The company I work regularly for are considering a new camera, which will pretty much be used exclusively for Corporate Live Events (they have an FS100 for corporate work). The camera must have a decent lens throw, SDI out, HDMI out, TC in/out, tapeless and continuous recording I'm weighing up the following options... Second Hand Sony EX-3 Pros - Cheap. lens options for longer throw. tried and tested workhorse. Integrates well with PMW 500. 1/2" chip Cons - Second hand. expensive media when considering cards and card reader. 35Mb/s internal. Sony PMW-200 Pros - 50MB/s internal. Integrates well with PMW 500. 1/2" chip Cons - Fixed lens. expensive media when considering cards (especially for larger data rate) and card reader. Canon XF305 Pros - 50MB/s internal. Longer throw than the above two as standard. Cheaper cards and reader. Cheaper in price. Cons - 1/3" chip. Have never used so can't comment on integration with Sony XDCAM line. The Sony EX3 was the first option I was considering. The second two are more recent options I have thrown into the mix mainly down to the 50MB/s internal on both, and with the use that'll be gotten out of it (which could rule out a second hand purchase). We hire EX-3s and EX-1Rs a fair bit at the moment. And work alongside PMW500s fairly often. So the PMW200 does feel like a natural step. But we've fallen short on lens throw a couple of times (something where the XF305 has an advantage) and the price of reliable 64gig Compact Flash cards and reader is literally pittance in comparison to 64gig SXS and an SXS card reader. Coupled with the lower price, the XF305 builds some strong advantages. But... it's a 1/3" sensor. And I'm not sure how this performs in relation to the 1/2" sensor the Sony cameras sport when considering lowlight performance, and noise. Next step would naturally be to hire a XF305 on an upcoming gig. But I just wanted to see if there are any long term users on here that may have some input. Another consideration is the imminent EX-3 replacement. However my thoughts are that the price tag for whatever this is will probably be out of budget. Thanks in advance
EX1/3 have been stalwarts in this realm. But Canon XF305 - you most likely won't need the 4:2:2 (really), and 1/3" in this case (long throw to people on a well lit stage) isn't a total disadvantage. It's an easy shoo-in. But... Lens throw is your main differentiator - EX3 will take lenses that will give you reach (a B4 lens with doubler will give you lots of options and also the possibility of remote focus and zoom) but the amount of noise in low light (assuming +3dB gain to get at f4 for the best performance of the lens) is beginning to show its age. I've not used the 305, but have edited its footage - utterly unremarkable but totally competent. It appears to be designed to look good on a waveform monitor and vectorscope and make charts look nice. On that front, it's absolutely superb. I too am torn between the EX3 and the XF305. Heart says former, head says latter. Having shot way too many conferences on EX1Rs, loved the results, always missed the remote focus and zoom (no, little LANC controller isn't the same), so I'm still swinging towards the EX3, with twin pan pars, 7" monitor, and nice B4 ENG lens on a big heavy tripod. BTW1 - you really MUST invest in a 3rd party 'bottom' for it - Vocas, Westside Studios, Juice Designs, whatever. Amazing difference! BTW2 have been shooting aforementioned conferences on SDHC in SxS adaptors - 32 GB MxMs. Have also had much success with Ninja onto ordinary (cheap!) spinning disks via HDMI which side steps the delays in wrapping a day's worth of presentations on 3 camera to QuickTime before editing. Just bring a bunch of 750GB 2.25" hard drives and you're kinda done. That means your MxMs (or CFs) are just a backup.
Thanks for your reply Matt, appreciated. Yes EX-3 with a b4 lens would be good. But pricing up both the adaptor plus a good SD lens/cheap HD 2/3" lens you're looking at a heavy price tag for what is a 4+ year old camera. Also looked at a Ninja, great for fast offloads, bad for storage space v price. Unless you use the backup SXS as an archive, but then you've got to make the investment in the cards anyhow, so it's causes a problem of it's own! I need to find some experienced XF300/305 users and see how they comment on the image quality. Backed with hiring one and trying it out.
