SmartReview.com attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015) to see Sony's new compact 4K Camcorder, the Sony Handycam FDR-AX33. This is a true consumer and enthusiast super compact 4K camcorder. What sets this one apart from last years FDR-AX100 is that it is much smaller in size, and has the excellent Balanced Optical Steadyshot Image stabilization (BOSS), that was absent from the FDR-AX100. To be fair, the AX33 imager is smaller, but its recording bitrate has increased to an impressive 100Mbps bitrate when recording 4K (24 or 30fps), or 50MBps when recording Full HD (1080p) at 60fps. Sony uses its XAVC-s codec to record.

The excellent Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T lens is 29.8mm wide, 10x optical zoom or 20x clear image zoom, F1.8 - F3.4. The new FDR-AX33 also includes a 1,555K-dot, 0.24" tiltable EVF, and 3-inch LCD. The 4K video can be sent directly to a 4K Ultra HD TV via its HDMI port. Built-in WiFi.

4K video is shot at a resolution of 3840x2160, or 8 megapixels per frame, compared to only 2 megapixels for Full HD camcorders. You can grab an 8 megapixel photo from the camera while playing it back, or up to a 20 megapixel photo while live, using the photo button. Multi Camera Control using WiFi can control up to 5 devices simultaneously.


SmartReview.com 2015 Camcorder Buying Guide: http://www.smartreview.com/digital-camcorder-buying-guide