My EX1's First Use Experience

[David Edwards]

Well I have just shot my first wedding on the EX1 after many years shooting with a Z1.

Picture Comparison
First impressions, the picture is so much clearer and a huge improvement over the Z1. Seemed much better in low light or uncontrolled light scenes. Quick to react almost instant recording at your fingertips unlike the Z1 where you would have to wait for the mechanism to start rolling.

Zoom seemed a bit jerky especially using a very slow zoom. Hard to focus at times using various methods, i.e. full MF, Manual Focus, assisted focus and unassisted.

Viewfinder looks much sharper compared to the Z1 although my feeling is that the resulting picture difference isn't as dramatic. I'll have to compare on my TV via Blu-Ray disk to judge that..

Reliability Comparison
The Z1 has never failed at a gig, I have had minor dropouts on tape usually during the capture process but otherwise nothing at all to get worried about in 2.5 years of use.

However there were issues with the EX1 and from my initial searching on the forum I have found its not an uncommon problem.

On 2 occasions the media failed prompting me to "restore media", recording simply stopped.
Is it an overheating issue I'm not sure? First failure was during speeches after only 13 mins of continuous recording. The ceremony recorded for 37 mins continuous without issue.

My Media Setup
Sony HG Duo Card Adapters using Sony HG Duo 32GB Cards.

Question: Is this failure as common using SXS Pro Cards and would I need to consider buying a couple to alleviate this issue?

Should I be performing a series of format or restore exersizes on the cards to prevent this happening in future.

Well, I won't be selling the Z1 and it will be with me on each gig, as to date it's been flawless.

Appreciate your feedback.

[Vaughan Wood]

I have two original EX-1's which have used original SxS media since they first came out, for weddings and concert use mainly - (long run times).

The media has never failed. This includes a wedding in a church here in Melbourne 18 months ago, the day before our fatal bushfires, when my car was telling me the outside temperature when I pulled up outside of the church at 3 p.m. was 46 degrees C. After the wedding shoot of approx. an hour, the top of the camera above the media insert was so hot you couldn't touch it, but the camera and media worked flawlessly.

Not much more I can say really!

Cheers,

Vaughan

[Bruce Rawlings]

Have a look at the thread below "SDHC Reliability" this will guide you into what cards to use to avoid problems.

[Duncan Craig]

Oh Great! here we go again.

Perhaps we can have a sub forum for EX users having issues using media other than SXS.

I use SDHC, it works of me, I'm sick of hearing about this stuff.



Duncan.

[Bruce Rawlings]

Duncan, that's why I referred to the SDHC Reliability thread. It is a pity that Marcus's latest pull together of info cannot be more widely circulated. Sony should give more guidance but of course they are not over enthusiastic about promoting non SxS cards.... here we go again.

[Perrone Ford]

I bought the EX1 to primarily shoot conferences, PSAs, and speeches. I have used the SxS media less than 10 times. In over 2 years, the SDHC cards I purchased (old Class 4 Sandisks) have never failed, never given media restore error, or had any other problems. I actually misplaced the SxS card I have for nearly 6 months I use it so infrequently.

The errors you are seeing are very unusual to me.

[Bruce Rawlings]

I use old (2008) Transcend SDHC 16GB cards / MxR adapters without any problems. The combination you are using
(Sony adapter with Sony HG Duo 32GB Cards) has never been mentioned as a positive solution on this forum AFIK.