A pre-production EX1 unit was previously the subject of a DV “First Look” piece in our January issue. You can find that report here.
If you were on the fence about switching to a tapeless camera, the Sony’s PMW-EX1 XDCAM EX may very well give you the push you needed. That’s not to say this camera is perfect. Every piece of hardware has its strengths and limitations, and each potential user must weigh them relative to his or her own needs. But just one week of shooting with the EX1 has demonstrated to me much more of the former than the latter.
The servo zoom is pressure-sensitive, and as is the case with many of these smaller cameras, there is another zoom rocker and start/stop button on the top of the camera. The start/stop button on the hand assembly is a soft, jelly-like button. I don’t think it as precise as a conventional button and found that it required more pressure to operate than I am accustomed.
The EX1’s LCD screen is as sharp as any I have seen. Storing conveniently beneath the built-in microphone, it has selectable on/off backlighting, making it remarkably useable even in bright daylight. Over 20 different indications can potentially be displayed beyond the usual battery indication, audio levels and time remaining on each of the two SxS memory cards. I found most useful indications of ATW (auto tracking white balance) or manual white balance along with the color temperature to which the camera is balanced, the Picture Profile (I’ll explain that later), f-stop, gain, shutter and two most unique features for a camera in this range: When in manual focus mode, the camera offers an option to display a depth of field indicator; and there is also an option to display a histogram in a small window at the lower right corner of the display. When shooting in over- or undercranked modes, the viewfinder or screen indicates “S&Q” motion (meaning “slow and quick;” the words “undercranking” and “overcranking” were too long to fit in the menu structure) along with the chosen frame rate. For example, doing tests in Manhattan, I shot some footage in Times Square at 1 fps in a 720p24 mode. The display would indicate “1/24 fps.”
The display is made even more useful, though, by what Sony calls Direct Menu mode. In this, it’s possible to change settings by pointing to items in the display rather than having to enter the menu mode. This is a tremendous time-saver but can also cause a few frustrations, as I will recount.
Direct Menu can be toggled off, partial or full. In partial mode, not all of the settings may be changed, including white balance PRST/A/B channels, gain or shutter modes. In full mode, all of those parameters can be adjusted. Using either the thumbwheel on the back left of the camera (familiar to anyone who has shot smaller Sony cameras) or the joystick on the very top of the camera, simply navigate to the parameter you wish to change, press the control to select and then thumbwheel or joystick up/down to change the setting.
From top: Viewfinder display with Direct Menu item choice highlighted, Picture Profile Menu with color matrix settings indicated, and Picture Profile Menu with color matrix options.
Here’s my frustration: This is a very complex camera with a wide range of settings. Read the manual. Better yet, buy a third-party EX1 training product such as the excellent DVD offered by Callbox Live (www.callboxlive.com). In full Direct Menu mode, attempting to change the white balance, gain or shutter on/off produces a “cannot proceed” error message. Seeing this, I initially panicked, convinced that the camera was broken. Now understanding the logic of the EX1, however, I see that this result makes ample sense. For example, selecting the white balance parameter in the viewfinder allows two options — ATW or manual. If I wished to set white balance manually, there would be no need to use the preset, A or B switches. Just select manual, hold up a white card and push the white balance button on the front of the camera beneath the lens — just where you would expect to find it on a professional camera.
The top of my list, though, on user features are focus and aperture controls. For run-and-gun shooting, the camera can be operated in full-auto mode with a button on the left side, illuminated by a green LED to indicate it is engaged. It is possible to override focus, aperture or both. Focusing manually is a dream. The focus ring has two positions. Pushed forward toward the front of the camera, it is in either autofocus mode or continuous manual focus, just like with any small camera. But pulled toward the camera in what is called full MF mode, this camera finally gives us a manual focus with distance indicators for professional-grade follow focus. There is also a macro switch to enable macro focusing. The EX1’s aperture control breaks new ground in small cameras. Finally, we have a true aperture ring on the lens with f-stops indicated on the ring and also displayed in the viewfinder. In auto mode, the ring turns automatically, as one would expect. The zoom servo can be disengaged, and the lens has a large knob for easy manual zooming.
The rear of the camera includes selections for internal/external microphones and auto or manual gain. AGC can be selected from the menu system. Also on the rear is a button to bring up the Picture Profile selections. The true flexibility of the EX1 becomes most apparent with the choices available in these various Picture Profiles (or scene files, whatever term works best for you). Most significant here are menu adjustments for color matrix, color correction, white, detail, skin-tone detail, knee levels, gamma, black levels, black gamma, low-key saturation and an option to copy another setting. The camera offers four standard gamma curves and four cine-style gamma curves. The camera defaults to Std 3. I found myself shooting the Cine3 gamma, which emphasizes the contrast between light and dark areas while not giving undue emphasis to contrast in whiter areas or deeper emphasis to the darker areas.
It’s here, however, that I find the most significant limitation of the camera. While I try to avoid comparisons to the Panasonic HVX200, the Panasonic includes an SD memory-card slot to save “scene files” to exchange with other users, to save or to use even in multi-camera shoots where obviously all cameras need the same settings. Furthermore, the Panasonic scene files include frame rates and shutter style (time or angle). The lack of this on the EX1 could be a significant shortcoming for some users.
One additional control is also unworthy of a professional camera. The rear of the unit houses the three-position power switch: camera, off and media. The switch is a flimsy consumer-style toggle without precise stops. It is very easy to move from camera to media, missing the off setting completely. Finding the detent is also difficult. At one point during my tests, I thought I’d turned the EX1 off only to find two hours later that I had a discharged battery due to the toggle being in the media position. I hope to see both of these issues rectified in future versions of the EX1.
Aftermarket accessories for the EX1 (such as such these Century lens shades, converters, wide-angle adapters and fisheye adapters from Schneider Optics) are proliferating quickly.
The camera is powered by the new U-series batteries, which embody a convenient time-remaining button and, most importantly, deliver 14.4 volts rather than the 7.9 volts which run smaller cameras.
The menu system is independent of the Picture Profile menus. It contains all of the options that one would expect, but some of the arrangement of items perplexes me. Most notably here is the selection of mode. The top-level menu contains all of the various camera settings. But to select shooting mode, you need to navigate to the very last hierarchical menu and then practically to the end of those sub-menus.
Once having gone through all of those menus, choices allow shooting in 720 or 1080 modes, with 720 in the NTSC world at least in 23.98 or 59.94 modes. In 1080, it is possible to shoot 60i, 30p or 24p. And that’s a true 24p, not a frame-pulldown mode. There are also choices labeled SQ or HQ. SQ mode is a 25Mbps fixed data rate with a frame size in 1080 comparable to HDV — 1440×1080. I have not shot in SQ mode and only see the need for that when matching footage with HDV cameras.
The strength of this camera is that it’s not HDV — it’s XDCAM HD, which is a 35Mbps VBR compression MPEG2 Long GOP. The camera’s three CMOS 1?2″ sensors deliver a true full-raster 1920×1080 image without any pixel shifting. The combination of these 1?2″ sensors and the fixed Fujinon zoom lens produces the sharpest images I have seen in a sub-$10K camera.
That comes at a cost, like any other feature. Prior CCD cameras buffered the image. The XDCAM embodies a rolling-shutter acquisition mechanism. That means that the image is scanned sequentially and exposes the possibility of a “rolling shutter effect.” Events like flashes or strobes can produce partial frames, which obviously can ruin a shot. CMOS chips also have a propensity to smearing. Again, these are potential limitations that a user needs to assess. Those who shoot concerts in clubs with lots of strobes might want to do some extensive real-world testing prior to committing to the camera. (This is on our testing list for a future EX1 review update).
At the core of the tapeless acquisition is the SxS storage card system. Sony currently offers cards in 8- and 16-gig Xpress34 card format. The long-GOP format allows recording 28 minutes of HQ per 8-gig card or 56 minutes per 16-gig card. The Xpress card format is now the current format in MacPro notebooks, as well as in the majority of newer PC notebooks. For use in desktop machines, Sony offers a $200 external USB 2.0 card reader. The card reader requires an external power supply, making it a little more cumbersome for remote field use.
The workflow of acquisition and editing is straightforward. Sony provides XDCAM Transfer software that works on both Windows and Mac platforms (Intel-based Mac required). The cards mount on the computer almost instantly and the XDCAM software ingests clips at 4 to 5 times real time. I have been editing on a Mac platform with Final Cut Pro and Sony offers a free FCP plug-in that launches the XDCAM Transfer software to log and ingest clips. You can mark in/out points, select the destination of files in the preference dialog, sort clips and name clips. It rewraps the MPEG files into a format that your particular platform can utilize. In the case of Final Cut Pro, this means a standard QuickTime file in the XDCAM codec. FCP 6 contains all necessary presets for this format.
While providing long recording times on the cards, an “I” frame compression scheme records every frame and does not require interpolating between every 15th frame. Still, I must admit that in HQ mode I did not notice artifacting in areas of significant motion as I have seen in HDV footage. Again, this is XDCAM, not HDV. The higher data rate may in part be responsible.
The 4:2:0 color space could pose an issue for many users. I experimented with greenscreen footage (seen above) shot 720p24 in the XDCAM native codec and also transcoded this footage to Apple ProRes 422 and ProRes 422HQ, Apple’s I-frame 4:2:2 codec. (I would expect Avid’s DNxHD codec to behave in similar fashion.)
All reports I had read indicated that there are numerous difficulties in pulling a key from interlaced material; hence 720p24 was the only choice in the 1280×720 format.
A 400-times enlargement of a segment of that key (above) reveals no difference between the XDCAM and the I-frame footage. There is a good, smooth transition with no jaggies — and this was without any manipulation other than just applying FCP’s basic keying filter. I would still recommend transcoding footage to an I-frame codec. Even simple transitions in XDCAM HD sequences produced the dreaded “Conforming MPEG Video” message, as FCP needed to re-create the GOP structure. Furthermore, any titles or graphics should be cleaner in a 4:2:2 timeline than in 4:2:0. (It remains a reservation and one that I will test further for the next installment of my EX1 testing.) Note that this camera cannot shoot SD, though it is possible to down-convert within the camera and stream out via SDI or component. Furthermore, HQ video cannot be streamed from FireWire for editing. SQ can be streamed from FireWire because it is essentially HDV. SDI is live, and the EX1 breaks the price point for SDI-out cameras. Thus, it is possible to shoot uncompressed HD live to direct-capture into your supported NLE. There is currently no hard drive recording option like the Firestore, limiting capture options either to live SDI or to SxS cards. To sum up, this is a camera with many pluses and some glaring minuses. Still, it very well may be the camera to push many users to tapeless workflows. The combination of image quality, features and ease of editing combine to make it a winner.
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