Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

we purchase two of these to replace some P2 cameras and we love them. 1/2" CMOS and 1080p 50Mbps 422, SDI, TC I/O... what else could you ask for in this price range? The zoom rocker works great compared to EX1/3. The picture quality is amazing. We use on greenscreen for great keys and in the field with Hypergamma for great range.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

The first time that I used this camcorder was at the recent 2013 NAB convention in Las Vegas. It performed beautifully and flawlessly! Out of the box, it delivered excellent color accuracy, without any picture profile adjustments. After the firmware upgrade to version 1.1, the auto focus was very fast and accurate. The auto iris was also very good and smooth. The auto white balance worked very well, and was very accurate and correct. I shot in some dark rooms, and the camera performed great in low light. I didn't even need to use any gain. In fact, I think the camera can see better in low light than my eyes! Finally, the camera performed great under the bright neon lights in Las Vegas, as well as in the harsh sunlight. There was no smearing at all. I just wished the zoom could be a little longer, but that would make the camera larger and heavier. Overall, a great achievement from Sony. It is so far the best handheld camera I have ever used! The ability to record in 50 Mbps is a major plus!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

So far so good!

Only cons
Battery life is the only issue. Get about 2 hours on the mid range battery, The spec say 4 hours. Buy more batteries. The camera gets hot.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

We bought 2 of these Sony PMW-200 cameras and after a few hours of operation they started developing faults.

Camera 'B' Was rolling and mid-shot it displayed a 'Media Error' and from that point on it would not record anymore. We tried more things that you can think of to try and kick it back into service but no luck. We ended up having to send an EX3 to the location which was in another country.

Then Camera 'A' developed a different fault. The image in it's LCD inverted itself, without the screen being flipped, so the shooter was having to look at an upside-down display. Then while trying to correct the problem by searching through the menu systems it started to 'hang' then eventually the whole thing just locked-up and no buttons worked at all. This fault seemed to correct itself overnight but it didn't provide us with enough confidence to carry on using the camera. So we flew a 2nd EX3 to the location.

You would expect with such a world renowned brand as SONY that something with their badge on it would work straight out of the box.

What's worse is that you would expect them to support their products all around the world - especially seeing as how we do actually use their gear all around the world BUT NO, their limited warranty means that it can only be repaired from where you bought it.
How are you supposed to do that when you are shooting halfway around the world?

SONY has let us down. We are very disappointed with this purchase and the lack of support by the manufacturer.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

but i have it to sort to say its wonderful. Look like's the manual wite balance to not working at all. And do miss shutter below 60 very much!!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

This is a nice camera. The weight is better than your average prosumer, so the 200 gives a little more weight on your tripod head.

Plenty of options for HD recording. My biggest fault with the 200 is the transfer rate off the SxS card. The format from the EX3, for example, is nicely wrapped up and transfers lightning fast. The 200 is VERY slow. Don't expect quick xfers in the field. Maybe it's Final Cut, but the HD codec is slow.

The ergonomics are just o.k. I am used to the EX3 and really liked the set up. The 200 is not as easy to get around with your hands, making it easy to fumble around. The lcd is nice but a little hard to see in bright sunlight. Invest in a small hoodman, you may be happy you did.

Outside of my critical comments, this is a great camera and does put out a great image. It's small and easy to move around and get into tight corners. Once I'm used to the different positions of the switches, I'm sure it will be a great camera for my arsenal.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

I've recently received the PMW -200, I'm extremely happy with its results.
The picture is crisp, with a great color space. I couldn't ask for anything better at that price(=I could but wouldn't get it)

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

This camera handles very comparably to the EX1R. The advantages to the 200 are much nicer zoom control, especially with the slow zooms, and the obvious color difference. One thing I would like to mention is that if you are editing in FCP7, make sure to switch the format to FAT, creating .mov files instead of .mfx (something very difficult for fcp7 to work with.)

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

I love the quality of this camera!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Use it for documentary and event coverage. Performs excellently and the footage holds up nicely in post.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Great all-on-one camcorder for documentary and event shooting. Handles very well and intuitively. Nicely balanced and it feels better in the hand than other camcorders of a similar weight and form factor.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Exellan

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Really nice. Much better handling than the Canon XF300 or HPX250. Nicely balanced and very easy to shoot with. And the picture quality is, as expected, great. There is still very much a time and place for small sensor camcorders, and in that market I can't think of a better option than this.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Very very easy to use, even an amateur can look like a pro with this camcorder. Very light weight and relativily compact, great for run and gun style shooting. The only thing that i can see that needs tweaking is the control over white balance, auto white balence is a ok best guess i was using 5500k flourescents and the camera was balencing for 4600k and i could only get the manual to balance for 5200k. A fully manual white balence using the sel/set wheel would have been a better solution.

all in all this has been a great camera thus far and I enjoy using this camera a lot.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Great!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

So far I'm impressed with everything about this camera except the lousy viewfinder, which is every bit as lousy as the one on the EX1R. However the flip out screen is fantastic, the image quality is fantastic, and the placement of controls is very logical. If you get real SxS cards (or XQD cards in the adapter) you can format as UDF and shoot 422 50Mbps with 4 channels of audio. But even in FAT mode with a cheap SD card in an adapter, the picture is quite nice at 35 Mbps if you don't need 422 color space. I miss the rotating grip of the EX1 which is absent here, but the form factor in general of the PMW-200 is better than the EX1. The way the camera switches between camera mode and playback mode is MUCH improved over the EX1R as well. My biggest gripe is that the shotgun mic mount is way up in right field, which causes the camera to require a deeper case to accommodate it. Overall, I think it's a winner, and an improvement on the EX1R which was already a fine camera.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

we purchase two of these to replace some P2 cameras and we love them. 1/2" CMOS and 1080p 50Mbps 422, SDI, TC I/O... what else could you ask for in this price range? The zoom rocker works great compared to EX1/3. The picture quality is amazing. We use on greenscreen for great keys and in the field with Hypergamma for great range.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

The first time that I used this camcorder was at the recent 2013 NAB convention in Las Vegas. It performed beautifully and flawlessly! Out of the box, it delivered excellent color accuracy, without any picture profile adjustments. After the firmware upgrade to version 1.1, the auto focus was very fast and accurate. The auto iris was also very good and smooth. The auto white balance worked very well, and was very accurate and correct. I shot in some dark rooms, and the camera performed great in low light. I didn't even need to use any gain. In fact, I think the camera can see better in low light than my eyes! Finally, the camera performed great under the bright neon lights in Las Vegas, as well as in the harsh sunlight. There was no smearing at all. I just wished the zoom could be a little longer, but that would make the camera larger and heavier. Overall, a great achievement from Sony. It is so far the best handheld camera I have ever used! The ability to record in 50 Mbps is a major plus!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

So far so good!

Only cons
Battery life is the only issue. Get about 2 hours on the mid range battery, The spec say 4 hours. Buy more batteries. The camera gets hot.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

We bought 2 of these Sony PMW-200 cameras and after a few hours of operation they started developing faults.

Camera 'B' Was rolling and mid-shot it displayed a 'Media Error' and from that point on it would not record anymore. We tried more things that you can think of to try and kick it back into service but no luck. We ended up having to send an EX3 to the location which was in another country.

Then Camera 'A' developed a different fault. The image in it's LCD inverted itself, without the screen being flipped, so the shooter was having to look at an upside-down display. Then while trying to correct the problem by searching through the menu systems it started to 'hang' then eventually the whole thing just locked-up and no buttons worked at all. This fault seemed to correct itself overnight but it didn't provide us with enough confidence to carry on using the camera. So we flew a 2nd EX3 to the location.

You would expect with such a world renowned brand as SONY that something with their badge on it would work straight out of the box.

What's worse is that you would expect them to support their products all around the world - especially seeing as how we do actually use their gear all around the world BUT NO, their limited warranty means that it can only be repaired from where you bought it.
How are you supposed to do that when you are shooting halfway around the world?

SONY has let us down. We are very disappointed with this purchase and the lack of support by the manufacturer.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

but i have it to sort to say its wonderful. Look like's the manual wite balance to not working at all. And do miss shutter below 60 very much!!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

This is a nice camera. The weight is better than your average prosumer, so the 200 gives a little more weight on your tripod head.

Plenty of options for HD recording. My biggest fault with the 200 is the transfer rate off the SxS card. The format from the EX3, for example, is nicely wrapped up and transfers lightning fast. The 200 is VERY slow. Don't expect quick xfers in the field. Maybe it's Final Cut, but the HD codec is slow.

The ergonomics are just o.k. I am used to the EX3 and really liked the set up. The 200 is not as easy to get around with your hands, making it easy to fumble around. The lcd is nice but a little hard to see in bright sunlight. Invest in a small hoodman, you may be happy you did.

Outside of my critical comments, this is a great camera and does put out a great image. It's small and easy to move around and get into tight corners. Once I'm used to the different positions of the switches, I'm sure it will be a great camera for my arsenal.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

I've recently received the PMW -200, I'm extremely happy with its results.
The picture is crisp, with a great color space. I couldn't ask for anything better at that price(=I could but wouldn't get it)

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

This camera handles very comparably to the EX1R. The advantages to the 200 are much nicer zoom control, especially with the slow zooms, and the obvious color difference. One thing I would like to mention is that if you are editing in FCP7, make sure to switch the format to FAT, creating .mov files instead of .mfx (something very difficult for fcp7 to work with.)

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

I love the quality of this camera!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Use it for documentary and event coverage. Performs excellently and the footage holds up nicely in post.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Great all-on-one camcorder for documentary and event shooting. Handles very well and intuitively. Nicely balanced and it feels better in the hand than other camcorders of a similar weight and form factor.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Exellan

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Really nice. Much better handling than the Canon XF300 or HPX250. Nicely balanced and very easy to shoot with. And the picture quality is, as expected, great. There is still very much a time and place for small sensor camcorders, and in that market I can't think of a better option than this.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Very very easy to use, even an amateur can look like a pro with this camcorder. Very light weight and relativily compact, great for run and gun style shooting. The only thing that i can see that needs tweaking is the control over white balance, auto white balence is a ok best guess i was using 5500k flourescents and the camera was balencing for 4600k and i could only get the manual to balance for 5200k. A fully manual white balence using the sel/set wheel would have been a better solution.

all in all this has been a great camera thus far and I enjoy using this camera a lot.

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

Great!

Comments about Sony PMW-200 XDCAM HD422 Camcorder:

So far I'm impressed with everything about this camera except the lousy viewfinder, which is every bit as lousy as the one on the EX1R. However the flip out screen is fantastic, the image quality is fantastic, and the placement of controls is very logical. If you get real SxS cards (or XQD cards in the adapter) you can format as UDF and shoot 422 50Mbps with 4 channels of audio. But even in FAT mode with a cheap SD card in an adapter, the picture is quite nice at 35 Mbps if you don't need 422 color space. I miss the rotating grip of the EX1 which is absent here, but the form factor in general of the PMW-200 is better than the EX1. The way the camera switches between camera mode and playback mode is MUCH improved over the EX1R as well. My biggest gripe is that the shotgun mic mount is way up in right field, which causes the camera to require a deeper case to accommodate it. Overall, I think it's a winner, and an improvement on the EX1R which was already a fine camera.