XDCAM EX questions that you want answered?

[Mark Kenfield]

Hey Guys,

Sony Australia are running their EX road show here in Melbourne on Tuesday. If anyone has any specific questions about the camera that they'd like answered, post them below and I'll put them to Sony's techs on Tuesday.

[Stil Williams]

Originally Posted by Mark Kenfield

Hey Guys,

Sony Australia are running their EX road show here in Melbourne on Tuesday. If anyone has any specific questions about the camera that they'd like answered, post them below and I'll put them to Sony's techs on Tuesday.

Will the camera support a flip system for use with 35mm adapters ?

What are the transfer rates from SxS to XDCAM ?

Will it be now possible to preserve the 1920x1080 format to XDCAM Disc instead of 1440 ?

Thanks.

[Tim Polster]

Thanks Mark.

I have an active thread here about dynamic range.

Could you ask the reps about how many stops of dynamic range the EX has?

And how it compares to the 1/2" chip DV models?

Thanks

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Mark,

I'd appreciate it very much if you check whether the Progressive Segmented Frame modes (25PsF, 30PsF) are available through i.LINK (at 25Mbps CBR).

Also, what kind of proprietary adapter is required to use the lens remote controller?

Thanks!

[David Parks]

Mark,

Could you check on the HD-SDI output and whether that output is live only and/or will output recorded footage from the SxS cards at both bitrates.

Cheers. Thanks.

[Alister Chapman]

The HD-SDi will playback and output material recorded on the cards.

Currently there is no way to preserve 1920x1440 when archiving onto XDCAM ProDisc's as the XDCAM HD format does not yet support 1920x1080. This will probably (hopefully) change when the F700 and XDCAM HD Phase 3 becomes available later next year.

Transfer to an XDCAM deck or drive runs at about 75Mb/sec so for 35Mb VBR its a between 2 and 3 times real time depending on the content.

Support for adapters such as the mini35 will depend on someone making a suitable adapter, this is un-likely to be Sony IMHO. I expect it will come but your going to need a really good adapter to not loose resolution by the bucket load.

[Craig Seeman]

Another HD-SDI question.
Can I record to card and output SD out of SDI (downconvert) simultaneously and with matching timecode?

This would allow me to do a high quality SD edit "quickly" and "auto assemble" an HD version when needed at some future point.

Basically I'm looking at SD workflows that avoid having to render a downconvert in software . . . unless of course I can develop a workflow in which coming from the cards plus downconvert render time (and quality) can be as fast or faster than coming from the SDI port.

[Stil Williams]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

The HD-SDi will playback and output material recorded on the cards.

Currently there is no way to preserve 1920x1440 when archiving onto XDCAM ProDisc's as the XDCAM HD format does not yet support 1920x1080. This will probably (hopefully) change when the F700 and XDCAM HD Phase 3 becomes available later next year.

Transfer to an XDCAM deck or drive runs at about 75Mb/sec so for 35Mb VBR its a between 2 and 3 times real time depending on the content.

Support for adapters such as the mini35 will depend on someone making a suitable adapter, this is un-likely to be Sony IMHO. I expect it will come but your going to need a really good adapter to not loose resolution by the bucket load.

Thanks for the clarification.

[Graeme Fullick]

Mark,

Can you please ask about the remote lens control. Will it accept a standard fujinon controller, or better still can we adapt in any way previous Lanc controllers? I have a Manfrotto 523P that I like a lot, and would love to use it.

Thanks in advance.

Graeme

[Peter Jefferson]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

The HD-SDi will playback and output material recorded on the cards.

Currently there is no way to preserve 1920x1440 when archiving onto XDCAM ProDisc's as the XDCAM HD format does not yet support 1920x1080. This will probably (hopefully) change when the F700 and XDCAM HD Phase 3 becomes available later next year.

Transfer to an XDCAM deck or drive runs at about 75Mb/sec so for 35Mb VBR its a between 2 and 3 times real time depending on the content.

Support for adapters such as the mini35 will depend on someone making a suitable adapter, this is un-likely to be Sony IMHO. I expect it will come but your going to need a really good adapter to not loose resolution by the bucket load.

Actually, if you use your XDcam disc as data storage archive (of the original mp4 files from the card) (ie copy across to BD much like a removable HDD) then they should remain intact.
If however your conforming to XDCam, then the above quote is relevant

[Thomas Smet]

Find out if the live HD-SDI output is a real 10bits and not 8 bits stuffed into a 10bit SDI stream.

[Alister Chapman]

Peter, you can only write 500Mb of non-XDCAM HD mxf data to the prodisk system and that has to go in a special "general" folder. It will not let you write whatever you want to the disks to preserve the integrity of the file system. A pain perhaps but it makes it just about impossible to produce corrupt or unusable disks.

[Sulev Sepp]

Hi Mark,

Thank You for Kind initiative!
Hope I'm not late.

Please ask Sony for more precise workflow setup.
What requirements are for mobile workstations ( PC laptop clock speed, current MacBookPro or MacBook, Vista and Leopard compatibility), RAM size, Hard disk speed requirements? Can I copy HQ footage directly to FCS5or6 timeline without capturing or rendering? Is it reasonable on Mac to convert to ProRes format?
What are the best software options on PC?
How performs against green or blue ( or other color) screen?
How flexible is footage for coloring in native format?

Thank You much if even one of questions will get an answer!

Sulev

[Carl Dieker]

1. Will there be a firmware upgrade in the future so that one can store 1920x1080 at 35 mbs from the iLink/firewire port on for example a new FIRESTORE model?

2. Why no HDMI out?

3. Can I use the bundled XDCAM Transfer tool on a PPC Mac, or is it only for Intel Macs?

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Mark,

If it's still no too late, please ask whether the EX1 can record to DR60 (in SP mode, of course) without any SxS card inserted (or with them both 100% full).

Very important to me, because if it can, I won't be selling my DR60 drive along with the V1, when upgrading to the EX1 - with the 2 x 8GB cards full of HQ stuff, I could continue for another 4+ hours using my DR60 in SP, before the necessity of rushing to my office and off-load!