[Derek Reich]

Hi, Jay
Daniel was incorrect…. you MUST use a circular polarizer on the EX1 and EX3. A linear polarizer will most definitely cause color shifts as it is rotated.

You should not need to tweak any of your camera settings when using a polarizer, and the results will be pretty visible. It should be quite helpful in reducing reflections on the water.

There are several good polas to choose from, I’m not sure if you are using a matte box or just need a 77mm screw-in. Schneider, Tiffen, B+W are a few good ones that jump to mind.

Happy shooting!

[Derek Reich]

Did you (or your DP) engage the full manual focus by snapping the focus ring into the manual position? That is supposed to over-ride the electronic focus and give you complete manual control. I would certainly run the auto backfocus in the menu (I forget what it’s called at the moment, but it’s in the lens menu) and let it do it’s thing before continuing after something like this. It’s a good idea to carry a backfocus chart (you can find some online and print them yourself) in the field for this purpose. I have an EX3 and run the backfocus every time I change the lens.

Another thing to try if this was to occur again is completely cut power by removing the battery for about 10 seconds or so. Sometimes with electronic glitches like this simply powering down and back up is not enough to reset whatever glitch has possessed your camera at the time. Usually this will restore most weird electronic brain-farts and get you on your way. If it happens again it may very well indicate some more serious issue that needs to be addressed. (like a small hammer….)

[Derek Reich]

That definitely looks like a rolling shutter issue. I have seen that exact same banding not with lightning, but when a lot of flashes are going off in a press conference. (or even just one flash sometimes)

I hope you are able to work out a viable solution. I did notice some rather extreme interlacing artifacts though…. that does not seem normal even for rolling shutter issues. Maybe that’s from your compression to the web site?

[Derek Reich]

You cannot use a linear polarizer on the EX. It’s that simple…. the result is the color shift you experienced while rotating the filter.

A circular polarizer will work just fine, and will not have the hue shifts at all. You do have to make sure the circular polarizer has the correct side facing outward however. (not a problem with a screw-in obviously, but with a 4×4 or 4×5.65 there should be an indication which side faces out)

problem solved.

[Derek Reich]

Hi, Carl-
I purchased my filter from Filmtools in CA. I don’t know if they stock it regularly or not, but I had it within a week or so.
cheers
Derek

[Derek Reich]

I agree wholeheartedly with Kerry. If you are using a mattebox, that filter is called the Schneider Tru-cut 680. Since it’s a ‘hot mirror’, it must be the first filter light hits. You will have some green vignetting at wide angle (15mm and wider) but it’s not too noticeable unless you’re shooting in a room with light walls. It works beautifully to correct for the IR contamination.

cheers

[Derek Reich]

I would stick with the Transcend class 6. Amazon is a great place to buy them. They have consistently proven to be reliable.
That said, if you want even more peace of mind, check out Hoodman. They have just released their own line of SDHC cards which they promote a 100% success rate guarantee. I believe their Express Card adapter is the same as the MxR, but they sell their own SDHC. They are quite a bit more expensive than Transcend however.
(a LOT more) https://www.hoodmanusa.com/prodinfo.asp?number=RAW-SDHC16GB

I have 6 Transcend 16GB class 6 and have been very happy with them.

cheers

[Derek Reich]

Hi, Brian-
I could go on forever on all the different accessories you could/should get, but it really boils down to personal preference on battery weight, design, or even what you already own. I had several IDX V-mounts for my Beta already, so I purchased a Bebob COCOEX battery adapter to use with these and LOVE it. Not only can I run all day long on one battery, but it provides 6 (count ’em, 6) power taps. 4 hirose and 2 D-taps. Very handy for external lights, wireless receivers, monitors, etc. One needs to be used for the camera power.
That’s just my 2 cents worth on power.
I also use the MXR Express adapter with Transcend 16GB SDHC cards, and have only had one clip do something ‘funny’ out of all the shooting I’ve done with them. (too long to go into here) but the upshot is that clip was okay, but something in the metadata was off. Could have been saved, but I didn’t need it anyway. I have 6 of those cards, and have as much faith in them as I have in the 4 SxS cards I also use. I do always start with my SxS cards first though. (plus, you cannot overcrank on the SDHC) Hoodman now offers this adapter (the same one) with their own SDHC cards (at more cost than Transcend) but offer a 100% success guarantee with the cards. I don’t know exactly what this means, but they appear to really stand by their stuff.

So all that said, here are my suggestions for MUST haves for a new EX owner:
1) by all means, buy Doug Jensen’s Vortex Media guide to the EX3. It’s now available in a print version you can carry in your camera bag. WELL worth the investment. https://www.vortexmedia.com/FIELD_GUIDES.html

2) replace the stock shotgun mount as soon as you can. it’s a horrible design which WILL break off if you use a shotgun the size of a Sennheiser 418 or ME66 or similar mic. plus, if you use a softie on the shotgun, you’ll see it creep into the frame at wide angle since the mount is so low. there are lots of options for different shotgun mounts. (I use a Sony CAC-12 I stole off my Betacam)

3) beef up the tripod mount as soon as you can. another horrible design on Sony’s part…. the mount on the bottom of the camera is basically plastic, and the camera will not survive a shock while mounted to the tripod without damage or even breaking off from the mount. this is especially critical if you add weight to the camera by using larger batteries, adding a matte box, wireless receivers, etc. DM Accessories makes an outstanding product, and you can even add a shoulder mount if you wish. It also makes the camera MUCH more stable when mounted to a tripod.
https://shop.dm-accessories.com/products/ex3-plate

4) if you like using a polarizer (and who doesn’t?) you MUST use a circular polarizer on the EX cameras. a linear polarizer will cause very disturbing color shifts from green to magenta as you rotate the filter. this has to do with the type of sensor the camera utilizes, and is not a defect…. but kind of sucks if you already own some good linear polarizers and hoped to use them on the EX. I found this out the hard way…. wish someone had told me sooner!

5) IR contamination. this issue is very real, very frustrating, and WAY too involved to go into here. just know it exists in this camera (the EX is in good company here… it also occurs with the RED, even the new Sony F35) and it can be managed. at the present time, there is no ‘perfect’ filter to correct for it, but I have been very happy with a Schneider Tru-Cut 680. (mine is a 4×4, but the exact same filter in a 77mm screw-in is called a B&W 486. don’t ask why they have different names for the different sizes) the filter is a ‘hot mirror’ which does an excellent job of correcting for the issue when it appears (which can happen under any lighting condition, and will turn some black fabrics magenta) BUT it MUST be the first filter light hits….. so you cannot put any other filter in front of it. it also has a slight cyan vignette at full wide angle, but I have not found this to be too bad. (it’s much more noticeable against a solid light background like white walls. I don’t notice it much at all outdoors) If you zoom past about 15mm, the vignette disappears.

I can’t help you with the bag (your original inquiry before getting more than you asked for) since I have yet to find one myself. With the COCOEX and V-mount battery, the Sony CAC-12 with a Sennheiser ME66 shotgun with Rycote mounted, a Lectrosonics receiver holder screwed to the side of the COCO, and a mattebox all attached to the camera, I have not yet found a bag large enough (mainly WIDE enough) to accommodate the camera configured this way. I tried the Kata 197 and it didn’t work…. and that was the best hope I had. I have since learned that Kata has come out with a new line of bags called ‘OMB’ for ‘one-man-band’, and they do now offer one which seems to have the dimensions which will hold my camera with all this crap on it… but it will be too large to carry on a plane.

nothing worthwhile is ever easy…..

good luck, and enjoy your new camera! the EX3 (and EX1) are amazing cameras for the money. I work regularly with a network using XDHD cameras (the 1/2″ versions) and the EX literally blows them away for 1/3 the money.
cheers

[Derek Reich]

Hi, Martin
Seems we’re experiencing the same issues and needing the same accessories….

I have the same adapter (just couldn’t bear to pay what Fuji wanted for the adapter with the power plug) and figured I really didn’t need auto iris or record start/stop anyway. I set my custom button #4 (the one under the lens mount) for record start/stop which works very similar to what I’m used to on my Beta when tripod shooting. However, I quickly realized I sorely missed having servo zoom on my 2/3″ lens.

I had a custom cable adapter made by Jony Jib out in CA which plugs into my Canon broadcast lens pigtail and into one of the hirose power taps on my Bebob V-mount battery adapter on the EX. It only provides power to the lens so the servo works, there is still no auto iris or record start/stop, but I am fine with that. John (the owner of Jony Jib) said he could also make a similar cable to work off of a D-tap. I don’t know if you are using a battery adapter which has either D-taps or hirose power taps, but if you do this is the ticket. He also made me an adapter for my stock Fuji lens on the EX3 to plug into my Fuji broadcast zoom controller which works beautifully. The cables are extremely well made, and the service and response from John is exemplary. Here is a link to his website: https://www.jonyjib.com/

[Derek Reich]

Hi, Craig-
Thanks for the suggestion. Since it wasn’t a ‘keeper’ clip, I didn’t really lose any sleep over it. I did follow a suggestion to copy the clip from one slot on the camera to another card, which created a new BPAV folder. However when I tried that, the same result happened. The clip played in the camera and in Clip Browser (w/CRC enabled by the way) but was not recognized by File Transfer. I wasn’t really interested in saving the clip so much as finding a solution should it happen again.