Unique Shots with Sony’s New Electronic Fader ND / Aperture Function – NAB 2015

by Nino LeitnerApril 17^th, 2015

At NAB 2015, Sony didn’t have any big camera news – the FS7 had their US premiere but it has already been in the market for a while since it was introduced about 6 months ago.

However, we discovered something really interesting, an easy oversight, when Sony’s Bill Drummond was giving us a walk-through at their booth: the Sony X180, a semi-shoulder camcorder similar to the dated EX3, features an extremely intriguing feature that we have never seen in another camera before:

It’s a unique kind of combination of an electronically controlled fader ND that automatically adjusts to the exposure set by the aperture that can be adjusted manually. The effect is an image that seemingly keeps the same exposure but the depth of field changes as the aperture is adjusted.

This kind of combination is something we haven’t seen before in a camera and it allows creators to make shots that we truly haven’t seen before. For now, this is only in the X180 camera but we can clearly see this being implemented into future Sony cameras down the line. How and if this can be integrated into interchangeable lens cameras remains to be seen though.