XDCAM EX1 as camera A.

I have completed my first edit of a series of 5 shorts to run over Christmas, meeting 5 different families of 5 different religions. One was shot a month or so ago on the F350. I decided to shoot the other 4 on the EX1 as a test to see how well it performed.

The first one I completed was filmed in the Isle of Mull in Scotland. I had with me the EX1, a miller DS20 tripod, two radio mics, a rifa 500, 3 16gb cards, 2 8gb cards, 3 big batteries, 1 small battery, petrol waterproof and my macbook pro with external hard drive to backup. Quite a light set up for me…no dolly, no 35mm adaptor, just one light, small camera, small tripod. Quite a challenge.

The biggest problem I had was the weather. It was very windy and the light tripod and camera made it very hard to get good steady shots. Using the OIS helped a lot, it even worked with pans to a degree.

Shooting with a small camera instead of a big one was the biggest challenge. I love the form factor of my F350. It’s natural to me and ergonomically perfect. I was worried about how well I could do handheld work with the EX1 and how easy it would be to focus, expose…all the normal everyday things. Thankfully the lens on the little Sony is superb, all the controls are in the right place.

Here is a link to the downsampled and compressed version. I hope to get an HD one up soon, I just don’t want to take advantage of Maxim’s generous offer of hosting. It’s a different kettle of fish to “Piccadilly Furs” but it shows how lovely the EX1 image is and has a bit of interval and 60fps recording. Very sweet, to run on Network TV on Christmas eve. The third link is part of the series I shot on the F350 for comparison. One camera cost £20,000. The other cost £4200.

I will do a detailed analysis of all the pros and cons of the camera tomorrow. I will also talk about one of the parts I shot using the Letus Extreme when i got back to London. The image was so amazing and sharp. This is a clean Letus/ex1 grab.