One picture floating around somewhere does show the camera on the Sony stand with something plugged into the lens control port via a short adaptor cable. I've used both LANC and direct lens controller units, in general having direct control of the lens does seem to work better and I *think* opens up more possibilities than LANC, at a price of course.

The injest options for the EX are in place now....

alll that is needed is Black Magic HDlink from Cam...
HDlink to Black Magic Intensity...
Cineform Prospect ( 1920x1080 ) injest to Adobe Premier CS3...
Edit...
Backout to what ever format you want to deliver and remain at 1920x1080...

This option allows you to shoot in native HD and output to Blu-ray for HD or
standard DVD for SD....

If you get the DVDit HDPRO you can output to HD and SD from the same project at the same time with full motion menus's to boot...

And now that you'd have your blu-ray writer, you can archive the EX footage onto a dual layer Blu-ray read write disk of 50gb

Well, I guess you mean this photo (credit to Mikko Wilson, who Barry is recommending here). It looks to me like the Libec ZC-9Pro, which is a Fujinon controller; but the EX1 socket is not the standard Fujinon 8-pin! Would it be something proprietary, and as such - more expensive?

http://ibc.mikkowilson.com/2007photo...#37;20(28).htm

http://ibc.mikkowilson.com/2007photo...-EX%20(27).htm

You can clearly see from these photos there is an adaptor from the camera to the Libec controller (especially in the left image).

This would support the suggestion that this Sony 8 pin port is some type of custom interface that likely supports a variety of adaptors.

eg: You want Fujinon 8pin, you buy that adaptor but if you want LANC you buy that one.

As long as the adaptors aren’t excessively priced, it’s not such a bad way to go.

I don't know what the original Libec plug (for Fujinon) looks like, so I canot tell whether what is visible here is just the 8-pin plug, or indeed an adaptor. If it's the latter, than my wishfull thinking became true, as 2 days ago I was phantasizing in another thread here about some kind of a dongle, accepting different controllers (including LANC, of which I have two). But judging from this pictures only, I cannot be sure.

In fact, I rather doubt the EX1 will take a LANC controller in any form, even though it'd make my upgrade path so much less expensive!

EDIT: I took another close look, and now I think you mean the metallic connector in the middle of the cable, right? Now, this really looks like the part of the cable between the EX1's proprietary socket and this connector could really be sort of an universal adaptor!

This is good news as I own two of the Libec Adaptors!

It does look like a cable adaptor to me.

You have adaptors from/to what? Could you elaborate please?

Another look at the EX
 

What about the ability to record in 4/3 mode, maybe in DVCAM? I often work for TV news and they are still using the 4/3 format...

No SD = no 4:3. HD is 16:9 by definition.

This is going to create an interesting delimma for ENG news crews. Many of the crews shooting XDCAM are doing so in SD 4:3 for news. The XDCAM EX would be a great small news cam but they'd be faced with downconverting.

Sorry,

I meant two Libec Controllers!

This is true, but there is no reason why they can't downconvert and crop the sides to have a 4:3 output option.

Afterall, we can hardly burn and delivery a Blu-ray disc, so SD is still a major part of many workflows.

There is a 1440x1080 mode.

The controller socket is a new one. No lanc.

In the (revised???) article on the EX1 here:

http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=171

Nigel writes:

"The EX1 uses the same 35Mbps MPEG long GoP compression scheme codec as it’s higher end brothers in the XDCAM HD Optical Disc family, but the EX records the full 1920x1080 raster in high quality mode and at 1440x1080 for compatibility with existing XDCAM HD; this is changed via the menus. The EX has a special mode that records at 1440x1080 at 35 Mbps for compatibility with other HD cameras that record with that sampling rate. This helps avoid scaling issues in the edit and makes archiving material to XDCAM HD disks easier."

Is actually true, that at 35Mbps VBR it can also record in 1440x1080?

Incorrect. Sony states that its 1440x1080 mode is 25Mbps.
Always refer to the manufacturer's published specifications.