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Every now and again a new camera comes along that really grabs my attention and this one has certainly got me thinking very hard about my current camera line up.

It’s the new Sony PMW-350. It’s not available just yet, so the one I used was a pre-production model and a couple of the planned features and functions didn’t work.

STANDARD DEFINITION

According to the guy’s at Sony, they see this as an alternative or replacement for the many thousands of workhorse DVCAM camcorders that are being used for television news, current affairs, documentary and corporate programme production. Cameras like the DSR-570 or DSR-450. If that’s the case then it’s a tough act to follow. I had a DSR-570 and it really was a good, solid workhorse camcorder.

Given that these are SD DVCAM camcorders then the camera needs to do a good job of SD. SD is an option for the PMW-350, it is not standard (the new EX1R has SD as standard). A hardware dongle is required to add SD, but I have been told that the cost of this should be reasonable. I don’t shoot SD anymore, but I shot some test shots in DVCAM mode with the PMW-350 and it looked really good. In HD it produces very clean pictures with very low noise and excellent sensitivity (1 stop better than my PDW-700).The camera records 4 channels of audio in the HD modes, the EX1 and EX3 only have 2. There are controls for all 4 channels, with two 3 pin XLR connectors on the rear plus a stereo 5 pin XLR at the front. As this is a 2/3” 3 Chip (EXMOR CMOS) camcorder, buyers will be able to use their existing B4 mount lenses or they will be able to buy the camera as a kit with a Fujinon 16×8 HD lens.

FUJINON 16×8 Autofocus lens with CA correction.

The lens is interesting as it fits the standard Sony B4 2/3″ mount, but is a switchable autofocus/manual focus lens. It has a sliding focus ring like the EX1 or EX3. Slide forwards and it is a round and round, manual or auto focus lens. Slide it back and it becomes a manual focus lens with calibrated distance scale. In manual focus mode it felt no different to any other ENG style lens, the zoom was smooth and controllable, focus and iris was as you would expect. One pleasant surprise was the lack of breathing. As this lens is focussed electronically it doesn’t breath when you shift focus which is a real bonus. I did try the autofocus filming aircraft flying at the airshow and it wasn’t too bad. It’s not instant, there is some lag and it did hunt from time to time, but tracking a moving aircraft is a tough test for any autofocus system. There is a nice readout in the top corner of the viewfinder that tells you the lens’s focus distance in feet or meters. Like the EX1 and EX3, if you use this lens you get Chromatic Aberration correction which removes those nasty blue and purple coloured edges you can get in areas of high contrast with non corrected lenses. The lens is very sharp, even into the corners and performed very well indeed.

The Colour Viewfinder.

Getting back to the camera, the best bit for me was the viewfinder. Once again Sony have taken the excellent EX1 LCD screen and made it into a superb viewfinder. I find it so much easier to judge exposure with a colour viewfinder and by using the 350’s coloured peaking function it was clear to see when you were in focus. Shooting the airshow with this camera was a delight. Looking into this viewfinder is like looking at a decent colour monitor, I just found the experience of using it less tiring than a conventional black and white CRT viewfinder. Once you become accustomed to using a good colour finder, going back to a black and white viewfinder is an unpleasant experience. If you want however you can fit a DXF type viewfinder, the camera has connectors for both this new finder and viewfinders such as the DXF-20W.

Camera Functions:

As an EX this camera has all the S&Q modes that we have come to expect, so it can shoot at up to 30 frames per second at 1920×1080 and up to 60fps at 1280x720P. In addition it has interval record for time lapse plus the EX slow shutter which allows for exposures of up to 64 frames. In addition it has cache record which is a new feature in the EX range. This stores up to 15 seconds of action prior to pressing the record button. So when you press the rec. button you record the 15 seconds prior to that moment and then continue to record until you press rec. again. It appears that cache record may use the SxS card to store the additional material as it won’t work if the card is full. The 350 will also get a 2x digital extender as an upgrade option at some time in the future. Given the often poor performance of many optical extenders in HD, this might be a worthwhile upgrade. Certainly if you are shooting 720P then it should work well as there should be little to no drop in image quality.

The PMW-350 has image invert which makes it easier to use 35mm DoF adapters or to use the camera on 3D mirror rigs.

Low Cost of Ownership.

The PMW-350 is a solid state camcorder that records SD and HD onto SxS memory cards (Don’t forget Sony are also launching new low cost SxS-1 cards and an adapter for memory sticks).

So there are no moving parts, no heavy, bulky tape transport to wear out and maintain, so the cost of ownership will be much lower than a tape camcorder. In addition it weighs less and draws less power. In fact it’s only 15 watts so a single 90Wh V-Lock battery will run the camera for around 5 hours. On the airshow shoot it was great not to have to lug around a rucksack full of heavy batteries and the camera itself is so light (3.5kg) and well balanced that I found myself climbing step ladders with it to do shots of aircraft cockpits that I would have previously done with an EX1 or EX3. If you travel a lot, as I do, this will be a big deal. With a PMW-350 I would only need to take 2 batteries and a small charger where currently I am taking 4 large batteries and a multi-channel fast charger.

I’m not going to go into the full specifications here. You can find those out on the Sony web site. What I will say is that the pictures from this camera just blew me away. The sensors are full 1920×1080 and there’s 3 of them. The camera I had was a pre-production unit and the detail and aperture settings have not yet been finalised. Sensitivity is rated at F13 (50Hz) with a 59dB S/N ratio.

Before going on the shoot I spent several hours doing some test shots and going through the Scene File settings.

Scene Files,Setup and Hypergammas.

The PMW-350 has a similar range of scene file settings to the PDW-700 and F900R, so it has the 4 Hypergammas found on all of Sony’s high end cameras as well as the Muti-Matrix functions. The scene files and camera setup can all be saved on to the SxS cards for future recall. Hypergammas are designed to give the maximum possible dynamic range by compressing highlights and lifting darker areas. At the same time they leave the mid range fairly linear to avoid strange looking skin tones. Hypergammas work best when graded in post production as straight out of the camera the pictures can look a little flat. If you are using one of the 5 (I think it was 5) built in standard gammas then there are a range of Knee setting that you can use to improve highlight handling. My observations suggest a latitude of just under 11 stops which is really rather good.

Picture Quality

My one initial concern with the pictures was that they were simply too sharp! The resolution of this camera with the supplied 16×8 lens is incredible, not only that but the pictures are remarkably free of noise. For the shoot I dialled back the detail level to -17 and even at that level the picture were still very sharp, but not in a nasty processed way, they just contain a staggering amount of subtle, fine detail. Even with both the detail correction and aperture correction turned off the pictures look fantastic. After the shoot I got it hooked up to one of the large HD CRT monitors used by the engineers at Sony to evaluate cameras. We shot a zone plate chart and a brief examination of the pictures showed the camera to have similar resolution and aliasing characteristics to a F900R that was also in the workshop, in other words, it was really good!

Using the PMW-350 with a NanoFlash

It should be remembered that as an EX camera the codec used records at 35Mb/s with 4:2:0 colour space.

While this is very good anyway and the pictures off the SxS cards were extremely good, as a test I shot some footage with the 350 recording onto my Convergent Design NanoFlash at 100Mb/s using the uncompressed HDSDi output. I have to say that these were some of the best HD pictures I have ever seen from any camera. I have asked Dan over at Convergent Design to host some raw files (Click Here for NanoFlash MXF’s from the PMW-350) from the PMW-350/NanoFlash files on his server for me, as soon as the link is up I’ll post it here. By the way, Convergent Design are incredibly helpful and great people to work with. This could be that dream combo. A reasonably price full size (yet light weight) camcorder with 2/3″ sensors recording (via NanoFlash) at 100Mb/s using Mpeg2, with the ability to overcrank etc. It would certainly meet the BBC’s requirements and my guess is that it will only be a matter of time before it gets approval from Discovery (and that would be at 35Mb/s).

At 35Mb/s the footage is still jaw droppingly good. It handles highlights beautifully and the blacks are very clean and crisp, the pictures have an appealing organic look to them. Think EX1 or EX3 pictures, only with fractionally higher resolution, improved highlight handling and almost zero noise.

CMOS Sensors, what about skew?

What about picture skew? This is a CMOS camera after all. Well I did all the usual tests, whip pans, camera wobbles and other silly things. Yes I could induce some skew, a whip pan across some lamp posts made them lean a little when analysed frame by frame but it’s no worse than the EX1 or EX3 and in the airshow footage there are no shots that worry me. Check out my YouTube channel for a PMW-350 video review containing sample clips. Even the spinning propellers’ on the planes look fine. I have never found skew to be a problem with any of my EX cameras. But what about partial frames from strobe lights or flash guns?

Clip Browser with “Flash Band” reduction.

Well Sony will be releasing a new version of Clip Browser that incorporates automatic “Flash Band” reduction.

This will examine clips, try to find any flash issues and then rectify them. Any that Clip Browser misses you can do manually within Clip Browser. I’ve tried a beta version and while the auto detection was a little variable (this should be improved before release) the actual rectification was very effective in most cases removing the banding completely.

Choices, choices, choices.

The PMW-350 takes XDCAM EX to a new level. I can’t stress enough how good the pictures are and it is a delight to use. It’s beautifully balanced yet very, very light. It feels remarkably solid and well built and the viewfinder makes it a pleasure to use. I really do think Sony have produced a new workhorse camcorder, one that will make the transition from SD to HD easy for smaller production companies. And for those of use already committed to HD it will allow us to produce amazing pictures for a fraction of what similar pictures would have cost a couple of years ago. I really didn’t want to give the demo unit back and I’m already planning ways to one with the NanoFlash on projects next year. I think it will be particularly well suited to my annual expeditions up to the Arctic Circle to shoot the Northern Lights.

The problem is I already have an EX1, EX3 and PDW-700. They are all excellent cameras and have many years left in them. Would I swap my PDW-700 for a PMW-350? That’s a tough one. I still like the optical disk and proxy workflow. You have an instant archive plus the ability to send proxies over the internet for client previews or remote editing. But the PMW-350 package is very attractive, colour viewfinder, decent lens, light weight, low power.

I know that if I didn’t already have the PDW-700 I would be buying a PMW-350 with a NanoFlash to go on the back. But I really like my 700 so am in no rush to sell it or trade it in, it’s a brilliant, very capable camera with a solid, reliable workflow. In terms of picture quality there is little between them. The 350 is a little more sensitive, the 700 is CCD. Noise, resolution, dynamic range looked to be pretty much the same in the side by side tests I ran. The 350 workflow is faster, but you have to manage your recording media and backups carefully, although the cheaper SxS cards will help. The 700 has more room for future expansion with more sophisticated metadata and things like wireless logging via bluetooth or WiFi being talked about. Well at least the PMW-350 won’t be available until early next year which gives me some time to think about it. I suppose I could even end up just selling the EX3 and having an EX1, PMW-350 and PDW-700, hiring out either the 350 or 700 depending on which one I’m using for myself.

Tentative suggested price PMW-350K (with lens) 18,500 Euros or PMW-350L (no lens) 16,600 Euros. With dealer discounts this could mean a UK street price of £12 – £14k for the kit and  £10k to £12k without the lens. Although prices may be higher or lower depending on what discounts the dealers are prepared to give, my bet would be for the lower end of that range. First shipments expected in January.