EX1 gives "Cannot Proceed" message when adjusting switches
 

Hi All,
My EX1 give a "Cannot Proceed" message when changing the Gain switch, the White Balance switch and the Shutter switch. I cannot adjust these settings. This has happened recently as I used tp be able to adjust them. It is not on Full Auto. I also have a EX3 and that is OK. I have checked all of the settings and cannot see anything different between the cameras. The EX1 has 1.11 firmware. Has anyone else experienced this? I will probably have to take it to the Sony repair agent.
Ian

Yes, it's frustrating. If I remember corect you have to go into the menu and change the setting in direct menu from part to all or vice verca. I don't have my camera here so I can't tell you exactly how to do it

That's one of the common problems that I cover in my EX3 Field Guide.
Vortex Media's XDCAM Field Guides

Go to the OTHERS menu page and scroll down to the Direct Menu setting. Change it to "PART" and leave it there from now on. You probably have it on "ALL" and that disables several of external controls on the camera.

Thank you Doug for the reply.
Yes, that has fixed it. In owning the cameras for 12 months I have not yet encounted this sneaky little "gotcha". I did not conciously change the Direct Menu so it must have got accidently changed. Not much good when you out in the feild filming.
Thanks for the link and I will check it out.
Ian

Phewww! I thought something was screwed up with my EX1.
I just had the same problem today, and I did change the menu to "All" to get the shutter speed to show as 1/60, otherwise it only allows Auto or Off in the LCD menu.

So, am I stuck with being able to adjust more settings but have shutter off or what?

Page 52
Vortex Media's XDCAM Field Guides

Ian and Steve . . .

I have the Vortex Field Guide and the training DVD for the EX1. Both the disc and the book do a great job of getting you "out of the gate" with the camera . . . BUT the Field Guide is a must for anytime referencing on-the-job. It's super well organized . . . and anything bizarre, like you encountered, with your camera / settings that were tripping you up is is likely in the book. The Field Guide is laid out nicely and the info. is easy to find. Too bad Sony can't make the instruction manuals for their cameras an easy place to to to get much need info.!

I love the compact size of the Field Guide . . . takes up virtually no room in my bag. It's durable too! Well worth the price.

Ian

So, the answer is.....?

Doug, I know you want to sell your stuff but making someone buy something when you already know the answer does not sit well with me. (btw, I already have your dvd)

And on your dvd, you never explained how you got the shutter speed to show up in the on-screen display. I had just watched it again to see how to change it from Off to 1/60 but I figured it out on my own. Then I ran into the "Cannot Proceed" problem today.

The dvd is $100 and the field guide is $50. You would think there would be more info in the dvd as it costs more.

in the "Others" menu set "Direct Menu" to "Off" or "Part" to use the switches. To control gain, shutter and white balance via the thumbstick on the top of the handle set "Direct Menu" to "all", but then this disables the switches.

Steve, thank you for being a customer. The only reason my EX1 DVD does not mention the "cannot proceed" problem caused by the Direct Menu is because I missed it. Sorry. When I produced that 3 hour DVD more than two years ago (Nov. 2007) nobody else had an EX1 and I didn't catch that problem myself. That slipped past me. However, that issue is discussed in the EX3 DVD and in the field guides for both cameras because, by the time they were produced, the problem had come to my attention.

The field guides are priced lower for two reasons: 1) They were written after the DVDs were already completed, so the amount of time and effort we had to put into creating them was a fraction of what it took to do the DVDs. That savings in time is passed along. 2) Most people who buy the field guide already own the DVD, or are getting them both as a bundle. Very few people buy the book alone, so it seemed like a good idea to price the book as if it were a companion to the DVD rather than a stand-alone product. I think the DVD is much more helpful than the book, but obviously not as portable or handy for quick reference.

The DVD and book are comlimentary products that meet two different needs. They don't just repeat the same information in a different medium. I'd say about 80% is overlapped, but about 20% is unique to one or the other. There is more information in the DVD than the book, but you just happened to run into one problem that wasn't included in the DVD. If someone could only have the book or the DVD, I'd strongly recommend the DVD.

The bottom line is that I can't cover 100% of everything in a 3 hour DVD or a 150 page book, but I do the best I can. For a hundred bucks or so, someone can get the benefit of what it took me several weeks to figure out and explain. The hard part is exlaining it clearly and trying to not to speak over the head of beginners or talk down to experienced camera operators. These cameras are being used by a broad range of customers. About 250 man-hours went into the DVD, so it seems like a fair price for a product with such a narrow market. I'd gladly buy both the DVD and book if the tables were turned.

PS.

I have several FCP / Motion training videos and books, and not one of them even comes close to covering everything those programs can do.

People are going to be asking this question for as long as the EX cameras are around. Very poor choice of words on Sony's part. Cannot Proceed implies something is broken, Function Disabled would have been clearer and not freaked people out.

Eliminating that menu entirely would have been an even better idea.

Why remove the option? I love using direct menu, it gives me access for all the cameras possible gain setting without having to re-assign different values to the switch every time I want an unexpected setting, the same with the shutter. While it would be nice I also don't see how you could have both the switches and direct menu active together as you would never be sure of which was going to take precedence.

I do agree that the cannot proceed message is about as vague as it could be.

I didn't mean get rid of Direct Menu. I like it, too, and I use it all the time.
I meant get rid of the menu option.