EX1 on a shoot

[Simon Wyndham]

I used the EX1 on a short shoot recently. Nothing too spectacular, but it enabled me to get a better feel for the camera.

http://www.simonwyndham.co.uk/pmw-ex...ok-part-2.html

[Alex Leith]

Thank you Simon. Interesting reading. Great stuff!

[Craig Seeman]

And you're uploading the rough cut of the trailer in 5 minutes?<wink>

Any observations on using SxS cards?

Any issues setting up the camera the way you wanted it (menu, etc)? You don't mention whether you used 720p24 or 1080p24 or p60 (for those great zombie bite, limb toss, blood splatter slow motion scenes as de rigeuer for such a trailer).

[Steven Thomas]

Thanks Simon, looking forward to your future updates.

[Simon Wyndham]

I shot the trailer in full 1920x1080 25p HQ mode. I just used the default settings as I wasn't sure how the prototype would hold up, or what its exact behavior would be. So I didn't risk it.

I didn't use any off speed shooting for a variety of reasons. Foremost being that there wasn't really a shot that would have suited it.

The SxS system works well. But as with P2 I'm not fully convinced yet. I need to see a full workflow in place first. But that will come as the camera nears release.

[Craig Seeman]

Thanks Simon.

Since you mention reservations about the SxS workflow did you have to offload the cards at any point during the shoot? If so how smoothly/quickly did that go?

[Mark Williams]

Simon,

Thanks for you honesty. I am seriously looking at the EX or the next incarnation on the HVX200. Right now the EX looks very interesting but I prefer not to go the HDV route as I will most likely have to update my NLE system. I am hoping that Panasonic will step up and come out an update with a longer lens (hopefully 16x) and better performing sensors.

[Craig Seeman]

XDCAM is not HDV. It's long GOP but 35mb/s VBR is not 25mb/s CBR.

Most recent fast computers and NLEs can handle long GOP. There are many cards that can convert it to something else (MacPro, FCP6, ProRes for example).

I'm sure Simon will post about workflow.

Originally Posted by Mark Williams

Simon,

Thanks for you honesty. I am seriously looking at the EX or the next incarnation on the HVX200. Right now the EX looks very interesting but I prefer not to go the HDV route as I will most likely have to update my NLE system. I am hoping that Panasonic will step up and come out an update with a longer lens (hopefully 16x) and better performing sensors.

[Mark Williams]

Ops, my bad. I was familar with the 35mbs but have heard so much comparison to HDV. I guess the proof will be in actually seeing a clip.

[Simon Wyndham]

A note on NLE's, Vegas 8 is great for the XDCAM format, especially if you don't perform any grading process. Vegas 8 is the only NLE to my knowledge that can take HDV and XDCAM HD and only render out the portions of the video that have changed (ie transitions been added or filters applied). If you have performed a cuts only edit then Vegas can render out an HDV or XDCAM HD file without any recompression at all! Nada, zilch. Thats zero recompression, and zero quality loss. Neat huh?

Since you mention reservations about the SxS workflow did you have to offload the cards at any point during the shoot? If so how smoothly/quickly did that go?

Nope, no need to offload the cards. I had one 16GB card that sufficed for me for the shoot (with room to spare). When I got back I copied the files over to my PC until I decide what to do with them next. I also had them backed up to XDCAM Professional Disc via SDI into an F70 deck. Workflow and software for the EX is still under development so there is no established way of doing things yet.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Simon,

What do you exactly mean by "Lens ramping"?

[Bob Grant]

Originally Posted by Simon Wyndham

A note on NLE's, Vegas 8 is great for the XDCAM format, especially if you don't perform any grading process. Vegas 8 is the only NLE to my knowledge that can take HDV and XDCAM HD and only render out the portions of the video that have changed (ie transitions been added or filters applied). If you have performed a cuts only edit then Vegas can render out an HDV or XDCAM HD file without any recompression at all! Nada, zilch. Thats zero recompression, and zero quality loss. Neat huh?

Simon,
can you confirm that the XDCAM files from the EX1 work natively with Vegas. I've heard that for this cam Sony changed the wrapper to mp4 and Vegas cannot handle this as of today. I'm also told the workaround is a utility that I gather strips the video from the wrapper and then Vegas can handle that.

Are you in a position to confirm any of this?

[Jack Zhang]

I noticed that there were fingerprints on the screen, does this mean the EX1 is Touch-screen?

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Piotr Wozniacki

What do you exactly mean by "Lens ramping"?

At full aperture, as you zoom in, there comes a point with most lenses (even extremely expensive broadcast ones) where the effective f-stop becomes smaller - the lens "ramps down", and the picture gets darker. You can EITHER have max focal length OR max aperture, but NOT both together.

It's nothing to worry about - at some point a designer has to trade off max focal length versus max aperture versus size and weight. What Simon describes is pretty typical of the compromise that most designers go for.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Yeah.. My V1 "ramps" from the max F1.6 down to some 2.3, if I remeber (tha Canon A1 closes the iris even more). But - considering the max aperture of the EX1 is already not so wide to start with at F1.9, I must admit I was hoping it wouldn't ramp at all - the 1.9 would be quite OK then.