Hey everybody,

I bought a used Sony EX1 (no external damages, about 300 hours in service, latest firmware 1.20, no more warranty) and on first sight i couldn't find any glitches, but when i tested the cam in some extreme conditions (like very low light) i see some artefacts in the picture.
I'd like to know if these are "normal" problems of the ex1 or if it is just my cam.

1) Low Light, +18db Gain:
http://www.nhx-music.de/stuff/310_6685_01.jpg

on the left and right side there are darker, slightly yellowish streaks

2) http://www.nhx-music.de/stuff/EX1-Bild.jpg
Right Picture: Slight vignette when zooming in close
Mid-Right-Picture: Using lightbulbs and fast shutter-speed (1/2000) with high gain the cam produces two darker horizontal bars.

This effect is very sever when using a fluorescent lamp:

3) http://www.nhx-music.de/stuff/310_6779_01.jpg (shutter 1/1000)


I'm using the cam in PAL-Mode (i'm from europe)

Are those problems normal with the EX1 or is it a bug in my cam?
I still got one week to return it (if necessary) so thanks for quick responses!

-Thomas

There was an early EX1 issue which had a vignetting issue. In many cases the camera or the lens was replaced. Mine was for example.

The other issues really depend on factors such as light sources as well as other settings.

So it is no malfunction to get this darker horizontal lines (it's no flicker, just darker areas in the picture) with some lightsources?

Are those problems normal with the EX1 or is it a bug in my cam

The fluorescent lighting issue is an extreme example, but it can/does happen in situations where your shutter speed and the pulsing nature of certain light sources interfere.

You may want to check this out: LED Lamps cause pulsing on the EX1 on Vimeo - as a fellow PALlander, I tend not to get involved with Flicker Reduce.

Not a cure, just a pointer to where the strobing problems can come from and how one can work around it.

If you want to see an EX1 freak out: YouTube - EX1 freaks out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5jP9v6FDI) - it got wet. Half an hour next to an air conditioner sorted it out. YMMV.

BTW, vignetting was an issue with early EX1s requiring a new lens assembly, but other vignettes cropped up with ND filters that didn't click into place securely enough, or only showed up when SteadyShot was turned on and the camera panned hard.

However, I don't like that yellow edge. It doesn't look digital, it doesn't look like the short term crud I got with my wet EX1. Is it a bad ND? A bad splitter block (dirty blue end)? Something to do with the imager? The bands across the image are a well known artifact, a dark corner is a well known artifact (that is expensive to repair out of warranty). But the yellow streak? Never seen it before.

thanks for the answers so far!

ND-Filters were off in all examples....but Steadyshot was turned on. I noticed that the Vignetting seemed to "follow" my panning, so this could explain the vignetting.
How expensive would it be to repair these darker corners? Is it worth it?

I don't see these darker bands across the image in outdoor-footage, only when i'm using artificial light, but then no matter what shutter-speed i use i can't get rid of it completely (but only indoors, outdoors seems fine) is this normal? These bands are not moving as fast as in the video, but really really reall slow. And it were no LEDs, just simple lightbulbs and construcion-site lamps...

I think i've seen that yellow edge in some other EX1 low-light videos on youtube, but not that clear... anyone else has this problem? What could it be? How much would it cost to repair this?

So to put it in a nutshell: Should i give the cam back or are all these issues "normal" enough to keep the cam?

Try the ECS setting.
Turn shutter on, select ECS, try different values.

Paul.

When a lens is zoomed in you get vignetting and you lose some light at the extreme zoom. I don't know if you are zoomed in, but this happens on many cameras.

Hello,

This effect with fluorescent lamp is error on older firmware, some error about settings with shutter and exmor reading, please upgrade or go to servis.

I had this too on fw 1.03 , and new firmware helps! (i think 1.10 and up)