Sony XDCAM EX

The initial $7499 price on B&H website is now removed and changed to TBA. I HOPE THE FINAL CAMERA IS GOING TO BE CHEAPER THAN $7499.

I cannot wait till SONY USA do a press release on this camera.
 
Ok, a bit of clarification..

The "wobble" I witnessed in all these cameras I tested at IBC (EX1, RED, Infinity) was very very slight. They where all set up on tripods in a trade show environment, all being presented on a 20-something inch HD monitor.

I moved them as much as I possibly could - mostly whip panning. The most I ever saw from any of the cameras was a slight skew during the fastest of whips. The effect was marginal and definitely not noticeable ... I was of course particularly looking for it.

So it doesn't seem that bad.

But as Barry mentioned there are other situations where these problems can appear. Obviously I couldn't test with shaky handheld of with vehicle vibration. And as I couldn't record, I couldn't test camera flashes either.

So, yes, all 3 of the cameras I tested do use a rolling shutter. That we know because I was able to generate *some* wobble, that wasn't really a problem. Will it be a problem with other settings in different shooting environments? We really don't know until we see the cameras put into those situations.


Small side note: There is plenty of vibration and movement (don't know how much was added in post) in the shots in Crossing the Line, and though I looked very carefully during the screening at IBC, I didn't notice any wobble there. So this could be a non issue for any/all of these cameras.

- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
HDV is totally standard HDV, so in this mode, you can output it out to any regular HDV device, like the DR60 Hard Drive
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Fine - I'll be able to use my DR60 with it! Did you notice whether it can record to firewire without an SxS card, just like the V1 without a tape?

mikkowilson said:
Ok, the lens is really very good. They have put a lot of effort into the lens, which does show. But your oprtions or external control are VERY small. The camera has a new (as of yet, unnamed) proprietery lens control connector. The conenctor can control Zoom, Start-Stop, and the "Clip Review" funtion, and that's it. The connector by itseld is prety useless, you have to buy an adapter cable from sony to adapte the lens to a standard (Canon, or Fijinun) lens connector, then just add you favorate Professional lens controller and you are set..
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Mikko, why would they use a proprietary adapter cable, if all you can connect is a Canon/Fujinon len controller type, anyway? Perhpas the adapter can accept also other controller genres, like LANC (hopefully)? Or, another adapter exists for that...


mikkowilson said:
The camera weighs 3.5kg (5.5lbs). Because of the beefy lens' power requirements, the camera is a 12v camera, adn can be run form wither one of it's batter,es or by plugging in your charger and seeing it it wokds.
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Are you sure there is no typo here? It's said to be 2.4kg net in the brochure - add the big battery, lens hood and a card, and it should be some 2.8kg; but 3.5kg?!!
 
Yeah, that's a typo. 2.5kg

Don't know if it needs a SxS card to record HDV out .. I doubt it.

I have no idea why they went with a proprietery lens control connector (I was expecting a standard Fujinon to be honest). But nope, it's their own lens connector that they haven't even got a name for yet. (Heh, yeah, Sony is making new "standards" faster than they can come up with names for them!)
I didn't see or hear any mention of LANC .. I seriously doubt its there.


In general; connectivity and compatibilty on this camera is really really weak.

- Mikko
 
At NAB time I was excited about this cam, but the more I read the less it appeals.
I was especially interested in the XDCam standard, because many clients here have XDCam readers on their machines.

It doesn´t shoot SD, which is often needed still? Weird, but not a major deal, because NLEs can downconvert on the fly anyway.

Is the XDCam then XDCam standard or not? Can I copy it to the XDCam-disc and will it then be read by all NLEs that support XDCam or do I need plugins for them (esp. AVID). If this is not standard XDcam the cam limited again. I might just as well stick to P2 and transfer from P2 to XDCam.

CMOS will be tested. As an owner of the HVX200 I surely will first wait for a workflow and reviews before jumping to it. After all the HVX makes amazing images itself ;-)
 
mikkowilson said:
Ok, a bit of clarification..

The "wobble" I witnessed in all these cameras I tested at IBC (EX1, RED, Infinity) was very very slight.
Click to expand...
How did the wobble compare between those three - was the EX1 noticeably more than Red or Infinity, for example? If not, that's pretty impressive, given the difference in price.

It's different to comment too much until I've had the chance to see for myself, but ALL camera design is a matter of compromise. My initial feeling is that the advantages of these sensors (sensitivity, dynamic range etc) far more than outweigh their disadvantages.
 
Taken from another report from another site (credit to Emmanuel Plakiotis

The sensor is native 1920X1080 not 1440X1080. That means that this is a better sensor than the ones found on the 335 and 355(these upgraded models can handle the dual layered double capacity XDCAM discs).

Recording formats: 1080i 50/60 and 24/25p AND 720p 50/60.

NO SD recording.

In 1080 there are two modes HQ which records the full 1920X1080 and normal which records 1440X1080 as the rest of the XDCAM line. The wrapper is different than normal XDCAM (its not MXF) and needs transcoding.
35mbit 420 Mpeg XDCAM HD and 25Mbit 420 Mpeg HDV
Firewire out for file transfer and HDV out no 35mbit XDCAM Out.

It’s PAL/NTSC switchable.

Has a really neat on screen menu and most of the basic functions are adjusted very easily without the need to go to submenus.

The lens is manual/auto switchable and when in manual has end stops and markings. When in auto focus you can manually override without having to switch to manual.

The grip is adjustable rotating 90 degrees.

HD SDI out carries audio signal.

There is an introductory price Euro 6500 with two 8Gb cards. Then the same price will include only one 8Gb card. Expect the same figure in US dollars.

Card reader with two slots around Euro300, but you can copy from EX through firewire or put the cards straight to laptop if compatible.

The cards from other manufacturers (besides Sony and Sandisc) will probably work but are not officially endorsed.

There is a new XDCAM drive costing Euro 2500 which initially can play out XDCAM/HDXDCAM and within 6 months will also record XDCAM/HDXDCAM with software update. Very useful and economical for use with NLE or archiving.

The LCD screen hides under the handle and doesn't block the buttons on top of it.

European release is scheduled for mid November.

Irrelevant but noteworthy:
The EBU (European broadcasting union) after extensive tests has concluded that 720p 50fps 50hz looks better than 1080i 25fps 50hz and urges the European broadcasters to adopt the 720p 50fps initially and upgrade to 1080p 50fps when feasible.
 
alpi69 said:
Is the XDCam then XDCam standard or not?
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No, it's a little different. It's a new compression format called XDCAM EX.

XDCAM-HD = 1440x1080, in an MXF wrapper
XDCAM-EX = 1920x1080, in an MP4 wrapper

Can I copy it to the XDCam-disc and will it then be read by all NLEs that support XDCam
Click to expand...
No, the NLEs will need to be updated to handle the new format. EDIUS is claiming they'll be ready on day one.
 
Sony Vegas 8 Pro should handle the files.
I heard they switched to mp4 wrapper to make it easier for Premier to use it.
Adobe never added built in support for mxf format.
 
Premiere has built-in MXF support for the Op-Atom standard (used by Thomson, Grass Valley, Panasonic, etc) in the next version of CS3. I would assume it also has MXF support for the Sony system (Sony uses their own version of MXF).

But, then again, Adobe said that supporting EX was no big priority for them, so it remains to be seen. If Sony has made a move to make their system more compatible with NLEs, that's a good sign.
 
A quick question about the CMOS "rolling shutter" issue. Does it affect interlaced, progressive, or both? I'm planning an upgrade from FX1 to the EX1 for underwater and topside shooting, and "wobble" has me concerned. Will a school of fish swimming by be distorted if panning at the same time? I realize that the EX1 production cameras have not been released yet, so I'm hoping this will not be an issue. Thanks.
Dan
 
We don't know how much the issue may effect the EX1. It might be negligible.

But to the degree that it's affected, it's affected in all scanning modes. Progressive or interlaced doesn't matter, but what does appear to matter is the frame rate. In general, rolling shutter effects are more detectable at slower frame rates. So 24p will show more rulling shutter effect than 60i would. At 60p vs. 60i, it really should be a wash as far as rolling shutter artifacts; they should be equal (but then again you'd have 60i interlace to contend with if you went 60i).
 
Thanks Barry, that helps. I will almost exclusively be shooting the higher frame rates of 1080i60, 1080p30, and 720p60. As far as interlace vs. progressive, I like them both. Shooting progressive will be new for me.
Dan
 
thanks Barry. So this new wrapper will start the NLE-compatibility nightmare all over.

I guess I will stay 720p in the HVX for another year and wait for Panas answer.
At least the P2 prices will drop more now.
 
So this new wrapper will start the NLE-compatibility nightmare all over.
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I'm not prepared to say that at all. I don't know what the impact will be. I would expect that Sony Vegas will have highly integrated support on day one. Don't know about the others, except that Mikko reported that Premiere said it wasn't any big priority item for them.
 
I don't know if p2 prices would drop as a result, since the retail of 16gig p2 and 16gig SxS are both 900 bucks. But, if the EX is successful, then maybe that will put downward pressure...

Jason
 
Yeah, Adobe said that they wait untill a format becomes popular enough first, and then begins development .. sort of how Canon made the XL1 ... so I don't expect any XDCAM-EX support form them any time soon.

I think this will affect P2 a little ... the cost of the cards is the same, but the SxS cards hold more time-wise (be it by high compression) which is a factor when comparing to P2.

- Mikko
 
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