Two questions I think a lot of us would like answered:

1) When do we get the cameras we ordered a long time ago.

2) When do the bugs get fixed.

Bob.

"When do the bugs get fixed."

What bugs? Maybe I haven't been paying attention.

1) Vignetting. Only appears in the upper LH of the frame at certain focal lengths. Might be related to the operation of the OIS.

2) Cannot Proceed error messages with certain menu items.


Checkout the XDCAM EX area at DVInfo.

Bob.

Don't know about the bugs and I have only rumors on the other. From what I could gather orders are going to be fulfilled pretty slow depending on who and where you ordered it from. That the Sony retailers are only getting a few in a piece and then will only be getting one per week till more come in. Take it for whatever it's worth, not saying this info is correct, only that it's the info I got.

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com

Slow deliveries may be indicative of QC or firmware issues, and if so I'm content to wait while Sony solves any such problems.

I also have it on very good authority that the CMOS itself has indeed inherited the Rolling Shutter issues found amongst CMOS based imagers..

I do a lot of fast motion stuff with the V1 and it has the "rolling shutter" issue, too. Only thing is that I've never seen it happen on any of my footage. Seems like the whole "problem" has been blown way out of proportion.

John

The vignetting problem is so obvious and striking I just can't believe it could have passed the design check and final QC stages. I even tend to think that with large companies like CNN etc. buying this camera in hundreds, only those flawed are on purpose being sneaked to general public like use in order to put some halt on the orders!

My problem is I have already paid the full price for it:(

I see no reason to get a heart attack over odd rumors at this stage, and I particularly don't see that Sony would risk its reputation by getting a class action lawsuit going over defective goods.

Just relax and be happy you'll be one of the first to get it!

These are no rumours, but facts - just take a lok at the screengrabs on DVINFO. And Sony is not risking anything; if this was not fixable they wouldn't release the camera for sure! But of course they want to limit the number of cameras that they'll need to fix - hence the limited supply.

IMHO of course :)

People get carried away and I wish people would do well set up tests. The stuff I've seen on DVinfo are random shots of living rooms and whatever. I've just been watching air show sequences shot with the EX and I see no vignetting. But again we don't know the technical details and flash hardly has the resolution required. Sony will not let out a basically faulty professional camera, although it might well be that problems have been discovered after the first release (I note the very low serial numbers of those received ---- #3, for example). If so, suffering late delivery is probably a very good thing. I'm surprised that we're getting so much of the "Chicken Little" postings.

The "cannot proceed" issue mentioned by farss (and subject of chicken littling on dvinfo) has been solved by reading page 19 of the manual (see dvinfo).

Serena and Coursedesign position about "rumors and errors" about the PMW-EX1 is the way to go in my opinion. I don't have a PMW-EX1 in front of me,(that and a red on the Christmas list), but the limited exposure that I had with the camera last week, then 4 months ago, I see no real issues but I'm not a real cameraguy, more of an engineer who enjoys toys. I think Coursedesign, Serena, Spot, Pat, and few others on this forum have a better handle of real daily use issues of these cameras.

It's solved but not fixed.
"Cannot proceed" is a very poor choice of words, the implication of that phrase is something is wrong. "Function currently disabled" or a similar phrase would be much better.

That I know sounds like nitpicking but I regularly have to deal with clients who've been befuddled by confusing terminology. We had one irate client insist a piece of gear was defective because the battery light was red i.e. the battery was flat. On this piece of kit the LED blinks when the battery is flat, on most gear green is OK, red = problem.

Bob.

Yes, that is the trouble with words ( and symbols and lights) having more than one interpretation. When I first started video editing (Vegas 5, no less and naturally without reading the manual) "ripple" was something I thought rather stupid and avoided: why would I want a ripple effect on a cut? So while "cannot proceed" sounds fairly alarming I expect in Japanese it is more readily understood. However like "ripple" (none of the English meanings have any relevance to editing or video -- see OED) once we understand the peculiar contextual meaning of "cannot proceed" then I don't have a problem with that.

"It's solved but not fixed." Hahahahahahhaha!!! Yes, I really did laugh that hard!!! Sorry on this one farss but it is neither solved nor fixed cuz it was NEVER BROKE!!! Omg,too funny, either you were just having a fun silly moment or a really bad day. If it was the latter, sorry for poking fun and laughing so hard but egads, that's just kind of ridiculous. It was in the manual!!! Okay, alright, I'm still laughing but I'll stop.

Can't wait ta get my camera!!!

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com

I'm glad you got a laugh out of it however bad interface design is no laughing matter. In this case it's not bad design, it's bad testing. The original message was likely very clear in Japanese and the translation is probably reasonable enough but it wasn't tested on people whose first language was English. That a few users were convinced there was something broken is proof of that. It's something that's easily fixed and I'd imagine once the dust settles Sony will address it.

And I too can't wait to get my camera either and a little birdy told me today it could be very, very soon.

Bob.

I must have met the same little birdy, as - after several weeks of not even answering my emails - my UK supplier has just notified me the shipment will be sent "really soon now".

As to the "Can not proceed" wording: English is not my first language, but I agree with you one hundred percent, Bob. It suggets something gone wrong, while in fact it's a normal situation which should be communicated to the user with something like "Invalid in current mode", or "Disabled in this mode".

Piotr

>>>>something like "Invalid in current mode", or "Disabled in this mode".<<<<

Of course I agree completely, but bad interface design is so common that I'm never surprised by it even though it annoys me. In the case of this camera, which many people are waiting on, the forums are full of speculation about lack of delivery and whether Sony is conspiring in some evil plot (I'm exaggerating, of course. To some extent). It has been observed often enough that interfaces should never be designed by the engineers who designed the equipment (old example: video recorders) or user manuals be written by them. Once you get used to something like "cannot proceed" you forget its lack of clarity for a new user. What does annoy me in the current XDCAM EX postings is that the people who think they've found a problem attempt no systematic analysis and instead launch into endless speculations. I guess most of the speculation is by people who've yet to get an EX.

"bad interface design is no laughing matter"

Just about anything can be a laughing matter depending on your attitude and it just seems to me that you're taking this wayyyy to seriously and not seeing the humor. The fact that it was IN the manual and simply overlooked while people were freaking out that their camera may be messed up to me is borderline hilarious. That is clearly an ID1T error. There is a learning curve with just about any program or piece of equipment and it seems a bit ridiculous for anyone to be huffy about a choice of semantics when, again, it was in the manual. There's a reason "RTFM" has become such a popular initialism, this is a clear example that if ever that if ever I saw one. So yea, with all do respect (and I do mean that sincerly), this whole thing is still pretty darn funny to me.

- Ray
www.undergroundplanet.com

Serena you have seen the footage where vignetting occurs and the focal lengths where it happens. Assuming its not the matte box as one person I believe has said it is. But then the problem would occur when the lens is wide and not when zooming in. And more have said it isnt. Isnt it a clear case of vignetting? At least on some cameras? In which case the lens must be faulty? OK This is speculation of what is seemingly cause and effect. So what else do you think it could be?

"In which case the lens must be faulty?" Mark2929, I think a defective lens out of the factory would be a really raw event at this price range and as important this camera is to the DXCAM line. But if the camera was subject to extreme hot or cold and received a high G impact during a this large temperature shift, one of glued elements may have popped/shifted(a couple of microns)---- this would be a rare event but could created a "zone" in zooming. But like you, I doubt its the camera, probably someone's screwing with the footage to damped the excitement about the EX1.