New PMW-350, EX1R camcorders and SxS media announced

[Andrew Stone]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

As far as I know there are no changes to the EX3 and I assume that must also include the filters. So for an EX3 you would want the new Tiffen T1 IR.

A guess based on release dates of the original EX1 and EX3 and marketing issues (read sell through of the EX1R) I would say the EX3 won't receive an update till spring at the earliest.

[Docea Marius]

It is possible to send the old EX1 was set to service and the new IR filter? :-)

[Erik Phairas]

Without updated Sensors I can't get too excited. Besides I am still in love with my EX3. :)

[Alister Chapman]

The EX3 is NOT getting an update and there are no plans to update it any time soon according to my contacts within Sony.

The NanoFlash works very well, is solid and reliable. Mike Schell at CD won't release a product until he is sure that it works as advertised. I have used mine on several large projects and it has been brilliant. It's more than ready for prime-time.

[Craig Seeman]

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the changes were part of a firmware upgrade such as cache record and many standard def unless those are tried to hardware changes. I'd think this would be a bit more than $100 as well if it were to happen. All speculation though.

[Alister Chapman]

SD would require a DV codec chip, there is only an Mpeg encoder in the EX3.

[Craig Seeman]

So record cache would be possible?

Interesting the inclusion of DV/Standard Def. I honestly think that's a rare need given one can shoot HD and edit in SD timeline with greater flexibility.

1440x1080 HQ could be valuable for those mixing EX with XDCAM HD though too.

[Bob Willis]

Yes Craig, that will help. But I am much more interested in using the Nanoflash to record 1920X1080 for my XDCAM HD camera(F350) and then mixing that with the EX1 (as 1920X1080) in the timeline.

Now that will be progress.

[Steve Minnick]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

I was one of the people that originally discovered that it was possible to use SDHC via an adapter with the EX3 and then EX1. Initially this excited me, but I soon discovered that it simply was not as robust as using SxS, for many reasons. The new Sony adapter eliminates many of the issues as it has better handshaking to prevent recording before the previous file has been closed. (you will need a firmware update to be able to use the Sony adapter).

So while SDHC is cheaper you have to consider what value you give your material and how reliable you need your workflow to be. Sony have now presented EX users with option that is guaranteed to work and built to Sony's high standards.

Does anybody know if Sony's adapter (MEAD-MS01 adaptor for use with Sony’s Memory Stick Pro HG Duo HX Series media) will be able to record all frame rates-fast and slow?

That would seem to be the only advantage over the SDHC adapters out there. As the Mem sticks from Sony are a bit more pricey than SDHC cards.

[Alister Chapman]

As I said in my review the Sony adapter will not work for S&Q. But it will require a firmware update to the camera. I believe this is to ensure that any files being written are closed before the camera will go into record. This should prevent many of the issues that lead to corrupt files on the SDHC solutions, making the Sony method more reliable.

[Jay Lee]

Alister, very nice review, much appreciated. I have a couple of questions for you based on your experience. As an EX1 owner, I'm pretty happy, but was wondering how the 350 does in terms of low light performance. Is there a noticeable difference due to the 2/3" chips?

The other thing I'm curious about is the dynamic range of the camera. I do a lot of shooting in high contrast environments (indoors with dark interiors and windows with Arizona sun shining through). I saw something about a backlight control, but haven't seen much about that. Is there any kind of compensation for handling these kinds of situations?

Last thing, how big are the improvements for the IR filter? Having black be black would be a good thing and save doing color correction to fix that.

Overall, this is the camera I've wanted to see Sony produce, I never understood why Sony would choose the XL2 as the model for a shoulder mount camera. Using the tried and true configuration for the 350 is pretty huge for me in the EFP work I do.

[Alister Chapman]

The PMW-350 is a good 1.5 to 2 stops more sensitive than the EX3. On top of that there is less noise (59db) so you will be able to use more gain before the pictures become unusable.
Contrast handling is certainly no worse than the EX1, EX3 or PDW-700. I don't think it is any better than the PDW-700 but what I would say is that when shooting aircraft against a bright sky it did a very good job and the highlights rolled off in a very pleasing manner. I used Hypergamma 4 for the shoot which provides improved highlight handling.

The PMW-350 has the same Hypergammas as the PDW-700 and F900R etc and these are very good for maximizing latitude. I didn't have time to do any in depth tests but estimate latitude at 10 to 11 stops using HG4 with white clip at 109.

I have not been able to test IR performance. Next time I get an EX1R or 350 I will look into this. Sony have a show in London on the 25/26th of November Sony - Power of Images so I'll try one then if not before.

[Max Allen]

As always Alister awesome job and thanks to you for doing that for the community. You are on the cutting edge!

[Jay Lee]

Thanks Alister! Looking forward to checking this camera out down the road.

[Luc De Wandel]

Originally Posted by Bob Willis

Yes Craig, that will help. But I am much more interested in using the Nanoflash to record 1920X1080 for my XDCAM HD camera(F350) and then mixing that with the EX1 (as 1920X1080) in the timeline.

Now that will be progress.

Bob, you have me confused here: the PDW-F350 has 1440x1080 chips, so I wonder how it can ever put out a 1920x1080 resolution, even to a Nanoflash? What am I missing?