Sony Alpha NEXVG10 Full HD Interchangeable Lens Camcorder (Black)

sony Alpha NEXVG10 FULL HD CAMCODER More Pictures

Sony Alpha NEXVG10 Full HD Interchangeable Lens Camcorder (Black) Product By Sony Alpha Average customer review: Rating: 3.0 Lowest Price : $1,990.00 Available From 16 Sellers Compare prices from all sellers >>

Technical Details

• The NEXVG10 is compatible with Sony Alpha’s E-mount series of smaller, lighter lenses which are optimized for video shooting with silent operation and AF as well as Sony Alpha/Minolta A-mount lenses (via optional LA-EA1 A-mount adapter) to open up a world of creative options
• Enjoy incredible DSLR quality detail and clarity with 14 MP still images and even catch fast actions sequences with a continuous burst rate of up to 7 fps
• Included free of charge via download, Sony Alpha Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 allows you to easily add video effects, background music, titles, text, transitions and much more
• This beautiful, 921K dots, high resolution screen features TruBlack technology which brings remarkably higher contrast and brightness to the camcorders 3.0in Xtra Fine LCD display1, delivering more natural, realistic colors and easier viewing in bright conditions by reducing glare
• Perfect for situations with poor lighting or when using a telephoto lens, Anti Motion Blur mode will take 6 consecutive shots in a split second, taking the best of each individual image and creating a single image with superior clarity and detail

Product Description

Consumer grade video camera Sony unveiled the world’s first interchangeable lens. The question for a while, this camera was developed together with the NEX-3 and NEX-5 on the E-mount that was released earlier. And sold very well, the NEX-3 and NEX-5 focuses on the use of a convenient and easy to carry a camera.

For NEX-VG10 will focus on the VDO full, but there are still functions of the camera was on the NEX are, however, was cut off function for the Panorama and 3D Panorama away. To the product is clear in the VDO camera fully.

Attractive features.
World’s First Interchangeable – Lens Digital HD Video Camera Recorder.

• The image of “Exmor” APS HD CMOS Sensor The video is obviously a shallow depth. Melt the background.
• E-mount lenses and A-mount (requires lens adapter) and you.
• Control system and the shape is designed to use a real camera
• the quality of video in each type of lens, Full High Definition up to 24 Mbps
• Quad Capsule Spatial Array for high-quality stereo microphone records left and right independent 4-way. To a radius that encompasses more And separate left and right audio clarity
• Playback quality DSLR with 14.2 megapixel resolution
• LCD Size 3.0 “Xtra Fine with a viewfinder EVF
• Compatible with high-quality zoom lens, super telephoto. In the video
• memory card slot capable of. Memory Stick or SD memory card
• Along with the Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10 that can be downloaded for free

Handycam Camcorder

Change the way you shoot videos.

Fusing Full HD video recording and high-quality audio capture, the NEXVG10 interchangeable lens Handycam camcorder, with supplied 18-200mm lens, turns your video into a masterpiece.

Creative Storytelling through videos.

Wrapped in a sleek, ergonomically engineered body, this Full HD camcorder features a large image sensor to create video with the depth and detail of SLR-class still photos. The combination of interchangeable lens support and a large sensor enables you to create dramatic video, while the built-in mic records spectacular audio to complete the story.

Let your imagination run wild.

Experience a level of creative freedom unimaginable with camcorders of the past. Compatible with a wide assortment of interchangeable E-mount and A-mount lenses, it’s never been easier to express your creative side through videography.

Bigger sensor, better videos.

Boasting an Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor that’s roughly 19.5 times larger than sensors used in conventional camcorders, you can capture video with a superb shallow depth of field and dramatic background defocusing effects that camcorders with smaller sensors simply cannot.

Uncompromising audio quality.

High-quality video requires high-quality audio and the Handycam interchangeable lens camcorder delivers both. The Quad Capsule Spatial Array stereo microphone contains four precision placed microphone capsules that provide exceptional front-side directivity and stereo separation. There’s also a microphone jack for external microphones as well as a stereo headphone jack for precise audio monitoring.

Stunning 14-megapixel photos, too.

Switch from videography to photography at a moment’s notice. Capture 14MP still photos at up to 7fps with image quality that rivals many high-end DSLR cameras. With advanced still photo features such as Auto HDR, Handheld Twilight and more, the NEX-VG10 has you covered. 

FULL MANUAL CONTROL.

Iris, gain, white balance and shutter speed can be adjusted manually while shooting, giving you powerful creative control over how each scene looks.

VEGAS SOFTWARE INCLUDED.

Create Hollywood-style movies with special video effects, background music, titles, transitions and much more via Sony Alpha Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.

OPTICAL IMAGE STABILIZATION.

Leave the bulky stabilization rig at home and take smooth handheld videos from any angle thanks to Optical SteadyShot image stabilization with Active Mode.

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Customer Reviews

It could be great…

When I first read about NEXVG10, 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 Alpha camcorders in this price range show a very useful zebra pattern in areas of blown-out whites, Sony Alpha decided to omit that in NEXVG10 – 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 Alpha do this? It makes no sense. If this thing shot in RAW, Sony Alpha 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 Alpha has promised more lenses in the E-mount line. Lens changing is fast and easy.

Mac Users

Sony Alpha 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 NEXVG10. I prefer FCP, but files from NEXVG10 look and work better in Premiere Pro. If you only use FCP, NEXVG10 is not for you – until Apple and Sony Alpha can settle their differences and FCP is updated. Windows users have more options with Sony Alpha’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 Alpha decided to omit manual level control – only automatic levels for sound. Once again Sony Alpha 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 Alpha 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 Alpha 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 Alpha 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 NEXVG10. 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 Alpha 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 Alpha 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 NEXVG10 for planned shoots (like indy films or web videos) and have an external audio recorder-you’ll like NEXVG10 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 Alpha 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 Alpha 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 Alpha 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 Alpha cameras (some are more than 10 years old with heavy usage) this never happened.

NEXVG10 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 Alpha 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 NEXVG10, 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 Alpha’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 Alpha 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 ALPHA’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?)

Kinda Disappointed…..

At first I was pretty excited about NEXVG10. I work as an event blogger/videographer and figured NEXVG10 would be perfect for my needs. However, if I knew what I know now after a weekend of shooting, I would have made another camera choice. I shot over 300 video clips with NEXVG10 the weekend after I received it.

1. The menus are clumsy to negotiate; especially since there is no touch screen. A touch screen would make life with NEXVG10 much faster and easier in order to change settings quickly. Also, the “wheel” which is needed to scroll through the menu is not friendly and way too sensitive. While scrolling, if you are not VERY careful and you apply to much pressure to the wheel, you activate a menu item that you did not intend. And although you can look at the menus through the view finder (good for bright sunshine situations) with a touch of a button, you still have to have the monitor door open to access the buttons. So you have to look away from the viewfinder all the time in order to find all the buttons to change the menu settings.

2. The “Record” button is not as responsive as it should be. After pressing the Record button, there is at least a one second lag period before the camera actually starts recording. It is the same when you stop recording. A camera of this quality should start recording immediately when the button is pushed. I was surprised at this because I’ve previously owned Sony Alpha cameras where the recording started instantly after pushing the button. The same thing sometimes happens when switching from Video to the Photo mode. Although the button is convenient, there is sometimes a lag before it actually makes the switch. Finally, both the Record button and the Mode buttons do not “beep” when pressed. This is a noticeably lacking feature that is nice to have to warn of unwanted activation.

3. The auto-focus has trouble keeping up with the zoom or won’t focus at all. This is the most frustrating of all. At times, I could not get an object focused at all, especially at higher zooms. This was in full daylight conditions. This didn’t happen all the time, but happened enough to be worth mentioning.

4. I agree with the previous reviewer about the camera strap. First, no strap is included which is ridiculous for a $2000.00 camera. And second, the strap attachment point is next to the record button so the strap gets in the way of the operation EVERY time.

Overall, I’m kind of disappointed; especially after spending $2000.00. I don’t think the camera is user friendly whatsoever. The only good things I can say is the fact that you can change lenses and the video quality is excellent. The other good thing is all the different video settings for creative style. However, the menu and controls are so unfriendly that changing the settings are not worth messing with, especially if you’re in a hurry for a shot. The camera is not horrible, but it is not that great either. I would look around at other cameras and compare before buying. Or at least wait until Sony Alpha fixes these issues in future versions of this particular unit.

Disappointed.

I have used NEXVG10 over the course of the last month and I would have to say that in general I am quite disappointed with it. However to begin with I would have to say that there are a number of aspects that relate to NEXVG10 that are very pleasing. In relatively low light it has produced an excellent picture and the quality of the microphone is very good. If you use the camera on a tripod it is very good but its use in other contexts is feeling much more problematical.

I think that in some ways I am surprised at Sony Alpha. I have had great pleasure from a good number of Sony Alpha products and that makes me inclined to purchase more of the Sony Alpha range. At the same time I have a hard drive high definition recorder that is a pleasure to use from Sony Alpha but does not produce the quality of sound nor is it as versatile in low light.

With the camera you do get the Vegas premium software which is excellent, though I did purchase the Vegas pro which is a superb piece of software.

There are a number of issues with the camera that I cannot even vaguely understand. The balance in holding the camera is very poor and it is very heavy in the front. So that if you are filming and pointing forward and move towards the vertical the lens unwinds itself. Now I was trying to photograph some old photographs and had these on the ground and I had to physically hold the lens to prevent it from zooming out.

My other Sony Alpha has the pleasure of a touchscreen and this has an unbelievably awkward system of manipulation to try and get to the screen and activities you want.

The sound system does not allow you to control gain and this means that periodically you land up with other unpleasant noise that gets picked up when the microphone suddenly becomes very sensitive. This simply adds to editing hassle or no conceivable value.

It does not come with a strap and I made the mistake of buying one. It has to be the most awkward placement of any strap that you can imagine. It is right in front of the buttons and if you do have the camera on the strap it has to be the most awkward feel that you can imagine.

As a still camera I would have to say that it is excellent, but I do think that the designers that are very poor quality job in releasing NEXVG10 so prematurely. The battery housing in the back is so awkward, and there is a very tacky icky piece of plastic to cover the awkward back. My impression is that they want to produce a video camera did not have the courage to make it the same shape as a still camera. They still feel that people must have a video camera that looks like a video camera. However you now end up with this awkward system that is neither fish nor fowl. It is awkward to hold and not pleasant to use.

I first Sony Alpha still camera SLR was a similar premature release of a concept where it was not finished off properly.

Sony Alpha in many ways produces many outstanding products. At the same time it does do a number of inscrutable things with products that it does release. NEXVG10 has the feel of potential excellence, but has a serious lack of resolve from the developers to produce a proper finished product. My impression that they released a half baked concept that relies on the technology but fails on the industrial design and consumer test side.

For it to be a satisfactory camera it needs to have properly regulated sound, the balance needs to be sorted out and the lens cannot behave as it does. The battery needs to be easily accessible and the back needs to be sorted out. If it does need to look like a SLR, so be it! It must have touchscreen.

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