Another look at the EX
 

Didn't get to use it as much as Alister or Nigel, but here's my impressions anyway.

http://www.simonwyndham.co.uk/xdcam-pmw-ex1.html

Thanks a lot, Simon, for your excellent review. And great to get informed about the following:
"Other features include ... SDI out for recording full 4:2:2 1920x1080 footage. Note that this is true 4:2:2 and is not upsampled ...".

Thanks Simon! Can you tell us what sort of a zoom control can it use?

Thanks Michael. As with all current articles on the camera it is based around a pre-production model (in fact it is was a pre-pre-production model). Some things may be slightly different on the final camera. One thing I hope they keep are the extensive setup menus. On the camera I looked at they were every bit the equal of the full size cameras!

Piotr, I'm not sure what type of zoom control it can use at present. I should have asked when I had the chance, but there were so many other things and such a short amount of time. Alister or Nigel might be able to tell you as they were allowed to use the camera for a number of days.

After the brochure, and now the first impression reviews from Alister, Simon and Nigel - I'm almost sold on this little marvel.

The only 2 things that I'm still in doubts about are:
- will it work with the chepaer, non-Pro Express Card
- will it *somehow* make use of the lanc controllers I have, or something else but not very much more expensive.

Mee to, I am tempted so sell my A1 on eBay right away.
Simon, do you have a demo frame grab that you could share? Would be much appreciated.

Alister and Nigel have screen grabs since they got to use it more extensively. From what I have seen though the pictures are superb. I am left wondering if next years NAB will see an update to the 350 that has similar CMOS chips in it!

Will the cheaper Express cards work? Hmmm, sort of. We messed around with one to see if it would. The camera threw up all sorts of errors making it a hassle to do so, but it did record footage onto them. The proof in the pudding will be when the final camera is released as to whether these errors appear on the final production version.

Simon, do you happen to know whether the cam has a (2 second or so) pre-recording buffer? That would come real handy for any kind of snapshots.

I remember reading somewhere over the last 24 hours that a pre-record bufffer will be enabled after release with a flash firmware update. Don't quote me on that though.

Guy, you are correct. The pre-record cache will be enabled in a firmware update.

Simon,
It comes as a surprise to all that the HQ mode is NOT really XDCAM HD, in fact (being 1920x1080@35Mbps VBR, rather than 1440x1080@35Mbps). Does Sony have a name for this format? Also, pumping this much more info into the same bandwidth - won't it result in encoding probs?

I have mixed feelings about two differences vs the standard XDCAM HD:

- the MP4 wrapper
- the above mentioned "better resolution"

Could you comment?

Sounds great, thanks.

Piotr,

I don't think the extra resolution will be a problem. Remember that 35Mbit/sec is VBR, and on the current XDCAM HD models the average bitrate for the vast majority of shots is nowhere near the top rate. I think that the only thing that will happen is that XDCAM EX will just have a higher average bitrate than the current XDCAM HD cameras.

The format is just another form of XDCAM HD. The MP4 wrapper is nothing to worry about. It is a sensible decision considering that Adobe haven't supported XDCAM. Getting the footage into Premiere will be a major factor in having large takeup for the camera.

My only gripe is the transfer to XDCAM disc with PDZ-1 etc downsampling to 1440. To be honest though I do not think that Sony will leave it at that. They have their work cut out for them with all of this and the other equipment they are releasing, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if they work in a new 1920 backup to XDCAM disc at some point in the future after they have overcome their current workload.

Which is great in two ways. 1st the obvious of getting the feature, but 2nd, firmware updates will be end user based. For firmware updates to the likes of JVC HD series you have to return it to a service centre, so last century....

Who knows, maybe by the time the PDW-U1 drive writing is enabled, it'll include the full 1920x1080 format.

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.

Chris, I always am basing my knowledge on the manuafacturer's information, and for this very reason I have been surprized by the referred statement enough to post this question here. Please remember that its author has been one of the few people who actually have the pre-production unit for a couple of days to play with.

Of course, I read it the 1440x1080@35Mbps VBR Nigel mentions exists *in addition* to the SP mode of 1440x1080@25Mbps CBR, of which we have been aware of since the first official announcements. But we're still unclear whether or not - within this SP mode - the 25/30PsF is contained, as a part of HDV specs used with the V1, for one. Sony officially states that SP is 1080/50(60)i; this neither confirms nor denies the PsF modes existence! Similarly, Nigel as well may be right that one can set in the menu the HQ "compatibility mode" of 1440x180@35Mbps, as Sony nowehere said it's not there!