Many rumours are circulating about a EX1 replacement being announced on Tuesday in Paris.
Specs are rumoured to be SD recording, HDMI output, a new viewfinder (as current is utterly useless!), Cache recording, One push mode for slow and quick recording like the EX3, quicker start up, better ergonomics.
SD will supposedly be .AVI files and it can even record 4:3!!!
Actually SD recording will be very handy for some projects and the new viewfinder, cache and other features are all very welcome. Other rumoured features are two cold shoes, reverse image for DOF adaptors, 2.4:1 and 2.35:1 markers. There are loads of other rumoured features. Nothing is confirmed but will be on Tuesday. Fingers crossed. Sounds like some nice improvements. Shame no 50mbs or 4:2:2 but wasn’t expecting it.
What we will most likely have is the new Exmor R chip which is supposedly very very good in low light. Now this would be great!
The other camera… Shoulder mounter 2/3″ SxS…OR this is one of the more out there rumours is a full frame Sony Alpha DSLR that records on SxS. If this happens this would be BIG. But, this is highly highly unlikely…The biggest hurdle with the 5dmk2/ 7D is the recording format. If we can have a full frame DSLR that records in a proven format like the EX does then i will be very excited!!
Shoulder mounted camera we are probably looking at something called a PMW-350K. I hope it will be 50mbs/ 4:2:2 if this is the case, the bit rate/ colour space to meet with the very top end HD broadcast specs. BUT this would eat into the PDW 700/800 sales so maybe not…We will know for sure tomorrow, but if this is the case this is very exciting especially at at £13,000 price point. Hope it does SD as standard too…
The other rumour is 32gb SxS cards will be £200 too. Now that is cheap, really cheap. As cheap as fast compact flash cards or the same capacity.
I will update this when I get more info.
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The announcement is on the Sony XDCAM website but there is nothing on the Alpha site so there will probably not be a new video HDSLR. Some reputable sources have said that the next Alpha cam (a950) won’t have video but the rumored a1000 will, including multiple frame rates, a more robust recording format and a still raw mode with 30 megapixels. I was not told to expect a HDSLR announcement from Sony until early 2010. The new cam is probably the EX1 replacement or a new rumored true shoulder-cam called the EX5. I would love it to be a new HDSLR but I doubt it 🙁
Phil this is great news for video production and EX embracers like ourselves. The interesting part of this news that many of your readers may not be aware is the ability of the Exmor R chip to film in low light with little to no grain. I thought the EX-1/3 were good but the EX-1R could be stunning in low light.
Hey speaking of low light performance — I got a weird issue and I’m trying to figure out if it’s just me or what — I have a ex-1 and right when I turn on the cam, the image are bright (indoors) and then a second later (after cam boots up) everything goes like 4 shades darker. I’m not sure if this is something new or if I just never noticed it before… anyone else encounter that?
Sony have been really slow to this party but they have the potential to deliver something really rather interesting if they raid the corporate parts bin. I think what has been holding them back is their desire to be seen as a “proper” DSLR maker and having more to lose in the Pro Video front. The Alpha 900 is a nice camera but it doesn’t even have true liveview and its not as strong in low light as its Canon and Nikon equivalents. SXS gives them a lot more headroom than CF to support faster/bigger formats but it also means that the camera would probably need to be up against 1D’s and D3’s pricewise. That would leave Panasonic in an difficult position, having pretty much abandon their DSLR ambitions, they don’t have the system support that Sony does. So we have Panasonic with out a DSLR system and Nikon without Pro video experience…..interesting?
so you ll be at Siel-Satis in Versailles , Phil?
I m too very excited to checking out what s new in there !
love to but am in San Francisco.
Sorry Phil I got my fractions wrong I wrote 3/4″ and it should read 2/3″
“Shame no 50mbs or 4:2:2 but wasn’t expecting it”
I guess that’s why we have XDRs and Nanoflashes! The new chip sounds nice. Still waiting for RED’s October 30th announcement though.
J.
The 7D records 40-50Mbit vs 35Mbit on the EX1. The codec on the 7D, while cumbersome, also would seem to be more efficient (greater image quality per given bitrate).
Am I incorrect about this? If you have the means or patience to deal with the 7D output codec, wouldn’t it’s codec potentially offer higher-quality source footage versus the EX1’s codec?
My anticipated 7D workflow is to edit the native output in FCP with a Nvidia 9400M Mac (accelerated h.264 for cuts-only editing), export a lossless edited version, and then process as normal.
Interesting I am just off the phone to Alister Chapman and he tells me that neither Sony camcorders have the Exmor R chipset so we can assume the EX-1R has the same chipset as it’s 2 year old sister.