Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

Having a problem with Sony PMW-EX3 image flickering when there's no reason it should be. It's happening quite often, and surprisingly, even outdoors. The "flicker reduce" function is not activated and no settings are on "auto". Apparently it happens when shooting in 1080p30 when the shutter is "off", and 1/50th. Here's a link to a short clip showing this phenomenon.

Password: flicker

Has anyone else experienced this? I appreciate your advice.

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

Sounds like you have chosen the wrong shutter speed. Try 1/30 or 1/60, or even 1/120 and check again. If you are in PAL area then it's 1/(25n) while n is a positive integer you can use.

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

I don't think so.. as it seems to happen outside without any lighting ... unless the sun is PAL/NSTC..:) judging from the clip.. very odd ..? flicker in natural light..

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

It happens in ALL environments, even sunlight. Flicker seems to come on strong at first, then dissipate, as if the camera's trying to automatically adjust itself. The other three cameras, EX1R, and PMW-200s do not have the same problem. Thought I'd give the forum a try before I talk to Sony.

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

For sure Sony will need to look at it - luckily I never saw that effect on my EX3 when I had one! The lack of this on your other cams also excludes the shot environment and any NLE conversion issues anyway. Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

I had something like this flicker happen on an EX3 I rented and I believe it was a menu item which I had to disable. Happened outdoors. Your camera may have a different problem. I never ended up buying one so I don't have the fix memorized.

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

Interesting.... Anthony, perhaps it's worth doing a full camera reset before you talk to Sony (my guess is that they may well ask you to try doing that first anyway?)

Re: Mysterious Flicker from Sony PMW-EX3
 

Thanks for the advice, all. Andy, I will definitely try the camera reset. Do you think I should nuke all of the picture profiles first and load them again after the reset, or just reprogram the profiles from scratch?