PMW-EX1 vs HVR-FX1 Low Light Comparison at FreshDV

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PMW-EX1 vs HVR-FX1 Low Light Comparison

Published by Matthew Jeppsen December 12th, 2007 in Cameras, Formats

Daniel Boswell of DVArtistry got his oversized mitts on a brand spankin’ new XDCAM EX today, and has kindly sent in a few lowlight comparison framegrabs vs the venerable FX1 (and you can expect the Z1U to perform identically). A cursory examination of the images shows the EX1 with a substantial edge on low-light performance. Daniel tells us that his trusty HVR-FX1 was set at 1080/60i f1.6 1/60 and 9dB of gain. The PMW-EX1 was set at 1080/60i f1.9 1/60 and 9dB of gain.

You can download the images in TIFF format below (We recommend that you Right-Click, Save As).

Sony FX1 @ 1080/60i 1/60 f/1.6 9dB: Download

Sony EX1 @ 1080/60i 1/60 f/1.9 9dB: Download

In my experience, Daniel’s setup in this comparison seem like typical conservative settings for low-light performance in wedding and event work. You can expect to shoot good quality images at those settings on the FX1 and still handle reasonably low light. Dropping the shutter down to 30 would gain you quite a bit more breathing room. Of course on the EX1, you also have the option of 1/24th shutter if you happen to be shooting in that mode.

B&H currently lists the XDCAM PMW-EX1 at $6,449.00. You may order it by clicking here (all purchases made via that link directly benefit FreshDV and won’t cost you a dime extra).

7 Responses to “PMW-EX1 vs HVR-FX1 Low Light Comparison”

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1 andrew_h Dec 12th, 2007 at 5:17 pm

nice article. sadly i had to ship my ex1 back to sony today with a dead lcd and a viewfinder that was blooming like mad.
2 Matthew Jeppsen Dec 12th, 2007 at 5:50 pm

I’m sorry to hear that Andrew. Do you have an idea of how long the repair/replacement period will be?

-MJ
3 andrew_h Dec 12th, 2007 at 7:48 pm

No idea, new product coupled with holiday shipping guarantees out the window, could be bad.

But at least I got thru my shoot yesterday, thanks to Adobe On Location sitting in as my half second lag monitor.
4 Kendal Miller Dec 13th, 2007 at 12:50 am

Hmmmmm methinks this is very nice…I would definitely like to see more from this camera.
5 Steve Speed Dec 15th, 2007 at 9:16 am

Look at the details in the EX1 picture and yu’ll that the EX1 suffers from the same “oil-paint” effect that plagued the HVR-V1.

As soon as you use gain the detail goes. Look at the yellow strap for areas of sharp detail and clumps of soft detail. It is a very unnatural image.

Personally I’m not blown away by the EX1.
6 Matthew Jeppsen Dec 15th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

Hey Steve, thanks for the comment. I ran across this 300% blowup comparing a V1U’s interlaced mode vs. progressive: http://www.simonwyndham.co.uk/Sony%20V1U/blowup.png

I’ll see if I can find some comparable frame comparisons from the EX1 so we can blow ‘em up and have a look.

-Matt Jeppsen
7 Steve Speed Dec 16th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

The initial Euro models had those problems identified by Simon Wyndham. Sony offered a firmware upgrade but that still left the progressive mode with substantially poorer image quality than interlaced material.

These new EX1 seem to suffer from the same artefact. Sony’s EIS system seems to have an over aggressive noise filter that robs the image of detail in areas of similar color and in darker areas of the image.

Most hacks that write online either need a new set of spectacles or if they are too critical they don’t get the review cameras any more.

I’d be interested in what you find.