[Craig Seeman]

I’m only getting 1.3x via USB to my G5 Dual desktop. Yes it’s a USB2 port. Yes the hard drive is 7200rpm of course. I was hoping for something close to 3x. I’ll get a MacBookPro laptop eventually as well as MacPro.

I’d really hope someone comes out with a PCIe card with Express port or, hope against hope, Apple announces that they’re including such ports (even as a build to order) in their next round of MacPro updates.

[Craig Seeman]

But with F335/F355 they’d be able to shoot in SD now and HD later if they wanted to move field production to HD.

Meanwhile CNN ordered a huge number of EX1s which are HD only. Not sure how they’re going to handle SD when using those cameras (there are several ways on ingest though).

I just see it as dumb to buy SD only cameras when so many HD cameras can shoot SD and, in the case of the EX1, you get something that’s almost at a “throw away” price for a large news division and they can gather HD now.

They’re only going to have to pay again when their news gathering changes or they’ll lag far behind the competition.

F330 body is about $14,800.
510 is about $16,400.
So I really don’t get the reasoning.

[Craig Seeman]

You’re not going to see rolling shutter issues on a dolly move that’s for sure.

The only case where I’ve heard of people seeing it at all on the EX1 is by violently shaking the camera back and forth.

This simplest (over simple) way I can describe rolling shutter issues (wobble or skewing) is that the subject moves between the start of the scan of the top of the frame and the bottom. The result is that the subject would look skewed. In the EX1, the scanning is so much faster than other CMOS cameras (Sony V1 or various consumer CMOS video cameras) that it’s just not likely to happen unless there’s an extreme circumstance.

I’ve thought an interesting way to test this would be to shoot out the window of a high speed train while passing trees or polls. In other words, the tree or poll is passing left to right (or right to left) at high speed while the image is being scanned.

Maybe the above description better exemplifies what might induce rolling shutter skewing.

[Craig Seeman]

Bean counters don’t seem to understand that as HDTV ownership breaks 50% household mark that people will start watching their news elsewhere. Ratings = $. Keep in mind also that with consumer infatuation with a technology (HD) they’ll watch HD news simply because it’s HD even if other aspects of the reporting are “inferior.”

[Craig Seeman]

The XDCAM HD cameras are also CineAlta. CineAlta = 24fps (23.98) no pulldown. F330/335 24fps to disc. EX1 to card (both 720p24 and 1080p24).

[Keith Hill] “I’m confused a bit about why the EX1 is labeled CineAlta though. I always attributed that label to HDCAM SR stuff. The EX1 is a totally different animal. “

[Craig Seeman]

See this guy’s stuff
https://www.philipbloom.co.uk/Philip_Bloom/Piccadilly_Furs%3A_Letus_and_EX1.html
and this
https://www.philipbloom.co.uk/Philip_Bloom/Religion%3A_XDCAM_HD.html
and this too
https://www.philipbloom.co.uk/Philip_Bloom/Kew_Gardens__Lost_Times%3A_Letus_and_EX1.html

[Craig Seeman]

SxS nearly 10x real time when using Express slot in laptop.
Record times much longer than P2. 16GB holds 50 plus minutes (and transfers in 5 given the above).
1/2 vs 1/3″ sensor – greater depth of field.
1920×1080 chips and good true 1080p or 1080i quality/resolution (compared to 960×540 chips of HVX200 and up-sampling to 1080)
HD-SDI out if you want 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 from camera head.
Great low light performance.
Lens had very good true manual (non servo) controls.

I like XDCAM work flow – With high speed laptop transfer I can ingest and burn to disc, include Sony’s free Clip Browser and deliver that disc with master video to client which they can easily view even if they don’t have an NLE.

I can change the MP4 file extension of the clips the EX1 creates, to TS and burn to Blu-ray (NO encoding needed) and the client has a disc they can play on Blu-ray player or PS3, both a lot cheaper than the typical professional deck.

From what I’ve seen 4:2:0 keys/composites fine especially with progressive source. Sure 4:2:2 would be easier/better but the codecs is only as good as the camera attached to it and I much prefer the EX1 with 4:2:0 to card over the HVX 4:2:2. And with HD-SDI out of the EX1 I can still get 4:2:2 from the head.

Way back when, when I first thought about going tapeless HD I looked at the HVX200 and was extremely disappointed. The EX1 has the feature set I wanted and I’m glad I waited for such a camera to come into existence.

[Craig Seeman]

Just to clarify because I think there’s some confusion.
MF/AF is servo controlled
Full Manual is non servo.

The Macro works with servo control but you can certainly have Auto Focus turned off.
Yes the lens must be full wide.

[Craig Seeman]

[Rafael Amador] “I was about to buy an HDVX200 too. Thanks God this time I’ve been patient.”

Me too. I was really excited about the HVX200 until I saw the issues. I won’t list them here but it wasn’t want I wanted to being patient wasn’t too difficult.

[Rafael Amador] “Today I’ve shown to my wife the EX1 brochure to start to prepare her psicologically. However, after Christmast Eve, I’ll hide the big kitchen knives. “

My wife is really excited about the camera. She has projects in mind already. We did shoot some video around the kitchen and when we examined the video she commented on how messy the kitchen looked. You can sure see a LOT of detail.

[Craig Seeman]

Here Too Finally! Don’t you hate “me too” posts. I’ll have some intelligent things to say later.