Camera technology marches on with Sony PMW-EX1
We are evaluating a second camera for Paul Dymon Films. Everything this year was shot with the Panasonic AG-HVX200 and I’ll go on-the-record right now phrasing. The camera is awesome, but I’m comparing it to decades of lesser (digital and analog) formats and format wars bringing us to the present moment.
Sony’s new palm sized camera, the PMW-EX1 has excellent features including an attractive price (around $8,000). It shoots with half-inch 2.2 mega-pixel sensors at full 1920×1080, the HVX200 delivers 1440×1080 pix.
Battery, buttons, bla, bla, bla. The technologies are always moving forward so any new camera will have techno advances over last WEEK’s model.
The Fujinon lens gives a wider view, almost as wide as Panasonic, uses CAC chroma-compensation, like Panasonic. The difference so far is the EX1 sensors’ pixel density delivering 1920 horizontal. An important consideration, but can you really tell if the sensor is 1/2 or 1/3 inch? Right!
In my opinion the biggest move with this model is the move to ‘flash memory’. A couple years behind the P2 cards yields smaller cards, fewer pins, faster speeds as you would expect. This is Sony’s ‘catch up’ camera and it appears they did a nice job. More on this camera for underwater coming in a few days. See how it holds up under the stress compressing frames of intense motion. Preview: I don’t like HDV I-frame MPEG encoding and I’ll explain why, see if my issues hold water. Don’t test the water with both feet.
Excellent blog written by knowledgeable camera ops on all Sony stuff: Sony HDV forum
Best regards,
Tags: HD Underwater Camera
October 27th, 2007 at 14:09
Allow me one more point that was not mentioned; the EX1 has a 16:9 screen. This may seem like a good idea, but let me make this point from experience. A 4:3 screen has the advantage of placing most of the on-screen display (OSD) in the letterbox, which leaves a lot more room to view what you should be looking at; what’s is being shot.
Regards,