10 things I had to consider when choosing my sony ex1 high definition camera as my freelance camera of choice.
As a freelance cameraman in Durban I had to choose my video camera very carefully. Durban is not exactly the film capital of South Africa and allot of the work I do get in Durban comes from International customers and the balance of the work comes from the small local commercial and industrial sectors.
When it came time to consider the video camera that I would be using as my main camera of choice for the majority of freelance work I do, I had to make my decision very carefully. Below I have compiled a list of some of the main things I considered when choosing my sony ex1 video camera.
1. tape vs. tape less
2. true high definition vs. high definition video
3. work flow
4. sony ex1 vs. sony ex3
5. warranty
6. where to buy it from
7. batteries
8. sound
9. slow mo and quick mo
10. 3d capability
1. Tape vs. Tape less
Having used the trusty sony Pd150 and the sony Pd170 as my first and second camera for about ten years, I was very hesitant giving them up for a sony ex1. The sony pd150 and 170 both use mini dv tapes for recording on to whilst the sony ex1 records straight onto hard drives. Whilst now it seems like an obvious choice, back then it was anything but. Mini Dv tapes are something solid and something tangible whilst a hard drive is unstable and may crash leaving you with no way to access your footage.
A mini DV tape costs R40 here in South Africa whilst a sxs Hard Drive which is the hard drive I need to buy for the sony ex1 video camera costs R8000 for a 16 gigabyte card that will hold 1 hour of high definition footage. R40 vs R8000 is not even an option, obviously the R40 mini dv tape is still the better choice. But then you have to consider the fact that you can reuse the card multiple times over where is the mini dv tape is your source footage and needs to be stored as is. So I calculated that if I used the card 200 times that would be the same as buying 200 mini dv tapes which would of costed me R8000 anyway. That is okay. But hold on. I still need to store the footage that I recorded onto the sxs cards. And what is more is that I need to have more than one sxs card with me when out on a shoot. Now it becomes uneconomical. So what to do?
That is when I started to learn about an alternative option instead of the expensive sxs card. It turns out you can use a much cheaper sdhc card with adapter in place of the expensive sxs cards. This sdhc card with adaptor setup I calculated will only cost R1500 per one hour as opposed to R8000. Now we talking. So where do I get these cards from?
I eventually found someone who sells sdhc memory cards aswell as adaptors that take the sdhc card and allow for it to be inserted inside the sony ex1 memory card slot. They are called MXM Expess and they are based in Australia. They also offer a wide range of cool accessories for your sony ex1 camera. If you are going to go this route I would recommend using the atp pro max sdhc cards with your mxm adaptor as I have had no trouble as yet with these hardy cards.
2. true high definition vs. high definition video
At first glance you might not notice the difference in the above heading. But believe me there is a difference and it can play a big part in getting future work from future clients. True high definition is considered to be 1920x1080 lines of resolution, the sony ex1 offers this resolution. If you go into a consumer shop like deon wired and have a look at the consumer video cameras on offer, you will notice that most of them if not all of them boast high definition. But if you have a closer look you might notice a v after the hd. HDV is a compressed format of high definition it is only 1280x720 lines of resolution. This is not a true high definition format. The best thing to do is have a look at the specs in the manual and observe how many line of resolution the camera boasts. Many cameras also say HD on them but even this may be misleading. Even 1440x1080 is not true high definition. The best bet is to check the manual.
Why is this important? Good question. It depends on what type of work you do. Right now the whole world is waking up to the power of high definition. Television producers are calling for high definition content in huge quantities. The price of high definition televisions is dropping day by day as more and more consumers are demanding more and more high definition televisions. Broadcasters are spending millions if not billions upgrading entire infrastructures to be able to meet the demand of high definition content. Do you really want to spend all your cash on a video camera that is not true high definition in this new high definition crazed market? I think not. Don’t be the freelancer who has to turn down calls from international clients asking for a high definition freelance camera crew.
Another way to determine if your camera is true high definition is to see what storage media it uses. You will know straight away that it is not true high definition if it can only record on Mini dv like the sony z7. High definition needs to be recorded on very fast memory cards or blu ray discs.
3. Work Flow
If you are used to shooting your footage on a mini dv and then dumping it onto your edit suite to start editing and then storing your mini dv tapes away for safe keeping, get ready for a big change. No more tapes means no more safety net. But don’t worry, if you put in place a proper work flow set up then all will be fine. Infact you will soon start to realize the benefits of working in a tape free environment. The first big benefit is time saving. No more waiting one hour to dump one hours worth of footage of your mini dv tape. The sony ex1 can be plugged straight into you computer and the footage can be transferred straight onto your hard drive in a fraction of the time ready to be edited. And if you have a laptop with an express card/34 reader on it (most new laptops have this) you can plug your SxS or MxM memory card straight into the laptop for even faster transfer speeds.
My work flow with my sony ex1 and mxm express adaptor with an sdhc memory card is as follows. I record onto about 5 mxm cards. That’s about 5 hours of footage, even more if I was shooting on standard quality mode which means I could store up to 79 minutes on a 16gig card. I then sit down at the end of the day with a laptop if out on location or at my pc if back at the office and transfer the footage over to a USB portable hard drive. Unfortunately the sony ex1 cannot transfer directly onto a portable hard drive and needs a computer to do this. As soon as the camera is connected, the computer senses the memory cards and opens them up and shows me a folder called bpav. If I had my sony ex1 camera connected directly to my pc it would show me two separate folders both called bpav because the sony ex1 camera has 2 hard drive slots which is great for conferences where you don’t have time to change tapes. The camera will automatically change to the next card in the slot when the first card has reached its capacity. I would already have created a folder on my hard drive called “your project name”. I would then make a new folder inside that file called tape 1. It is important to copy the bpav file exactly as it is and copy it into your tape 1 folder inside your project file. Inside tape 2 folder you would copy your second memory card bpav folder into and so on and so on. It is important to back up your project folder to a different hard drive when finished transferring your footage. If one hard drive crashes you will still have all your footage and project files backed up on a separate hard drive.
If you are editing in Primier Pro or final cut, your already sorted. You do not need to do anything else to the footage to begin editing it. All you need to do is open up your non linear editing program and choose sony xdcam settings and then the correct camera settings that you used during filming. E.g. 1080i/p or 720p etc. if your edit suite does not allow editing of the native bpav format then you will need to use the supplied sony xdcam driver dvd that came with your sony ex1 camera.You can install the program called clip browser then open it up and select the your tape 1 folder and export the footage to a new folder called tape1 mxf. Select export as mxf from the menu. The mxf format is a much more universal format and is compatible with all editing programs that I know of.
4. sony ex1 vs. sony ex3
The main difference between these two cameras is the fact that the sony ex3 has the ability to change lenses whilst the sony ex1 camera has a lens that is not interchangeable. Interestingly. The sony ex3 lens that comes supplied with the sony ex3 camera is not an HD lens but the lens that is attached to the sony ex1 and is not interchangeable is an High definition lens. If you like 35mm shots and appreciate small depth of field created by a 35mm lens that gives it that amazing ability to focus on foreground objects and have the background out of focus then I would say go for the sony ex3 camera and get yourself a high definition 35mm lens to go on the front. With that setup you are pretty much all set for making a Hollywood blockbuster film. But if you need the small compact size of the sony ex1 camera and are happy with the specs of the 14X Zoom high definition lens that comes standard with the camera then I would say go for the sony ex1 camera. If you are really fussy you could even get yourself an sg blade 35mm adaptor that fits onto your sony ex1 camera and allows you to then take a 35mm lens of your choice. Don’t forget the adaptor ring that is needed for the type of lens make you are going to be using.
5. Warranty
Living in South Africa has its benefits. We are basically living on the doorstep of a wildlife filmmakers dream location. However there are also some negative aspects to this. We pay through our noses for electronics. Especially those held by Sony and distributed by monopolist Ster Kinekor. Non the less if you want to get a sony ex1 or ex3 camera in South Africa with an official sony warranty then good luck. You will be paying dearly for that privilege. For everyone else who values their money there is an alternative option. It’s called grey imports. It’s totally legal for all you goody goody folks out there. Basicallly gray meams its legal but it’s not supported by Sony. But that does not matter. The camera itself has no moving parts. There is no tape deck since its all sxs or mxm cards now. But things can go wrong. So be sure to get a mack warranty with your purchase when you buy your sony ex1/3 camera. A mack warranty can be up to five years and when something goes wrong you take the camera to your nearest sony authorized repair shop with your mack warrany code and they charge mack warranty for the service to repair it. So you now have a perfectly good sony ex1 camera with a perfectly good sony warranty. Have a look at macks website for your own piece of mind.
6. Where to buy from?
Now this brings us to the next question. Where do you buy your grey import sony ex1 camera from. One place you won’t find any joy is b&h .Sony will not allow them to sell sony products abroad. But you can try globalmedia.com .They are based in New Zealand.
7. Batteries.
If you are like me then you like to have ample battery time available with you on a shoot. I hate having to conserve battery time by powering down every chance I get and closing the lcd lens to save power. The sony ex1 comes standard with a bpu30 battery which gives you about 2 hours with the lcd lens open. Get yourself a bpu60 battery that is more than double the capacity of the bpu30 battery. Remember to take the battery out of the camera when not using it because the camera will still slowly run the battery down even if the camera is powered off. And be sure to read the best practices section of you battery manual to increase the lifetime of your battery. Never leave your battery fully discharged. Always top it up half way and put it into storage. Then make sure you put it on charge every now and again even if you have not been using it.
8. Sound-Where is the mic?
The sony ex1 camera does have a stereo microphone. This is a really good microphone and is great for voice overs I find. However, you will be needing to get yourself a me66 shotgun microphone preferably with a windsock if you are planning on recording anything that is to be broadcasted or where clear sound with minimum background noise is a necessity. Consider this as well as the bigger battery part of your camera price, because without these two add on you will not be having much fun.
9. Slomo and Quickmo
This is when the fun starts. The sony ex1 camera offers you the ability to record at up to 60fps. This is more than twice the normal frame rate speed if you normally shoot on 25p. Basically you can afford to know slow down your footage in post without loosing any frames. For example. If I shoot 1 minute at 60fps I can then slow the action down in post to about 2minutes and a bit. This is great for making slo motion clips. One catch though. To record at 60 frames per second you need to be recording in 720p mode on the camera and not full high quality high definition mode. But the visual end result is still worth it as far as I am concerned.
10. 3d capability
Okay I know I shouldn’t be talking 3d with this camera but come on it is exiting. The camera does not it ‘self shoot 3d…sorry. But there are possibilities for the more technically inclined individuals. Imagine if you can, a sony ex3 and a sony ex1 camera side by side on a rig. Since the sony ex3 camera has gunlock ability you can sync the 2 camers so that the 2 visuals never stray and go out of sync. If you don’t kow how 3d works, it just 2 images recorded from roughly the same point of view but with a slight separation between the two. Just like how our eyes are slightly apart. Our brain then takes the two images from each of our eyes and turns them into 3d which gives us a 3d perception. Cameras work the same. You need a camera for each eye and special glasses that allow images from the left camera to be visible only to the left eye and images form the right camera to be visible only in the right eye. And that’s 3d. So it is actually possible with a sony ex1 and a sony ex3 camera on a rig.
I hope you found this information helpful.
Me and my sony ex1 high definition video camera
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