PMW-EX* Successor?

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Luc De Wandel

Don't forget that Sony already has the 'XDCAM EX Shoulder-mount Camcorder' as they call it: namely the PMW-320...

The PMW-320 is the 1/2" shoulder mount. The PDW-350 is the 2/3".

[Luc De Wandel]

I know, but the 320 is also an 'ex-style camera'... That's what I meant.

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by Luc De Wandel

The optical block for 2/3" chips is certainly not too large for an EX style camera. Don't forget that Sony already has the 'XDCAM EX Shoulder-mount Camcorder' as they call it: namely the PMW-320...

Originally Posted by Luc De Wandel

I know, but the 320 is also an 'ex-style camera'... That's what I meant.

The PMW-320 is in the EX line but not the same form factor as an EX1.

In a EX1 body a 3 - 2/3" chips are not possible.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

The only part there that will have to remain a dream due to physical roadblocks is 2/3" chips. The optical block for 2/3" chips is too large for an EX style camera.

True - didn't think of this... So perhaps it'll be an S35 sensor, and the new camera will fill the gap between the EX1/3 and F3 (the FS100 not being XDCAM EX or CineAlta)?

[Per-Axel Gjores]

I don't think Sony will replace the EX1R with anything in the foreseeable future but I think they will add another model. Maybe as soon as on NAB.

I think a new EX camera would be sold alongside the EX1R but would be more expensive, and therefore it would have to offer some real improvements and additions. And if Sony is smart enough they would offer a studio kit. A reasonably priced EX studio capable camera would be a smash hit!

[Alister Chapman]

Originally Posted by Per-Axel Gjores

A reasonably priced EX studio capable camera would be a smash hit!

That's called an EX3 isn't it?

You can get the full studio kit for the EX3 with RCP, talkback, top VF etc already.

[Per-Axel Gjores]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

That's called an EX3 isn't it?

You can get the full studio kit for the EX3 with RCP, talkback, top VF etc already.

Didn't know that, unless you mean picking and combining all sorts of different third-party solutions.

[Chris Medico]

You can buy the kit directly from Sony. It does include some 3rd party equipment but it is all compatible and sourced to work together.

Sony Product Detail Page NIPROS/1

[Per-Axel Gjores]

Originally Posted by Chris Medico

You can buy the kit directly from Sony. It does include some 3rd party equipment but it is all compatible and sourced to work together.

Sony Product Detail Page NIPROS/1

Yes, we saw that Japanese fibre based system when we were upgrading our studio to HD three years ago but we found it akward and quite expensive, so we settled on JVC studio cameras instead.

I have also talked to Sony representatives that have been a little concerned that customers sometimes have felt that the difference between the EX1 and the EX3 has been too small and that designing the EX3 with integrated studio applications in mind would have been a great selling point, differentiating it from the EX1.

[Alister Chapman]

As well as the NIPros system, Sony also have their own XDCA-53 adapter back for the EX3 that connects to a Sony XDCU-50 CCU. This was launched at NAB last year.

[Per-Axel Gjores]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

As well as the NIPros system, Sony also have their own XDCA-53 adapter back for the EX3 that connects to a Sony XDCU-50 CCU. This was launched at NAB last year.

Interesting! Hadn't seen that before. We would definitely had purchased that if it had been available three years ago.

[Brett Sherman]

"it can digitally zoom up to 10x without loss of quality"

In this case, it's not 10X. On the 600D the digital zoom can be used up to 3X with minimal loss of quality with some caveats. Only at low ISOs and it's still not as sharp. However, it is a handy feature to have at your disposal.

Ultimately I think sensor crop (which for some reason has not been embraced by manufacturers) is part of the solution for large sensor cameras and lenses. As Alister pointed out, getting a 14X 35mm lens is virtually impossible. However with digital zoom it is not impossible if the sensor is over-sized. Imagine having some buttons that give you instant 2.5X and 5X magnification. I could work with that scenario easily and ditch my EX1. DOF would increase and I wouldn't be able to do long servo zooms, but I generally dislike those anyways and could live with out it.

Secondly, the 1.8 F-Stop is only necessary if the camera gets noisy at higher ISOs. If one has a camera that can easily shoot up to 12,800 ISO, you can easily live with an F/4 lens. At F/4 you still have a lot shallower depth of field with a 35mm camera as compared to 1/2" or 2/3".

I guess my point is that if manufacturers focused on making the large sensor cameras more useable in run and gun situations, they could do it. I think right now the technology might be slightly lacking, but mostly lacking is the will to do it.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Brett Sherman

Ultimately I think sensor crop (which for some reason has not been embraced by manufacturers) is part of the solution for large sensor cameras and lenses.

There's two big snags with that idea. It relies on a sensor with a large number of photosites, such that even when heavily windowed the window alone still has enough for full resolution. Problem is that for normal use it becomes not possible to read and make use of all the photosites from the whole chip - hence the pixel-skipping techniques that have to be used in all cameras with high pixel count chips.

Hence, you'll only get sensor crop in cameras which are compromised (compared to "designed for video" chips) in normal mode. It's Catch-22. If they use an optimised sensor (C300, F3, FS100) sensor crop will give very poor results.

Second (lesser) problem may be down to the lenses. Start using too small a window and the lens imperfections will show up far more. A lot will obviously be down to the individual lens, but for normal use a too sharp large format lens will not only cost more but with a mega-pixel sensor will likely be a bad thing - just make worse aliases.

[Alister Chapman]

And of course, talking of Aliasing any sensor that can deliver full resolution when windowed will have to have more pixels than necessary when not windowed and as a result will suffer from aliasing and moire when not windowed for the digital zoom. Unless there is some very sophisticated processing capturing at much higher resolution with scaling and electronic anti-aliasing when not windowed. This would then probably exclude the ability to use the windowing dynamically. That's why as the Red cameras window the sensor the resolution falls as the optical filtering and sensor are matched to a specific resolution per square mm of sensor. It's not just to do with pixel count.