I bought PMW EX1 from B&H and I have exchanged it two times. The first camera had a few issues: 1. Iris switch had intermittent operation; 2. Firmware was 1.0.3; 3. It had excessive battery drainage.
The second camera had LED display totally out of order.
The third one seems to be OK.
Thanks to B&H and their customer service, I had no troubles with return and camera replacements, but I got some butterflies in the stomach re. Sony quality organization.
What is your experience with reliability of PMW EX1?

Mine, albeit used not nearly as much as the daily shooters, has been rock solid. User error blew out the LCD screen, but Sony in Teaneck, NJ replaced it in typical Sony Support Speed, somewhat slow.

I have minor wear on the white label paint, but that doesn't bother me one bit. Gear gets older and should look it. I did my own firmware update, was a piece of cake. But all in all, mine has been rock solid.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, hopefull third time is the charm.

Mine, albeit used not nearly as much as the daily shooters, has been rock solid. User error blew out the LCD screen, but Sony in Teaneck, NJ replaced it in typical Sony Support Speed, somewhat slow.

I have minor wear on the white label paint, but that doesn't bother me one bit. Gear gets older and should look it. I did my own firmware update, was a piece of cake. But all in all, mine has been rock solid.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, hopefull third time is the charm.

So far it is. I hope it will stay this way.

When I got my camera it turned out to have the vignetting problem. Sony sent me a fedex label to send it back to them, which I did. I had it back in less than two weeks (that was over new year's, last year). It came back fixed - no more vignetting.

That battery drain issue apparantly is a hardware problem that Sony is now fixing if you send it in to them. Mine has it too, but have not had it fixed. I just remove the battery when the camera is not in use.

I have some slight were on the labels, and maybe I'll send the camera back for that and the battery drain issue later. But this is not an issue for me.

My camera came with firmware 1.02. I upgraded the firmware to 1.11 myself and have been VERY pleased with the new firmware. It seems to have solved a lot of issues.

All in all I am very happy with the EX1. It produces outstanding images and has not let me down on a shoot.

...
My camera came with firmware 1.02. I upgraded the firmware to 1.11 myself and have been VERY pleased with the new firmware. It seems to have solved a lot of issues.

All in all I am very happy with the EX1. It produces outstanding images and has not let me down on a shoot.

Hi John

Would you be able to share with us the location of the firmware and the step-by-step of your upgrade? I have this problem of living far away from any of the proper Sony service centres and issue of sending them the camera would be a month or two of possible downtime so the most feasible option at the moment is to perform the upgrade myself until i can get a replacement cam for the downtime.

read this thread very carefully, one of the posts has a 1.11 link

I've been using one to shoot our fishing show since February.

While I try to take good care of it, the camera does get exposed to salt air. It hasn't been dropped nor directly sprayed. The cover keeps it well protected for the most part.

Hadn't had any problems except for the toggle selector switch at the top of the handle needing to be replaced. It wouldn't toggle downward, almost from the time I got the camera.

Otherwise, the footage it's captured has turned heads with many compliments on the quality of the pictures. It's a lot more reliable than tape ever was, without a single dropout or lost shot.

Here's some frame grabs from some of the shows we've done so far:

festival_display (http://hawaiigoesfishing.com/images/festival_display/index.html)

The camera had its firmware updated about a month ago, which solved the battery drain problem, and portions of the camera's outer shell was replaced to solve the "paint wear" issue for control labels.

Thanks to B&H and their customer service, I had no troubles with return and camera replacements,...
Thanks for your kind words. I am sorry for the trouble you encountered and for the inconvenience I know it must have caused.

My camera came with firmware 1.02. I upgraded the firmware to 1.11 myself and have been VERY pleased with the new firmware. It seems to have solved a lot of issues.

All in all I am very happy with the EX1. It produces outstanding images and has not let me down on a shoot.

John Could you tell me if you've send in your camera since you updated the firmware. I ask this because I need to update as well but can't miss my camera for even as long as 2 days and therefore am unable to send it in to Sony. At the other hand Sony tells me my warranty is void if I update myself.

At the other hand Sony tells me my warranty is void if I update myself.


Where is that stated? How can they do that without a statement to that effect somewhere?

John

Got my camera in Dec 2007. Sent it to San Jose in early Feb 2008 because it would not zoom smoothly at slow speeds. It was sort of disappointing since the camera did NOT have the vignetting issue. Sony couldn't fix the camera (apparently the issue was lens related) so they send me a new one. It took nearly 3 weeks.

I drove my Camera to Teaneck, NJ for the firmware upgrade. They say 10 days but some on DVInfo say it's like a month. I could have done the firmware upgrade myself but I want the battery drain issue fixed as well and I might have been cutting things close regarding warrantee repair (which could be Dec or next Feb depending).

The camera is great but there's WAY too much downtime. I don't shoot every day since I'm also an editor and compressionist but even loosing one shoot a week, the downtime can be expensive. Fortunately I can delay some shoots and replace lost time with editing work.

My VAR has offered me a loaner but the minor hassle of having to reserve pick up & return it, doesn't make that very effective (basically like a no fee rental). It's nice to have that as a fallback if my back were against the wall though.

I think Sony was on the bleeding age though with this technology. They were pushing their own limits. They really should have tested the first production run better.

Many people never spotted the issues. I can see when CNN is using the camera because you can spot the vignetting on some of the field reports on CNNHD.

Hello all. I downloaded the 1.11 firmware from a Sony site, but found the link on these forums. Sorry, I don't have the link anymore.

The firmware comes with instructions, that, when followed, are pretty foolproof.

I purchased my camera from B&H in New York, but I live in Bangkok Thailand, which is where the camera is now. I will be heading back to the US for about 6 weeks in February and have been considering taking the camera back for the battery drain issue and the lettering coming off the shell. But then again, maybe not, as neither of these are a major issue for me.

So to answer your question, no I have not sent my camera in since upgrading the firmware myself. Why sony doesn't want users to do it themselves is beyond me.

I had virtually every problem listed here....and then some. I never had the vignetting problem, but, since getting the camera in April, it had to go back to Sony 3 times. One of those trips was necessitated by Sony breaking a part when they replaced my back panel to fix the paint rubbing issue. Oh, and I'm on my third lens, too. But hey, I'm not bitter.

It is announced today that Sony is going to fire about 5% of their work force. I wonder how it will affect us - owners of their products.

My EX1 has been solid from Day 1. It did eat batteries though. The firmware changed this behavior. And I know people say that there was a board change necessary for this, I believe the board was shipping in later cameras but the firmware also needed to be applied.

I had no vignetting, backfocus issues, or anything else. If I could afford another one, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. There is NOTHING on the market in this price range I'd rather own for any reason.

In the articles I read about this they also mention the increased cost for parts. They mention some cuts on the electronics manufacturing side but I haven't seen how this is affecting the Pro division.

I can guess parts for repairs may go up as well as certain peripherals. I wouldn't be surprised if maintenance turnaround time slows (maybe we've been seeing that already as some people have complained on EX service). That's all speculative. The parts increase isn't though. They stated that the strong Yen has caused the parts increase and some on this forum have reported receiving notices of price increases from dealers.

It is announced today that Sony is going to fire about 5% of their work force. I wonder how it will affect us - owners of their products.

Mine came in v1.11 and has been flawless ever since. Not a daily user, but definitely a few days a week.

It is announced today that Sony is going to fire about 5% of their work force. I wonder how it will affect us - owners of their products.

I just got a letter yesterday that said I got laid off as a Sony customer. Pretty sad day.

I just got a letter yesterday that said I got laid off as a Sony customer.

Was there any money?

Was there any money?

Nah. They waived the severence fee. :-)

read this thread very carefully, one of the posts has a 1.11 link

really, that's cool?

I just got a letter yesterday that said I got laid off as a Sony customer. Pretty sad day.

I did not know that in Honolulu Sony has employed customers. What did you produce over there? Complains? :-) Sad day in dead … Wish you well

I did not know that in Honolulu Sony has employed customers. What did you produce over there? Complains? :-) Sad day in dead … Wish you well

Hahaha.... actually, all kidding aside, Sony Hawaii has been very supportive of us. They were showing video clips of our show during the Expo here and a lot of people took notice of the image quality. And that was a standard definition DVD.

I provided them some full-res 1080p30 clips to try out. I'm curious to see how they look on BluRay someday.

Dean, how do you deal with IR contamination issue?

Do you have 486 filter on EX1's lens all the time?

Alex...

Hadn't had very many issues with the IR contamination problem. If the blacks turn out slightly reddish it's not a big deal since there's not a whole lot of that in what I shoot. Maybe someone's baseball cap is a little warm. Or someone's surf shorts isn't pure black. No big deal.

But if someone's shooting a lot of people in formal attire in daylight, I'd say it's a serious problem.

The rest of the colors, well, that's a real eye-catcher. I've posted this link elsewhere. It's a bunch of images I extracted from our show. I printed 6"x10" prints and put them up on display during the annual Fishing & Seafood Festival here. Many were surprised to find out they're frame grabs -- not from a digital still camera.

festival_display (http://hawaiigoesfishing.com/images/festival_display/index.html)

Excellent imagery, Dean!

Alex...

Hadn't had very many issues with the IR contamination problem. If the blacks turn out slightly reddish it's not a big deal since there's not a whole lot of that in what I shoot. Maybe someone's baseball cap is a little warm. Or someone's surf shorts isn't pure black. No big deal.

But if someone's shooting a lot of people in formal attire in daylight, I'd say it's a serious problem.

The rest of the colors, well, that's a real eye-catcher. I've posted this link elsewhere. It's a bunch of images I extracted from our show. I printed 6"x10" prints and put them up on display during the annual Fishing & Seafood Festival here. Many were surprised to find out they're frame grabs -- not from a digital still camera.

festival_display (http://hawaiigoesfishing.com/images/festival_display/index.html)

Your frame grabs look like pictures from my D300 with JPEG full resolution. Great!

Thanks, guys.

What probably makes a significant difference with this camera is the full 1920x1080 square-pixel raster.

BTW, I'm also using Apple's "Color" application to do my color correction and grading. I'm doing the equivalent of "burn and dodge" on each shot. It takes a little more time but the results are worth the extra effort.

As in the Photoshop dodge and burn?
Care to enlighten us further, Dean?

"Dodge and burn" is a reference to old style black-and-white printing.

It's how we used to lighten and darken portions of a photographic print. The same thing can be done in Photoshop, and with "Color" I can do that with video, too.

yes, but how? The looks room? Secondary Room?

yes, but how? The looks room? Secondary Room?

That's a whole long topic by itself.

I use secondaries to deal with all of that. There's eight available so I'll have one for a sky gradient, another to lighten a face, another to desaturate only reds.

The best tutorial to get a good start with Color is here:

Introducing: Stop Staring and Start Grading with Apple Color : Apple Color (http://library.creativecow.net/articles/biscardi_walter/stopstaring.php)

I respectfully disagree with your suggestion. DVD you referring to is extremely superficial and it has tons of black holes. Moreover it is poorly shot and organized. The best tutorial I found is the book "Color, Correcting and Grading in Final Cut Studio" by Michael Wohl and David Gross. It has DVD but as addition to the first class printed tutorial. No wonder that this book is the part of Apple Pro Training Series.

I respectfully disagree with your suggestion. DVD you referring to is extremely superficial and it has tons of black holes. Moreover it is poorly shot and organized.

Forgive me Mark, if I respectfully disagree with you.

I bought that DVD just before christmas. It arrived very quickly (from USA to UK) and I found it very informative and easy to follow.

Walter's voiceover leaves something to be desired but generally, I'm very pleased with the tutorial. I had scratched the surface of Color and was looking for more info on setting up Color correctly and using the more advanced rooms. This DVD was just what I wanted.

I'm not aware of any "black holes" apart, maybe from there being no mention of how to get the best dual screen setup.

Of course, I cannot compare it with the book as I don't have a copy.

Mark...

You're free to disagree with my opinion and your feedback is valuable to this community. However, I have to point out that Walter's DVD turned a bewildering application into a productive tool for me and others.

Color is now part of my fundamental set of tools in post. And Walter's DVD got me to that point very fast. It might be superficial but only because it covers just enough of the basics to get someone started. A one-hour video will not provide comprehensive instructions on software with this sort of physical size and the number of rare structures.

Mark...

You're free to disagree with my opinion and your feedback is valuable to this community. However, I have to point out that Walter's DVD turned a bewildering application into a productive tool for me and others.

Color is now part of my fundamental set of tools in post. And Walter's DVD got me to that point very fast. It might be superficial but only because it covers just enough of the basics to get someone started. A one-hour video will not provide comprehensive instructions on software with this sort of physical size and the number of rare structures.

I am glad Dean and Andy that it helped you, while it did not help me. I found tutorial book that I have mentioned as better covering all aspects of Color program and in much deeper and in much more organized way. After study this book I made Color my tool that I am using in my production workflow with great success. Again, I just share my personal experience.

I had issues with the back focus going out of alignment. A shutdown/startup procedure fixed it, but this makes me worry a bit about on-shoot reliability.

I have EX1 that was purchased last November with rev.V1.11_0531 firmware.
After insertion into camera of freshly charged battery, I noticed that it lost about 75% of its charge within about 2 weeks. Do you think it is normal rate of self discharge or this is the result of excessive camera juice draw? Next I will check battery itself being out of camera.

I have EX1 that was purchased last November with rev.V1.11_0531 firmware.
After insertion into camera of freshly charged battery, I noticed that it lost about 75% of its charge within about 2 weeks. Do you think it is normal rate of self discharge or this is the result of excessive camera juice draw? Next I will check battery itself being out of camera.

Do not leave batteries on the camera more than a few days without expecting battery drain. I've always unplug batteries and if possible charge everything the night before a planned shoot and leave them fully charged unattached otherwise.

I agree about Walters DVD. I found it really helpful in getting up and running. It solved a lot of mysteries for me. It isn't intended to be an in depth DVD about how to grade with Color. It is meant as a primer for how the Color interface works.

I have EX1 that was purchased last November with rev.V1.11_0531 firmware.
After insertion into camera of freshly charged battery, I noticed that it lost about 75% of its charge within about 2 weeks. Do you think it is normal rate of self discharge or this is the result of excessive camera juice draw? Next I will check battery itself being out of camera.

Some EX1 have battery drain problem. This will discharge the battery in a day or two. I had mine sent back to Sony and they changed some parts to solve this.
Now, the battery drain is still here but take some weeks. I called sony which told it was "normal".

whatever, I knew of the battery drain because of what I read here. I NEVER let the battery on the camera when I'm done. Remove it, or re-charge it, but don't let it in.

Slightly off topic, but I've been having problems with older Sony products. My Sony headphones' coiled cord started becoming so sticky to the point that I just threw the unit away. Faux leather earpieces started disintegrating on my newer headphones. Sony foam microphone windscreen tears easily and turns to powder. Leather handgrip on a hi-8mm camcorder turning to dust. My suspicion is that these components are made in China....

Oh yes, and I had problems with letters rubbing off, and paint peeling from my EX1 handle.

I regualarly abuse mine and the thing is great. The paint did wear off on the heavily uses parts but .... I have finally come around to embrace file based workflow.

I would buy another.

I was an early-ish adopter following the cam since the first utterance of it's being on the forums.