About to buy an EX1, input please

L

lahoozaa

Member
hey everyone.. Now that NAB's over, I've decided that the EX1 is the camera for me. I have an 8,000 dollar budget, so was just trying to get some input on where I should focus the money.

I was planning on buying from http://www.ecprofessionalvideo.com/ , where the camera runs at $6449 with no tax and free shipping.

In addition, I was going to purchase their extended warranty with accidental coverage at $379.

Next, I was gonna get the [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]ECM-673[/FONT][FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif] Shotgun Microphone, which will run me about $250 (EC Pro offers discounts on accessories with camera purchase)

this leaves me roughly $900 left for other accessories.

I know for sure I want a tripod, and will probably get one of those "El Cheapo" shoulder mounts. I think I'm good on an extra battery or SxS card because this is going to be entirely a learning experience for me for at least the first month, plus I have a laptop with an express slot, so can just bring it along with me.


Any advice would be much appreciated. Better mic you think I should get, better place to buy it, UV filters? not sure, hoping to have everything figured out by tomorrow morning when I plan on making the purchase. I guess right now the tripod is the only thing I haven't decided on, but everything else is open to change. DEFINITELY could use advice on a tripod though..







If it helps anything, I'll be using the camera mostly for sketch-type shorts, nature, grafitti, skating, and generally everything... so I guess that really doesn't help.

Thanks for the advice
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damn.. those are expensive tripods.. I realize you get what you pay for.. but wow.

Anything in the $500 dollar range that someone would recommend?
 
Agree with Phil. Spend your money on a good tripod. I use a Sachtler Video 20. New they cost about 6-7000, but I got mine off ebay for £1200 ($2400) and threw it straight in for a service. Its smooth as a babys bum and will last me out, and every camera I will ever own.

The Miller DS20 is a great tripod and quite light if I remember. Right Phil?

BUt go ebay and have a good look. A good fluid head is essential.
 
Is there a possibility of getting a nice head and going a little cheaper on the tripod itself, or does that not really work out?
 
Is this your first prosumer cam? If so I would recommend the canon A1. Great picture at a fraction of the price. Keep that for a year or so then jump up to something else. [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]sketch-type shorts, nature, grafitti, skating, and generally everything. [/FONT]Thats why I recommend the A1. And it is 3k cheaper. :) [FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif][/FONT]
 
Nik, I myself have been down the HDV route, and, while interesting, the picture quality always left me wanting. Now I've got three HDV 'bricks' that have lost 70% of their market value in 8 months and no way to get my purchase price (or a good portion of it) back on resale. HDV is dead. Go with the XDCam and hustle non-stop for work.
 
just my two cents, but i think a spare battery IS essential. the stock bp-u30 is crap. it will last you very little time. the spare bp-u60 is much larger and i think a must. unless you plan to be tethered to a wall outlet. also, i have the libec h38. it rocks. $650 list. not sure that the sony mic you suggest is worth the $250. i'd check out the audio technica at4073a or at least the rode ntg-1 ($250).
 
basspig said:
Nik, I myself have been down the HDV route, and, while interesting, the picture quality always left me wanting. Now I've got three HDV 'bricks' that have lost 70% of their market value in 8 months and no way to get my purchase price (or a good portion of it) back on resale. HDV is dead. Go with the XDCam and hustle non-stop for work.
Click to expand...

Whooo, I don't know which cameras you are talking about, but the Canon A1 has to be the best bang for the buck. Are you talking about the A1? I am not telling him to just get any cheaper hdv cam. Canon's hdv has less compression because of the 24f thing and it does make pretty pictures. So please be more specific which cameras you are talking about. I will happily buy 1 of your cams for 31 percent of the purchase price. :)
hdv is far from dead and the sony ex1 is hdv.
 
I'm assuming you are in New York since you are buying from EC. I suggest you go over to B&H photo and check out their tripods. I also recommend you spend about $100-$200 on a top of the line "Velbon" brand tripod. They have pretty nice fluid heads for their cheap @#$@ price and small and light. Great little tripods for quickie stuff even for that day in the future when you own a more expensive one. I find I use the cheap one's much more often for run around shoots and the pricey tripod only when more exacting work is required. But if you are doing a quick run out to the skate park on a subway, you may not want to lug that big tripod around. If you're driving a car to a shoot then the bigger one may not be as much of a problem.

My 2cents.
 
Nik Manning said:
Whooo, I don't know which cameras you are talking about, but the Canon A1 has to be the best bang for the buck. Are you talking about the A1? I am not telling him to just get any cheaper hdv cam. Canon's hdv has less compression because of the 24f thing and it does make pretty pictures. So please be more specific which cameras you are talking about. I will happily buy 1 of your cams for 31 percent of the purchase price. :)
hdv is far from dead and the sony ex1 is hdv.
Click to expand...

i thought ex1 was Full HD and not HDV. not to quibble about specs/details or anything. But I too agree, the XH-A1 is indeed a GREAT camera.
 
EX1 uses the same 4:2:0 MPEG-2 long-GOP technology as HDV. In the EX1 it's improved by supporting a higher bandwidth (35mbps instead of 25), full-raster recording (1920x1080 instead of 1440x1080), and variable bitrate instead of constant bitrate. So to say it's "HDV" is not accurate (although it does also include an HDV-compatible output). But to call it "Full HD" isn't accurate either, if one considers codecs like HDCAM SR and HD-D5 and AVC-Intra as "Full HD". Of course, to get those codecs you have to spend from $30,000 to $300,000 or so; an EX1 is $6500.
 
Whether or not the EX1 is "full HD", the picture quality is simply outstanding. I've been shooting our fishing show with it for more than a month now and I haven't regretted it at all -- except for the time I threw up a half dozen times on a boat. But that's another story.

With the EX1 I'm seeing details in the brightest portions of clouds while also seeing the eyes of fishermen below their baseball caps. The deep blue ocean comes out rich and yet there's texture in the bow wakes of boats. Even backlit shots aren't as bad as they used to be with other cameras.

Here's our teaser:

Quicktime:
http://www.hawaiigoesfishing.com/videos/hgf_tease_final.mov

Windows Media:
http://www.hawaiigoesfishing.com/videos/hgf_tease_final.wmv

The show premieres this Sunday at 5 p.m. Hawaii Standard time and can be seen via the internet at OC16.tv. It'll give you an idea of what the camera can do.

For microphones, I use an Audio Technica 4051a. Pickup pattern is a bit wider for two-shots. And rear rejection is better than a shotgun. I put a Lightwave Equalizer wind fur to keep the wind noise down.

When I shot the guys fishing from jet skis I couldn't put wireless lavs on them since they tend to dive into the water looking for fish. So I was stuck with just the on-camera mic (didn't have a soundman with a boom). Yet the mic was able to pick them up reasonably well. Also, the impromptu interview was conducted with just the on-camera AT 4051a.
 
Nik Manning said:
Whooo, I don't know which cameras you are talking about, but the Canon A1 has to be the best bang for the buck. Are you talking about the A1? I am not telling him to just get any cheaper hdv cam. Canon's hdv has less compression because of the 24f thing and it does make pretty pictures. So please be more specific which cameras you are talking about. I will happily buy 1 of your cams for 31 percent of the purchase price. :)
hdv is far from dead and the sony ex1 is hdv.
Click to expand...


I'm talking about ALL HDV cameras. We happen to have a number of HVR-V1Us and Canon HV20 in our 2007 lineup. All HDV images have compression artifacts, although the softer Canon images seem to aggravate the artifacts less.

The one thing I've found about the so-called "progressive" mode of those cameras is that it's really interlaced video and behaves like it in the editor, presenting some of the artifacts common to interlaced pictures.

The EX1 is using the XDCam HD CODEC, actually an extended version of it, which supports recording of full 1920x1080 images. HDV is only 1440x1080 and is interlaced 60i stream carrying "progressive" images in the stream. Totally different tech, totally different quality images.

The difference between images is nothing short of jarring. HDV has harsh highlights, aliasing is visible on edges and block artifacts in the shadow areas with a murky look to the darker tones. XDCam looks just like a moving photograph, with smooth, but detailed edges, detail in shadows, detail in highlights, no harshness, and it downconverts to SD beautifully.

We're not selling our HDV cams, as they have some use as closeup, locked off static shot cameras in cases where we need a lot of angles. Selling at current eBay prices seems like a major loss of investment.
 
Don't forget a nice camera bag

Don't forget a nice camera bag

I just ordered a Petrol PDRB-4. It looks unassuming like a gym bag and opens wide like a Doctor bag for easy quick access. You might consider a backpack style video bag too.
 
try Manfrotto tripods. they're inexpensive but work just fine unless you are doing high tension pan and tilts. the pan and tilt locks don't exactly lock that well. Cartoni's are nice. i think the Focus model is a nice choice for video cameras. Sachtler's are the best and their prices reflect it. a decent head and sticks will cost you over $4,000.


good luck!

-mike
 
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