SDI interface, it's hard to argue that those features make the F3 worth more than three times as much money as the AF100.

The F3's price puts it at where the RED originally was at its introduction, and while the current RED is more expensive, it's not that much more expensive. It appears that Sony didn't want to cannibalize sales of its EX3 camcorder by pricing the F3 too low, but if they keep their tentative pricing, they could end up helping Panasonic more than themselves. Panasonic positioned the price of the AF100 against DSLRs, while Sony appears to be positioning the price of the F3 against the rest of the CineAlta product line.