1-hi speed horizontal pans exhibit so called rolling shutter issues. the scan rate of the EX1 "shutter" is 1/120 sec, so it takes a fast pan to see the effect. the RED has a slightly faster scan rate, I believe. the scan rate is invariant, i.e. it does not change with frame rate.

2-likewise, 60Hz, or harmonics like 120hz light sources will result in flickering.Reset shutter speed to be greater than the cycle speed.

AFAIK, these effects are non-issues.

You mean set shutter to 62 say, rather than OFF or 60?

1-Image shear in fast pans is less at 24fps than at 60 fps
2-if you shoot in fluorescents, for example, where the cycle rate is 120Hz(actually 60Hz, but there is one positive peak and one negative peak per cycle) then you can minimize the flicker by setting shutter speed >1/120.

The EX has flicker reduction facilities, but in general you set to the power supply frequency. 1/50 or 1/100 for 50Hz, 1/60 or 1/120 for 60 Hz.

It came today! Eye surgery Wednesday so it will be a while before I can evaluate. So Victor Milt, did you get one?

EDIT:
An other thing I found out today is that if you want to lug it around with your or have a small one on your belt you can run the EX1 from a 12v lead acid car or marine battery. A fully charged deep cycle marine 12v battery should run the EX1 for about three months! All you do is cut the lead of of an old transformer (or buy a plug from Tandy/Radio Shack and put alligator/crocodile clips on the other end. You can get small lawn mower 12v batteries that are small enough to carry easily on your belt or in a back pack. This is not a bodged fix or work-around this is hidden deep in the manual if you look hard.

Michael,
Great that you have received the EX. I know you will enjoy it. The 12v battery alternative isn't a secret, I think. The 12v DC lead on the charger is a direct indication, if nothing else. I always planned to use my old Arri 12v NiCd brick, but so far have no need to do so.

Thank you Serena - I AM going to enjoy this when I get a chance to really use it. For now I am having a problem with the peaking which seems to make it useless and I wondered if it was general. When I get to the end of a zoom into a subject or when I use expanded focus, the peaking disappears. I thought at first it might be a back focus issue but I don't see any back focus problem. Would just a tiny bit of back focus error do this? Shall I reset the back focus in the maintenance menu?

I'll post this over at DVI too.

Want to tell us where in the manual it says you can run the camera off a lead acid battery? The manual says 12V DC, no upper or lower limit specified.
Anecdotal evidence would indicate it might be OK but I'd like something a bit more positive than that. The DC supply from the battery charger should be 12V +/- a little bit. Some "12V" Li-Ion batteries are over 16V coming off charge and other "12V" cameras have been fried by them.

I'm trying to source a qty of the correct plugs for the 12V input to the camera, I'll likely have to buy 100 of them so if anyone wants a couple drop me an email.

Bob.

Michael,
Look more carefully -- I think you will see it on edges -- shows best on specular points when on max zoom.

Yes, I have noticed that it needs highlights for good peaking to show. Bright sun (but very cold) today so I will get some outdoor shots in. Very excited.

Bob:
I was making a point that as this camera works of of 12v and 12v sources are very common as with lead acid car type batteries, with the right protection and care, this is a good solution. Many rechargeable high power flash lights have small 12v lead acid batteries in them which cost only about $25 each. So cheap compared to the in camera battery, and many of them not much heavier. I'm in for 3 of your plugs.

HEAT ISSUE: It's probably normal but I am surprised just how hot this camera gets around the vents just in front of the card holder. My FX1 never even got warm. Why is this camera such a power hog? Is it processors for the digital conversion/card writing?

I was wondering if you could use an anamorphic lens for a cinema 2:35:1 presentation and do a transfer to an anamorphic 35mm film print? If so what anamorphic lens could be suitable?

At a rough calculation a 16:9 anamorphic adaptor in front of a 16:9 camera gives you 2.35:1. We've got such a lens for a PD170, too small for the EX1 and it's not zoom through. Made by Century Optics, quite expensive and easy to damage as the front element is rather exposed.
However that's not how 2.35:1 is mostly done in digital land. What's done is to mask a 16:9 frame. Much simpler to deal with in post. In the digital film cameras such as the SI-2K and Red, for 2.35:1 only part of the sensor is scanned. Both methods yield the same result, the image is shorter not wider like you'd get doing it optically and vertical resolution drops. Digital projection works the same way for 2.35:1, only part of the screen is 'active', so whether 16:9 or 2.35:1 is being projected the image / screen width stays the same.
Both methods are also used for film, either using an anamorphic lens or masking a regular frame. There is a subtle difference though in using an anamorphic lens which is one reason why movies are sometimes shot with expensive special lenses. Some prefer the way highlights flare through the anamorphic lenses.
For a 2/3" camera with a B4 mount Canon do make an adaptor which fits behind the main lens to give you anamorphic 2.35:1.

Bob.

With the bp-u60 boasting almost 4 hours of runtime I can't imagine many, or any for that matter, situations where I would need any more than that continuously without just plugging it in. I find it hilarious that anyone would even consider for a moment hooking up a car battery or anything other then a battery that was designed for it to this cam. Saving a few bucks at the risk of blowing up your camera doesn't seem like the most brilliant of ideas. Considering what the camera cost, forking out a couple hundred for a camera battery is pretty small change. I'm not one with deep pockets by any stretch, it took me took what seemed like forever to scrape together the money to buy one and hadta sell a good amount of gear along the way to get me there. Even still I would rather wait and scrape again then risk blowing up my investment cuz I wanted to save a little money experimenting with a hair brain scheme like hooking up a friggin car battery! lol, man I'm sorry, don't mean to poke fun, and I don't doubt for a minute that someone could pull it off. Weighing that with the possible consequences is a pretty risky proposition and I swear I would die of laughter if I read somewhere that someone actually fried their camera trying this. And I would pay to hear the phone call to Sony asking if that was covered under the warranty. "Well I read shomewhere that I could run the EX1 offin' a car battery sho I sholdered me shome wired and *poof*, there wuz a lil bit o' shmoke and, well, it jusht shtopped workin ... "

Okay okay, I'll shuddup now. =)

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com

Want to tell us where in the manual it says you can run the camera off a lead acid battery? The manual says 12V DC, no upper or lower limit specified.
Anecdotal evidence would indicate it might be OK but I'd like something a bit more positive than that. The DC supply from the battery charger should be 12V +/- a little bit. Some "12V" Li-Ion batteries are over 16V coming off charge and other "12V" cameras have been fried by them.

==================
16 volts is not over the top for a 12 volt application. You would be surprised at the tolerance range for electronics. The evidence would be really clear to everyone if they would take every power adapter and measure the actual output voltage with a multimeter.
They average +/- 4 volts in a typical one. Many are off by 6-7 volts.
Recently I bought one from Parts Express (a reputable company) that was truly unacceptable. It was a substantial looking 1 amp adapter with adjustable voltages. The ranges were as follows:

stated voltage vs measured voltage
1.5v / 4.5v
3.0v / 6.5v
4.5v / 8.7v
6.0v / 11.2v
7.5v / 13.6v
9.0v / 16.2v
12.0v / 22.8v

Try measuring the AC adapter that came with your camera and see what it measures.

Now, by comparison, a 12 volt car battery will pretty consistently put out 14v at around 2-3 amps and is an excellent power source.
If you want dead accuracy buy a regulated power supply. Those are pretty much within a percentage of a volt.
John

In the digital film cameras such as the SI-2K and Red, for 2.35:1 only part of the sensor is scanned

I wonder how anamorphic EX-1 footage ported out through its HD SDI Output would compare to the Red or SI-2K?

The Sony supplied battery charger / DC power supply for the EX1 measures 12.212V no load. I'd say it's a fair guess it's a regulated supply.

The wall wart DC supplies are only a full wave recifier with dubious filtering. The multi voltage output ones switch taps on the transformer secondary. As a result the no load voltage is all over the place. However they're designed to be used as a battery replacement and are generally OK for that application with domestic devices where the 'DC Input' simply replaces the battery. It's unknown if that's how the DC input to the EX1 works or not, quite likely not. On the prosummer 7.2V Sony cameras the DC power supplies connect via a dummy battery, they do feed into the exact same circuit as the battery.

We've run Sony cameras off car (actually wheelchair) batteries for years. But those are the professional cameras that have a 4 pin XLR connector, they'll happily accept upto 16V as that's the voltage of the Li-Ion batteries at full charge. However as the Li-Ion batteries have a EOL voltage of 11V the camera can only use around 50% of the energy of a SLA battery. Given how cheap a SLA battery is compared to a 180WH Li-Ion battery not a big issue so long as you can monitor the state of charge of your SLA battery. This works very well when shooting day long events and the camera is very static. We use the weight of the battery to sandbag the tripod.

Where the interest lies with the EX1 is using a large Li-Ion battery from the likes of IDX. The Sony camera batteries are too small to power monitors and on camera lights. IDX and others make large Li-Ion batteries with D Taps. From the D Tap one can power a monitor and an on camera light. This solution in conjunction with a shoulder support offers a better balanced camera for on shoulder shooting. The large, heavy big battery hangs behind the shoulder acting as a counterweight to the camera.

Bob.

Edit: This is the configuration we're looking at:
http://www.zacuto.com/Sony_EX1_3.htm

Years ago I had a Bolex RX16 rigged like that with batteries and double system tape recorder counter-balancing the camera. It was a heavy system but yes it was comfortable and no problems in long day shoots. Of course, I was younger then!

Edit: This is the configuration we're looking at:
Sony EX1.

Now THAT I like Bob.

John

Up above somewhere, somebody asked if I'd bought an EX yet??

Well actually the answer is "no" - not yet.

In fact, one of the reasons I've managed to stay in business for so long is my unbreakable rule -
I NEVER buy equipment without a job to support it first.

I have seen dozens, if not scores of young film-makers go broke by buying equipment and editing set-ups convinced that the hardware would bring them business. Sorry to say, it just ain't so.

Am I lusting for the EX - well... yeah... especially with all that great stuff written up above - if Serena, Farss and Muttley like it, I guess it would be good for me too.

So... won't someone please give me a nice project to justify buying this nifty piece of gear?? Please??

Not yet?? Well, I can wait.

:>))

v