Alister,

Did you get to check the PMW-350 for IR contamination?

Question to Alistair or anyone. Can a SDHC Expresscard adapter (such as those supplied by Hoodman RAW SxSxSDHC Memory Adapter-Hoodman Corporation ) work with the PMW-350? I gather they work in EX1/3 hardware but you lose some recording functionality?

I shoot news in the UK with a DSR-450 and the PMW-350 is an open door to walk through into the crossover world between SD and HD for me. The VJ's are shooting on Z-5's and I do minicam stuff with a JVC HM100 so I'm into the tapeless workflow - but I'm not letting a reporter walk off with SxS cards until they're the same price as SDHC....

TIA,

Cotty

One of the improvements of the EX1R is the "copy all clips" new mode. So it becomes feasible to shoot on SxS, then use the camera to dump the entire contents to the card in the second slot - which can obviously be SDHC. I'm assuming it does a verification as it does it?

Can Alister say whether such a mode exists with the 350. (I sincerely hope it does! :-) )

Can you share your thoughts on F900R versus PMW-350, if given the same lens is used on both - in our case a Canon HJ22ex7.6B ?

Are there any chances that Sony eliminated the audio limiters in EX1R which are existing even in manual audio mode? Although I am somehow satisfied with different settings in the audio menus maybe there is deeper sound possible with EX1R...

Argh.. Just found out that the PMW-350 has overcranking upto 720-60p. Could not see that in the first material I read.

The new 350 shoulder mount camera seems awesome. It's too bad that the price is so high. I don't think news operations are going to jump at these when you can buy the Panasonic 300 for $8,000. Too bad, we really wanted a competitive price on a new Sony camera.

Price seems quite reasonable to me (relatively speaking of course).
A few years back the standard price for an HD camera (like the F900 and Varicam) was about £70k if memory serves. And after a couple of years they came down a lot to around the £40k mark.
So now to have Varicams and PDW700s for around £20k seems much more feasible for an owner-operator. And these lower-priced cameras like the 350 open up the possibilities even more. Just a shame the lenses are so damned expensive - especially considering how mediocre most of them are.
Steve

But it offers a lot more than the 300 does for the extra price. And remember that for a news operation you're likely to need more cards than for a self contained operation - shoot, hand to reporter to take away, shoot more, then get back the first cards later. Small cheap cards become far more important than large capacity ones.

And now it's more formally approved, the adaptor/Memory Stick route may get taken up by those who baulked at SDHC. Memory cost savings may go a long way towards offsetting the difference in capital costs.

And being 1/3", the lens options for the 300 are vastly more limited than for a 2/3" camera. Do any 1/3" lenses even have a doubler? And max wide angle? It's this sort of thing that may be crucial factors to many news organisations. Chips of 2/3" also increases sensitivity compared to 1/3" - should be 2 stops if all else is equal, and since these are the latest backlit, I'd expect the Sony camera to have more like a 3 stop advantage.

Then power consumption. News cameras frequently have accessories such as radio mic receivers, headlights, radio cam transmitters and that can mean a lot of power. The Sony camera is quoted as no less than about 6-8 watts more frugal! That's a big difference.

When 2/3" meant PDW700 prices the 300 did look attractive, but the price gap to this new camera is far less now.

Mike all due respect, but we are talking about a full raster, 2/3" chip HD camera here for under $20,000. It's a great price

The competitive priced sony cameras are $6,000 & $8,000 :)

Seriously, slap on a $2900 Nano Flash on the PMW-350 and you will be recording images that will be for the most part useable for just about any type of production.

Take a look at the current market offerings, I don't think you will find something that comes even close in price. The 350 has a 2/3" sensor rated at F12 sensitivity, not a 1/3". In term of cinematic abilities, it is like night and day. Also, the PMW has a much nicer color viewfinder and the many avantages of SxS cards over P2 storage. But I have to admit, the Pany 300 looks more sexy than the PMW-350...

BH Photo video offers 2/3" HPX500 at less than $10k. hows that for competitive?

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As good as the HPX-500 looks on paper, its CCD is really limited to 720HD resolution and the DVCPro HD P2 file system is quite outdated. It's a slower, noiser and heavier camera but I agree, for 10K, it is not too bad of a deal. Just currious, why is Panasonic putting all its P2 cameras on sale at 50% off including their flagship Varicam models?

Thierry.

Add an HD lens to the HPX500 and you're getting close to the 350 kit price too.
Steve

I don't know if SDHC adapters will work with the new cams. I see no reason why they won't, but why now go that route when you have a tested and approved option via the new sony memory stick adapter?

The very brief test I did with an F900R on the bench and the comparison tests I did with my PDW-700 suggest the 350 is offering pictures that are on a par with these cameras. The 350 has less noise than F900R and PDW-700, similar resolution and is more sensitive.

Didn't check for IR, but Sony did state that the optical filters have improved IR cutoff.