(SR5) The video revolution is coming: A77/NEX-7/VG20 with FullHD 60p and full manual controls!

On August 24 Sony will make an amazing announcement. There is no doubt! And one of the thing you will like most is the new video features! I just learned from my sources that the new A77, Nex-7 and VG20 will support the new AVCHD 2.0 standard. This means that all those camera (!) will be able to record FullHD videos in 1080 60/50/25/24p at 28Mbit/s! Do you like that? Wait…there is even more! All camera will support full manual controls while recording video. And you can shoot video in P or A or S or M mode! All three cameras were development having video recording in mind. That means that the new sensor and the new BIOZ processor have been optimized to avoid artifacts like the weird jello effect. And as I already told you the new 3 million dot OLED viewfinder will have a high refresh rate! Can’t wait to see the first video samples! Keep following us on Facebook, Twitter and follow our RSS-feed! And be sure to be here at SAR on August 24th!
P.S.: Share the news to your Canonikan friends
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kev foster
2 years ago |The rumours seem to get better each and every day!
Even better than that, PhotoNut and Walt seem to be absolutely SEETHING! That gives me great pleasure.
SonyA77
2 years ago |LMFAO!!
Macboy
2 years ago |Sony is on a roll. The F3 and FS100 are really great new Large Sensor cameras and now they have low end cams like HX9v and HX100v and if the rumors are true they will have a solution at every price point from low cost all the way up to the F35. And every one of those cameras will have 1080/60p!!! They will dominate the market for a good while IMO. Great image quality and features and they’ve created a upgrade path for buyers who will start off with one of their lower cost cameras and get used to the look and fee and when they have the money will likely stay with Sony and upgrade to one of their better cameras.
Taz
2 years ago |OMG… this great news. I was holding off buying canon 5dmr2 even thou it is a great cam (Photo & vid) looking between these 2 —-> A77 and VG20
photo Rx
2 years ago |can you change aperture, manual focus, etc during video recording on the nex-7 or do you have to preset it and cant change it once you hit record?
Nico Foto
2 years ago |My 7d is staring at me with that “you’re not thinking on selling me, rrrright?” look…
Pacman
2 years ago |LOL Now hug your 7D so tight man!
Carl
2 years ago |Not too tight, or he’ll have more than just the first frame come out black.
AudioDoc
2 years ago |Not selling my 7D for the A77! Not many would be interested in buying a DSLR introduced in 2004! I’m not a pro. Don’t have the mindset that I need a new digital camera every 1-2 years! Even though the industry would like me to! Certainly not for for “A Video Revolution”! I have yet to buy a Sony Camera body. For my purposes the photographic tools I currently own are entirely adequate. I have drawers full of Super 8 film and video tape that no one is interested in watching to remind me why I don’t need video.
However, I am very interested in seeing Sony’s progress in the Alpha line and NEX line! I sure hope the A77 is everything Alpha fans have been waiting for. It sure seems that it will be very competitive both performance and price wise!
As of this date there are only three cameras in the Sony line up that I would consider buying if I need a camera (which I don’t): the A900 (because I’ve never liked APS-C) the A580 (because it has great IQ despite being APS-C) and the NEX-5 (because I could use all my Rokkors with it). I have to say of the rumored cameras the NEX-5N and NEX-7 are the most interesting, but I have to see them, and see how they perform after they’ve been on the market for a while (and Carl reviews them). Maybe then I’ll be clamoring for “A Video Revolution”?
Rick
2 years ago |This is great news! I am really excited. I think my A700 rocks so I can’t imagine how great the new A77 is going to feel.
I am all for Photo / Video capabilities. I can’t believe people are saying Sony compromised when we haven’t even seen pics or video yet…
In my opinion the more features it carries the better. I get fantastic photo’s with my A700 but miss some great shots because the camera is slow. This A77 sounds like it’s going to be a rocket in comparison.
The day it’s announced Sony will be getting a deposit from me.
Mark
2 years ago |There is no cow level!!!
Dear Sony, my money is waiting for you!!! don’t keep it waiting.
Swemba
2 years ago |28Mbps is still well below the bitrate of the Canon 7D I do believe:(
Gosu
2 years ago |About how much is the bitrate of the 7D?
Andy
2 years ago |Bitrate doesn’t bear the significance that you think it does — AVCHD codec compresses the video more efficiently, and therefore functions at a lower bitrate. Comparing bitrates only makes sense when you’re talking about the same codec.
Espen
2 years ago |The Canons doesn’t use B frames in the encoder (not enough processing power. Thus they must have a substatially higher bitrate to compensate, typically a B frame compresses to 1/2 of a P frame.
RTI
2 years ago |how is that?
Matt
2 years ago |The Canon’s use a higher bitrate for their h.264 encoder (around 45mbps). But bitrate isn’t everything – not even close. Don’t fret the Sony’s will be fully capable of having higher image quality for less data than the Canon’s. Just look at the FS100
James
2 years ago |Swemba – watch the Zacuto DSLR shootout 2011. The Canon DSLRS bit rate means NOTHING in real world shooting or tests. The Canons were horrible in all the tests.
Right now the Panasonic GH2 (even non hacked) with its 24mpbs AVCHD has VASTLY more resolution – not to mention less jellow, morie, etc.
This Sony SLT will be godly and far beyond any current Canon (i own a 5DMK2 – for stills). Canon will have to release something new to compete.
Cheers.
JonF
2 years ago |“Right now the Panasonic GH2 (even non hacked) with its 24mpbs AVCHD has VASTLY more resolution – not to mention less jellow, morie, etc.”
While true the moire in the GH2 is almost eliminated and the resolution is much higher, the Jello on the other hand has actually increased. Rolling shutter isn’t as near a big a deal as those other flaws though!
7xi
2 years ago |A77 is likely to be my 5th generation of my A-mount serie.
From my first 7xi to 800si A9 A700(dslr)
You shouldn’t care all those features because you won’t use all of them. But if you really need them, you can work on it to optimized them. Usually, I spent my time 3-6 months to get used to my new camera’s functions so that I hope A77 won’t change their menus too much. I may need a year to learn all about video in A77
All my cameras I have, I could only get 50-60% of their potential.
So, I’m happy as long as its better than what I currently owns not the one that other poeple owns.
alan
2 years ago |canon will release a camcorder priced to compete against the SF100. DSLRs will stay the same
Logz
2 years ago |Finally, this is exactly what I was waiting for. Now hopefully the price of the NEX-7 isn’t too bad. AVCHD firmware update for the NEX-3 would be nice.
pancanikonpus
2 years ago |today 4th August, 19 days to go orange77 annoucement!
today 4th August, 19 days to go orange77 annoucement!
today 4th August, 19 days to go orange77 annoucement!
Canon 600D, EF 50mm f1.8II for SALE! $806 only! Class10 8GB SD, Bought on 28 May 2011. Total 2 yrs warranty
Carl
2 years ago |Trying to inflict that 50/1.8 II on someone, are you? What a sadist.
bobby
2 years ago |i cant wait!, ill wake up in 8 hrs and open SAR to hopefully see more SR5 rumors! hooray, going to have a great sleep now!..Beautiful rumors!
Eric
2 years ago |AVCHD 2.0 is great news. Full PASM modes for video is even better news.
However, I hope there’s going to be clean HDMI-out (Full-HD res without the menus). That way we can record better video on an external recorder such as Atomos Ninja, Aja Ki Pro & Convergent NanoFlash.
Einar
2 years ago |@ Eric: just a question: why do you mean that video gets better when recorded on an external recorder? and about how will that be visible/noticeable – i.e. watching it on a full HD 60″ plasma?
Steve S.
2 years ago |Meh … Honestly, there is NO video feature that I would find exciting.
At most, I can muster “mildly gratified that it will have the feature and thus be competitive in the market,” and THAT only in hopes that a profitable a77 will lead to more mid-level-and-better cameras, sooner rather than later.
Of much more interest to me:
Has the SLT flash-lag bug been fixed?
Will there be good provision for microfocus adjust?
Will chipless / manual lenses be handled robustly (a la a700; or better yet, Pentax-style)?
Will the 12fps mode be semi-crippled, in any/most/all of the ways that the a55′s 10fps is?
How big is the buffer, that supports the “12fps” mode?
What’s the (RAW+JPEG, or at least RAW) speed after the buffer fills?
Does it freeze going into image-review (specially after a long burst)?
No one of these is a deal-breaker for me, but taken together they add up to a dramatically-less-attractive upgrade path (attractive to me, at least) than a more traditional SLR…
- Steve S.
Eric
2 years ago |@Einar,
If the A77 (and hopefully the NEX-7 as well) can provide clean HDMI out with 1920x1080p @60fps @ 4:2:2 sampling at high bitrates, then this will provide easier/better editing and color-grading in professional NLEs (Non-Linear Editor), such as FCP and Premiere Pro.
If you’ve ever worked with ProRes or CineForm codecs, you’d understand what I mean.
Einar
2 years ago |Ah, yes, I see the great possibilities.
So far I have only worked with 25 and 28 Mbps AVCHD Full HD edited with a Sony Vegas Pro NLE – and was pretty satisfied with the technical quality – but -as I understand now- there is even a class of quality above that.
I have the Sony CX550V and it delivers the HDMI live view without the screen menus. I just bought the Sony CLM55 5″ battery LCD screen last week – and it really works well.
I intend to use it with “my” NEX 7 (in October hopefully) when doing macro shots of flowers – and utilizing the Sony “Peak View” focusing feature, which the CLM 55 has a special setting for.
Sky_walker
2 years ago |If someone would like to see – An Alpha 77 without the grip.
(sorry for texts in Polish on the website, you can google-translate it if want, but there’s just a short re-cap of A77 rumors from SAR)
Eric
2 years ago |…So for example – instead of AVCHD 28mbps 4:2:0 sampling, you can get 160mbps 4:2:2 ProRes. You get much better color fidelity, and video that is ready for quick editing (you can scrub the video back and forth very quickly in the editor). If you try to directly edit AVCHD footage, it would be very difficult both to color-grade it and move back and forth to examine the footage (even on a good modern machine).
RichT
2 years ago |Not to rain on anyone’s parade, but does having AVCHD 2.0 REQUIRE that cameras be able to shoot 1080/60p? I know the standard ALLOWS for it, as well as bitrates up to to 28mbps, but I’m not clear whether it’s mandatory. 1080/60p off a mammoth 24mp APS-C sensor would be an amazing achievement, especially if the rolling shutter effect has been lessened. The readout rate off such a sensor would have to be insanely fast, if this is true Sony has made great strides the past year (I wonder if they’ve been able to tackle the overheating problem???). Does it also mean that 1080/25p won’t be supported? (perhaps only in mp4 mode?)
Carl
2 years ago |The I/O rate would have to be very high to be able to handle the 6048×4032 pixels when shooting a burst of still images, too.
The sensor’s native resolution is about twelve times the resolution of 1080p, so five photos would have the same amount of data as a second of video at 1080p60. It seems like the A77 will have a higher full-resolution burst rate than 5fps. Even accounting for inefficiencies in pixel binning, that leaves room for them to comfortably offer 60p video.
Einar
2 years ago |I have had the little Sony TX100V camera for a couple of months. It actually does the full HD 1080 50/60p (progressive) at 28 Mbps with a 16,2 Megapixel chip ….
… and the result is slightly (but noticeable on a 58″ Plasma) better than from last years “real” video camera, the CX550V in terms of even less noise, better sharpness and better possibilities of zoom when editing.
Aiden
2 years ago |A REAL photographer adapts with the technology..
Budgets are getting tighter, and clients now want MORE for LESS.
Sometimes getting the job comes down to wether you can offer moving image, with your stills.
Your next job might go to that bloke who qouted the same price but can do movies as well…. Even if he less experienced.
Pro’s DO use these functions, time to suck it up, because they are here to stay.
King Renas
2 years ago |Marvelous, I can’t wait to sell my NEX-5 and get NEX-7 in October or November.
Things are getting better with Sony, looks they are following the wright path.
David B. Monier-Williams
2 years ago |If it doesn’t have XLR audio inputs…stuff it!
Rinaldo Lima
2 years ago |If it’s really true, will Sony sell any FS100 after this release?
alan
2 years ago |why is this good news? Unless it has efficient audio, there is not point
Mark
2 years ago |In lots of applications on board camera audio is not important as audio is recorded with other equipment.
Michael C
2 years ago |@David & Alan, double system sound is easy now compared to even just five years ago. There are much better very small or compact stand alone professional audio solid state memory(most are SD card storage) recorders with or without XLR inputs such as the Zoom H4N for $300. It is also relatively easy to sync the high quality audio recorder sound with the reference camera audio sound with software such as Singular Software’s Plural Eyes or built into the latest digital video editors like FCP X.
If that type of audio quality/features was built into the camera it would be much bulkier & harder to handle & carry plus it would add too much to the price. If you want A77 quality video with XLR inputs all in one body then you can buy a FS100 for $5000 plus the cost of lenses.
alan
2 years ago |the A 77 is it 25p in PAL countries? I bet it isn’t!