Sony pmw-ex1 image artifacts.

[Bob Hart]

Has anyone run into this pixellation issue and can offer any advice as to cause and cure?

SKATE TRAINING SESSION CROSS PARK ROLEYSTONE - YouTube

[Leslie Wand]

i would think it's a bad sector on the card?

[Warren Kawamoto]

Is the glitch on the raw camera file? If no, did you use Clip Browser to copy your camera files? I used to encounter similar problems when I didn't use Clip Browser. I don't know exactly what the problem was, but I suspect a bad connection between 2 drives when files were copied. Clip Browser will confirm that the copy is an exact clone of the original. Dragging and dropping doesn't guarantee an error-free copy. Always use Clip Browser when transferring files from the card to your hard drive. Ever since doing so, I NEVER encountered glitches again!

[Doug Jensen]

Clip Browser? That utility is many years out of date. Anyone who is working with Sony files today should be using Catalyst Browse for viewing, managing, and copying files.

But with that said, I've been dragging and dropping files from my EX1 and a dozen other Sony cameras (EX3, FS5, F55, F3, FS7, etc) since 2005 and have never once had a corrupted file. Literally thousands of cards transferred and never a single error, so I wouldn't chalk the problem up to dragging and dropping. Of course, I'm on Macs so you poor souls using Windows may have to be more careful. :-)

[Les Wilson]

I have seen that problem when there was a loss of data between internal hard disk and external. Even on a Mac. It can happen when transferring from one media to another. If it's on the original card when played on the camera, then it could have happened during recording implying a camera problem.

[Alan Craven]

Les surely has the key to this here!

Play the card in the camera. If the glitches are there, the problem is in the raw recording.

If they are not, the problem lies in the data transfer between card and hard drive.

I have taken to using the new SxS management Utility 4 for transferring files from cards to computer. It provides for making three copies in different places simultaneously, and comparing the copied files with the original. Magic!

[Lonnie Bell]

...and are you using SxS cards or SD cards in an adapter?

[Bob Hart]

Thank you everyone for your inputs. The artifacts are on the playback image in the camera memory.


I am using Sony SxS memory cards.

I have offloaded much material in Windows Explorer from the camera USB previously with no previous problems. To avoid clip spanning issues, I manually select across from Card A to B and vice-versa when a card is approaching full.

As I am a bit of a tech luddite, my personal preference is the use the traditional "CTRL C" and "CTRL V" commands for copy and paste and the mouse for selecting the folders. I prefer to copy the entire BPAV folders, then let Adobe Premiere CS6 take care of the import.

As this camera is getting more use on long continuous recording of events, the sort of glitch which bedevils tape-based cameras is a concern.

On two clips, there is a small breakup in the image. One involved a hand-held follow pan where there was a lot of detail change happening.

The other was aboard a board dolly which was rolling on the floor of the skate park. The artifact in the dolly shot may have arisen from vibration and a dry joint somewhere, maybe battery connector.

I am using the BBC picture profile with one exception. I have left the camera default sharpness selected, not the softer setting.

The BBC picture profile is apparently intended to cram in the most possible picture information in order to get the best gradeability for the final presentation. Would leaving the sharpness at default instead of softening the image cause a heavier demand upon the image processor and encoder?