SONY PXW-X160 XDCAM PRO CAMCORDER

Sony offers the PXW-X160 XDCAM professional camcorder with the newly developed 25x optical zoom G-lens that extends from a 26mm wide angle. The PXW-X160 features Full HD XAVC Intra and XAVC Long GOP recordings and MPEG HD 422 50 Mbps offer budget savings and workflow flexibility for broadcast and professional applications. This advanced XDCAM professional camcorder has been created to satisfy the needs of broadcasters, production houses and corporate and event productions, with performance and features that are ideally suited for news, documentaries, events, and more.

The PXW-X160 three 1/3-inch type Exmor™ CMOS sensors professional camcorder records Full HD XAVC Intra and XAVC Long GOP, as well as MPEG HD 422 50 Mbps MPEG HD 420 35 Mbps, AVCHD and DV, making it ideal for a wide range of applications from education/videography to broadcast. As the successor to the HVR-Z7E, HXR-NX5E and PMW-150, the PXW-X160 has a lot of attractive features, including dual SxS memory card slots, a G Series fixed 25x HD zoom lens with 26mm wide angle and variable ND filter, that provides four conventional mechanical 4 ND filter positions or a linear switch dial for more control in changing light conditions.

Key Features:

Three 1/3-inch type Exmor™ CMOS Full HD sensors for a wide range of shooting conditions

The PXW-X160 incorporates three 1/3-inch type Full-HD Exmor™ CMOS sensors to achieve high resolution, high sensitivity, low noise, and wide dynamic range. The sensor has 2 million effective pixels and achieves full HD 1920 x 1080 shooting without pixel interpolation, enhancing shooting under severe lighting conditions and providing more freedom of creative expression.

25x professional HD zoom lens with three independent rings with end-stop and large focal length

The PXW-X160 is equipped with a G Series fixed 25x zoom lens with 26mm wide-angle. Due to a quick electric zoom function, the change of shooting from wide-angle to tele-angle can be made quickly. The lens has three independent control rings with end-stop, which means focus, zoom and iris can be manually controlled, making for better and faster adjustment.

High quality XAVC Intra and XAVC Log GOP recordings

The PXW-X160 supports not only MPEG HD 422 50 Mbps in MXF (Material eXchange Format), which is widely accepted by major broadcasters worldwide, but also XAVC Intra and XAVC Long GOP codecs. XAVC technology is based on the H.264 standard, which provides an exceptional performance compression technology. XAVC Intra (frame) compression means that every frame is encoded independent of the other frames – providing a better quality picture, without compromises. With a Long GOP codec, only certain frames are encoded individually. This allows the codec to squeeze the video into a much smaller bitrate than Intra technology. The main benefit is faster ingest and editing. XAVC Long GOP files also require less storage space than XAVC Intra files, providing budget savings on recording media. The XAVC codec adopts 10 bit sampling for high definition recording with rich tonal expression. The bite rate of XAVC recording is 111 or 112 Mbps at 1080/59.94i or 50i and 89, or 112 Mbps at 1080/23.98P or 25p. The high bit rate gives a better quality picture.

Switchable recordings for greater flexibility

As well as shooting at XAVC HD, MPEG HD 422 50 Mbps and MPEG HD 420 35 Mbps, the camcorder also supports DVCAM at 25 Mbps in MXF file format and AVCHD in MTS file format, which is compatible with NXCAM camcorders. MPEG HD 422 gives a high quality image with more detailed colour reproduction, as well as being ideal for chromakeying. It is also compatible with other XDCAM HD 422 and NXCAM camcorders, including the PMW-500, the PMW-200, HXR-NX3/VG1 and many others, which streamlines workflow and reduces time in the edit. High-quality MPEG HD422 50 Mbps is fully compliant with the latest EBU recommendations for long-form broadcast production and is widely accepted in broadcasting stations and production houses. This recording capability makes the PXW-X160 ideal for a wide range of different applications, including newsgathering and documentary production.

Dual SxS media slots, “Simul” or “Relay” recording, and independent record control

The PXW-X160 is equipped with two SxS memory card slots. The camcorder is compatible with SxS PRO+ and SxS-1 memory cards, XQD, SDXC and SDHC cards can be also used with an appropriate card adaptor. Two media slots can record in either “Simul” or “Relay” mode. “Simul” mode permits simultaneous recording to two memory cards, while “Relay” mode automatically switches recording from the first to the second memory card when the first is full. The user can set up the two Start/Stop buttons on the PXW-X160, one on the grip and one on the camcorder body, to independently start and stop recording on different memory cards while recording in Simul mode.

Variable dual ND filter control mechanism

The PXW-X160 is equipped with a variable ND Filter function, allowing you to choose either four conventional mechanical ND filter positions or the linear control dial. The optical filter changes the density electrically, allowing the light amount to be reduced more conveniently. The density can be changed gradually and fluidly. Different from conventional optical ND filters, the ND filter on the PXW-X160 can be controlled from 1/4ND to 1/128ND linearly. By choosing the density value properly, the iris control has more flexibility.

Multi Interface Shoe (MI Shoe) for flexible connection without XLR cable

The PXW-X160 is equipped with a Multi Interface Shoe (MI Shoe) that has an electric interface in its mechanical attachment allowing the camcorder to communicate with an attached accessory. Accessories attached to the MI Shoe can be controlled by the camcorder. Using an MI Shoe connection, the audio signal from a UWP-D11 or UWP-D12 wireless microphone package can be input from the wireless microphone receiver to the PXW-X160 without an XLR cable. The power can be supplied from the PXW-X160 to the receiver and a battery is not required for the receiver operation. So, for example, if the HVL-LBPC video light is attached to the MI Shoe, video light power can be switched on and off from the camcorder.

Viewfinder includes amazing OLED technology

This 0.5-inch OLED viewfinder has the incredible clarity of 1024 x 768 High Definition, plus superb OLED brightness, contrast and response. The high resolution of the viewfinder allows better precision of manual focus operations and eliminates any colour-breaking phenomenon.

Wide choice of connections

The camcorder offers numerous connections to suit the broadcast workflow, including 3G HD-SDI, HDMI®, USB, composite output, timecode input/output and genlock input. The 3G-SDI connector is able to output the 1080/59.94P or 50P signal. Down-conversion output from HD to SD is also possible. Simultaneous output from both SDI and HDMI is possible. The Rec Trigger signal can be sent through SDI and HDMI to link an external recording device.

Lens Remote (LANC)

The PXW-X160 has a LANC interface. Using a LANC remote controller such as the RM-1BP and the VCT-PG11RMB, the focus, zoom, rec start/stop and rec review can be controlled remotely.