A closer look at Sony’s HXR-NX1001 min read
Reading Time: < 1 minuteUntil Sony introduced the PXW-X70, the only route to a small, portable camera with anything other than a very small sensor was to buy a DSLR. Competing three-chip CMOS cameras can have good overall imaging performance, but the complexities of creating wide-angle lenses with a difficult retrofocal layout invariably involves a certain degree of compromise.
A rather different compromise is imposed on anyone deciding to go for a video-capable stills camera, and much as the company has recently done well in this field, with the widely-adored Alpha 7s, people with an interest in XLR audio, long battery life and a standard handycam ergonomic setup and physical layout might reasonably prefer something else. It’s possible to add XLR audio input to the 7s via it’s Mi Shoe hotshoe, but the resulting configuration lacks some of the compact unobtrusiveness that people use DSLRs for in the first place.
The forerunning PXW-X70 itself includes some interesting new ideas, being based on a one-inch, 20 megapixel imaging sensor. That in the NX100 is reportedly based on similar technology. We’ve written extensively about how oversampling helps, shrinking noise, moire and the artefacts of Bayer colour reproduction simply by averaging them out. There are disadvantages to a high-resolution sensor, of course; proportionally smaller photosites are less sensitive, requiring greater gain for a given absolute sensitivity and therefore more noise. Whether or not this situation turns into a zero-sum game is dependent on the degree of oversampling and ““ to a lesser extent ““ on the technological sophistication inherent in the specifics of the sensor design.
via (RedShark News)
Image Credit: Sony
