Beatrice Eldon
 

As someone mostly involved in "run and gun" situations, I find myself frequently in situations (Darfur, Bosnia, etc) when I cannot allow myself the luxury of tripods, complicated menu set-ups, and have to rely on just a quick prayer and Mr. Sony's "full auto" set-up.
There are many threads here going into the sort of setups that I can most of the time only dream about, as well as beautiful clips which have obviously been shot with plenty of time as well as much care and preparation.
What I would like to know is has anyone tried the EX1 out in the sort of situations that I find myself in so often, when just has to grab the camera, point and shoot !
Also it would be great to see some clips which have not been beautifully graded in FCP Colour or other wizardry. In other down to earth non-tweeked virgin material.

Beatrice Eldon

When i first got my EX1 i just pulled it out of the box and started shooting and even with that i was impressed.
I want to be a cameraman as a job,just need to get a bit of experience first,i'd love to do what you're doing.
The EX1 is my first pro cam and i'm surprised how easy it is to operate,and the workflow is great.
Paul.

My Rockefeller Center Clips were hand held. I often shoot run and gun ENG (not in the high risk locations you do though). Even doing run and gun I'd never do full auto but that said here's some thoughts:

Auto Iris works like any other camera IMHO.

While I think switching between 3200 and 5600 white balance is awkward, It's very easy to set the preset switch to either as part of a Picture Profile. You can use the onscreen joystick to toggle between two Picture Profiles (white settings) though.

Auto focus seems to track a moving subject once focused. Otherwise it hunts. With HD, focus is critical. I wouldn't trust it to auto focus . . . unless I was tracking a moving subject.

Beatrice,

I shoot a lot of the same stuff as you do. I always take a tripod but use it only 30% of the time. You will find the EX1 a joy to use, though I find it not as east to hand hold as the Z1 was.

If you check out my post up in the sample clips section you will find a couple of pieces that I did without any color grading.

The stuff that this camera can produce is amazing.

Daniel Weber