dbzgundam
12th January 2008, 15:48
http://www.sonybiz.net/biz/view/ShowProduct.action?product=PMW-EX1&site=biz_en_EU&pageType=Overview&imageType=Main&category=XDCAMCamcorders
Now I know many of the guys here have a beef with Sony, and I myself am usually a Panasonic fan when it comes DV, but damn I just got to try this beast out the other day!
Unlike the recent HD champ in the prosumer market, the HVX-200, this thing actually does true 1080p (and it does look amazing) on its 3 CMOS chips. It allows for component out, (HD-?)SDI out, and records to the new SxS card format (which is readable by ExpressCard slots, not to mention somewhat cheaper than Panny's P2 cards).
The downside, is that it records to ancient MPEG-2 (Long GOP :rolleyes:) at both 25MBits (SP Mode), and 35Mbits (HQ mode). On the included 8GB SxS card, Sony estimates that you should get 50mins for HQ video (it's VBR, so even they admit that it's somewhat off). The editors aren't going to like this one, but an intermediate codec may be used I'd imagine. Interestingly, the person demonstrating the unit pushed the codec to see how much it would take; shots of waterfalls, rain, streams, etc, did not show any noticeable breakup (I may have seen some slight blocking in a lake shot, but the running water was amazingly stable with nothing I could see).
The other downside is that although overall resolution is higher, it only uses 4:2:0 for color sampling, whereas the HVX uses 4:2:2, so it may be better to key from the HVX (which also uses a much higher bitrate IIRC).
Just sharing the news, I thought it was a damn impressive camera.
Now I know many of the guys here have a beef with Sony, and I myself am usually a Panasonic fan when it comes DV, but damn I just got to try this beast out the other day!
Unlike the recent HD champ in the prosumer market, the HVX-200, this thing actually does true 1080p (and it does look amazing) on its 3 CMOS chips. It allows for component out, (HD-?)SDI out, and records to the new SxS card format (which is readable by ExpressCard slots, not to mention somewhat cheaper than Panny's P2 cards).
The downside, is that it records to ancient MPEG-2 (Long GOP :rolleyes:) at both 25MBits (SP Mode), and 35Mbits (HQ mode). On the included 8GB SxS card, Sony estimates that you should get 50mins for HQ video (it's VBR, so even they admit that it's somewhat off). The editors aren't going to like this one, but an intermediate codec may be used I'd imagine. Interestingly, the person demonstrating the unit pushed the codec to see how much it would take; shots of waterfalls, rain, streams, etc, did not show any noticeable breakup (I may have seen some slight blocking in a lake shot, but the running water was amazingly stable with nothing I could see).
The other downside is that although overall resolution is higher, it only uses 4:2:0 for color sampling, whereas the HVX uses 4:2:2, so it may be better to key from the HVX (which also uses a much higher bitrate IIRC).
Just sharing the news, I thought it was a damn impressive camera.