Description
| Brand | Sony |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Sony Private Ltd. |
| Product | Camera |
| Mounting Type | Sony |
| Country of Origin | Japan |
| Batteries | ? Lithium ion batteries required. |
| Condition | New |
| Manufacturer | Sony |
| Camera | Sony PXW-Z280 |
Sale!
Sony PXW-Z280 4K XDCAM Camcorder
£6,821.88 £4,434.22
Stock expected soon
Email when stock available
Additional information
| Product code | ACE-59323 |
|---|---|
| Barcode | 4548736086555 |
| Brand | Sony |
| Colour | Standard |
Steve –
Full test images httpsqq0u.app.linkey5D6YbLi5RI have owned many Sony video cameras over the years, but I usually dont scrutinize them. But when I pulled the 280 out of the box and fired it up, I immediately saw severe barrel distortion on door jambs in my house.I got curious and starting researching, hoping that I had received a lemon. Other people reported similar issues, and a Sony rep told me that Japan said that the distortion was in spec. In the day and age where cell phones and 350 point and shoot cameras shoot straight images throughout their zoom range, I found this curious. That led me to run some test.So here are my final tests on the z280. I really did this for myself, because I dont take spending 7 grand lightly.I shot the test outside on a sunny day, using a building which had detail and lines. I shot at full wide, and at 50 zoom, at f1.9 and f5.6. I used manual focus and white balance, and shot in UHD and HD. It was necessary to refocus each shot. I focused on the center of the frame on the steel mesh on the building which was closest to me. I repeated the same test using my Z150, which employs electronic lens distortion correction, and the Z150s image is almost distortion free.In spite of the Z150s shortcomings short zoom, button deficiency, no output to external monitor while recording UHD, and no 60p in UHD, the cameras image quality has always impressed me.I used the Z280s stock settings out of the box, where as the Z150 is adjusted for the work that I normally do. So the 150s knee, gamma and black levels are adjusted to give the camera a flatter output signal.Theres much to like about the Z280. Ive been waiting for a real servo zoom lens since my 537 DVCAM days with a camera body and Fujinon lens with a real servo zoom. The 280 has it. Unfortunately, the smooth zoom doesnt translate to the LANC control, either using Sonys or Varizooms zoom controls, which isnt surprising given the LANC protocol. But still, a much better zoom is there on the z280.Ive been waiting for a real viewfinder for a long, long time. You know, one that you can actually focus with. And the 280 has one. I did have more trouble focusing in the HD mode as opposed to the UHD mode, even with the expanded focus. The 150 was a breeze to focus in both HD and UHD because it has two levels of zoom on expanded focus. The 280s expandable focus is probably adjustable, but I didnt check.I like the button and switch layout and theres lots of them Also, things such as the variable ND and total feature controls are great, and Ive become accustomed to using them in my x180, which is similar to a z190 without UHD.Things that I dont like on the 280 are the battery life, the lens softness on wide angle at f1.9, the lack of electronic lens distortion correction which leaves you to record barrel and pincushion distortion not an issue on the Z150, or the X180 which has a 26650mm equivalent G lens, and the fact that Sony keeps moving the power button around. Its located on the left side on the z150, and under the viewfinder on the z280. I wish they would just leave it on the hand grip near your thumb where its been for 40 years.The lens is very soft on the outer edges, especially on wide angle. I think this may be an additional problem with my 280. But I have seen other 280 footage on Youtube similar softness but not a s bad. Its typically worse on one side of the frame than the other. The bottom line is that my Z150 just plain looks better than the Z280.I did not test the 280s features because as far as Im concerned, if a camera cannot produce a good image, all the features in the world wont help it. My 280 was purchased new, and I have no way of knowing if the factory adjustments were accurately done. But in my opinion, the z280 doesnt produce the good image that it should. It does seem to fare better in HD than UHD though.In researching things online, many people get the feeling that Sonys QC has gone downhill in the past decade or so. I unfortunately tend to agree with that. Sony builds the best camera bodies in the world, but as many will attest, the lens performance seems to be their Achilles heel.The Z280 may work for your needs as is, but I sent my 280 back BH is GREAT about returns. If Sony corrects the IQ, I would probably repurchase the camera because Ive been a Sony user all my life. But firmware corrections aside, Sony usually doesnt correct things in their models, they just release a new model a couple of years down the road.
Marc –
Just starting to get comfortable with the menus and buttons of my new Z280, practicing a bit every day so that I can changes settings by feel in a darker theater or reception venue, places where I film frequently. It was a short learning curve for me having come from the EX1 to the EX1R to the PXW X200, and now to the Z280. The overall menu layout and the user buttons on the left side of the camera felt very familiar to me.The three features of the camera that I enjoy most, and the primary reasons why I purchased this camera are the AUTO ELECTRONIC ND filter, the f1.9 lowlight capability, DIGITAL EXTENDER and FACIAL RECOGNITION AUTO FOCUS.AUTO ELECTRONIC ND FILTER Its pretty amazing to be able to manually vary the ND filter density while holding constant an f1.9 wideopen aperature, or having the camera automatically vary it for me. Be aware that for the auto electronic ND Filter to work, you must set the ND filter switch to one of the 3 available positions. This function will not work in the clear position.By setting the ND filter switch to position 1, 2, or 3, flipping the ND variablepreset switch to variable and setting the ND menu setting to manual, rotating the ND filter wheel changes the density of the ND filter in a range of 14 to 1128 without changing the fstop. As expected, depth of field can be manually increased and decreased by varying the density of the ND filter, particularly with a wide open aperature. f1.9By selecting the auto ND menu setting the Z280 adjusts the ND filter density automatically, depending on the amount of light that is entering the lens. Your manually set fstop still remains constant.Moving the camera, for example, from a darker image on my patio to the bright sky, the camera will adjust the ND filter appropriately from 14 to 1128 automatically. If the sky is still too bright at 1128, you can further alter the exposure by rotating the iris ring until the image looks good to you.Because I use the electronic ND frequently, changing back and forth from manual to auto, I found it convenient to assign it to a user preset button.FACIAL RECOGNITION I took my Z280 out for its debut performance to a kids show at a theater to try out the facial recognition focus feature. I have a user preset button assigned to change the settings of this feature quickly. Available settings are AF off, face priority AF and face only AF. According to the user manual the face priority AF, when it finds a face, focuses on that face. When the face is no longer detectable, auto focus mode is engaged. I filmed the entire show using this feature and it worked flawlessly. Not a single scene was out of focus.In face only AF the accuracy of focusing is equally accurate, but when the face is no longer detected, focus is lost it doesnt automatically switch to auto focus, exactly as explained in the manual.This varies from person to person but in my case I found that other useful user presets to assign to the 10 available buttons are facial recognition focus, last clip playback, digital extender which looks beautiful, BTW, and last clip delete. You can assign any of the userassignable functions to any button you wish. These are the ones I use most often in my work flow.Im very happy with the Z280. Looking forward to using it in special event and corporate video settings very soon.
Bala –
I just received my Z280. My main concern was about the lens. I am relieved to find out that it is 1.9 throughout the range, like EX1EX3. Because Sony does not list it clearly on its website and BH does not have the full specs as of August 3, 2018 here, there has been some confusion. Rest assured its 1.9. Beautiful I am looking forward to selling my EX1 and EX3 and buying one more of this baby
Clifford –
My Z190 was EXTREMELY soft wide open and did not get sharp until f.4 and higher. I also a lot of weird optical ghosting and strong purple fringing on the long end past about 400mm or so. This camera also relies HEAVILY on huge amounts of noise reduction to clean its image. Even at 0db, there are heavy amounts of noise reduction artifacts on edges. I did a side by side test between this and the Sony 1inchtype sensor NX80 and the NX80 beat the Z190 BADLY in resolution and overall clarity. It was not even close. This was not even so much a lens problem, it was more that the Z150s noise reduction artifacts were far, FAR less then the Z190. If you buy a Z190, check your lens VERY carefully wide open and on teh long zoom end.
Alexander –
I wanted to love this camera. I am pretty much stuck with it at this point so I have tried to talk myself into still loving this camera. I dont love this camera.How is it that other cheaper cameras can keep straight lines straight at their widest field of view, but the engineers that created the PXWZ280 couldnt I pointed my camera at a large classroom white board with my focus chart taped to it in order to recalibrate my backfocus more on that little slice of heaven later in this review and the horizontal plane of the whiteboard looked like the profile view of a pimple on someone face, or as if someone placed a golf ball underneath the center of a large pancake. The amount of work it would take to fix it in post in order to straighten the horizontal awkward shaped curvatures the wide angle of this camera and its lens creates is daunting to think about. Not to mention how much one would have to crop in to achieve this workload. Zooming in when shooting to straighten it out would be the better alternative, but then whats the point of having a wide angle in the first place. Bottom line here is dont expect PROFESSIONAL standard wide angle results with this camera.To add to this misery, the barrel distortion is so bad, that as a result, the image, especially on the right side, is soft. Simply soft. NOT sharp but thats not saying that the overall wide image is tack sharp beyond that thus the mention of my backfocus recalibrating I mentioned. You have to stop down to f5.6 and zoom in a bit to get a sharp image. You will NOT get a fully sharp, and straight image at this cameras widest angle and at f1.9. I fully believe that if the lens didnt create such a extreme amount of unacceptable lens distortion and pull and twist the image all over the place, then the image on the edges would be sharper. But then again, who knows.So back to the reason why I was recalibrating my backfocus. This is the 3rd time trying to get my backfocus to remain sharp. most of the zoom range is perfect. Razor sharp. I am not confident when it goes wide.I would also like to end almost this review by saying this is my second copy of this camera thinking the first one was a fluke. Acquiring this second copy, as well as all the other chatter from other users experiencing the SAME thing tells me this is a full product line set of flaws. Unfortunately after three months of owning it while going through the exchange process and TRYING to talk myself into that its just me, I am sitting on a seven THOUSAND dollar camera that is past its return deadline of which I cant provide a professional product to anyone that would want to hire me under the parameters of which this camera fails DRASTICALLY. I am a single individual, not a large company so a 7000 investment of which I deal with buyers remorse daily, is depressing.Sony, I am sure you have PR people crawling all over the internet, obtaining feedback and anything else that pertains to your products. I am sure you guys have eyes on BH and its Sony product reviews. I can only hope. No, PRAY, that you guys have been reading the complaints throughout the Facebook groups and forums and either do something about these issues and FIX THEM with a swift firmware release, personally honor returns for those that cant return them to their sales vendors, or if its a hardware issue, provide a recall and exchange these flawed units for new ones WORTH the 7000 price tag.Please address these issues and make the people that believed in you happy.
David –
I bought this to replace the Sony PXWZ150 that I had just purchased in February this year…What a difference this Z190 is…the 25 times zoom, the lowlight capability, the advance facedetection are all welcomed improvements. Battery life with the included U30 is limited, I recommend buying the U60…I did and cant wait to put it to the test. The one thing I miss is the 120 slomo frames per second…but Im hoping SONY will put it in an upcoming firmware.
Michael D –
I think I will be very happy with this camcorder, but the one I received was very erratic. Some videos were great, others were horrible, in the same recording session. My conclusion is that I received a defective camcorder. I have returned the camcorder for a replacement, and Im waiting for the new camcorder. Since I bought several hundred dollars of accessories, Im very hopeful that the replacement will be good. I really like the cameras menu structure, the location of buttons and switches, and the potential. If I can consistently get the good videos that I received, then I can give it 5 stars and my full recommendation.
Nick –
I bought three of these cameras and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128gb card for each.No SD card works in any of the cameras that i bought.I tried a smaller Sandisk extreme card with no luck as well.Have reported this to Sony and am waiting on engineers for an answer.
Tim –
I was on the fence about purchasing the Z150 or the Z190. The difference in price wasnt an issue for me, but whether it was worth spending it for my purposes. I purchased the Z150 and used it for one week, but the allure of the Z190 continued to haunt me, so I purchased one and VERY quickly realized that I should have purchased it over the Z150. Dont get me wrong, the Z150 is still a great camera, but just doesnt have the many invaluable improvements and features that the Z190 does. If the 120 fps Slow Mo is critical for you, then that may be an issue because its not something that can just be upgraded in a firmware update. At least this is what Sony told me. The camera is also physically larger, but not a lot, compared to the Z150, so it may be something for some people to consider. I was surprised by how the Z190 doesnt feel any heavier than the Z150 with the included battery.The only problem Ive encountered so far is that there seems to be a problem with this camera recognizing SanDisk SD cards. Sony verified that theyve had issues with some of the SanDisk Cards, but couldnt be specific as to which ones. The SanDisk SDXC U3 Class 10 Cards I have did NOT work. I even went to my local Best Buy store and purchased 2 brand new cards and they didnt work either, so I returned them at the store. I ended up purchasing 2 Sony SFG64T1 SDXC UHSII U3 Class 10 cards RW 300299 MBs and they work just fine. I would normally get 128MB cards, but didnt want to spend the extra 100, not knowing if they would work or not. I cant imagine Sony is trying to Railroad people into buying their SD cards, but ya never know.I would give this camera 5 Stars if it werent for the SD Card issue. Consumers just shouldnt have to be left in the dark about which SD Cards to use, especially when the manual is clear that any SDXC U3 Class 10 cards should be used.
Bala –
Somebody in the QA sections says the Z280 ramps down to 2.4 at the tele end even though the display remains at 1.9. Used in a live situation I felt it might. Further testing needed before assuming anything.
Luc Van Den Steen –
Geen Nederlandse handleiding bij ook niet online .
Tim –
OK. I left a review yesterday about my new PXW Z190 and need to admit that it was based upon my liking the many great features on this camera over my Z150. I hadnt had a chance to even use it due to the hassle over finding an SD card that would actually work in it. I addressed this in my review in more detail at the bottom.Since the new Sony SDXC cards I mentioned in my review yesterday DO work, I was able to go do some test shots today. All I can say is that I was VERY disappointed, to say the least, when I viewed my images on my iMac 27 4K HD computer. All but 3 out of 29 sequences were worth keeping. My footage looked like I had placed a soft focus filter on my lens. I was shooting in clear morning light in very normal circumstances and my images look awful .While I love the feature set of this camera, its worthless to me if it cant consistently produce great images. My DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Yuneec Typhoon H Plus Drones produce way better images as well as the new Sony Z150 I purchased a week ago.So, unless Sony can give me a GOOD explanation as to what is going on with this camera, I will be returning it to B and Hand just keep my new Z150 for now. It least it produces great images and is reliable…..so far.By the way, Im beginning to think that there may be something to these 1 Sensors as apposed to the 313 ones. Maybe they just cant handle 4K
Steve –
I found it to be soft wide open, some purple fringing zoomed in. But by far the reason I returned the Z190 was the horrible noise in low light. I had to do an event focused on a podium in dinner lighting. I had to use 18db and it is by far the worse I have even experienced. I had an AX100 as a second camera and the noise was surprisingly far better than the Z190. Im bummed and was hopeful, especially after selling my Z150 for the Z190. Z150 not great in low light but far less noisy. I wanted to believe these 13 sensors were going to show an improvement but unfortunately not the case for me.
Advanced Media –
The Sony PXWZ190 is an excellent camera for event coverage, news gathering, nature footage, interviews, and professional video work.I use the camera for interviews, convention, stage, event coverage, YouTube content creation, and trade show coverage. Sonys new 3CMOS 13inch chips are VERY good in lower light conditions than any other 13inch sensor camera Ive seen in the past. The 25x optical aoom Sony Lens G on this camera is spectacular.It takes two SDXC memory cards have used up to 512GB in size with no issues and record up to 4K UHD 3840x2160p 60fps in the XAVCL format as well as DVCAM. In December 2018, the optional MPEG2 422 license will be available for purchase along with a more advanced networking package, It also record 1080p 422 out of the box in the XAVC format.Includes 4channel audio. 2 phantom powered XLR audio jacks, 3GSDI, WiFi, ethernet LAN cable connectivity, and a host of other options.This camera has improved my workflow and quality and gives me the professional look, feel, and workflow Ive always wanted. My convention and event coverage as well as YouTube content creation has improved dramatically even since Ive started using this camcorder.Highly recommended
Douglas –
I do Breaking News Video for Local and National Media outlets. I have been using Canon Gear for the last 5 years. I gave a glowing review for the Canon XF405, but………………….This Sony PXWZ190 is Soooo Much Better. Heavier, but better.The crystal clear viewfinder, the high quality of video. The ability to record 4K and HD at the same time. Its just a great professional camera. I shoot mostly during the daytime but shot my first night video and the low light is very good.I have completely switched over to Sony after 30 years of Pro Nikon Gear and 5 years with Canon Video Gear. Thank you Sony
gurmeet –
Looks like Sony finally got it right. I used this camera to shoot handheld at a concert and it was extremely easy to use. The quality is excellent. Stabilization, auto focus and zoom are def its strong points. Keep in mind you will only shoot max 50mbps in HD and 150mpbs in UHD. Overall, Im very happy with this camera. Perfect for run and gun.
ED –
Been shooting with EX1s and EX1Rs for the last 10 years. I have had the 280 now for about 2 weeks. Spent most of the time trying to make sense of the manual and familiarizing myself with the layout etc. Also doing tests to see which codecs work best with my memory cards and Editor. Got a lot more work to do but here are my preliminary thoughts.The engineers have done a nice job improving the menus while keeping to many of the EX1 layouts like the location of gain, white balance etc. The image quality is great. Dont see a big quality difference between shooting in Mpeg 422 and the XAVC codecs.There are a few things that could have been done a lot better…. like the manual. Great to tell us what the buttons do but little info on what the functions for those buttons are. Telling us that a button turns this or that on or off does not add much to understanding what is happening to my image when it is on or off. Saving scene, file and ALL file is a total mystery. Where did the picture profiles go From what I can tell picture profiles are the file saves or the scene saves and must be saved on a SD card… Not much info there.The 4 tracks of audio are a bit misleading since you only have two xlr inputs… so you need a shoe attachment for adding other external inputs… and the audio settings are very confusing.Lovely to be able to gain up to 18db with no noticeable noise. And the X2 digital doubler is fantastic. So you not only have 17x zoom but can double that wtih the x2 digital doubler without digital artifacts.Which they would have added a high quality MP4 for doing 4k or HD simultaneosly with mp4. The only Mp4 function is doing Proxy recording on the SD card.Wish they would have given us RTMP live streaming. They did in on the 5R. The network stuff is all there. How hard would it have been to include RTMP protocal for streaming directly to Youtube etcHave only done a little in the 4K area. ANyone tried to register their purchase yet Sonys registration site wont let me even enter the model number unless there is some other site to do that. Asked for more help on the SOny site and its been a week no reply yet. Too bad their customer service is so poor.
hardik –
They must add this features. In these days slow motion is too much important yes there is 59 FPS but still they should add 120FPS in Full HD and 240 FPS like rx10 mark IV has.
Scott –
The z280 is pretty good in low light, has a fast lens and lots of improvements on audio controls. Based on shooting with it for a week, the image quality is very nice and the ability to gain up with little noise is a nice feature.
Alex L. –
Coming up from a Z150, the Z190s low light performance is excellent and the face detection auto focus really helps in challenging focus situations where Id have used manual focus in the past. The variable NS filter is also a huge asset. On the down side simulrecord is not supported in 4K at this time, this is a big step backwards from the Z150 or even Sonys less expensive handheld line and hopefully it is corrected in a later version. Sony still doesnt offer a trap to focus option. HLG performance is good but it does require a hair more grading in post than some of Sonys less expensive cameras. Battery life with the standard battery is mediocre but BPU90 lasts an eternity.
Dennis –
I own a small production Company with one full time employee and myself. This is my 19th 3k professional video camera purchase. Many of my cameras have been 5K to 8.5K. I have rented many more cameras than this. This has got to be the worst video camera release from Sony EVER. Much of this cameras function does not work at all. Not a single auto focus feature works. Switching from manual to auto makes absolutely no difference. The variable ND filter function only works once you have already selected to use the ND filter in manual mode. In other words, it IS NOT a 0infinity feature. The direct menu feature does not work in any usable manner in either Full Auto or Manual modes. Only a single codec is available in 4K. Once you use the cameras onboard black balance feature you cannot reverse the effect. The ownerss manual that is supplied on a CD is replete with inaccuracies and holes. The assign buttons dont work. Many of the functions within the menu are greyed out as if the will be available at some later date with some firmware update. Did ADORAMA sell me some grey market, prerelease JUNK I paid 3 figures for next day air to get this thing for a VERY important shoot. Now I cant even get a hold of anyone due to ANOTHER holiday that I dont understand. I had so much hope for this camera, and for a professional relationship with a new to me New York camera super store.
Michael –
Power consumption in the PXWZ280 is bad My batteries, SONY BPU60, drain fast and life meter is not accurate . It says 230 minutes when I first put in the battery, only last one hour ,60 minutes. I was shooting a wedding and the camera powered off at 50 minutes of life in the battery. That was not cool IALL my batteries did it too not just one. So not the batteries. I checked and every thing was turned off wifi ,GPS, etc My PMW 200 gets the whole 230 minutes. As far as the camera, a Little heavy , The lens is back more than the PMW200 so watch that your shotgun mic is not in frame. My ME66 is way to long for this camera. Need to buy a shorter mic. I dont use gain so I set all the presets to 0. But if you accidentally hit the gain on the screen options thumb control it will change your presets. Also hard to see the on screen display tools. I would like the option to adjust size.I like the cameras face focus. and the LCD looks great. unless you are outside in the sun. Still shooting in HD. The 4k does not play well in Premiere. but the battery issue needs to be fixed Or Sony need to provide me more batteries. In an 8 hour wedding I would use 3 BP U60 batteries with my PMW200 . I used 3 in 4 hours with PXWZ280Not too happy. I want this camera to work as well as the PMW200 does for me. I dont want too switch brands but might need too.
Nick –
Turns out it was the SanDisk SD cards that dont work, not the camera.SanDisk SDXC USH1 U3 Class 10 128gb cards do not work in this camera.SanDisk support has confirmed and has RMA my order.
ED –
Still no response from Sony on registering. The varizoom remote that BH sold me is poor in that it cant creep the zoom as good as the rocker on the camera.The Waveform is fantastic, however I believe the histogram is wrong. Does not show proper histogram graph. Maybe they can fix that in an update. The vectorscope is also unusable.Still trying to figure out the scene files… is that a new word for picture profilesI agree with another reviewer about the overlay text on the LCD screen….. its too small and hard to read.Power consumption does seem to be very high. Dont know why that should be the case.So far generally happy.ED
Billy –
I have the HDRXR500 camcorder which made by Sony I have been using for number of years since I bought it around 1300.00 in 2011. It has been an excellent camcorder. Beautiful, solid, and makes beautful movies and clips. I use it anywhere in any occasion and always happy with it stil today. As I want to upgrade, I bought the PXWZ190. I received it a while ago, and set it in a closet for a while as I did not have time to test it out or use it.I just pull it out today followed the in truction to format the card 128GB SD. Then I started to record inside around the house with low light condition to see how good it is. After about 15 min, I stopped and pull the card out and insert the card into my PC to check it out. And here where the problem begin First problem is open and edit the file I could not be able to open the files with SonyPlayMemoriesHome, WindowMediaPlayer, CyberLinkPowerDVDPlayer, CyberLinkPowerDirector … Finally, I download A Trial Converter to convert the MXF to MPG in order to see the clip. It took me twice of the time for editting with this new camcorder. The next problem is the camcorder its self I tried to use the second card 32GB SD, I could not be able to format or access to the second 32GB SD card. Followed the instruction, do any way I could, use Select Slot button, Update Card, Format Card. I could not be able to access or format the 32GB SD. Insert one card at a time, insert both card into the slot … it wont let me access and format the second one. Only 128GB SD the first one is usable and it is only card that I can use to record with this PXWZ190.I am frustrated very much with this cam. I cost me almost three time as much in comparison to the HDRXR500, but giving 10 to 8 in quality, and more time to work on it convert MXF to MGP before I can do anything to the clip what worng with Sony why I cant record in MEPG or MPG format, more headache on access and format the memory card.After waiting for the camcorder PXWZ190, waiting for the set of light, extra battery and charger, tripod with zoom remote control, camcorder carry bag, memory cards … it is way more than 30 days, it could be two months already. The time is past and there is no way to return it.Total cost is round 5000.00 now is going back to the closet. 5000.00 saving money for better product, which I was always trusted in Sony, now go down to the drain. I hope that may be after another 50 years in the closet it may turn into a classic or unique item so my grand grand childrent could put it up in the auction and get the money back.It is horrible, terrible, and awful product just stay way.
Rocky –
Supar
Edward –
What a difference eight years makes in camcorder technology I bought the Z190 as a replacement for my trusty NX5U and Im loving it.Even though this camera is UHD with 3 densely packed 13 sensors, the low light capability is much better than my old camera. I can boost the gain to 18db and the image still looks great, on the NX5U, 18db was unusable. The 25x zoom is really nice, I shot an event from the back of a large room about 100 ft at least and got some tight close up shots from that distance that I wouldnt have been able to do before. I like the MI shoe connection for the Sony wireless receiver I use with it, no need for an audio cable or batteries in the receiver. The advanced face detection focus feature works really well and will definitely save time for runandgun interviews.
Ira –
This camera is the latest evolution of the Sony 3 chip 12 inch compact camcorder line. It appears Sony listened to user suggestions and wishes. The capabilities are a smorgasbord of features. Discarding the conventional analog lens remote for LANC gives this camera a wide range of remote control features. The CMOS sensors get better and better so even with 4k worth of pixel sites their three chip performance tends to be better than larger single sensor cameras in both sensitivity and color fidelity.This camera is great for capturing 4k footage and can even provide SLog output for post color grading when going for a film look. It can also put out HDR video in HDR ready for playback on HDR monitors with no further processing. But it also can be used for run and gun and standard video capture in HD. A bonus of the 4k sensors is the 2X electronic multiplier feature, when in HD mode, that doubles the lenss reach to 34X without loss of sensitivityThere are many spare user programmable buttons and image processing menu tweaks to keep you experimenting for a long time.The camera has a lot of RF radios builtin GPS, WiFi and Nearfield. Plus it has two USB ports designed to support a pair of cellular modem sticks Ive yet to try live wireless delivery or sending proxies.Overall, this model has the feature set I wish my previous Sony 3 chip cameras had. This camera can be simultaneously powered by an external AC power supply 1116 volts DC output and its battery pack. If you lose AC power it wont interrupt the shootSo far the only criticism is the default battery pack they provide with the camera. The BPU30 is way too small to provide adequate runtime or enough current to operate any optional USB powered devices such as 3G wireless modems. The camera can draw 36 watts Youll want to buy BPU90 batteries to insure getting over 2 hours of run time.
Richard –
I really like the nomenclature of this camera, a nice size for our multicamera theater and concert shoots. However, the SanDisc 128gig SD cards that are offered as accessories did not work in this camera. The PXWZ190 did not recognize the SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO UHSI SDXC Memory Card V30. So I ordered the more expensive Sony brand and they work just fine. Great camera picky appetite for cards.
Tim –
Ive written 2 previous reviews for this camera and they were both very negative. Ive already wasted many hours of valuable time with this camera and have concluded that Sony is either aware or not aware that there is a batch of them that are defective, or…..they all have the same problem and some people are just not that fussy about the image quality coming out of their camera.Ive been VERY happy with the features and image quality of my new Z150, but since many of the upgrade features of the Z190 appealed to me, I decided to buy one. Big disappointment. What good are all of the features if the image quality is consistently badI returned my first camera B H was kind enough to pay ALL of my shipping costs and then purchased a 2nd one hoping it would be better. Wrong I did some testing indoors with good available light in Full Auto Manual modes, and was convinced that I had received a good camera……until I took it outside in normal bright sunlight.Suddenly my pictures were terrible. I played with many of the camera settings hoping it would make a difference, but nothing worked. So I returned my 2nd camera to B H as defective.In over 40 years of Photography experience 30 Professionally Ive NEVER purchased a new camera Leica, Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon, Sony, JVC that didnt produce great images right out of the box.Guess thats what I get for buying a camera thats only been on the market for a few months. The Consumer is the test lab for this productFYI. This camera also eats battery power like reviewers say the Z280 does. Not so with the Z150.
Clifford –
Pros Great body design and great pro menu featuresCons Terrible image quality Heavy purple fringing on the long end Extremely soft wide open Only gets sharp at f4 Massively heavy amounts of noise reduction artifacts at all gain levels.I returned it. If the final output of a camera is this bad, it doesnt matter how good the menu features are. The Z150s 1inchtype sensor image quality output is light years ahead of this camera.
wafed –
I have 2 FS7 cameras but when I used this one I fell in love with it right away.Of course the FS7 is better but for quick interviews news coverage etc. This will work much easier and you dont have to deal with rigs and or handles or unstable viewfindermonitor.
Keith –
I have had several cameras in this Sony line including the two predecessors such as the PXWx200. Though the optics and specs are similar my initial observation is that is camera is better in low light. This says a lot because the x200 was also greatand this one is even better.The thing I hate about this camera is the zoom. I film a lot of professional dance. I need very slow and smooth zooming. Generally I set the handle zooms control to a very slow speed. It ramps up and down nicely and looks very smooth. With the z280 the slowest setting for handle zoom is far too fast for me to use. It is almost as if the engineers designing this camera have never watched a television show. I spoke to Sony about this and they know about the issue but do not even seem to care. If you film sports you might have the same problem. The rocker zoom does have the ability to do very slow speed zooms however it is easy to accidentally put too much pressure on that and cause the zoom to be way to fastor not enough pressure and have it jerk on and off.A few other positives about the camera. The monitor is amazing I think they may have gone with an OLED screen. The camera also has a waveform monitor built in which I prefer over the histogram used on previous models. You can still set the camera to histogram if you prefer that.You can now manually set the white balance without going through the profile settings.One generally note about Sony Professional. Their repair department is horriblelet me repeat HORRIBLE. They make you pay 100 just to get a call back within 24 hours. Otherwise it may take you days just to get the authorization to send a unit in for repair. You can no longer speak to a service department tech simply by calling them. If you need a quick repair you can consider that 100 a shake down fee. You will not be treated as person, but rather a number by some uncaring phone gatekeeper. If you need your camera fixed quickly it simple will not happen because of this bureaucratic change Sony has made. Sony professional customer service is some of the worst I have ever seen. Even cell phone and cable companies are nicer and faster.
Keith –
I have had several cameras in this Sony line including the two predecessors such as the PXWx200.The thing I hate about this camera is the zoom. I film a lot of professional dance. I need very slow and smooth zooming. Generally I set the handle zooms control to a very slow speed. It ramps up and down nicely and looks very smooth. With the z280 the slowest setting for handle zoom is far too fast for me to use. It is almost as if the engineers designing this camera have never watched a television show. I spoke to Sony about this and they know about the issue but do not even seem to care. If you film sports you might have the same problem. The rocker zoom does have the ability to do very slow speed zooms however it is easy to accidentally put too much pressure on that and cause the zoom to be way to fastor not enough pressure and have it jerk on and off. Using a LANC controller will not resolve this problem. The camera zoom will be too fast for even some sports videography.
Douglas –
Yes, there is some minor barrel distortion at the extreme widest focal lengths, but nothing I find out of the ordinary or alarming. In fact, you really have to have a scene with a lot of vertical lines and be shooting full wide before youd probably even notice it. To me it is a nonissue and it never even crosses my mind while shooting, but it would be incorrect to say there is no distortion at all. It kind of reminds me of when people were all up in arms over rolling shutter issues when the EX1 first came out 10 years ago. It was a big deal to a few people who made a lot of noise about it, and then was quickly forgotten by people who actually wanted to use the camera to get work done. In my opinion, if you weigh all the huge benefits and amazing capabilities of the Z280 against this one shortcoming, it is still one of the very best cameras ever made. It is amazing the features and performance Sony has packed into such a small body. This is basically a tiny Z450 with a 17x lens for about 110th the price of a Z450 lens.
Angelo –
Im a hobbyist but I like using prolevel tools with my hobbies. Prior to purchasing this camera, I did some research, and aside from the reviews on here, and a handful of YouTube videos, I did not find anything. I was concerned about the reviews here but thought perhaps its just a bad batch or firmware issue some were having.I was wrong.The badThe camera is soft, especially at wide open zoom.At f1.6wide open irisaperture, it is very hard to focus in a scene where you have a landscapeobjects at varying distances. So naturally, one would step down a bit, perhaps to a range of f4f5.4 or around there, but this introduces other issues related to light, which Ill cover later.Autofocus is not that great. I have tried using a laser tapemeasure from my toolbox, that I know is very accurate. I measured the distance to various objects and the autofocus is off around 50 of the time. By a lot. I find myself going full manual and using peaking, although its still difficult to distinguish peaking from normal ojbect outlines in some cases. You have the option to use color peaking and intensity on the viewfinder or what Sony calls normal peaking. Normal peaking is easier to see than color peaking in terms of outlining objects in focus, but again there are many situations where its a bit difficult to see. Face detection option is very good though.Now lets go back to filming at f4f6. For indoors, not possible to get a nice image. For outdoor with low light, not possible to get a nice image. Unless you are filming in bright sunlight, the image is way too dark.You will not get good results, there is just not enough light entering the sensors. You can turn up the gain, but then starting at 9dB it starts to get noisy. You can go up to 32dB of gain, but anything over 9dB looks terrible.Even indoors, say you want to film something in your living room and turn on the overhead light, and also turn on 45 lamps, in 15×15 room. Still not enough light.At 30FPS with 160 shutter you need to be at f1.6f1.9 to get acceptable light entering the sensor, otherwise its too dark, and you need to add gain. f1.6 you will have focus issues if you want to do antying other than portrait with bokeh etc, too blurry for anything even slightly in front or in back of your target area.This being said, the camera performs very poorly in the following situationsAnything without bright sunlightbright studio lights.What good are all the menu features, ND filters etc if you are stuck with filming at f4f6, and need to zoom in a bit to get more clarity, and also there is some wierd fringing at full zoom.The goodNice optionsoutputs.Very good menu features.Very good physical design.Options for MIShoe add ons and XLR inputs.Overall, this product was either not ready for release, or the manufacturer cut some major corners.I have compared filming shot by shot with my iphone 7 plus, and in most cases, the iphone produces a more consistent video. A MUCH sharper video, with more detail and dynamic range as well.Also, I tend to grade my videos in Davinci Resolve and edit in Premier Pro. Comparisions I did with the iPhone were out of the box, no editing, straight from the camera. I even tried giving the z190 an advantage in some cases to try and add more dynamic rangework on the colors, sharpness etc, and the iPhone still looked better.Thankfully BH has a good returnexchange policy. Most likely I will exchange the z190 for another product. 3750 is way too much money for the type of results this camera produces. Looking at Canon equivalent, Panasonic, the z280 is a possibility but 7k is a ton of money, and finally looking at just going DLSR with a Canon 1d and a couple of lenses, that will ultimately put me and more spend that a z280, but at least I will have high sharpness and great low light performance due to the huge sensor.Thats it. Wanted to share my thoughtsexperiences in hope of helping somone make a decision.P.S. try and buy products like this from stores like BH. I dont have anything to do with them, but I did notice a lot of what seem to be questionable and you wont get a warrantyexchange policy on other websites just to save a few .
dheenu –
So far, I have 4 different model of Sony cameras Sony Z5U, Sony Z150,Sony HXRNX100 and this one, this is worth model which costed 4K and wasted my money on this. Very bad color always get very dull and saturated color . I love Z150 and Nx100 qualityVideos.They need to fix this by firmware or thoughOptional MPEG HD License for free for existing customer. Last 5 month used for 3 3 hours session, ruined by video quality. The worst buy ever
Reinaldo –
no estoy conforme con la cmara la voy a devolver
Eric –
This camera is an excellent addition to Sonys lineup, which is huge, so thats saying something. It fills a gap in 4K capable cameras that have three sensors, do higher end codecs, and do not have a detachable lens. It has many professional features such as 3G and 12G SDI output although, strangely it will not do 6G, timecode inout, genlock, electronic ND with auto adjustment capability, and many, many more.I think what makes it a solid professional camera starts with quality both in terms of build and in terms of results. The picture quality is really excellent. Pictures are crisp, clear, lifelike. Colors are good especially after some tweaking to the Paint menu. The grip zoom is smooth and tethers nicely. The viewfinder is clear and usable. The flipout screen is nice and crisp and bright. Controls are well laid out, and easily reassigned as needed. The codec choices are rich and varied, and work well for any shooting situation or demand. In short, Sony has a winner hereOne special note about low light performance. Its clear that 12 sensors are much better at gathering light than their 13 counterparts. The Z190 camera which we also now own is significantly darker at all equivalent settings. This cameras noise characteristics are very good, so long as you are careful to control exposure and gain together.This camera isnt for a rank beginner or any operator who isnt willing to learn all the pitfalls and pratfalls of having so many settings adjustments at their disposal. It takes some time with the camera to learn the ins and outs. So, if youre a grabandgo kind of person, or you suffer from a general lack of patience and willingness to learn, you might do better with a more stripped down model. Just saying if youre not getting excellent results from the PXWZ280, its probably not the cameras faultBut thats not to say the camera isnt without its drawbacks. Ill list mine in no specific order.1 The SQ mode only goes to 60p. Even in HD. Thats pretty weak for a contemporary Sony camera in this price class. HD should go to at least 120 FPS, and it would be nice at this kind of a price point to have that capability in 4K as well, even if only in burst mode. Perhaps a future firmware release will address this important issue.2 Sonys choice to employ SxS media slots is odd. With its closest cousin, Sonys FS7, using less expensive XQD media cards, that would have been a better choice. Thankfully, you can use those same cards on this camera with the use of an adapter, but still…3 Power use is liberal. The battery provided with the camera wont even run it for an hour, and Sony probably should bundle a battery the next size up with this camera.4 MIShoes are weird. Maybe its just me, but there are very few accessories that work with those, and those that do are awkward. A solid lower profile XLRinput module for audio channels 34 that doesnt also require the purchase of a suboptimal shotgun microphone should be available by now.As some users have complained, at the widest, this cameras lens shows some barrel distortion. Its more noticeable in certain symmetrical shots with straight lines. Its not fisheye, but it is what I would consider slightly pronounced. To me, this is not the dealbreaker other users have proclaimed. Its pretty minor since its not showing in most of the material I shoot, and for those few shots where it really becomes objectionable, its easily corrected in post. Again, perhaps a future firmware update will address this issue with some incamera correction as they offer on other cameras.On balance, and objectively speaking, this is really THE flagship allinone Sony camcorder of the day. I expect to add a second one when the budget allows. Again, if you buy the camera, take some time to educate yourself about it. Take a master class by a qualified instructor, and get out and use it a bunch to get comfortable with all of its powerful capabilities.
Gregory –
I shoot indoor sports under fluorescent lighting. This cameras auto WB and auto focus produced grainy poorly balanced images consistently. I have a Panasonic HCX1 which performs much better on these functions. I thought for the premium price Id be getting some marked improvement. Alas I found none.
richard –
I love everything but the performance of this camera i.e. the features are great, controls layout, construction, specifications in general, battery life, the bad soft focus, noisy in even slightly low light, areas that appears as lens fog but the lens is clear I suspect what is really causing these issues is the lens design has internal reflection issues with light bouncing around internally I tried a circular polarizer adjusted to reduce glare and it seems to improve the video quality hence that conclusion either way SONY needs to correct this product or take it back. I also have the FDRAX700 and there is no comparison in video quality the AX700 video is clearly better in low light and focus.
Angelo –
I had the same issues as the others that have posted 1star reviews.I tried and tried to like this camera, but it has a few major weakness.Great features, menu, codec options etc. But in these days where phone cameras are shooting 4k and you have technologies that combine multiple sensors with computational imaging, you would expect that this camera would at least match them.Features aside, when shooting 4k, everything is much more noticeable.The image on this camera is soft overall.Shoot wide angle, and its not usable. Barrel distortion and very soft AND not in focus.If you want to downvote me go right ahead. But do yourself a favor and test it for yourself. Research it. Look at reviews. Search for YouTube videos, Vimeo videos everything you can find, and you will see people are upset with the wide angle performance as well as other aspects. Maybe 1 or 2 videos look great, but with most, you will be asking yourself is this really 4k Is this really from a 7000 cameraSeems as if the only thing this camera is good for would be for interviews or such.To summarize, do lots of research and make sure you can test this camera out before committing.
Cyggie –
I originally purchased the Z190 as a BCam to my Sony A7sii. Since I used Sony camcorders in the past, I thought it would be a great idea to purchase one myself.To start off, when I purchased this camcorder, I already had multiple issues.1. Soft images were produced at f3.2 or lower fnumber2. Only Sonybranded SD cards were working on this camcorder.3. Terrible lowlight performance. I have used quite a few 13 camcorders in the past and the Z190 performed awfully bad in lowlight.4. Certain menu functions werent working correctly. These include but were not limited to the paint menu, SD card format, etc.5. No 422 10bit in 4K, seriously Sony There are a vast majority of us that like to do green screen work and apply color grades, and I think the processor on this camcorder is perfectly capable of 422 10bit. If the GH5 with a sensor almost four times as big can do 10bit 422 in 4K internally, so can the Z190 with a 13 sensor.Okay, so to start off, the fixed lens isnt the best optically speaking. There is heavy amounts of fringing at both wide and full telephoto. The lens also produces tons of halation light smearing in bright conditions. These two imperfections affect the sharpness of the lens which is only really fixed at around f4 or so. However, this introduces two problems. One being that f4 for a 13 camcorder would be a terrible aperture to stop down to in lowlight. The second issue being that f4 produces a way less shallow depth of field than f1.6. There is also quite a bit of barrel distortion especially when zoomed all the way out.Moving on to media issues, the camcorder just wouldnt accept any SD I threw at it. I kept getting errors such as Media not exist or errors that would tell me I needed to format the card and try again. However, upon formatting three different SD card brands, the camera still produced these same errors. I even tried hard formatting the cards through my computer, making the files on them unrecoverable. The camera still produced errors. I then decided to try the Sony brand SD card. Worked perfectly. The problem here is that these cards are very expensive for such a small amount of data. A 64GB Sony GSeries SD card will cost around 110, which just isnt worth it considering the small data rate on the camera. The Z190 records up to 150 megabitss in 4K, and the Sony Gseries can write at a maximum of 300 megabytess 2400 megabits a second. In the end, I was completely fine purchasing the GSeries memory card. However, the rest of the camcorder does not make up for the SD card issue.As for lowlight, just stay away from the Z190. Check out my YouTube video that references the Z190 to the A7sii.httpswww.youtube.comwatchvDecIbtCK0hYNo, I wasnt using them to compare, I just wanted to show you how bad the lowlight on the Z190 really is.In fact, after running some tests, the lowlight wouldnt even compare to my old Sony MC2500 with a 14 sensor. Even at 0db, there is a lot of noise in the shadows. When I pushed the camera to 9db, the image produced was completely unusable. There was tons of colornoise and noise reduction artifacts. Yes, in bright light you can crank the gain down to 3db which is a nice feature, but that doesnt make up for the bad lowlight performance.The Z190 wasnt completely bad, although I think Sony couldve done better with this 3CMOS camcorder. Here were some of the features I loved.1. Great body design. The buttons are laid out nicely and easy to access.2. Solid menu system. The menus really do feel like a video camera and way less of a consumer camcorder.3. Nicelysized LCD and viewfinder. I mainly liked the viewfinder, as it was comfortable with the eyecup, and good resolution to the eye.4. SQ feature. Sonys SQ feature is a great way to get a quick timelapse or slow motion shot.5. Good selection of codecs. From XAVCL to DVCAM, there are a good variety of codecs and resolutions to choose from.Overall, the Sony PXWZ190 isnt such a great camera, and I wouldnt recommend it. I have used many Sony products in the past and am quite disappointed with this camcorder. I am glad that BH has a good return policy as I was able to return it a little over a few months ago easily.
John –
I wanted to wait and use this camera for a while before weighing in on its quality. There is a bit of debate whether this Camera is worth the money and if the issues people are experiencing are as severe as some reviews make them out to be. Honestly, I think the fervor is a bit over the top. The issues with this camera when compared with its sensor output, usability and multiple formats feel about justified.The largest two concerns people have are 1 the soft edges and barrel distortion at max zoom out. 2 Poor autofocus. I have had zero issues with auto focus both on creative projects, event filming, and commercial work. Autofocus will always pull towards the most drastic movement, and the internal working seem to have updated nicely with the inclusion of facial recognition. I beat this thing pretty hard for about 3 days in various hospital lighting conditions and I have to say the end footage came out perfectly usable with a good amount of room for color correction.However, the Barrel Distortion is a concern and does exist. It only come into play at the absolute widest setting I find a light tap in on the zoom removes most of it, and from my post production side a few shots I did with it were easily corrected with about 12 lens distortion fix in post. This is honestly a pretty easy hurdle to get over.The reality with this camera is the data rate is wonderfully juicy, the image quality is deep and pristine, the aperture is generous, and the 4k at 60fps is a solid benchmark to future proof your purchase for the next five years. If it werent for the above mentioned issues this would be THE transition camera from small to medium solo video producers. As it is now, its a powerful tool if you know how to use it.
alan –
I am now on my replacement Z190 because of an issue with sound of the Zoom MotorServo being picked up on the Mic. Sony denying there has been no problems with this issue, but I have 2 friends who have recently purchased this camera and have the same problem
Ben –
Deze sony pxw190 is een hele mooie filmcamera met een uitstekende kwaliteit.
Keith –
The slowest minimum speed with the handle zoom or external LANC controller is far too fast for most uses. Sony says they will most likely never address is issue.
simon –
A year down the road and seven countries later confirms the Z280 as a workhorse. When all you have is access to ONE camera, the Z280 will quickly prove its worth. You must remember like all camera systems to check the back focus its simple and will answer any of the soft focus comments immediately. I use adapters with sony qxd cards and the xavci looks gorgeous. 4 channels of audio and built in ND with variable adjustment makes shooting in all sorts of light simple. The rocker takes some time but it is sensitive and can perform as needed slowly or fast. Dont get frustrated patience will reward you. OLED viewfinder is perfect even in BRIGHT light. Ill post more after another summer shooting. cheers
Douglas –
Ive owned my Z280 since September 2018 and I absolutely love it. It is by far one of the best cameras I have ever used, especially when you consider the price. Even though I also own an PXWFS7 and a PMWF55 30,000 I find myself using the Z280 as my primary camera, mostly because of the speed and convenience of having an excellent 17x f1.9 lens.In my opinion, the complaints about barrel distortion and other issues mentioned in some of the reviews here at BH are blown totally out of proportion. The Z280 is not an entrylevel camera and it is not a consumer camera. It must be setup and operated properly if you expect to get broadcastquality results. In fact, I feel so strongly about the Z280 that Ive produced a 20minute Youtube video that shows how great the camera is and how you can get maximimum performance from it. I cant post a link here on BH, but if you Google UJSeBvpkKo it will come up with the link on Youtube. You will love this camera
Michael –
I bought 2 of these camera,Im a wedding videographic and I didnt get the chances to edit the video until weeks after I got the camera.First the image is not as good as my PMW200s, I looks grainy and when shooting live in low light it looks good. but editing the video is way darker that the histogram and monitor looked live for both cameras at the same event. Focus is off, I zoom in, get my focus and zoom out and it is still out of focus. Might because of the low light issues the camera is having. Not happy. I cant return them because it is past the return date. New firmware came out 2.0 need to experiment with it.Spent 14,000 on cameras not happy with, sucks.
Scott –
This is an update from my previous post. After 7 months of using this camera in a professional environment, I have to agree with the negative reviews of the image quality coming out of the Z280. Nice codecs and versatility aside, the camcorder does not look good at all right out of the box on the wider angles and it should for 7K. Wide angle sharpness is a disaster especially when in 4K and you are never quite sure that what you are shooting is going to be usable. Zooming out from telephoto to wide angle on a brighter aperture will surely show you the faulty, very soft lens. Sony needs to issue a firmware update to address this issue and attempt to fix the problem.
brian –
I have owned the camera less than a month. The system clock shows 1 hours of use… Yesterday I was testing out the camera and the camera will not focus while in manual focus. The IRIS ring is also not working.I called Sony ProVideo and they wanted me to pay for the shipping to have the camera fixed or replaced with a refurbished unit. I then called BH and they are sent me a free shipping return label. BH is sending me a factor new replacement.I will update this review when I test out the replacement but as of right now I am giving it a 1 star based on Sony customer service.
Richard –
I love this camera, its general performance and feel. My problem with it, and the reason Im selling it, is that it does not function well in the darker, colorful stage performance environments in which I shoot. Current stage lighting consists of LED lighting that the Sony 3CMOS cannot seem to handle. The blues are extremely overblown, color is muddy and the frame is grainy. Tech seems to believe it is the 3CMOS issue.Great camera for better lighting conditions just not suited to mine.
Cedric –
I love this camera
Bachir –
Perfect for regular shooting as wedding event newsJust what I need
Abraham –
I wanted a camcorder to record sporting events indoors at 4K 60fps. I had been using a DSLR on a gimbal and wanted to upgrade to a real video camera for the form factor and simplicity.I have only used this for one basketball game at this point. The basketball court was fairly well lit for a gym. I would rank the low light performance as not great compared to a Sony A7RIII, Sony A9, Sony FDRX300, and BMPCC4K. Each of these cameras has been used at this same gym in the same lighting conditions. The Sony PXWZ190 had the most noise by far. I have not seen this much noise in many years.I love the camcorder on a monopod and the physical layout and features of this camera, however the performance is not great for what I need. Compared to these other cameras I use this noise was much more noticeable. Neat Video took care of it pretty well, but not perfectly. I am really surprised by how noisy the footage is for any indoor shots, even reasonable welllit rooms.I also experienced several glitches using the eyepiece viewfinder. Twice I had black line flickering that lasted several seconds, and once I had the screen turn white for a few seconds while I was recording.I am in wait and see mode. I love the form factor, but the quality is not what I was hoping for. The footage from this Sony PXWZ190 looks crappy to average compared to the beautiful shots from the same gym taken the same night with the BMPCC4K. With a lot more post production work I was able to make it look decent.
Bala –
This camera needs serious firmware updates and Im not sure that can correct all of its flaws. I was very excited in paper about this camera but now I realize I shouldnt have trusted the hype by the manufacturer.This camera cannot reliably autofocus in good lightdaylight In manual focus it is not parfocal. The zoom by the rocker is not smooth, worse by a remote. Then there is a barrel distortion issue. The video is soft overall. My tenyear old EX1 and EX3 still produce better videos in comparison. The difference becomes apparent when editing in multicam. The 4K from my X70 looks better than from this. There are more problems but what is the point in ranting here, right Just frustrated. My only hope is for firmware updates to address the problems, if that is even possible.
Kleber –
Easy to use, nice colors. Strongly recommend.
John –
I wanted to wait and use this camera for a while before weighing in on its quality. There is a bit of debate whether this Camera is worth the money and if the issues people are experiencing are as severe as some reviews make them out to be. Honestly, I think the fervor is a bit over the top. The issues with this camera when compared with its sensor output, usability and multiple formats feel about justified.The largest two concerns people have are 1 the soft edges and barrel distortion at max zoom out. 2 Poor autofocus. I have had zero issues with auto focus both on creative projects, event filming, and commercial work. Autofocus will always pull towards the most drastic movement, and the internal working seem to have updated nicely with the inclusion of facial recognition. I beat this thing pretty hard for about 3 days in various hospital lighting conditions and I have to say the end footage came out perfectly usable with a good amount of room for color correction.However, the Barrel Distortion is a concern and does exist. It only come into play at the absolute widest setting I find a light tap in on the zoom removes most of it, and from my post production side a few shots I did with it were easily corrected with about 12 lens distortion fix in post. This is honestly a pretty easy hurdle to get over.The reality with this camera is the data rate is wonderfully juicy, the image quality is deep and pristine, the aperture is generous, and the 4k at 60fps is a solid benchmark to future proof your purchase for the next five years. If it werent for the above mentioned issues this would be THE transition camera from small to medium solo video producers. As it is now, its a powerful tool if you know how to use it.
Bala –
This camera needs serious firmware updates and Im not sure that can correct all of its flaws. I was very excited in paper about this camera but now I realize I shouldnt have trusted the hype by the manufacturer.This camera cannot reliably autofocus in good lightdaylight In manual focus it is not parfocal. The zoom by the rocker is not smooth, worse by a remote. Then there is a barrel distortion issue. The video is soft overall. My tenyear old EX1 and EX3 still produce better videos in comparison. The difference becomes apparent when editing in multicam. The 4K from my X70 looks better than from this. There are more problems but what is the point in ranting here, right Just frustrated. My only hope is for firmware updates to address the problems, if that is even possible.
ERNEST –
Great price with great customer service.
Kleber –
Easy to use, nice colors. Strongly recommend.
Douglas –
Ive owned my Z280 since September 2018 and I absolutely love it. It is by far one of the best cameras I have ever used, especially when you consider the price. Even though I also own an PXWFS7 and a PMWF55 30,000 I find myself using the Z280 as my primary camera, mostly because of the speed and convenience of having an excellent 17x f1.9 lens.In my opinion, the complaints about barrel distortion and other issues mentioned in some of the reviews here at BH are blown totally out of proportion. The Z280 is not an entrylevel camera and it is not a consumer camera. It must be setup and operated properly if you expect to get broadcastquality results. In fact, I feel so strongly about the Z280 that Ive produced a 20minute Youtube video that shows how great the camera is and how you can get maximimum performance from it. I cant post a link here on BH, but if you Google UJSeBvpkKo it will come up with the link on Youtube. You will love this camera
Maricarmen –
Excellent camera for the News job and tv programs
Dorian –
We own 3 previous versions of Sony Camcorders Two 7 year old NXCAM and in 2019 we purchased a new NX5R NX CAM and these camcorders are great. Because these former Sony Camcorders were so great we ordered the new PXWZ190 4K XD CAM March 2020 . The optics on this camera are horrible. Low light is not good at all and The edges of the frame make things round . Example straight lines have very noticeable curves. will camcorder will make people look fat. Our IPhones do extremely better quality video than this camcorder.
David –
Excellent product very good
wafed –
I have 2 FS7 cameras but when I used this one I fell in love with it right away.Of course the FS7 is better but for quick interviews news coverage etc. This will work much easier and you dont have to deal with rigs and or handles or unstable viewfindermonitor.
Eric –
This camera is an excellent addition to Sonys lineup, which is huge, so thats saying something. It fills a gap in 4K capable cameras that have three sensors, do higher end codecs, and do not have a detachable lens. It has many professional features such as 3G and 12G SDI output although, strangely it will not do 6G, timecode inout, genlock, electronic ND with auto adjustment capability, and many, many more.I think what makes it a solid professional camera starts with quality both in terms of build and in terms of results. The picture quality is really excellent. Pictures are crisp, clear, lifelike. Colors are good especially after some tweaking to the Paint menu. The grip zoom is smooth and tethers nicely. The viewfinder is clear and usable. The flipout screen is nice and crisp and bright. Controls are well laid out, and easily reassigned as needed. The codec choices are rich and varied, and work well for any shooting situation or demand. In short, Sony has a winner hereOne special note about low light performance. Its clear that 12 sensors are much better at gathering light than their 13 counterparts. The Z190 camera which we also now own is significantly darker at all equivalent settings. This cameras noise characteristics are very good, so long as you are careful to control exposure and gain together.This camera isnt for a rank beginner or any operator who isnt willing to learn all the pitfalls and pratfalls of having so many settings adjustments at their disposal. It takes some time with the camera to learn the ins and outs. So, if youre a grabandgo kind of person, or you suffer from a general lack of patience and willingness to learn, you might do better with a more stripped down model. Just saying if youre not getting excellent results from the PXWZ280, its probably not the cameras faultBut thats not to say the camera isnt without its drawbacks. Ill list mine in no specific order.1 The SQ mode only goes to 60p. Even in HD. Thats pretty weak for a contemporary Sony camera in this price class. HD should go to at least 120 FPS, and it would be nice at this kind of a price point to have that capability in 4K as well, even if only in burst mode. Perhaps a future firmware release will address this important issue.2 Sonys choice to employ SxS media slots is odd. With its closest cousin, Sonys FS7, using less expensive XQD media cards, that would have been a better choice. Thankfully, you can use those same cards on this camera with the use of an adapter, but still…3 Power use is liberal. The battery provided with the camera wont even run it for an hour, and Sony probably should bundle a battery the next size up with this camera.4 MIShoes are weird. Maybe its just me, but there are very few accessories that work with those, and those that do are awkward. A solid lower profile XLRinput module for audio channels 34 that doesnt also require the purchase of a suboptimal shotgun microphone should be available by now.As some users have complained, at the widest, this cameras lens shows some barrel distortion. Its more noticeable in certain symmetrical shots with straight lines. Its not fisheye, but it is what I would consider slightly pronounced. To me, this is not the dealbreaker other users have proclaimed. Its pretty minor since its not showing in most of the material I shoot, and for those few shots where it really becomes objectionable, its easily corrected in post. Again, perhaps a future firmware update will address this issue with some incamera correction as they offer on other cameras.On balance, and objectively speaking, this is really THE flagship allinone Sony camcorder of the day. I expect to add a second one when the budget allows. Again, if you buy the camera, take some time to educate yourself about it. Take a master class by a qualified instructor, and get out and use it a bunch to get comfortable with all of its powerful capabilities.
Michael –
Power consumption in the PXWZ280 is bad My batteries, SONY BPU60, drain fast and life meter is not accurate . It says 230 minutes when I first put in the battery, only last one hour ,60 minutes. I was shooting a wedding and the camera powered off at 50 minutes of life in the battery. That was not cool IALL my batteries did it too not just one. So not the batteries. I checked and every thing was turned off wifi ,GPS, etc My PMW 200 gets the whole 230 minutes. As far as the camera, a Little heavy , The lens is back more than the PMW200 so watch that your shotgun mic is not in frame. My ME66 is way to long for this camera. Need to buy a shorter mic. I dont use gain so I set all the presets to 0. But if you accidentally hit the gain on the screen options thumb control it will change your presets. Also hard to see the on screen display tools. I would like the option to adjust size.I like the cameras face focus. and the LCD looks great. unless you are outside in the sun. Still shooting in HD. The 4k does not play well in Premiere. but the battery issue needs to be fixed Or Sony need to provide me more batteries. In an 8 hour wedding I would use 3 BP U60 batteries with my PMW200 . I used 3 in 4 hours with PXWZ280Not too happy. I want this camera to work as well as the PMW200 does for me. I dont want too switch brands but might need too.
ERNEST –
Great price with great customer service.
TIMOTHY –
This is my second Sony camera. It works well in low light.
Cyggie –
I originally purchased the Z190 as a BCam to my Sony A7sii. Since I used Sony camcorders in the past, I thought it would be a great idea to purchase one myself.To start off, when I purchased this camcorder, I already had multiple issues.1. Soft images were produced at f3.2 or lower fnumber2. Only Sonybranded SD cards were working on this camcorder.3. Terrible lowlight performance. I have used quite a few 13 camcorders in the past and the Z190 performed awfully bad in lowlight.4. Certain menu functions werent working correctly. These include but were not limited to the paint menu, SD card format, etc.5. No 422 10bit in 4K, seriously Sony There are a vast majority of us that like to do green screen work and apply color grades, and I think the processor on this camcorder is perfectly capable of 422 10bit. If the GH5 with a sensor almost four times as big can do 10bit 422 in 4K internally, so can the Z190 with a 13 sensor.Okay, so to start off, the fixed lens isnt the best optically speaking. There is heavy amounts of fringing at both wide and full telephoto. The lens also produces tons of halation light smearing in bright conditions. These two imperfections affect the sharpness of the lens which is only really fixed at around f4 or so. However, this introduces two problems. One being that f4 for a 13 camcorder would be a terrible aperture to stop down to in lowlight. The second issue being that f4 produces a way less shallow depth of field than f1.6. There is also quite a bit of barrel distortion especially when zoomed all the way out.Moving on to media issues, the camcorder just wouldnt accept any SD I threw at it. I kept getting errors such as Media not exist or errors that would tell me I needed to format the card and try again. However, upon formatting three different SD card brands, the camera still produced these same errors. I even tried hard formatting the cards through my computer, making the files on them unrecoverable. The camera still produced errors. I then decided to try the Sony brand SD card. Worked perfectly. The problem here is that these cards are very expensive for such a small amount of data. A 64GB Sony GSeries SD card will cost around 110, which just isnt worth it considering the small data rate on the camera. The Z190 records up to 150 megabitss in 4K, and the Sony Gseries can write at a maximum of 300 megabytess 2400 megabits a second. In the end, I was completely fine purchasing the GSeries memory card. However, the rest of the camcorder does not make up for the SD card issue.As for lowlight, just stay away from the Z190. Check out my YouTube video that references the Z190 to the A7sii.httpswww.youtube.comwatchvDecIbtCK0hYNo, I wasnt using them to compare, I just wanted to show you how bad the lowlight on the Z190 really is.In fact, after running some tests, the lowlight wouldnt even compare to my old Sony MC2500 with a 14 sensor. Even at 0db, there is a lot of noise in the shadows. When I pushed the camera to 9db, the image produced was completely unusable. There was tons of colornoise and noise reduction artifacts. Yes, in bright light you can crank the gain down to 3db which is a nice feature, but that doesnt make up for the bad lowlight performance.The Z190 wasnt completely bad, although I think Sony couldve done better with this 3CMOS camcorder. Here were some of the features I loved.1. Great body design. The buttons are laid out nicely and easy to access.2. Solid menu system. The menus really do feel like a video camera and way less of a consumer camcorder.3. Nicelysized LCD and viewfinder. I mainly liked the viewfinder, as it was comfortable with the eyecup, and good resolution to the eye.4. SQ feature. Sonys SQ feature is a great way to get a quick timelapse or slow motion shot.5. Good selection of codecs. From XAVCL to DVCAM, there are a good variety of codecs and resolutions to choose from.Overall, the Sony PXWZ190 isnt such a great camera, and I wouldnt recommend it. I have used many Sony products in the past and am quite disappointed with this camcorder. I am glad that BH has a good return policy as I was able to return it a little over a few months ago easily.
Jonathan –
Ive been meaning to write a review to counter the head scratching 1 star one for a year now. But to be blunt Ive been to busy using the camera well, three of them actually to do so. Now that things are on hold for a month…I have been using three of these cameras to film indoor staged shows Theaterconcertsdance etc for over a year had tried the 190s initially, which are truly dreadful and should be avoided at all costs. While not 100 perfect, is any camera These come pretty close, especially when one recognizes their strengths and occasional limitations.Image quality is decent out of the box, but needs to be tweaked to really look its best. With the right settings, youll be able to do a lot of your work in camera vs. doing it in post. I highly recommend Doug Jensens excellent series on this camera. First chapter is free and gives a great overview of the 280 and the 190. In it, he gives a couple setting options that I have found to be ideal for my filming needs. Cant post a link, but do a search on Vimeo.Im not sure why the other reviewer found the zoom to be sub par I suspect he is using the small secondary rocker on the handle vs. the larger one on the side, as I am able to achieve incredibly slow speeds using it down to 1 zoom number per second.Things I really like on closeups, detail is pretty fantastic and if you set your levels to match your needswants I think youll be very pleased with the results. Focal depth is a lot better than I feared it would be and Ive been able to film performers zipping around a stage, crossing updown stage, etc. with remarkable clarity in the final image. A lot depends on light and the sweet spot is keeping the aperture at 5 or higher if at all possible. gain set to 9 is remarkably clear and noise free. Ive been shooting on XQD Cards using the adaptor and have had zero problems knock wood. I havent been filming using the XAVC Intra format as its not recommended on those cards but from what i hear is possible…i just film way too many one night only events to risk it. XVAC Long works beautifully though.What Im less than fond of the battery that comes with the camera is a joke. On a longwide shot, having a bit of zoom is recommended as 0 zoom tends to have a bit of curvature on the sides. Also, be aware that this camera is really hit by triangulation in regards to focus the sides tend to be softer on a wide shot than the center due to standard geometry. And keeping aperture at or above 5 is crucial to combat it. One thing Im really not fond of is that the viewfinders do not show what your settings have done to the footage, so its not very WYSIWYG which can be an issue if your settings allow for more low blacks and high whites. But thats easy to get used to and compensate for.The much touted facial recognition features are…very hit or miss, I find and pretty useless, especially if you are in lower light situations or…have subjects who are, shall we say, not the palest really horrible at locking in on persons of a darker complexionThe audio capture is great and zero complaints.Overall, this is a great workhorse camera. Ive been using them multiple times a week for over a year and would absolutely purchase them again.
Jonathan –
really awful at filming anything indoors. Traded in for the 280, which is wonderful.
Tim –
Ive written 2 previous reviews for this camera and they were both very negative. Ive already wasted many hours of valuable time with this camera and have concluded that Sony is either aware or not aware that there is a batch of them that are defective, or…..they all have the same problem and some people are just not that fussy about the image quality coming out of their camera.Ive been VERY happy with the features and image quality of my new Z150, but since many of the upgrade features of the Z190 appealed to me, I decided to buy one. Big disappointment. What good are all of the features if the image quality is consistently badI returned my first camera B H was kind enough to pay ALL of my shipping costs and then purchased a 2nd one hoping it would be better. Wrong I did some testing indoors with good available light in Full Auto Manual modes, and was convinced that I had received a good camera……until I took it outside in normal bright sunlight.Suddenly my pictures were terrible. I played with many of the camera settings hoping it would make a difference, but nothing worked. So I returned my 2nd camera to B H as defective.In over 40 years of Photography experience 30 Professionally Ive NEVER purchased a new camera Leica, Hasselblad, Nikon, Canon, Sony, JVC that didnt produce great images right out of the box.Guess thats what I get for buying a camera thats only been on the market for a few months. The Consumer is the test lab for this productFYI. This camera also eats battery power like reviewers say the Z280 does. Not so with the Z150.
jay –
So disappointed intros camera, image terrible, focus terrible, low light terrible. DO NOT WIST YOUR MONEY
simon –
A year down the road and seven countries later confirms the Z280 as a workhorse. When all you have is access to ONE camera, the Z280 will quickly prove its worth. You must remember like all camera systems to check the back focus its simple and will answer any of the soft focus comments immediately. I use adapters with sony qxd cards and the xavci looks gorgeous. 4 channels of audio and built in ND with variable adjustment makes shooting in all sorts of light simple. The rocker takes some time but it is sensitive and can perform as needed slowly or fast. Dont get frustrated patience will reward you. OLED viewfinder is perfect even in BRIGHT light. Ill post more after another summer shooting. cheers
Daniel –
XDCAM Camcorder who stil use SxS Cards plus the same BPU Battery Pack when you add this to a fantastic camcorder with so many codecs this make a winner for quality and future proof your past expenses on expensive hardwares around the XDCAM Echosystem.
Advanced Media –
The Sony PXWZ190 is an excellent camera for event coverage, news gathering, nature footage, interviews, and professional video work.I use the camera for interviews, convention, stage, event coverage, YouTube content creation, and trade show coverage. Sonys new 3CMOS 13inch chips are VERY good in lower light conditions than any other 13inch sensor camera Ive seen in the past. The 25x optical aoom Sony Lens G on this camera is spectacular.It takes two SDXC memory cards have used up to 512GB in size with no issues and record up to 4K UHD 3840x2160p 60fps in the XAVCL format as well as DVCAM. In December 2018, the optional MPEG2 422 license will be available for purchase along with a more advanced networking package, It also record 1080p 422 out of the box in the XAVC format.Includes 4channel audio. 2 phantom powered XLR audio jacks, 3GSDI, WiFi, ethernet LAN cable connectivity, and a host of other options.This camera has improved my workflow and quality and gives me the professional look, feel, and workflow Ive always wanted. My convention and event coverage as well as YouTube content creation has improved dramatically even since Ive started using this camcorder.Highly recommended
Anonymous –
De camera was direct inzetbaar, ook al zonder enige kennis van de mogelijkheden. Na meer inhoudelijke kennis van deze mogelijkheden blijken de prestaties werkelijk ongekend. Een aanrader
Douglas –
Yes, there is some minor barrel distortion at the extreme widest focal lengths, but nothing I find out of the ordinary or alarming. In fact, you really have to have a scene with a lot of vertical lines and be shooting full wide before youd probably even notice it. To me it is a nonissue and it never even crosses my mind while shooting, but it would be incorrect to say there is no distortion at all. It kind of reminds me of when people were all up in arms over rolling shutter issues when the EX1 first came out 10 years ago. It was a big deal to a few people who made a lot of noise about it, and then was quickly forgotten by people who actually wanted to use the camera to get work done. In my opinion, if you weigh all the huge benefits and amazing capabilities of the Z280 against this one shortcoming, it is still one of the very best cameras ever made. It is amazing the features and performance Sony has packed into such a small body. This is basically a tiny Z450 with a 17x lens for about 110th the price of a Z450 lens.
jay –
So disappointed intros camera, image terrible, focus terrible, low light terrible. DO NOT WIST YOUR MONEY
Daniel –
XDCAM Camcorder who stil use SxS Cards plus the same BPU Battery Pack when you add this to a fantastic camcorder with so many codecs this make a winner for quality and future proof your past expenses on expensive hardwares around the XDCAM Echosystem.
Cedric –
I love this camera
Billy –
I have the HDRXR500 camcorder which made by Sony I have been using for number of years since I bought it around 1300.00 in 2011. It has been an excellent camcorder. Beautiful, solid, and makes beautful movies and clips. I use it anywhere in any occasion and always happy with it stil today. As I want to upgrade, I bought the PXWZ190. I received it a while ago, and set it in a closet for a while as I did not have time to test it out or use it.I just pull it out today followed the in truction to format the card 128GB SD. Then I started to record inside around the house with low light condition to see how good it is. After about 15 min, I stopped and pull the card out and insert the card into my PC to check it out. And here where the problem begin First problem is open and edit the file I could not be able to open the files with SonyPlayMemoriesHome, WindowMediaPlayer, CyberLinkPowerDVDPlayer, CyberLinkPowerDirector … Finally, I download A Trial Converter to convert the MXF to MPG in order to see the clip. It took me twice of the time for editting with this new camcorder. The next problem is the camcorder its self I tried to use the second card 32GB SD, I could not be able to format or access to the second 32GB SD card. Followed the instruction, do any way I could, use Select Slot button, Update Card, Format Card. I could not be able to access or format the 32GB SD. Insert one card at a time, insert both card into the slot … it wont let me access and format the second one. Only 128GB SD the first one is usable and it is only card that I can use to record with this PXWZ190.I am frustrated very much with this cam. I cost me almost three time as much in comparison to the HDRXR500, but giving 10 to 8 in quality, and more time to work on it convert MXF to MGP before I can do anything to the clip what worng with Sony why I cant record in MEPG or MPG format, more headache on access and format the memory card.After waiting for the camcorder PXWZ190, waiting for the set of light, extra battery and charger, tripod with zoom remote control, camcorder carry bag, memory cards … it is way more than 30 days, it could be two months already. The time is past and there is no way to return it.Total cost is round 5000.00 now is going back to the closet. 5000.00 saving money for better product, which I was always trusted in Sony, now go down to the drain. I hope that may be after another 50 years in the closet it may turn into a classic or unique item so my grand grand childrent could put it up in the auction and get the money back.It is horrible, terrible, and awful product just stay way.
John –
I hear a lot of negative about this camera but I have no complaints. I primarily use it for outside shooting so the poor low light issues I do not have. The focus is solid so far. No back focus issues. I owned and a Sony NX3 before so this is quite a jump up. The only thing I wish this camera had was a remote control for playback of your videos. The 25x zoom is great. Not a fan of the digital zoom. I do not shoot in 4k yet but the HD picture quality is excellent. I just need to find a pan bar zoom remote that will allow for slower zooms.
Angelo –
I had the same issues as the others that have posted 1star reviews.I tried and tried to like this camera, but it has a few major weakness.Great features, menu, codec options etc. But in these days where phone cameras are shooting 4k and you have technologies that combine multiple sensors with computational imaging, you would expect that this camera would at least match them.Features aside, when shooting 4k, everything is much more noticeable.The image on this camera is soft overall.Shoot wide angle, and its not usable. Barrel distortion and very soft AND not in focus.If you want to downvote me go right ahead. But do yourself a favor and test it for yourself. Research it. Look at reviews. Search for YouTube videos, Vimeo videos everything you can find, and you will see people are upset with the wide angle performance as well as other aspects. Maybe 1 or 2 videos look great, but with most, you will be asking yourself is this really 4k Is this really from a 7000 cameraSeems as if the only thing this camera is good for would be for interviews or such.To summarize, do lots of research and make sure you can test this camera out before committing.
Enoch –
It has the best features more than I need. Many outlets sports of all types. USB, HDMI BNC wow Light weight and amazing pictures. I love this masterpiece technology in videography
Bill –
So far so good. Set up for remote and it works well with the switcher. Love having a white balance button.
David –
I bought this to replace the Sony PXWZ150 that I had just purchased in February this year…What a difference this Z190 is…the 25 times zoom, the lowlight capability, the advance facedetection are all welcomed improvements. Battery life with the included U30 is limited, I recommend buying the U60…I did and cant wait to put it to the test. The one thing I miss is the 120 slomo frames per second…but Im hoping SONY will put it in an upcoming firmware.
Angelo –
Im a hobbyist but I like using prolevel tools with my hobbies. Prior to purchasing this camera, I did some research, and aside from the reviews on here, and a handful of YouTube videos, I did not find anything. I was concerned about the reviews here but thought perhaps its just a bad batch or firmware issue some were having.I was wrong.The badThe camera is soft, especially at wide open zoom.At f1.6wide open irisaperture, it is very hard to focus in a scene where you have a landscapeobjects at varying distances. So naturally, one would step down a bit, perhaps to a range of f4f5.4 or around there, but this introduces other issues related to light, which Ill cover later.Autofocus is not that great. I have tried using a laser tapemeasure from my toolbox, that I know is very accurate. I measured the distance to various objects and the autofocus is off around 50 of the time. By a lot. I find myself going full manual and using peaking, although its still difficult to distinguish peaking from normal ojbect outlines in some cases. You have the option to use color peaking and intensity on the viewfinder or what Sony calls normal peaking. Normal peaking is easier to see than color peaking in terms of outlining objects in focus, but again there are many situations where its a bit difficult to see. Face detection option is very good though.Now lets go back to filming at f4f6. For indoors, not possible to get a nice image. For outdoor with low light, not possible to get a nice image. Unless you are filming in bright sunlight, the image is way too dark.You will not get good results, there is just not enough light entering the sensors. You can turn up the gain, but then starting at 9dB it starts to get noisy. You can go up to 32dB of gain, but anything over 9dB looks terrible.Even indoors, say you want to film something in your living room and turn on the overhead light, and also turn on 45 lamps, in 15×15 room. Still not enough light.At 30FPS with 160 shutter you need to be at f1.6f1.9 to get acceptable light entering the sensor, otherwise its too dark, and you need to add gain. f1.6 you will have focus issues if you want to do antying other than portrait with bokeh etc, too blurry for anything even slightly in front or in back of your target area.This being said, the camera performs very poorly in the following situationsAnything without bright sunlightbright studio lights.What good are all the menu features, ND filters etc if you are stuck with filming at f4f6, and need to zoom in a bit to get more clarity, and also there is some wierd fringing at full zoom.The goodNice optionsoutputs.Very good menu features.Very good physical design.Options for MIShoe add ons and XLR inputs.Overall, this product was either not ready for release, or the manufacturer cut some major corners.I have compared filming shot by shot with my iphone 7 plus, and in most cases, the iphone produces a more consistent video. A MUCH sharper video, with more detail and dynamic range as well.Also, I tend to grade my videos in Davinci Resolve and edit in Premier Pro. Comparisions I did with the iPhone were out of the box, no editing, straight from the camera. I even tried giving the z190 an advantage in some cases to try and add more dynamic rangework on the colors, sharpness etc, and the iPhone still looked better.Thankfully BH has a good returnexchange policy. Most likely I will exchange the z190 for another product. 3750 is way too much money for the type of results this camera produces. Looking at Canon equivalent, Panasonic, the z280 is a possibility but 7k is a ton of money, and finally looking at just going DLSR with a Canon 1d and a couple of lenses, that will ultimately put me and more spend that a z280, but at least I will have high sharpness and great low light performance due to the huge sensor.Thats it. Wanted to share my thoughtsexperiences in hope of helping somone make a decision.P.S. try and buy products like this from stores like BH. I dont have anything to do with them, but I did notice a lot of what seem to be questionable and you wont get a warrantyexchange policy on other websites just to save a few .
gurmeet –
Looks like Sony finally got it right. I used this camera to shoot handheld at a concert and it was extremely easy to use. The quality is excellent. Stabilization, auto focus and zoom are def its strong points. Keep in mind you will only shoot max 50mbps in HD and 150mpbs in UHD. Overall, Im very happy with this camera. Perfect for run and gun.
PASTOR –
Thus far a great piece of equipment
David –
Excellent product very good
Maricarmen –
Excellent camera for the News job and tv programs
Jonathan –
Ive been meaning to write a review to counter the head scratching 1 star one for a year now. But to be blunt Ive been to busy using the camera well, three of them actually to do so. Now that things are on hold for a month…I have been using three of these cameras to film indoor staged shows Theaterconcertsdance etc for over a year had tried the 190s initially, which are truly dreadful and should be avoided at all costs. While not 100 perfect, is any camera These come pretty close, especially when one recognizes their strengths and occasional limitations.Image quality is decent out of the box, but needs to be tweaked to really look its best. With the right settings, youll be able to do a lot of your work in camera vs. doing it in post. I highly recommend Doug Jensens excellent series on this camera. First chapter is free and gives a great overview of the 280 and the 190. In it, he gives a couple setting options that I have found to be ideal for my filming needs. Cant post a link, but do a search on Vimeo.Im not sure why the other reviewer found the zoom to be sub par I suspect he is using the small secondary rocker on the handle vs. the larger one on the side, as I am able to achieve incredibly slow speeds using it down to 1 zoom number per second.Things I really like on closeups, detail is pretty fantastic and if you set your levels to match your needswants I think youll be very pleased with the results. Focal depth is a lot better than I feared it would be and Ive been able to film performers zipping around a stage, crossing updown stage, etc. with remarkable clarity in the final image. A lot depends on light and the sweet spot is keeping the aperture at 5 or higher if at all possible. gain set to 9 is remarkably clear and noise free. Ive been shooting on XQD Cards using the adaptor and have had zero problems knock wood. I havent been filming using the XAVC Intra format as its not recommended on those cards but from what i hear is possible…i just film way too many one night only events to risk it. XVAC Long works beautifully though.What Im less than fond of the battery that comes with the camera is a joke. On a longwide shot, having a bit of zoom is recommended as 0 zoom tends to have a bit of curvature on the sides. Also, be aware that this camera is really hit by triangulation in regards to focus the sides tend to be softer on a wide shot than the center due to standard geometry. And keeping aperture at or above 5 is crucial to combat it. One thing Im really not fond of is that the viewfinders do not show what your settings have done to the footage, so its not very WYSIWYG which can be an issue if your settings allow for more low blacks and high whites. But thats easy to get used to and compensate for.The much touted facial recognition features are…very hit or miss, I find and pretty useless, especially if you are in lower light situations or…have subjects who are, shall we say, not the palest really horrible at locking in on persons of a darker complexionThe audio capture is great and zero complaints.Overall, this is a great workhorse camera. Ive been using them multiple times a week for over a year and would absolutely purchase them again.
HH –
Wij hebben de Z190 nu twee weken en hebben enkele proef opnames gemaakt. In de eerste plaats om ons eigen te maken met de camera en ten tweede de beeld en geluidskwaliteit te testen. De camera is zeer gebruiksvriendelijk en hoewel het menu in het Engels is, hebben wij als Sony A9 en A7MIII gebruikers weinig problemen met het menu. De beeldkwaliteit is hoog en vooral de instelling om op 60fps te kunnen vastleggen geeft een mooi beeld en kunnen beelden zonder kwaliteitsverlies naar slowmotion worden gerenderd. Het zoombereik is enorm en wanneer je overschakelt naar Full HD is dat bereik nog eens een keer zo groot. Onze voorlopige conclusie Een geweldige aanvulling.
Michael –
I bought 2 of these camera,Im a wedding videographic and I didnt get the chances to edit the video until weeks after I got the camera.First the image is not as good as my PMW200s, I looks grainy and when shooting live in low light it looks good. but editing the video is way darker that the histogram and monitor looked live for both cameras at the same event. Focus is off, I zoom in, get my focus and zoom out and it is still out of focus. Might because of the low light issues the camera is having. Not happy. I cant return them because it is past the return date. New firmware came out 2.0 need to experiment with it.Spent 14,000 on cameras not happy with, sucks.
LAWRENCE –
Great Camera,Our junior high production team will love all of the features that this camera has to offer.
spir4434 –
The quality and features of the pro camcorder amazes me. Love it
brian –
I have owned the camera less than a month. The system clock shows 1 hours of use… Yesterday I was testing out the camera and the camera will not focus while in manual focus. The IRIS ring is also not working.I called Sony ProVideo and they wanted me to pay for the shipping to have the camera fixed or replaced with a refurbished unit. I then called BH and they are sent me a free shipping return label. BH is sending me a factor new replacement.I will update this review when I test out the replacement but as of right now I am giving it a 1 star based on Sony customer service.
Marc –
Just starting to get comfortable with the menus and buttons of my new Z280, practicing a bit every day so that I can changes settings by feel in a darker theater or reception venue, places where I film frequently. It was a short learning curve for me having come from the EX1 to the EX1R to the PXW X200, and now to the Z280. The overall menu layout and the user buttons on the left side of the camera felt very familiar to me.The three features of the camera that I enjoy most, and the primary reasons why I purchased this camera are the AUTO ELECTRONIC ND filter, the f1.9 lowlight capability, DIGITAL EXTENDER and FACIAL RECOGNITION AUTO FOCUS.AUTO ELECTRONIC ND FILTER Its pretty amazing to be able to manually vary the ND filter density while holding constant an f1.9 wideopen aperature, or having the camera automatically vary it for me. Be aware that for the auto electronic ND Filter to work, you must set the ND filter switch to one of the 3 available positions. This function will not work in the clear position.By setting the ND filter switch to position 1, 2, or 3, flipping the ND variablepreset switch to variable and setting the ND menu setting to manual, rotating the ND filter wheel changes the density of the ND filter in a range of 14 to 1128 without changing the fstop. As expected, depth of field can be manually increased and decreased by varying the density of the ND filter, particularly with a wide open aperature. f1.9By selecting the auto ND menu setting the Z280 adjusts the ND filter density automatically, depending on the amount of light that is entering the lens. Your manually set fstop still remains constant.Moving the camera, for example, from a darker image on my patio to the bright sky, the camera will adjust the ND filter appropriately from 14 to 1128 automatically. If the sky is still too bright at 1128, you can further alter the exposure by rotating the iris ring until the image looks good to you.Because I use the electronic ND frequently, changing back and forth from manual to auto, I found it convenient to assign it to a user preset button.FACIAL RECOGNITION I took my Z280 out for its debut performance to a kids show at a theater to try out the facial recognition focus feature. I have a user preset button assigned to change the settings of this feature quickly. Available settings are AF off, face priority AF and face only AF. According to the user manual the face priority AF, when it finds a face, focuses on that face. When the face is no longer detectable, auto focus mode is engaged. I filmed the entire show using this feature and it worked flawlessly. Not a single scene was out of focus.In face only AF the accuracy of focusing is equally accurate, but when the face is no longer detected, focus is lost it doesnt automatically switch to auto focus, exactly as explained in the manual.This varies from person to person but in my case I found that other useful user presets to assign to the 10 available buttons are facial recognition focus, last clip playback, digital extender which looks beautiful, BTW, and last clip delete. You can assign any of the userassignable functions to any button you wish. These are the ones I use most often in my work flow.Im very happy with the Z280. Looking forward to using it in special event and corporate video settings very soon.
Clifford –
My Z190 was EXTREMELY soft wide open and did not get sharp until f.4 and higher. I also a lot of weird optical ghosting and strong purple fringing on the long end past about 400mm or so. This camera also relies HEAVILY on huge amounts of noise reduction to clean its image. Even at 0db, there are heavy amounts of noise reduction artifacts on edges. I did a side by side test between this and the Sony 1inchtype sensor NX80 and the NX80 beat the Z190 BADLY in resolution and overall clarity. It was not even close. This was not even so much a lens problem, it was more that the Z150s noise reduction artifacts were far, FAR less then the Z190. If you buy a Z190, check your lens VERY carefully wide open and on teh long zoom end.
Alexander –
I wanted to love this camera. I am pretty much stuck with it at this point so I have tried to talk myself into still loving this camera. I dont love this camera.How is it that other cheaper cameras can keep straight lines straight at their widest field of view, but the engineers that created the PXWZ280 couldnt I pointed my camera at a large classroom white board with my focus chart taped to it in order to recalibrate my backfocus more on that little slice of heaven later in this review and the horizontal plane of the whiteboard looked like the profile view of a pimple on someone face, or as if someone placed a golf ball underneath the center of a large pancake. The amount of work it would take to fix it in post in order to straighten the horizontal awkward shaped curvatures the wide angle of this camera and its lens creates is daunting to think about. Not to mention how much one would have to crop in to achieve this workload. Zooming in when shooting to straighten it out would be the better alternative, but then whats the point of having a wide angle in the first place. Bottom line here is dont expect PROFESSIONAL standard wide angle results with this camera.To add to this misery, the barrel distortion is so bad, that as a result, the image, especially on the right side, is soft. Simply soft. NOT sharp but thats not saying that the overall wide image is tack sharp beyond that thus the mention of my backfocus recalibrating I mentioned. You have to stop down to f5.6 and zoom in a bit to get a sharp image. You will NOT get a fully sharp, and straight image at this cameras widest angle and at f1.9. I fully believe that if the lens didnt create such a extreme amount of unacceptable lens distortion and pull and twist the image all over the place, then the image on the edges would be sharper. But then again, who knows.So back to the reason why I was recalibrating my backfocus. This is the 3rd time trying to get my backfocus to remain sharp. most of the zoom range is perfect. Razor sharp. I am not confident when it goes wide.I would also like to end almost this review by saying this is my second copy of this camera thinking the first one was a fluke. Acquiring this second copy, as well as all the other chatter from other users experiencing the SAME thing tells me this is a full product line set of flaws. Unfortunately after three months of owning it while going through the exchange process and TRYING to talk myself into that its just me, I am sitting on a seven THOUSAND dollar camera that is past its return deadline of which I cant provide a professional product to anyone that would want to hire me under the parameters of which this camera fails DRASTICALLY. I am a single individual, not a large company so a 7000 investment of which I deal with buyers remorse daily, is depressing.Sony, I am sure you have PR people crawling all over the internet, obtaining feedback and anything else that pertains to your products. I am sure you guys have eyes on BH and its Sony product reviews. I can only hope. No, PRAY, that you guys have been reading the complaints throughout the Facebook groups and forums and either do something about these issues and FIX THEM with a swift firmware release, personally honor returns for those that cant return them to their sales vendors, or if its a hardware issue, provide a recall and exchange these flawed units for new ones WORTH the 7000 price tag.Please address these issues and make the people that believed in you happy.
Dear M. G. –
Great Service
Dorian –
We own 3 previous versions of Sony Camcorders Two 7 year old NXCAM and in 2019 we purchased a new NX5R NX CAM and these camcorders are great. Because these former Sony Camcorders were so great we ordered the new PXWZ190 4K XD CAM March 2020 . The optics on this camera are horrible. Low light is not good at all and The edges of the frame make things round . Example straight lines have very noticeable curves. will camcorder will make people look fat. Our IPhones do extremely better quality video than this camcorder.
LAWRENCE –
Great Camera,Our junior high production team will love all of the features that this camera has to offer.
Kevin –
This camera fills many boxes. I shoot a lot of sports. A bit overkill for my use. Great picture with many options. When Sony updates with firmware with Ver4 allowing live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, thatll make this camera better for my type of work.Great low light, fairly clean image. Not my go to camera for Slog3, other work flows more than acceptable.I dont have lens issues as others, but its new. SxS cards are over priced, but is the best way to insure 4K recordings. Nice to be able to set a custom button to record.
Dennis –
I own a small production Company with one full time employee and myself. This is my 19th 3k professional video camera purchase. Many of my cameras have been 5K to 8.5K. I have rented many more cameras than this. This has got to be the worst video camera release from Sony EVER. Much of this cameras function does not work at all. Not a single auto focus feature works. Switching from manual to auto makes absolutely no difference. The variable ND filter function only works once you have already selected to use the ND filter in manual mode. In other words, it IS NOT a 0infinity feature. The direct menu feature does not work in any usable manner in either Full Auto or Manual modes. Only a single codec is available in 4K. Once you use the cameras onboard black balance feature you cannot reverse the effect. The ownerss manual that is supplied on a CD is replete with inaccuracies and holes. The assign buttons dont work. Many of the functions within the menu are greyed out as if the will be available at some later date with some firmware update. Did ADORAMA sell me some grey market, prerelease JUNK I paid 3 figures for next day air to get this thing for a VERY important shoot. Now I cant even get a hold of anyone due to ANOTHER holiday that I dont understand. I had so much hope for this camera, and for a professional relationship with a new to me New York camera super store.
Nick –
Turns out it was the SanDisk SD cards that dont work, not the camera.SanDisk SDXC USH1 U3 Class 10 128gb cards do not work in this camera.SanDisk support has confirmed and has RMA my order.
Bachir –
Perfect for regular shooting as wedding event newsJust what I need
Bala –
I just received my Z280. My main concern was about the lens. I am relieved to find out that it is 1.9 throughout the range, like EX1EX3. Because Sony does not list it clearly on its website and BH does not have the full specs as of August 3, 2018 here, there has been some confusion. Rest assured its 1.9. Beautiful I am looking forward to selling my EX1 and EX3 and buying one more of this baby
Abraham –
I wanted a camcorder to record sporting events indoors at 4K 60fps. I had been using a DSLR on a gimbal and wanted to upgrade to a real video camera for the form factor and simplicity.I have only used this for one basketball game at this point. The basketball court was fairly well lit for a gym. I would rank the low light performance as not great compared to a Sony A7RIII, Sony A9, Sony FDRX300, and BMPCC4K. Each of these cameras has been used at this same gym in the same lighting conditions. The Sony PXWZ190 had the most noise by far. I have not seen this much noise in many years.I love the camcorder on a monopod and the physical layout and features of this camera, however the performance is not great for what I need. Compared to these other cameras I use this noise was much more noticeable. Neat Video took care of it pretty well, but not perfectly. I am really surprised by how noisy the footage is for any indoor shots, even reasonable welllit rooms.I also experienced several glitches using the eyepiece viewfinder. Twice I had black line flickering that lasted several seconds, and once I had the screen turn white for a few seconds while I was recording.I am in wait and see mode. I love the form factor, but the quality is not what I was hoping for. The footage from this Sony PXWZ190 looks crappy to average compared to the beautiful shots from the same gym taken the same night with the BMPCC4K. With a lot more post production work I was able to make it look decent.
TIMOTHY –
This is my second Sony camera. It works well in low light.
John –
I hear a lot of negative about this camera but I have no complaints. I primarily use it for outside shooting so the poor low light issues I do not have. The focus is solid so far. No back focus issues. I owned and a Sony NX3 before so this is quite a jump up. The only thing I wish this camera had was a remote control for playback of your videos. The 25x zoom is great. Not a fan of the digital zoom. I do not shoot in 4k yet but the HD picture quality is excellent. I just need to find a pan bar zoom remote that will allow for slower zooms.
Kevin –
This camera fills many boxes. I shoot a lot of sports. A bit overkill for my use. Great picture with many options. When Sony updates with firmware with Ver4 allowing live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, thatll make this camera better for my type of work.Great low light, fairly clean image. Not my go to camera for Slog3, other work flows more than acceptable.I dont have lens issues as others, but its new. SxS cards are over priced, but is the best way to insure 4K recordings. Nice to be able to set a custom button to record.
Steve –
I found it to be soft wide open, some purple fringing zoomed in. But by far the reason I returned the Z190 was the horrible noise in low light. I had to do an event focused on a podium in dinner lighting. I had to use 18db and it is by far the worse I have even experienced. I had an AX100 as a second camera and the noise was surprisingly far better than the Z190. Im bummed and was hopeful, especially after selling my Z150 for the Z190. Z150 not great in low light but far less noisy. I wanted to believe these 13 sensors were going to show an improvement but unfortunately not the case for me.
Keith –
I have had several cameras in this Sony line including the two predecessors such as the PXWx200.The thing I hate about this camera is the zoom. I film a lot of professional dance. I need very slow and smooth zooming. Generally I set the handle zooms control to a very slow speed. It ramps up and down nicely and looks very smooth. With the z280 the slowest setting for handle zoom is far too fast for me to use. It is almost as if the engineers designing this camera have never watched a television show. I spoke to Sony about this and they know about the issue but do not even seem to care. If you film sports you might have the same problem. The rocker zoom does have the ability to do very slow speed zooms however it is easy to accidentally put too much pressure on that and cause the zoom to be way to fastor not enough pressure and have it jerk on and off. Using a LANC controller will not resolve this problem. The camera zoom will be too fast for even some sports videography.
richard –
I love everything but the performance of this camera i.e. the features are great, controls layout, construction, specifications in general, battery life, the bad soft focus, noisy in even slightly low light, areas that appears as lens fog but the lens is clear I suspect what is really causing these issues is the lens design has internal reflection issues with light bouncing around internally I tried a circular polarizer adjusted to reduce glare and it seems to improve the video quality hence that conclusion either way SONY needs to correct this product or take it back. I also have the FDRAX700 and there is no comparison in video quality the AX700 video is clearly better in low light and focus.
Keith –
I have had several cameras in this Sony line including the two predecessors such as the PXWx200. Though the optics and specs are similar my initial observation is that is camera is better in low light. This says a lot because the x200 was also greatand this one is even better.The thing I hate about this camera is the zoom. I film a lot of professional dance. I need very slow and smooth zooming. Generally I set the handle zooms control to a very slow speed. It ramps up and down nicely and looks very smooth. With the z280 the slowest setting for handle zoom is far too fast for me to use. It is almost as if the engineers designing this camera have never watched a television show. I spoke to Sony about this and they know about the issue but do not even seem to care. If you film sports you might have the same problem. The rocker zoom does have the ability to do very slow speed zooms however it is easy to accidentally put too much pressure on that and cause the zoom to be way to fastor not enough pressure and have it jerk on and off.A few other positives about the camera. The monitor is amazing I think they may have gone with an OLED screen. The camera also has a waveform monitor built in which I prefer over the histogram used on previous models. You can still set the camera to histogram if you prefer that.You can now manually set the white balance without going through the profile settings.One generally note about Sony Professional. Their repair department is horriblelet me repeat HORRIBLE. They make you pay 100 just to get a call back within 24 hours. Otherwise it may take you days just to get the authorization to send a unit in for repair. You can no longer speak to a service department tech simply by calling them. If you need a quick repair you can consider that 100 a shake down fee. You will not be treated as person, but rather a number by some uncaring phone gatekeeper. If you need your camera fixed quickly it simple will not happen because of this bureaucratic change Sony has made. Sony professional customer service is some of the worst I have ever seen. Even cell phone and cable companies are nicer and faster.
Jonathan –
really awful at filming anything indoors. Traded in for the 280, which is wonderful.
Bala –
Somebody in the QA sections says the Z280 ramps down to 2.4 at the tele end even though the display remains at 1.9. Used in a live situation I felt it might. Further testing needed before assuming anything.
Norman –
Okay my BH friends I own several video cameras over the last 15 years and never left any reviews, but for this camera I feel I Have to do it and warning all my Bh friends to stay away from this camera I order one Takes 3 months to get it I was excited then quality was very bad I that was the camera after talking with Sony support, then retuned and other another one and the same problem quality is very bad, the lens wife is less than older modes why I dont know since this camera as the same lens of the Sony Pxwx160 or x180 and the older version of Sony better quality on low light wide angle lens, lets not forget the quality of the body very bad material and cheap make material, the new futures are workless lets say you want to use the face option makes ur video even noise, I dont used anyways and I dont needed, lets say you wan to do 4K oh no dont even try so at the end all I can say I feel very disappointed with Sony for many years best cameras for light light or any condition very well make body and now very cheap and very bad quality I highly recommend if you going to spend this money get the Sony pxwx160 or x180 same specs but better quality and better construction on the body and wider lens even that as the same lens is this one so again STAY AWAY.
Scott –
The z280 is pretty good in low light, has a fast lens and lots of improvements on audio controls. Based on shooting with it for a week, the image quality is very nice and the ability to gain up with little noise is a nice feature.
Gregory –
I shoot indoor sports under fluorescent lighting. This cameras auto WB and auto focus produced grainy poorly balanced images consistently. I have a Panasonic HCX1 which performs much better on these functions. I thought for the premium price Id be getting some marked improvement. Alas I found none.
JM –
Een videocamera die handzaam is, met een prachtige vormgeving en professionele beelden produceert. Voor gevorderde en professionele videografen een must have.
Richard –
I really like the nomenclature of this camera, a nice size for our multicamera theater and concert shoots. However, the SanDisc 128gig SD cards that are offered as accessories did not work in this camera. The PXWZ190 did not recognize the SanDisk 128GB Extreme PRO UHSI SDXC Memory Card V30. So I ordered the more expensive Sony brand and they work just fine. Great camera picky appetite for cards.
Raymond –
I used to spend a lot of time in post trying to remove noise from a 2hr video shoot in venues where video lighting is not even an after thought. Conference rooms, hotel ballrooms, industrial sites and stage productions are not designed to make video production easy, so fix it in post has been a way of life.But, enter the Z280 and life has never been so easy. This may not be the best lowlight performer, but when a camcorder advantages are needed this is simply a jewel. From wide angle to full 17x zoom, the image barely darkens maybe a half stop.I rarely use any gain, but when I do the images have an almost negligible amount of noise certainly much easier to clean up than in my past. And, night shots are marvelousMy favorite feature is Sonys continuously variable ND filter No more sacrificing DOF or other aspects of desired image quality to get the perfect exposure. Just dial in the ND level until the Zebras begin to show and you are perfectly exposed. Just about fool proof.I have found two downsides one, this is not a open the box and shoot that day. There are no preset scene paint settings, but you can create your own and save them to use later. This is certainly a professional camera with just about everything adjustable from operating controls to image quality. And it can take some time to decide how you want to configure it so it is easy to use for each type of job.The second bummer is that slowmotion is only 60 FPS and just does not get those creamysmooth slomo shots that are popular today.I was reluctant to move to the Z280 because I read a number of bad reviews about picture quality. Then watched videos both free and paid on how to get the most from the Z280 and I have never experienced the image problems that stand out in some reviews. I carefully followed the specified steps to set up the camera for backfocus adjustment and it is crystal clearI took several weeks to familiarize myself with the multitude of customization that make it fit into any shooting style and image demands and its well worth it.This camera saves me time in the editing studio and broadens the range of jobs I can shoot and get paid for. Less editing time means more paid camera time Its a winner for me.
Ira –
This camera is the latest evolution of the Sony 3 chip 12 inch compact camcorder line. It appears Sony listened to user suggestions and wishes. The capabilities are a smorgasbord of features. Discarding the conventional analog lens remote for LANC gives this camera a wide range of remote control features. The CMOS sensors get better and better so even with 4k worth of pixel sites their three chip performance tends to be better than larger single sensor cameras in both sensitivity and color fidelity.This camera is great for capturing 4k footage and can even provide SLog output for post color grading when going for a film look. It can also put out HDR video in HDR ready for playback on HDR monitors with no further processing. But it also can be used for run and gun and standard video capture in HD. A bonus of the 4k sensors is the 2X electronic multiplier feature, when in HD mode, that doubles the lenss reach to 34X without loss of sensitivityThere are many spare user programmable buttons and image processing menu tweaks to keep you experimenting for a long time.The camera has a lot of RF radios builtin GPS, WiFi and Nearfield. Plus it has two USB ports designed to support a pair of cellular modem sticks Ive yet to try live wireless delivery or sending proxies.Overall, this model has the feature set I wish my previous Sony 3 chip cameras had. This camera can be simultaneously powered by an external AC power supply 1116 volts DC output and its battery pack. If you lose AC power it wont interrupt the shootSo far the only criticism is the default battery pack they provide with the camera. The BPU30 is way too small to provide adequate runtime or enough current to operate any optional USB powered devices such as 3G wireless modems. The camera can draw 36 watts Youll want to buy BPU90 batteries to insure getting over 2 hours of run time.
Tim –
I was on the fence about purchasing the Z150 or the Z190. The difference in price wasnt an issue for me, but whether it was worth spending it for my purposes. I purchased the Z150 and used it for one week, but the allure of the Z190 continued to haunt me, so I purchased one and VERY quickly realized that I should have purchased it over the Z150. Dont get me wrong, the Z150 is still a great camera, but just doesnt have the many invaluable improvements and features that the Z190 does. If the 120 fps Slow Mo is critical for you, then that may be an issue because its not something that can just be upgraded in a firmware update. At least this is what Sony told me. The camera is also physically larger, but not a lot, compared to the Z150, so it may be something for some people to consider. I was surprised by how the Z190 doesnt feel any heavier than the Z150 with the included battery.The only problem Ive encountered so far is that there seems to be a problem with this camera recognizing SanDisk SD cards. Sony verified that theyve had issues with some of the SanDisk Cards, but couldnt be specific as to which ones. The SanDisk SDXC U3 Class 10 Cards I have did NOT work. I even went to my local Best Buy store and purchased 2 brand new cards and they didnt work either, so I returned them at the store. I ended up purchasing 2 Sony SFG64T1 SDXC UHSII U3 Class 10 cards RW 300299 MBs and they work just fine. I would normally get 128MB cards, but didnt want to spend the extra 100, not knowing if they would work or not. I cant imagine Sony is trying to Railroad people into buying their SD cards, but ya never know.I would give this camera 5 Stars if it werent for the SD Card issue. Consumers just shouldnt have to be left in the dark about which SD Cards to use, especially when the manual is clear that any SDXC U3 Class 10 cards should be used.
David –
The Z190 was supposed to fill a need I had for higherend educational videography at great price point, but it just couldnt do it. Let me say this, though… if you will never or rarely shoot indoors even with secondary lighting then this is a GREAT camera Simply awesome if every other category. However, it is abysmal in low light… worse than my 11 yearold Sony AX2000 HD camera I compared both at the same time. The Z190 is at least TWO stops darker than the AX2000. I was dumbfounded how a new camera could be worse than a decade old camera for light gathering. Since I shoot primarily indoors with natural or some secondary lighting, I had to return it after just two days of testing. There were no settings that would fix such a deficit. I am buying the Z280 instead for 3K more its 24 stops better than the Z190 according to Doug Jensens Master Class.
ED –
Still no response from Sony on registering. The varizoom remote that BH sold me is poor in that it cant creep the zoom as good as the rocker on the camera.The Waveform is fantastic, however I believe the histogram is wrong. Does not show proper histogram graph. Maybe they can fix that in an update. The vectorscope is also unusable.Still trying to figure out the scene files… is that a new word for picture profilesI agree with another reviewer about the overlay text on the LCD screen….. its too small and hard to read.Power consumption does seem to be very high. Dont know why that should be the case.So far generally happy.ED
Douglas –
I do Breaking News Video for Local and National Media outlets. I have been using Canon Gear for the last 5 years. I gave a glowing review for the Canon XF405, but………………….This Sony PXWZ190 is Soooo Much Better. Heavier, but better.The crystal clear viewfinder, the high quality of video. The ability to record 4K and HD at the same time. Its just a great professional camera. I shoot mostly during the daytime but shot my first night video and the low light is very good.I have completely switched over to Sony after 30 years of Pro Nikon Gear and 5 years with Canon Video Gear. Thank you Sony
Richard –
I love this camera, its general performance and feel. My problem with it, and the reason Im selling it, is that it does not function well in the darker, colorful stage performance environments in which I shoot. Current stage lighting consists of LED lighting that the Sony 3CMOS cannot seem to handle. The blues are extremely overblown, color is muddy and the frame is grainy. Tech seems to believe it is the 3CMOS issue.Great camera for better lighting conditions just not suited to mine.
OSCAR RAUL –
Excellent Camera
Nick –
I bought three of these cameras and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128gb card for each.No SD card works in any of the cameras that i bought.I tried a smaller Sandisk extreme card with no luck as well.Have reported this to Sony and am waiting on engineers for an answer.
Alex L. –
Coming up from a Z150, the Z190s low light performance is excellent and the face detection auto focus really helps in challenging focus situations where Id have used manual focus in the past. The variable NS filter is also a huge asset. On the down side simulrecord is not supported in 4K at this time, this is a big step backwards from the Z150 or even Sonys less expensive handheld line and hopefully it is corrected in a later version. Sony still doesnt offer a trap to focus option. HLG performance is good but it does require a hair more grading in post than some of Sonys less expensive cameras. Battery life with the standard battery is mediocre but BPU90 lasts an eternity.
Tim –
OK. I left a review yesterday about my new PXW Z190 and need to admit that it was based upon my liking the many great features on this camera over my Z150. I hadnt had a chance to even use it due to the hassle over finding an SD card that would actually work in it. I addressed this in my review in more detail at the bottom.Since the new Sony SDXC cards I mentioned in my review yesterday DO work, I was able to go do some test shots today. All I can say is that I was VERY disappointed, to say the least, when I viewed my images on my iMac 27 4K HD computer. All but 3 out of 29 sequences were worth keeping. My footage looked like I had placed a soft focus filter on my lens. I was shooting in clear morning light in very normal circumstances and my images look awful .While I love the feature set of this camera, its worthless to me if it cant consistently produce great images. My DJI Phantom 4 Pro and Yuneec Typhoon H Plus Drones produce way better images as well as the new Sony Z150 I purchased a week ago.So, unless Sony can give me a GOOD explanation as to what is going on with this camera, I will be returning it to B and Hand just keep my new Z150 for now. It least it produces great images and is reliable…..so far.By the way, Im beginning to think that there may be something to these 1 Sensors as apposed to the 313 ones. Maybe they just cant handle 4K
David –
The Z190 was supposed to fill a need I had for higherend educational videography at great price point, but it just couldnt do it. Let me say this, though… if you will never or rarely shoot indoors even with secondary lighting then this is a GREAT camera Simply awesome if every other category. However, it is abysmal in low light… worse than my 11 yearold Sony AX2000 HD camera I compared both at the same time. The Z190 is at least TWO stops darker than the AX2000. I was dumbfounded how a new camera could be worse than a decade old camera for light gathering. Since I shoot primarily indoors with natural or some secondary lighting, I had to return it after just two days of testing. There were no settings that would fix such a deficit. I am buying the Z280 instead for 3K more its 24 stops better than the Z190 according to Doug Jensens Master Class.
alan –
I am now on my replacement Z190 because of an issue with sound of the Zoom MotorServo being picked up on the Mic. Sony denying there has been no problems with this issue, but I have 2 friends who have recently purchased this camera and have the same problem
Norman –
Okay my BH friends I own several video cameras over the last 15 years and never left any reviews, but for this camera I feel I Have to do it and warning all my Bh friends to stay away from this camera I order one Takes 3 months to get it I was excited then quality was very bad I that was the camera after talking with Sony support, then retuned and other another one and the same problem quality is very bad, the lens wife is less than older modes why I dont know since this camera as the same lens of the Sony Pxwx160 or x180 and the older version of Sony better quality on low light wide angle lens, lets not forget the quality of the body very bad material and cheap make material, the new futures are workless lets say you want to use the face option makes ur video even noise, I dont used anyways and I dont needed, lets say you wan to do 4K oh no dont even try so at the end all I can say I feel very disappointed with Sony for many years best cameras for light light or any condition very well make body and now very cheap and very bad quality I highly recommend if you going to spend this money get the Sony pxwx160 or x180 same specs but better quality and better construction on the body and wider lens even that as the same lens is this one so again STAY AWAY.
Raymond –
I used to spend a lot of time in post trying to remove noise from a 2hr video shoot in venues where video lighting is not even an after thought. Conference rooms, hotel ballrooms, industrial sites and stage productions are not designed to make video production easy, so fix it in post has been a way of life.But, enter the Z280 and life has never been so easy. This may not be the best lowlight performer, but when a camcorder advantages are needed this is simply a jewel. From wide angle to full 17x zoom, the image barely darkens maybe a half stop.I rarely use any gain, but when I do the images have an almost negligible amount of noise certainly much easier to clean up than in my past. And, night shots are marvelousMy favorite feature is Sonys continuously variable ND filter No more sacrificing DOF or other aspects of desired image quality to get the perfect exposure. Just dial in the ND level until the Zebras begin to show and you are perfectly exposed. Just about fool proof.I have found two downsides one, this is not a open the box and shoot that day. There are no preset scene paint settings, but you can create your own and save them to use later. This is certainly a professional camera with just about everything adjustable from operating controls to image quality. And it can take some time to decide how you want to configure it so it is easy to use for each type of job.The second bummer is that slowmotion is only 60 FPS and just does not get those creamysmooth slomo shots that are popular today.I was reluctant to move to the Z280 because I read a number of bad reviews about picture quality. Then watched videos both free and paid on how to get the most from the Z280 and I have never experienced the image problems that stand out in some reviews. I carefully followed the specified steps to set up the camera for backfocus adjustment and it is crystal clearI took several weeks to familiarize myself with the multitude of customization that make it fit into any shooting style and image demands and its well worth it.This camera saves me time in the editing studio and broadens the range of jobs I can shoot and get paid for. Less editing time means more paid camera time Its a winner for me.
Clifford –
Pros Great body design and great pro menu featuresCons Terrible image quality Heavy purple fringing on the long end Extremely soft wide open Only gets sharp at f4 Massively heavy amounts of noise reduction artifacts at all gain levels.I returned it. If the final output of a camera is this bad, it doesnt matter how good the menu features are. The Z150s 1inchtype sensor image quality output is light years ahead of this camera.
spir4434 –
The quality and features of the pro camcorder amazes me. Love it
Dear M. G. –
Great Service
OSCAR RAUL –
Excellent Camera
hardik –
They must add this features. In these days slow motion is too much important yes there is 59 FPS but still they should add 120FPS in Full HD and 240 FPS like rx10 mark IV has.
Keith –
The slowest minimum speed with the handle zoom or external LANC controller is far too fast for most uses. Sony says they will most likely never address is issue.
Edward –
What a difference eight years makes in camcorder technology I bought the Z190 as a replacement for my trusty NX5U and Im loving it.Even though this camera is UHD with 3 densely packed 13 sensors, the low light capability is much better than my old camera. I can boost the gain to 18db and the image still looks great, on the NX5U, 18db was unusable. The 25x zoom is really nice, I shot an event from the back of a large room about 100 ft at least and got some tight close up shots from that distance that I wouldnt have been able to do before. I like the MI shoe connection for the Sony wireless receiver I use with it, no need for an audio cable or batteries in the receiver. The advanced face detection focus feature works really well and will definitely save time for runandgun interviews.
Enoch –
It has the best features more than I need. Many outlets sports of all types. USB, HDMI BNC wow Light weight and amazing pictures. I love this masterpiece technology in videography
dheenu –
So far, I have 4 different model of Sony cameras Sony Z5U, Sony Z150,Sony HXRNX100 and this one, this is worth model which costed 4K and wasted my money on this. Very bad color always get very dull and saturated color . I love Z150 and Nx100 qualityVideos.They need to fix this by firmware or thoughOptional MPEG HD License for free for existing customer. Last 5 month used for 3 3 hours session, ruined by video quality. The worst buy ever
Steve –
Full test images httpsqq0u.app.linkey5D6YbLi5RI have owned many Sony video cameras over the years, but I usually dont scrutinize them. But when I pulled the 280 out of the box and fired it up, I immediately saw severe barrel distortion on door jambs in my house.I got curious and starting researching, hoping that I had received a lemon. Other people reported similar issues, and a Sony rep told me that Japan said that the distortion was in spec. In the day and age where cell phones and 350 point and shoot cameras shoot straight images throughout their zoom range, I found this curious. That led me to run some test.So here are my final tests on the z280. I really did this for myself, because I dont take spending 7 grand lightly.I shot the test outside on a sunny day, using a building which had detail and lines. I shot at full wide, and at 50 zoom, at f1.9 and f5.6. I used manual focus and white balance, and shot in UHD and HD. It was necessary to refocus each shot. I focused on the center of the frame on the steel mesh on the building which was closest to me. I repeated the same test using my Z150, which employs electronic lens distortion correction, and the Z150s image is almost distortion free.In spite of the Z150s shortcomings short zoom, button deficiency, no output to external monitor while recording UHD, and no 60p in UHD, the cameras image quality has always impressed me.I used the Z280s stock settings out of the box, where as the Z150 is adjusted for the work that I normally do. So the 150s knee, gamma and black levels are adjusted to give the camera a flatter output signal.Theres much to like about the Z280. Ive been waiting for a real servo zoom lens since my 537 DVCAM days with a camera body and Fujinon lens with a real servo zoom. The 280 has it. Unfortunately, the smooth zoom doesnt translate to the LANC control, either using Sonys or Varizooms zoom controls, which isnt surprising given the LANC protocol. But still, a much better zoom is there on the z280.Ive been waiting for a real viewfinder for a long, long time. You know, one that you can actually focus with. And the 280 has one. I did have more trouble focusing in the HD mode as opposed to the UHD mode, even with the expanded focus. The 150 was a breeze to focus in both HD and UHD because it has two levels of zoom on expanded focus. The 280s expandable focus is probably adjustable, but I didnt check.I like the button and switch layout and theres lots of them Also, things such as the variable ND and total feature controls are great, and Ive become accustomed to using them in my x180, which is similar to a z190 without UHD.Things that I dont like on the 280 are the battery life, the lens softness on wide angle at f1.9, the lack of electronic lens distortion correction which leaves you to record barrel and pincushion distortion not an issue on the Z150, or the X180 which has a 26650mm equivalent G lens, and the fact that Sony keeps moving the power button around. Its located on the left side on the z150, and under the viewfinder on the z280. I wish they would just leave it on the hand grip near your thumb where its been for 40 years.The lens is very soft on the outer edges, especially on wide angle. I think this may be an additional problem with my 280. But I have seen other 280 footage on Youtube similar softness but not a s bad. Its typically worse on one side of the frame than the other. The bottom line is that my Z150 just plain looks better than the Z280.I did not test the 280s features because as far as Im concerned, if a camera cannot produce a good image, all the features in the world wont help it. My 280 was purchased new, and I have no way of knowing if the factory adjustments were accurately done. But in my opinion, the z280 doesnt produce the good image that it should. It does seem to fare better in HD than UHD though.In researching things online, many people get the feeling that Sonys QC has gone downhill in the past decade or so. I unfortunately tend to agree with that. Sony builds the best camera bodies in the world, but as many will attest, the lens performance seems to be their Achilles heel.The Z280 may work for your needs as is, but I sent my 280 back BH is GREAT about returns. If Sony corrects the IQ, I would probably repurchase the camera because Ive been a Sony user all my life. But firmware corrections aside, Sony usually doesnt correct things in their models, they just release a new model a couple of years down the road.
Bill –
So far so good. Set up for remote and it works well with the switcher. Love having a white balance button.
Rocky –
Supar
ED –
Been shooting with EX1s and EX1Rs for the last 10 years. I have had the 280 now for about 2 weeks. Spent most of the time trying to make sense of the manual and familiarizing myself with the layout etc. Also doing tests to see which codecs work best with my memory cards and Editor. Got a lot more work to do but here are my preliminary thoughts.The engineers have done a nice job improving the menus while keeping to many of the EX1 layouts like the location of gain, white balance etc. The image quality is great. Dont see a big quality difference between shooting in Mpeg 422 and the XAVC codecs.There are a few things that could have been done a lot better…. like the manual. Great to tell us what the buttons do but little info on what the functions for those buttons are. Telling us that a button turns this or that on or off does not add much to understanding what is happening to my image when it is on or off. Saving scene, file and ALL file is a total mystery. Where did the picture profiles go From what I can tell picture profiles are the file saves or the scene saves and must be saved on a SD card… Not much info there.The 4 tracks of audio are a bit misleading since you only have two xlr inputs… so you need a shoe attachment for adding other external inputs… and the audio settings are very confusing.Lovely to be able to gain up to 18db with no noticeable noise. And the X2 digital doubler is fantastic. So you not only have 17x zoom but can double that wtih the x2 digital doubler without digital artifacts.Which they would have added a high quality MP4 for doing 4k or HD simultaneosly with mp4. The only Mp4 function is doing Proxy recording on the SD card.Wish they would have given us RTMP live streaming. They did in on the 5R. The network stuff is all there. How hard would it have been to include RTMP protocal for streaming directly to Youtube etcHave only done a little in the 4K area. ANyone tried to register their purchase yet Sonys registration site wont let me even enter the model number unless there is some other site to do that. Asked for more help on the SOny site and its been a week no reply yet. Too bad their customer service is so poor.
Scott –
This is an update from my previous post. After 7 months of using this camera in a professional environment, I have to agree with the negative reviews of the image quality coming out of the Z280. Nice codecs and versatility aside, the camcorder does not look good at all right out of the box on the wider angles and it should for 7K. Wide angle sharpness is a disaster especially when in 4K and you are never quite sure that what you are shooting is going to be usable. Zooming out from telephoto to wide angle on a brighter aperture will surely show you the faulty, very soft lens. Sony needs to issue a firmware update to address this issue and attempt to fix the problem.
PASTOR –
Thus far a great piece of equipment
Michael D –
I think I will be very happy with this camcorder, but the one I received was very erratic. Some videos were great, others were horrible, in the same recording session. My conclusion is that I received a defective camcorder. I have returned the camcorder for a replacement, and Im waiting for the new camcorder. Since I bought several hundred dollars of accessories, Im very hopeful that the replacement will be good. I really like the cameras menu structure, the location of buttons and switches, and the potential. If I can consistently get the good videos that I received, then I can give it 5 stars and my full recommendation.