Either way, the new 350 looks like a superb camera. My business partner has banned me from upgrading cameras for another 3 months (I think she's trying to kill me through anticipation). But I think looking at it an EX1R paired with the PMW-350 (this is going to confuse a lot of people with all these 350's in existence!) will be a great combo for most shooting.

It'll be easier ergonomically to put the Nano Flash onto the 350, and by doing so the 700 really does lose a lot of advantages. If the kit lens is anything like as good as the EX series one it will also solve a lot of lens expense problems, and from the sounds of it might even be a lot better than most of the low cost 2/3" HD ENG style glass from Canon etc.

Alister, how did the controls feel on the kit lens?

Does this camera do SD out of the box? or is this an add on?
I have to say that I have been waiting for this camera and now it's here. This is exactly what I'm looking for in a camera
Cheers

SD is an option that will be available from launch. The 350 package is very atractive. The lens felt like any other ENG lens in use even has a standard Fujinon 8 pin remote socket as on thier regular ENG lenses. It's the lens, viewfinder combined with low power and weight that makes the 350 package so atractive.

Does this 350 camera take the V lock battery.
What about the base plate. I'm heavily invested in the Sony F350 at this time but if things can be used on this new 350 I might be selling.

Thanks

Alister is it correct what Greg stated the PMW-350 lens does not have IS?

Thank you for a very nice introduction to the new cameras.

Excellent review Alister, much appreciated!

No IS on the 350 lens. It uses standard v-lock batts and standard Sony quick release tripod plate.

Excellent thanks Alister. Now to preorder

Thanks for the excellent review Alister. You mentioned in it that there would be a firmware update for existing EX1/3 users to enable the use of Sony's own card adapter.

Will the update also enable other EX1R features like cache record, image flip, SD recording, smooth handle zoom etc, for existing users?

Also what has happened to the mini USB port?

Maybe I missed this somewhere- is there any pricing information on the new SxS cards?

Thanks for your review Alister.

Did you get a chance to see if the PMW-350 showed any infrared contamination like the EX-1 does?

Thanks

The one thing I'm hopping for but unmentioned is the possibility of a firmware upgrade for the EX1. For me it's mainly the cache record. The ability to use less expensive SxS is something I assume anyone can take advantage of. The things I read imply one needs a firmware upgrade to take advantage of the Sony memory sticks. BTW the one problem I have with that is it's still easier to hand a client an SDHC card than a Sony memory stick as far as ease of finding a card reader.

One thing to be mindful of in the broader sense is that it's likely we'll be seeing changes like this every couple of years so one needs to think about that.

In a review I read it said Sony added a filter for this issue in the EX-1R so one might assume it's there in the 350 as well.

This new camera looks to be an excellent value although I will be interested to see the acceptance factor for Discovery Networks. It is 2/3", but it is also long GOP at only 35mbps too. Not sure where BBC, PBS and Discovery stand with long GOP and 35mbps? Does anyone know?

Also, the promotion that Panasonic is running for the AJ-HPX2700 is at the same list price although this new Sony includes the lens so it is really much cheaper. I know that the 2700 is probably a better camera, but I probably would need to figure on another $8k for an even halfway decent used or cheap HD lens.

If it streets at around $17 to $18k, Sony will sell a ton of these, looks to be a great deal.

Dan

Question about the lense...
 

Alister, does this lense on the 350 have a macro option? if not, what is the minimum focal distance? And, thanks for bringing all this info to us. Does Sony have a release date? My penny saving has not been in vain, I'm finally ready to jump away from my dsr370's.