Things I don't like about my EX3
 

I really like the EX3. It seems to fit the bill for so many reasons I am glad I spent the money on it. There are a few things that bother me however. Maybe people have some work arounds for them.

1. I would really like to have direct access to an easily set colour temperature. I know that a temperature can be entered directly in a picture profile, but that is rather convoluted. Any short cuts for this?

2. Its not a big deal, but a rather curious issue. Under certain lighting circumstances ATW does not track the same white balance as doing an auto white balance. I have run into one circumstance in particular where the auto white balance ended up at 2400K but the ATW wanted to set at 3500K. It was obvious that 2400K was the correct value.

3. F1.9 should be F1.9. I walked into this believing the lens was constant aperture. I still think its a fine lens but I expect it to be what it says it is.

4. The mic mount is a piece of junk. No way to put it nicely.

5. The lens handle/grip is too small. I bet if the bottom of it was a little more beefy then many of the handling difficulties would be alleviated even with the EX1. It could also just be my super sized hands that cause the problem but I never had a complaint with my XL2

6. Not in S&Q? Then why not make the S&Q dial assignable to shutter or colour temp or something useful other than having that dial sitting there useless until S&Q is being used?

7. IR colour problems with certain blacks is bothersome (an understatement?). We shouldn't have to add another filter to fix this. There is room for one under the stock lens hood but not with the wide angle adapter. I am sure that adding a filter between the wide angle adapter and the lens will be a bad idea too for optical performance.

8. I can live with the fiddly little buttons all over the place but it would be nice if they had identifying bumps and a little more tactile feedback to them.


These are the most glaring things to me that could be easily better. Don't get me wrong, the EX3 is a great camera and it is a pretty good deal IMHO.

All good to know. I'll give my feedback when I get mine. Had to push back the order date by 45 days.. Something came up. It will be good in the long run though. Got my 7 in 1 readers though.. LOL

IR issue seems endemic to many CMOS cameras, both still and video. I suspect that it might be easy enough for Sony to engineer a 750 nm cut off, just as Schneider has done.

I would be interested in how you reproduced those IR cut off problems, for my own testing with the B+W filter. Daylight? Tungsten? LED lighting? Blacks? Shade of black? etc

I have small hands. I like the grip.

What I do not like is the front-heavy balance. I am currently testing the CoCo EX-3 with a V-mount battery. That balances the camera much better and gives sufficient weight to produce the inertia helpful in steady hand-held shots.

I find manual focus very difficult without zooming in. When I briefly tested a Fujinon 18x HD lens, the manual focus was so much easier. Autofocus is very tenuous at best since the autofocus tends to hunt.

Overall assessment is that I like the camera so much more than the EX-1 and love the images from both EX1 and EX3.

In my case I see purple blacks and purplish bluejeans with halogen and tungsten indoor lighting. There is lots of infrared in these sources

I will be buying an IR cutoff filter.

EX3 good and bad points
 

I love my EX3 and the stunning images it can create.

For the EX5 I'd do the following;

1. Redesign the LCD in a way that it can fold away (or at least partly out of the way) for stowage in a bag once the scope is detached (I love the scope!)

2. As already mentioned, the mic holder is a joke. I use Rode SM3.

3. The bottom of the tripod is rounded slightly at the tripod fixing point. Been discussed elsewhere on here - it's not been a problem for me but it might with some tripods. The single screw fixing seems a bit of a weak point for a camera of this weight.

4. Yes, I agree the buttons are a bit fiddly/smaller than I'd like - but you get used to them. Hand grip is perfect for me, BTW!

5. I like the idea of a knob used selectively for S & Q motion or anything else when not in those. Mind you, I just like the frame rate knob as I'm using it all the time!

6. I think they should have left the onboard mics off. I rarely use them as the sound is so naff anyway from on-board mics - but I can see some run and gun types might want a quick means of getting some audio.

7. Ergonomics are not perfect, yes it's a bit front heavy etc. - but way, way better to hold than the EX1. I'm thinking of experimenting with something that hangs from the (extended) shoulder support handle bit over my shoulder to my back as a means of getting better balance. Imagine a "swag" bag with some extra batteries in - nice and simple and might work perfectly!

OK, so it's not absolutely perfect..... but my EX3's not going back! You'll have to chop my hands off to get it!

Please reference this thread for beyond detailed discussion of the IR light contamination issues with the Sony EX1/EX3.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...roblem-16.html

Ryan Avery
Schneider Optics