got the new F350 firmware
 

MUCH better!!!

Highlights:

Low Noise Filter
Picture Cache & Interval Recording in DVCAM mode
Continuous Clip Recording
Electronic Shutter can be seen in "Angle of Degrees"

it's version 1.93

Not sure when Sony are putting it up. The fact I have it must mean it has been fully approved after extensive testing. I understand it had been doing some funny stuff, hence the delay.

This really gives the camera a new lease of life. So much more sensitive in low light. You can use 6db of gain and hardly see anything. In fact it's like the f355 now apart from the dual layer discs and sd sdi out

That's great news Phil, however, when I looked at the Sony site at the V1.5 download it does not mention a noise filter? or am I missing something?

Regards: Stu
www.studioscotland.com

i have been bugging Sony for a while and they emailed me it today. Let me contact them tomorrow and ask if I am free to distribute it

Great stuff... could do with a bit less noise on this camera...

Regards: Stu
www.studioscotland.com

Either that or we could ALL start calling and bugging Sony for awhile...

Great - look forward to it - just on the phone to prime support now to see if I can wangle it out of them! :)

Got a shoot soon that would really benefit from it :)

Paul

Great - they're willing to send it - will see how it goes...

Just to check, I got AT 1.60 and package 1.93

To achieve this upgrade, do you need the MS-69A board or is it all done in the external stick slot?

I am currently on V1.62 AT V1.54.

It's done by memory stick (if you're at the latest version previous to this) - otherwise, one of the earlier updates needed the hardware method of upgrade I was told by Sony support.

I posted some screen grabs (of a messy desk!!) here, comparing the noise reduction in a simple and quick comparison. Capture settings were HD 50i 35Mbit. The room was fairly dark too with a number of dark spots (like the stack of discs near the camera). Gain at 0db, auto iris on:

Without NR:
http://www.siliconpixel.com/xdcam/none.bmp

With NR set at 1:
http://www.siliconpixel.com/xdcam/one.bmp

With NR set at 2:
http://www.siliconpixel.com/xdcam/two.bmp

Makes a big difference! :)

Paul.

Thanks Paul, I'll call now and bug Sony!

Noise reduction impressive, maybe slight loss of resolution, but you don't get something for nothing.

Thanks for the e-mail, just arrived.

sounds cool! just called the sony support, but no one knows about anything here in austria :( i hope that they put it online quite soon! or could somebody of you help me, guys?

Just upgraded, noise reduction good but does affect the sensitivity. Looks like setting 1 is the best compromise.

Here's my test.

Pretty difficult to see the difference with those images as they're JPG's and pretty heavily compressed - BMP's would be better :)

At the moment I am on tour (Sony Roadshow 2008 in Germany) presenting Vegas Pro + XDCAM EX1

There are also XDCAM HDs (f355) and XDCAM HD422 (pdw-700) to play around with.

Though I know the sony staff quite well, nobody told me about the fw update yet...

Tomorrow I´ll see them again, gonna ask...

ULI

Sony UK is often the first out of the gate with firmware and software updates.

-gb-