Soft Video, Not at all happy
 

now that i am in the middle of editing my first production with the EX1, i can say video from my Z1 kills it in terms of focus and sharpness. Now, I purchased this camera used, and to my knowledge it was serviced by Sony, has the firmware upgrade, and shouldn't have any BF problems. I guess it does, and I need to do the calibration. I guess I should have kept my FX1 a bit longer.

Scott it must be in the preset, camera settings, or camera problem since the EX1 is a much better picture then the Z1 from experience. The board statement that the Z1 kills it in terms of Focus and Sharpness is just not true.

What preset are you using and let us know the other settings?

I saw an immediate improvement in image quality with the EX1 over a Z1. With the EX1, there is negligible blockiness around fast motion. Though, I have to comment that if you're used to focusing the Z1 a certain way (I liked to use the Push-Auto function on the run), you'll be disappointed with the EX1 equivalent. The EX1 has all of these auto-assist focus functions even in "manual" mode. I'm using the Peaking function much more often.

There are some Picture Profiles that will improve the look of your video (I like the Phil Bloom presets), but you should see an immediate difference out of the box. How are you viewing your video to determine whether it is soft?

my camera came to me with Phillip Bloom's settings, so I left it on that. I think I need to reset everything, and dial them in from scratch. I shoot mostly weddings, so presets for those would be best. I do notice when I engage ND2, focus is off.

Well, please post a framegrab. This will show us the issue.
Also, the EX1 hits not far from 1000 lines of horizontal resolution. This provides excellent detail. If you're not seeing this, send it back for repair.

If you feel that EX1 is not good enough, you can easily sell it for good $$

Just read your follow up post..
Your back focus sounds out.
Version 1.05 and on was to offer better focus compensation when using ND filters.
Just perform the FB (Flange Back) setting yourself in the service menu. It's easy.
There is plenty of how to do it your self posted here.

Here's the difference before/after doing the Back Focus on an EX1:

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I think you're going to be very happy...

Scott...

What's your f-stop?

Anything beyond f8 or f11 will start to look soft.

screen grabs
 

now that I am into this wedding, here are some comparison grabs. i will post the Z1
first, the EX1 second. I did the FB procdure, but have yet to shoot anything to check it out.
Seeing this makes me regret selling my FX1, should have left well enough alone.

Dude, your camera is broken. Get it fixed. This shouldn't even be close. My EX1 would have to be focused 3 feet short for it to be that soft.

hey Scott, easy to fix,
sell EX1 , you'll get two FX1's :)
I don't know man, i used to have Z1, still have a some footage shut with it, there is no camparison between two

yeah, as you can see from my sample, my Z1 kills it. Do you recommend it a trip to Sony, or do the FB procedure again?

It kind of looks like different detail settings on the 2 cams? The EX image, while softer, actually looks nicer to me, the Z1 looks really oversharpened. Have you turned the detail setting down a lot?
Steve

Let Sony fix it. Trust me, when it's working right, it's like looking through a frigging window. Best handycam image I've ever seen. Bar none.

this camera had Phil Blooms settings on it, and I was shooting with those. The Z1, my assistant was using, shooting on auto, out of the box settings.

Exposure differences aside, the difference in sharpness is greater than what I'd expect at these distances. Was the backfocus several feet?