[Craig Seeman]

I can see a slow auto focus as a GOOD thing for tracking since you don’t want it to bounce when objects on a different focal plane pass in front of the object you’re tracking.

I do wish Push Auto worked properly though as a method to lock focus quickly when I need to move from object to object.

Although push Expand Focus and jiggle the the Focus ring can be plenty quick.

[Craig Seeman]

I’m getting conflicting info on this myself. If it is more involved than changing the .mp4 to .ts then it might be a good idea for Sony to create a rewrap tool just as ClipBrowser rewraps to .mxf on Windows and SonyTransferTool rewraps to .mov on Mac.

Sony reps have told me that 35mbps VBR falls within Bluray’s 40mbps max spec and others say it is more involved than simply renaming the extension but no one has yet explained how one can do the later (and avoid a lengthy Bluray encode with a lossy compression).

[Craig Seeman]

It’s like having an invisible Focus Puller (etc) built into the camera. Really neat when executing something that your fingers could never manage with right timing and accuracy.

[Craig Seeman]

AF on the EX1 seems to be a different beast then what many of us are used to.

I think its purpose is to track a moving object. Imagine people you’re focused on walking past trees in front of them. A quick AF would bounce from person to trees to person again. EX1 AF, since it’s slow, should hang with the person (obviously changing slightly).

If the camera is moving ever so slightly while pointing at the label it may be trying to “lead” the subject thinking it’s a moving object.

I have to test this myself. Use camera on tripod with OIS off and see what happens.

Of course a fantasy would be a programable AF speed.

BTW I think Push Auto works different than some other cameras too. It doesn’t stop when you release Push Auto. It’ll hunt until it thinks its locked (sorta like Focus Assist). I need to double check this but this too is a bit of a pain.

[Craig Seeman]

But can we pardon Sony?

[Ron Shook] “Craig,

Pardon me!

Ron Shook “

[Craig Seeman]

Zoom Rocker on the grip is touch sensitive.
The Zoom on the top handle is a speed programable switch that is NOT touch sensitive. It’s basically an on/off switch in the shape of a rocker. Program the speed to 10 or lower and you may find problems in zoom in/our.

At very slow speeds (10 or lower) I find the Zoom In delays a significant amount of time when pushing in the Zoom In direction.

I find that at times, the zoom steps rather than executes a smooth zoom in.

I find the above intermittent (sometimes doesn’t exhibit the issue).

I gave detailed steps to reproduce so it’s very clear what I’m describing and how you can test for it.

[Craig Seeman]

[john sharaf] “That’s not to say that your motor or the drive device it uses isn’t faulty, check other samples of the camera and see if they’re similar.”
That’s why I’m posting here.

If it is a a general characteristic of the motor than maybe they could have limited the lower zoom speed . . . unless there was a reason they couldn’t.

[Craig Seeman]

The only place
is on page 8 of the brochure! and it doesn’t even have the Standard “curves.”

I spoke to Sony’s Juan Martinez directly about this recently and he says he hopes to get more detailed info up on the Sony website.

One can only hope.

[Craig Seeman]

Michael, I’m hearing others are having the problem. I spotted a what I now think is a related problem while shooting 1080p30 using Clock time. I suspect there are time code flag issues in the meta data.

When using Time of Day (Clock) time the time code should be Drop Frame.
If you jog through a recording in Quicktime (after .mov conversion) you’ll see it IS Drop Frame. In Final Cut Pro it will jog as Non Drop Frame. Both Quicktime and Final Cut Pro report it as Non Drop Frame.

Work flow – Sony Transfer Tool 2.1 in Final Cut Pro 6.0.2.

Open the .mov file in QuickTime and use the timer display on the left and pull down. It’ll show the time code as Non Drop Frame.

In FCP drop the clip from Browser to Viewer.
Go to upper right time code display and right click.
It’ll report the time code as Non Drop Frame.

In Quicktime if you jog through the numbers you’ll see it’s Drop Frame (:29, :02) even though it reports Non Drop Frame.

In FCP it will jog as Non Drop Frame (:29, :00, :01, :02)

I’m not sure if Windows users are seeing the same but you might want to check. Again time code is Drop Frame as it should be but at least on Mac, the flag that Quicktime and FCP see shows Non Drop Frame.

[Craig Seeman]

Great Clear Glass Fits perfectly with lens hood. As Don notes, many 77mm filters are too thick to put the lens hood back on.