Tarif Sayed, film director and managing director of Dubai-based production house, The Frame, shares his experience with the Sony PMW EX1 HD solid-state camera.
The Sony PMW EX1 HD solid-state camera has been a long awaited camera in the Middle East so when I got my hands on the first unit in the region, I took it out to do a shoot for an architectural documenatry we were working on.
The EX1 with its solid state memory seemed a good choice for a company such as ours, which is an entirely tapeless facility. Additionally, architecture seemed the ideal subject to test the merits of a HD camera as this requires us to get a lot of detail in the picture as well as colours and great depth of field.
First off, when taking the PMW-EX1 out from its packaging, I was impressed by how light it was. It seemed a bit heavier than a Sony HDW-Z1 or a Panasonic Vx200 but still a lot lighter than one would expect. In terms of both look and feel and placement of buttons, the EX1 seemed very similar to the Z1. This was definitely a plus point.
This camera comes with an in-built Fujinon lens. This is a significant shift from Sony, which has often partnered with Carl Zeiss in the past. As a result, this camera comes with a lens that has a new professional design with no iris wheels. It is like any other professional lens with a ‘proper' aperture ring.
An impressive feature is the focus barrel, which has a servo motor system. The camera comes with a full manual focus mode as well and although not as smooth as a pro lens, it is a huge improvement from any other built-in lens I know.
This feature enabled us to totally control the focus during the shoot. We found the servo system on this HD camera to be absolutely essential as in HD capture, the smallest mistake is noticeable on screen.
The ND filter level is placed just like on the Z1; from the left side with two optical built-in glass ND filters. The GAIN settings for L, M and H default to 0, 6 and 12, you can go to the menu and change the default settings to suit your requirements.
However, there were some challenges as well. It took me 10 minutes to figure out the location of the white balance. The switch between Preset, A or B memories was clearly visible on the left side but the push button for the automatic white balance was nowhere in sight.
It took a good 10 minutes to discover that it was right under the lens just beside the shutter ON and OFF switch. This is not easily accessible and I believe its positioning must be changed in the next version.
Most of the other function buttons such as Zebra, Peaking and a Full Auto button were in the same place.
As this is a solid state memory camera with no other storage options, let's look at the SxS card slots that are located at the back of the camcorder. It can take two solid state cards of 8GB or 16GB at a time. Sony has scheduled the release of 32GB cards later this year.
The SxS cards are based on the new PCMCIA. Both Sony and SanDisk have delivered the SxS cards to the market.
One can record 50 minutes of full HQ HD footage onto a single 16GB card, a 100 minutes if you have two cards at the same time, or 200 minutes if you have two 32GB cards in the two slots. This is more than enough for an average shoot.
We found that we could easily manage with two 16GB cards during one shooting day. With the delete capability, the user can delete the last clip, or browse clips and delete those they do not want. This was not an option we have had in the past with most cameras.
Impressively, we can change one card while the camera is recording on the other. This means there needs to be no lag in recording time. Additionally, prices are cheaper than other similar disks or memory sticks used with other camera manufacturers such as Panasonic P2, Revpro and the Rampak for Ikegami.
Regarding audio, we see a significant improvement from the Z1 in that the audio selection from internal to external is from an external switch, instead of a menu selection like on the Z1.
The camera is equipped with a built-in microphone and you can switch to external input and plug your own microphone or input lines.
Looking down from the rear side, the new heavy-duty BPU-60 battery provides a run time of around four hours. This heavy battery balances the EX1 nicely from the opposite side to the heavy Fujinon HD 1/2" optics.
The camera comes with a ‘CineAlta' stamp meaning that it records native progressive at 24 frames per second (fps). On this side of the camera is also the HD/SDI BNC output, and the FireWire or I-link socket, where an end-user can take an HDV output if required.
A new addition to the grip handle is the ‘Release' button. By keeping it depressed, the user can swivel the grip around for a comfortable wrist angle during operation.
On top of the camcorder to the front of the handle is also the VTR or the video memory controls and thumbnail controls, where a user can access and control recorded media. A user can replay, mark, or delete pre-recorded videos.
A quick look at the menu shows features like Gamma, Matrix, Colour Correction, Knee, White Offset, picture profiles, Skin Tone Detail, Black Gamma, Low Key SAT and so on. These features enable a user to give his video the cine look.
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