EX1 Camera

OK -- The EX1 is REALLY an amazing camera.

It basically packs just about all the punch of its big brother, the XDcamHD PDW-F350 into a small package - with 3 1/2” CMOS chips featuring full 1920x1080 resolution. WOW!!!!!

This camera can create truly astounding images. Hands down, it’s the best small HD camera on the market. For my money, it beats the pants off the HVX-200 and its low-res brethren. Of course it really is ‘my money’, since I just bought my own EX1.

Of course it records to SxS memory cards -- they come in 8Gb and 16Gb sizes -- but unlike the P2 cards, they use a highly efficient long-GOP compression scheme that allows you to put about 27 minutes on an 8Gb card (at 1920x1080 resolution !), or 37 minutes on the same card at 1440x1080 resolution. With two 8Gb cards in the camera at once, that’s like having a Beta camera with two tapes simultaneously - or 4 Beta tapes with the 16 Gb cards!

Recently I had to do a few pickup shots for a client editing over a holiday weekend. Being 50 miles from him (and not wanting to deal with beach traffic back and forth) I used my fast FIOS connection to upload 3 groups of full resolution clips to an FTP site - and saved what would probably have been 8 hours of sitting in traffic (I sent him footage each day). Admittedly I wouldn’t have wanted to upload a long iinterview - but for short clips the FIOS/FTP came through and gave him access to the footage long before the next standard FEDEX delivery would have arrived. My one concession to upload speed - I shot at 1440x1080 to keep the files a little smaller.








			Couldn’t help but add this production still. Yes, the larger ladder is a 10-step, so I’m guessing that the lens height here is about 14’. The EX1 camera is mounted on a monopod which has its smallest diameter section extended into the pipe to provide variable extension. Tilt was achieved by varying the relative heights of the two Daddy Long-Leg high-boys as well as the C+ pole used as a cross-brace. When I showed this picture to a friend he said “I don’t think I’d want to try that with my F-350” Of course we ‘safety’d’ the camera, but the reality was that the camera was light enough to make this relatively easy rig practical. This was the first shot of the day, and it was about an hour from the time we got out of our cars until we rolled the first take. (We also shot some cut-away material simultaneously with the V1u.) The blue fabric is for matting in (for different shots) a number of different computer designed quilt patterns, with several kids running around and their shadows being utilized when cast on the blue. Obviously, for optimum matting we went with 35 mbps full 1920x1080 recording. Shot 30P with a fast shutter to sharpen each frame. Camera was started and stopped using the little wireless remote. Data went to the 3D Graphics guy, who said it imported seamlessly into the latest version of Premiere. Saw the composites yesterday and they look great!


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