Re: NX70u High Def

I must respectfully disagree.

Each of the cameras I have tested has a different problem. Each of the cams I have tried came close to meeting my needs, but each one had a different defect - the fact that one camera met my specs in one aspect, but then fell down in another, is an indication that it is possible to build a cam without that particular defect.

Also, keep in mind that my standard of comparison is a $1200.00 Sony HDR-CX550V consumer cam. It does not have problems with vignetting at full zoom, nor does it have noisy zoom servos, cheap rattly buttons, inconsistent focus at the frame edges. Surely asking for a camera with it's level of quality but also some pro features such as fully manual adjustments is reasonable?

The Sony NX5U was WAAAY better built than the Panny AC-160. Beautiful, solid construction. Quality buttons and switches. Silky-smooth, quiet rings. No vignetting at full zoom. Wisper-quiet variable zoom. But it had a too-small LCD (and it was not TruBlack), no dual SDXC and the resolution was not as good as the CX550V. Also it is too old, (2009 engineering) and it lacks AVCHD 2.0 (like the Panny AC-160 or the Sony NX70)

No $40K camera will be light enough for my purposes. Besides, no camera at ANY price right now (that have not tested) meets my specs on paper. The AC160 had all the features I need, at a price I can afford ... but I refuse to live with vignetting, poor build quality and noisy zoom servos!

So far, the cam that came closest was the NX70 ... if it just had as good image quality as the little old CX550V - a cam costing 1/3 as much - I would have been willing to live with some of the minor annoyances like the worse purple fringing or the crappier Active Steady Shot.

I have discussed the return thing with B&H and they are cool with it. I pay for the return shipping, I use the cameras very gently for only a day or two. (Not counting the debacle with the NX70, and they were most gracious about that after I engaged Sony to help.)

For the record, here is what I am looking for:

* Can't be larger or weigh more than an NX5
* At least 14x effective zoom (the NX70 and CX550V meet this in Active Steady Shot mode)
* Uses SDXC cards
* AVCHD 2.0 (i.e. 1080 60p)
* Image Quality must not be worse than $1200.00 CX550V consumer cam. This includes coma, CA, vignetting, fringing and low-light noise
* minimum 3.2" LCD
* LCD and EVF simultaneous operation
* Zoom servos must not be noisier than CX550V
* Build quality no worse than CX550V
* Fully Manual controls (will accept selectable function for rings)
* Vari-zoom on the handle would be nice

If Sony would just release an upgraded NX5 with 1000 TV lines of res, a 3.5" viewfinder and AVCHD 2.0 I would buy it right away!

So there!

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM, nVidia FX 570, Vegas 10e (and 11) x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V