Sony PXW-Z150 4K XDCAM Camcorder

The PXW-Z150 incorporates a 1.0″-type Exmor RS CMOS sensor with approximately 14.2 million effective pixels. The R designation signifies that this is a backside-illuminated sensor, and the S designation refers to the buffer design and that it can read the information off the sensor much faster than a non-S designated sensor.

The 1.0″-type offers more shallow depth of field than 1/2.88″-type or smaller sensors.

The PXW-Z150 is supplied with a fixed 12x optical zoom wide-angle Sony G lens, equivalent to a 29 to 348mm 35mm lens. The 12x optical zoom can be extended via Sony’s Clear Image Zoom technology to deliver an apparent 18x zoom range in 4K. In HD the 12x optical zoom can be doubled to 24x with Clear Image Zoom, and the Digital Extender function can double this range again, up to 48x zoom.

The camera records UHD 4K video (3840 x 2160p) at 29.97, 25, and 23.98 fps, in XAVC Long GOP in a choice of 100 Mb/s or 60 Mb/s. You can also select to record HD video instead of 4K, which allows you to not only record at standard frame rates up to 59.94p, but also engage Sony’s S&Q Motion, for recording HD video at 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 30, and 60 fps.

You can select to record in XAVC Long GOP (4K/1080p), MPEG HD at 4:2:2 or 4:2:0, or AVCHD 2.0 at a variety of data rates.

Three lens rings enable smooth, natural adjustment of focus, zoom, and iris control. The rings are not mechanically linked to the lens movement, but there is a mechanical feel to the rings. However, they are endlessly rotating, which protects your lens elements from pinning, and the faster you rotate the lens ring the more reactive the result. The lens can also be used in full-auto mode or completely manual for maximum creative control.

The PXW-Z150 is equipped with an ND Filter function, allowing you to choose four conventional mechanical ND filter positions (Clear, 1/4ND, 1/16ND, and 1/64ND) for better exposure and depth of field control.

The PXW-Z150 is equipped with two memory card slots, one of which is for SDHC/SDXC cards only, while the other slot is compatible with SDHC/SDXC and Memory Stick PRO Duo (Mark 2)/Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo cards.

Two media slots can be used to record in either “SIMUL” or “RELAY” mode. “RELAY” mode automatically switches recording from the first to the second memory card when the first is full, while “SIMUL” mode permits simultaneous recording to two memory cards. You can choose to record the same file to the second slot, creating an instant copy, or record a lower quality proxy for post.

The Multi-Interface Shoe expands your options to use accessories without cables, such as the optional HVL-LBPC Video Light or the UWP-D wireless microphone series.

You can fine-tune the look of movies before shooting by adjusting up to 99 parameters such as gamma, knee, black level, color model, color level, color phase, and more. Adjusted parameters can be saved along with other settings as a profile, and up to six profiles can be stored for later recall.

You can copy the settings from one PXW-Z150 to another PXW-Z150 so that the user can shoot with multiple cameras in the same settings. The picture profiles only work with the same model of camera.

Using the camcorder’s built-in Wi-Fi capability you can FTP files directly from the camcorder or live stream over Wi-Fi without having to add any additional accessories. You can also use the camcorder’s Wi-Fi and NFC connectivity to remotely pair it to your iOS or Android mobile devices running the Content Browser Mobile app, giving you remote control over focus, zoom, iris, white balance, REC start/stop, and more.