Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When I first read about this camera, I couldn't wait to get one. Interchangeable lenses, big sensor, tiny size, HD, 14MP stills and more for 2 grand. It sounded to good to be true, and it was.
I will say that the shot footage looks great, if there's adequate light. But if you shoot something with a busy, repeated texture, moire patterns show up - very annoying. Other Sony camcorders in this price range show a very useful zebra pattern in areas of blown-out whites, Sony decided to omit that in this camera - weird.
Another strange omission is in the still pictures - yes it takes great stills BUT doesn't save them in RAW format, just JPEGs. The lesser cameras in the NEX line save in RAW. Why would Sony do this? It makes no sense. If this thing shot in RAW, Sony would have the hottest camera on the planet.
Controls -you can control most of the functions manually, but you have to go through an array of odd menu functions to do it. I understand that an upcoming firmware update will make this much easier, but for now it's just a pain. Another pain - you have to leave the monitor door open all the time to access the controls - you can turn the monitor off and just look through the viewfinder (thankfully).
Glass - the included 18-200mm lens is very nice - good quality glass with just enough drag on the zoom to keep it smooth-I don't miss a motor zoom at all. I bought the wide-angle 16mm lens-which I also like - and it's a bit better than in low light than the included lens. I probably won't get the 18-55mm lens (it seems kind of redundant). Sony has promised more lenses in the E-mount line. Lens changing is fast and easy.
Mac Users
Sony and Apple - what a sad story that is. You can import footage into Final Cut Pro with Log (Lag?) and Transfer, but you won't like how it looks or performs. There are conversion and "wrapper" utilities out there that work, sorta. You're better off using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 with files from this camera. I prefer FCP, but files from this camera look and work better in Premiere Pro. If you only use FCP, this camera is not for you - until Apple and Sony can settle their differences and FCP is updated. Windows users have more options with Sony's own Vegas program, Avid and others.
Sound-The onboard mic is pretty good, and there is a mini jack for an external microphone (no XLR input) but Sony decided to omit manual level control - only automatic levels for sound. Once again Sony omitted something that its other price-class camcorders have. If you have to use the onboard audio, everything sounds OK-until you hit a quiet spot - then the auto gain pumps up and whatever room noise there is hits you at multi-decibels - which means you'll spend a lot of time in post ducking room noise. If you're serious about sound, you'll have to use an external sound recorder. (Zoom makes some good ones)
Camera Strap Holders - The designers at Sony did not think this through. Really really bad placement. If you have a $2,000 camera in your hands, you have to put a neck strap on it. Sony put the strap holds in a place where your strap will cover the record button AND interfere with the open monitor door. It wouldn't be as big a deal if you didn't have to keep the monitor door open to access the controls. I've tried putting both strap clips on just the front holder-which is a little better, but still a pain. Why didn't Sony put the holders on the bottom of the camera, where they would not interfere with the controls? A mystery.
No memory card is included with this camera. If you order it, you'll need to buy cards so you can actually use the camera. Buy the fastest biggest cards you can afford. Memory is pretty cheap these days, and it's odd that Sony didn't include at least a 1 gig card. Not a big deal, but odd.
This unit has the potential to be a great camera for it's price. The annoying menus, the lack of RAW file storage, the auto-only audio levels, the moire patterns, no zebra pattern and the strap holders keep it average. Sony could fix many of these problems with firmware updates - and perhaps they will. I'll add to this review after the upgrade comes out.
If you buy this camera for planned shoots (like indy films or web videos) and have an external audio recorder-you'll like this camera a lot. You can get beautiful work done on it. The glass and the big sensor can give you some of the best-looking footage possible in a camera in this price range.
If you're a live event shooter - this probably isn't your camera, yet.
Event shooters would love to have a great hybrid video/still camera. No RAW files and the menu access to controls just won't make it for those who dream of the perfect camera.
One of these days, Sony or Cannon or Nikon or Panasonic or somebody will put it all together the right way - and shooters will literally fight with tooth and nail to get their paws on that camera. The rest of the industry will then rush similar products to the market.
C'mon manufacturers! Which of you is willing sell us what we really want?
FIRMWARE UPDATE
All it does is provide auto-focus for Sony Alpha-mount lenses. Nothing more than that. I don't own any of those. Sony did provide a MAC version of the update, which is nice.
FURTHER THOUGHTS (after a month with the camera)
Another problem: the covers over the various ports (power, USB, etc...) are held on with plastic hinges, rather than the rubber "plugs" used on some other Sony camcorders. Not good. I'm really careful with my cameras, but still managed to rip off the one that covers the power supply port. On my older Sony cameras (some are more than 10 years old with heavy usage) this never happened.
This camera also has one of the loudest shutters I've ever heard (when you take a still shot). I've been informed (by rzero21) that it's a true mechanical shutter, so there's no way to turn off the sound. I hope that Sony can fix this in future cameras. Sometimes the photo/video guy doesn't want to be the loudest person in the room.
I really want to love this camera, I've shot many hours on it now, plus taken 100s of stills. For the most part, it all looks great. I've gotten used to the cranky menus (sorta) - but I still don't like them. I use an external sound recorder, but I wish I didn't have to sometimes. If it shot RAW still files and had manual control over the audio, I'd buy another one. If Sony's lesser NEX cameras allowed longer shooting times, I'd buy one of those today. (The NEX 3 and 5 also suffer the loud "shutter" problem.)
There are lots of folks out there writing Sony and asking (pleading, begging) them not to cripple their cameras. So far it hasn't been too effective. I'm guessing that some marketing genius decided that customers would be thrilled to pay more for an intentionally crippled camera.
TO SONY'S MARKETING DEPARTMENT:
Take a look at the NEX VG 10 user groups on Vimeo and other sites, plus take a look at the comments your own site. I know you've sold a lot of these cameras, but I guarantee that you won't be able keep them stocked if you just fix a few of the firmware issues that your customers are asking for. You could have the hottest camera in the world! Isn't that what you want? (Maybe you could release a few more e-mount lenses while you're at it?)
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Sony NEXVG10 Full HD Interchangeable Lens Camcorder (Black)Presenting a creative breakthrough: the first Handycam camcorder to accept interchangeable lenses. Sony's Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor boasts 19.5 times the surface area of conventional8 camcorders resulting in gorgeous depth of field. Enjoy AVCHD video at up to 24 Mbps and still photography up to 14 megapixels. Pursue your creative vision with the supplied 11x zoom 18-200mm Optical SteadyShot image-stabilized lens. Explore an entire world of A-mount lenses5 including award-winning G lens and Carl Zeiss lenses, via an adaptor, all sold separately. The camcorder is the Sony NEX-VG10. The imagery is unforgettable.
Click here for more information about Sony NEXVG10 Full HD Interchangeable Lens Camcorder (Black)
