Sony NXCAM (HXR-NX5) major (?) problem

[Daniel Paun]

Hi everyone, it happen to me yesterday:

I was filming yesterday morning to do a proper test of the NX5E camcorder while recording on both memory card (8Gb Sony Pro Duo Mark 2 that came with the camcorder) and the FMU. I did a few shots and suddenly, a message appeared on the screen: ” card A failure” or something similar but it wasn’t the “buffer overrun” or anything to do with buffer like Adam Welz described above. The thing is that the camcorder was still recording on the FMU while the message was blinking on screen (continuously). I decide to stop the recording and as soon as I pressed the button, the camera started to reboot. It took about 30 sec to reboot and it was grant for another few shoots (then the rain starts and I had to leave without further testing). While rebooting it automatically tryed to recover the footage and everything seemed back to normal. Back home I found that the actual clip could not be saved on memory stick but I had it on the FMU.

I’m really freaked out now as I have a wedding to film next saturday (6th March) and I cannot rely on the camera now. I will give it another try these days and I will report back here how it goes.

My NX5E serial is: 210172

Here are some shoots I have take yesterday with this camcorder (but I didn’t record simultaneously on card and FMU and everything was great):

https://www.vimeo.com/9784737

[Adam Welz]

Hi Daniel

Sony thinks my problem is with the FMU128 unit.

I am sending mine off to Sony in Japan for analysis and they are Fedex-ing me a new one.

I used the cam for about 3 hours yesterday shooting on to SD cards only with no problems at all, so perhaps it is the FMU.

Cheers

Adam

[Robert Boni]

I was right about to order this camera plus the FMU when I found these posts. What a shame and I hope Sony fixes these glitches. If you recorded on just one source, was it the FMU or the SDHC card? Adam says he’s OK with just the SDHC cards. Is this the same results with you may I ask?

[Daniel Paun]

Hi Robert, it was fine while recording on only one of the media (memory stick or the FMU). I think the problem with the NX5 its recording simultaneous on both. I got in touch with Sony but they don’t have an answer for me just yet…

[Robert Boni]

Thank you Daniel,
I have the HVR-Z5U and want a second and the NXCAM was my first choice since the lens are identical. I was right about to hit send in my cart then something told me to check the reviews. I’m NOT a fan of Teaneck Sony since my camera was parked there for a month + waiting on a part that could not be tracked down via UPS. Anyway, thank you for your feedback and so sorry to hear of the issues.

[Daniel Paun]

Hi Adam,

While recording on either the memory stick or the FMU it was grant, no issues at all(that was the first day test). But then I read your post on this forum and the next day I started to record simultaneously on memory card and the FMU. It was great for a couple of shots but then the above happened. I will give it another try these days and I’ll report back on the forums. I suspect that it will be an issue with most of the NX Cams recording simultaneously. I would love to here more users out there who tried this. But until then I’m so disappointed with Sony from this point of view (it was so important to me and my type of business to rely on dual simultaneously recording).

All the best…

[Daniel Paun]

Hi Adam,

While recording on either the memory stick or the FMU it was grant, no issues at all(that was the first day test). But then I read your post on this forum and the next day I started to record simultaneously on memory card and the FMU. It was great for a couple of shots but then the above happened. I will give it another try these days and I’ll report back on the forums. I suspect that it will be an issue with most of the NX Cams recording simultaneously. I would love to here more users out there who tried this. But until then I’m so disappointed with Sony from this point of view (it was so important to me and my type of business to rely on dual simultaneously recording).

All the best…

[Bill Willins]

Hi Daniel …. looked at your footage on Vimeo , looks great. I am very interested in this camera, however can you explain the workflow with AVCHD & FCP 7 . Thank you.

[Daniel Paun]

Hi Bill,

I don’t have the FCP 7 yet. I’m on FCP 6 at the moment and I was surprized to see that the codec its supported by the software. When I bought the camera, I thought that I’ll have to do the upgrade to FCP 7 to get my job done. But I imported the clips via Long&Transfer and it worked just fine (even though, a message appears everytime: “The folder you selcetd contains clips that are not supported by FCP”, or something simillar to this). However, the clips are converted to Aplle Pro Res 422 and from there I do my things as usual. Very easy, no issues at all.

[Daniel Paquin]

I’ve got a two NXCAM camera and have been shooting with them.

With the fist one, I’ve shot SD on a SDHC (Panasonic 16gb type 10) card for more than 24 hrs and did not encountered any problems.

With the second one, I’ve shot 720 60p on a SDHC (Sandisk 8gb) card and suddendly had a “data error” message. No clue, of what happened. I changed the Sandisk SDHC with the Panasonic card and had the same problem appearing when pushing the record button.

I’ve turned off/on and started recording withoout a problem. I’ve shot over 100 small video sequence after restarting the camera and the problem did not occured.

I’ve got no idea of the problem but would like to know if someone had the same problem.

The only differences in setup for the camera are the following:
– Camera 1 shooting SD output 48060si – no problems
– Camera 2 shooting 720 60p, steadyshot active – data error problem

I am VERY pleased with the quality of the image I am getting from my camera but I need to make I can count on it.

I am not shooting on SDHC and 128 FMU yet and I will soon.

Regards!
Daniel

Daniel Paquin