Sony's A7S is NOT the first Sony camera to have a full 4K HDMI output

AX100 Full HDMI output

Sony's tiny 4K HandyCam supports a full 4K HDMI output that should be compatible with the upcoming Atomos Shogun 4K recorder - months before the A7S

Sony's AX100 is one of the increasingily small group of new HandyCams to be released in the era of smartphone video. Small camcorders have to offer something special in order to avoid being absolutely trounced by the latest wave of smartphones.

The AX100 has 4K to distinguish itself, as well as a pretty good sensor and a respectable lens. But where really gets interesting is that it has a clean 4K HDMI output. Which means that you can use it with an external recorder.

Many thanks to EOS HD for drawing our attention to this. They noticed the clean HDMI output and tried it outputting the camera's E to E image on a 4K TV, proving that it works.

A clean 4K output means that you will be able to record it on a 4K recorder like Atomos' Shogun, which is due out later in the year.

All of this is mildly interesting because in a meeting in a back room at NAB 2014, a few of us were introduced to the Sony A7S, a 4K interchangable lens camera with a full-frame sensor. Unusually for Sony they were promoting a third party product, the Shogun, for use with their camera: at the time of the meeting (and we believe this is still so) this is the only 4K HDMI recorder to have been announced.

What we didn't realise at the time was that you'll be able to use the Shogun with the AX100 as well. This should be a good combination as the imaging in the AX100 appears to be pretty decent by most accounts, although not to the extremely high standard of the A7S.

All of which has made us wonder whether 4K HDMI outputs will become the norm in the near future. Perhaps even on smartphones!