Hi there, I have just upgraded my video camera to a Sony FDR-AX700, and would like to know if it is compatible with Magix editing programmes.
Also, I have in the past used Magix Movie Edit Pro, and was wondering if the new Magix Movie Studio software is configured along similar lines as the Movie Edit Pro.
Thanks for any advice you might be able to give me.
Cheers,
John
To answer your second question first, yes, Movie Edit Pro has had a "rebrand" (long and dubious story) and is now named Magix Movie Studio. It is basically the same as the last few versions and you will have no trouble feeling at home with the latest iteration. Magix has changed a lot under the hood though and the latest version has greatly sped-up handling and export of HD and UHD/4k (as your camera shoots), provided you have a well-specced machine ie fast Intel CPU with integrated graphics and a separate NVidia GPU.
To your first question, the experts will help you out with the compatibility of the higher-end shooting formats. Suffice to say MMS will easily deal with 8bit HD and UHD/4k video, better still if shot in constant frame-rate format.
Full (Australian) specs are here:
https://www.sony.com.au/electronics/handycam-camcorders/fdr-ax700/specifications
Hi.
You will probably have upgrade to Video Pro X if you wish to use recorded files at 10 or 12 bit as MEP and Movie Studio only handle files with an 8 bit depth dynamic range and does not cope with HDR content. Even then it may be difficult to see any difference if your system monitor is not capable of accurately displaying the difference in dynamic range that such files produce. 12 bit files in theory would produce files with dynamic ranges well beyond most monitors abilities to display such files accurately and would be a considerable strain on any computer system to process needing quite high end components to run smoothly.
Ray.
Many thanks for the advice/tips - greatly appreciate the speed (and the quality) of your replies!
Hi.
The camera specs as posted by Al show that the camera only needs to use memory cards that can write to 100MB/s or over which by today's standards is not that high. That means that to get that much information into such a low data stream a lot of encoding is being done by the cameras' own BIONZ X image processor which has only dedicated functions. The software and computer components on the other hand are more generalised. How much more powerful a system needs to be would probably be better answered by people who own other Sony camcorders like @johnebaker who will have a better grasp of this than myself. The only benefits of shooting at higher bit depths for a given resolution is dynamic range of shadow to highlight and colour depth and the ability to bring shadow areas and blown highlight areas back into a normal viewable dynamic range. Only those watching such videos with a similar abilities of viewing will get the full benefit of such files if not regraded to a lower bit depth for a more general viewing experience. In general, at the moment shooting at 10 bit or 12 bit is more about future proofing content shot or if needed rendered to the same specifications. A lot of production decisions rest on the shoulders of the person making the video.
Ray.
Hi
I have the FDR- AX53E - both cameras record in the Sony XAVC-S format in MP4 container file and these import - no extra codec needed, at 4K 100MB/s providing your computer specification is sufficiently powerful enough to handle the amount of data and datarate - see my signature for my PC and laptop specs.
The AX700 has the advantage of being able to shoot in the Sony S Log 3 colour profile which, when used with the downloadable S-Log3 LUT from Sony, gives a colour profile very close to that of HDR video (10 or 12 bit) in an 8 bit video format.
HTH
John EB
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