Sony EX5, one mans dream

EX-5: What it should be
(Created 25 May 2009: Updated 26 May 2009)
By Guy Barwood - Glass Eye View
www.xdcamexinfo.com

Latest News:

25 May 09: Article published

Introduction

As this page is written, there are two XDCAM EX cameras, the EX1 and the EX3. Both great cameras but like all cameras, both with their share of problems, limitations and difficulties to work with. In a magic would where I get to decide the features of what is going to be the next XDCAM EX camera model to be released, here is my little dream

Form Factor:

The EX1 is fine for the handycam form factor. Its heavy (side heavy at that) however to reduce the weight would most likely mean a cut into the quality of the lens, we don't want that. The EX3 to some is an improvement, at least resting some of the weight into the shoulder. I tried one in store and unfortunately was not impressed. There was still a lot of weight in the front arm. The EX3 does not balance on the shoulder, it just rests into it.

The EX5 should finally be a professional ENG over the shoulder form factor. It does not need to be as large as cameras such as the DSR300/450 or the S270 as there is no tape or optical transport, however any size between the new JVC HD700 and the old JVC GY-DV500 cameras would be ideal. Having worked with a GY-DV500 for many years it was a fantastic size for an over the shoulder form factor, light too especially compared to the likes of the very similar DSR300 (both 1/2").

Sensor:

The sensor on the current EX series if pretty close to ideal as it is, half inch full raster. Ok we would all love a 35mm sensor but we know that's not going to happen so back to reality, the EX5 needs to ensure that it does not have the same problems with InfraRed and near InfraRed contamination as the EX1 & EX3. This can be achieved by a more effective hot filter on the sensors or filtering in the ND filter wheel. In the end, the problems with red contamination in blacks should not exist, ever, end of storey. These are professional cameras and should capture colours accurately, no excuses. Finally, assuming it does not reduce quality, it should take advantage of technology such as EXMOR-R (reverse lit CMOS) to improve sensitivity futher. Continue to improve on the problems with using a rolling shutter as much as possible.

Codec:

This is a bit of a worry as Sony have established XDCAM EX as the 35Mbps 4:2:0 MPG2 format. Its a great codec for many reasons but is also limited compared to some of the other options out there now. Panasonic have unleashed their ACVIntra 100 in their cameras that compete with the EX3 and so will naturally compete with any EX5. As much as the AVCIntra is 10bit, I'd be happy to accept the codec options that Sony already has access to in their XDCAM encoders which can provide 100Mbps 4:2:2 MPG2 8bit Long GOP. We have access to this via the FlashXDR and nonFlash so Sony need to accept that they need to offer higher end versions of their codecs in lower end models rather than make us always struggle with work arounds and add ons. This would also give real meaning to the use of SxS media (with the need for media with fast writing speeds, especially overcranking at these bit rates).

Sony need to incorporate a high quality internal down sample to SD capability with support for both DV/DVCAM and IMX codecs. SD is far from dead as much as Sony might want it too be. Cutting SD from cameras does not promote HD delivery, it simply makes SD delivery more difficult.

1080 50/60p would also be a great move however it might be a bit early to hope for that just yet.

Media:

SxS is a fine start, keep the same 2 slot configuration of the EX1 & EX3. Ensure backwards compatibility with the U60 SxS hard drive also allowing unofficial/unapproved support for SDHC media & other mass storage devices via Express Card adaptors (up the USB bandwidth however to increase USB storage reliability). No need for XDCAM optical disc support, leave that for the 2/3" XDCAM HD series cameras. Here's the shift though. As well as the SxS media options, include a slot for a 2.5" SATA drive. No adaptors, no messing around, just use directly off the shelf 2.5" SATA drives (with support for at least 1+TB drives). Of course the only officially supported media would be the latest generation of solid state drives but allow the user to decide if they want to vary from this option. Of course you need to be able to mirror recordings to the SxS slots and 2.5" drive bay in which case the drive bay is simply a large capacity backup unit for the SxS media or vice versa.

Other features:

Component, Composite, HDMI & HD-SDI outputs (simultaneously with no proprietary connectors). i.e.: Not like the EX1/3 which disables the composite out when you enable component/SDI out.
V-Lock battery (with V-Lock adaptor for two EX1/3 batteries) but keeping power requirements of the camera to levels comparable to the EX3 + a few watts for some of the xtras.
4 independent audio inputs (fully controllable with phantom)
Front and rear cold shoe mounts
Pre-record buffer (min 3 sec, optimally 10+sec)
White Balance Switch: Present, A, B, C and the ability to dial in WB on the Preset (100degree variants) while recording without accessing the menu.
Gain: Off, L, M, H as well as the option to dial in dB dynamically (and shockless) in 1 dB increments without accessing the menu
Ships with the same lens as on the EX3
Intelligent on the fly media recovery. Rather than simply stop recording if there is a problem with media (throwing up a 'media error'), automatically switch over to the next piece of media and continue recording. Everything should be done by the camera to ensure that the recording does not stop when there is an opportunity to continue (by switching slots etc).
It has to find a way to keep or improve on the image quality of the EX3 in viewfinder mode while also having the same quality LCD of the current EX series on the side for tripod monitoring etc
ECC option for recording. While it would reduce media recording time it would increase data integrity. With large SSDs (see Media section) the capacity is not a problem anyway.
An option to record to exFAT partitions and MXF formatted clips.
US SRP: Good Value $12K, Acceptable $14K, Overpriced $16K