SONY ANNOUNCES EX3 at FreshDV

FreshDV @ PVC

SONY ANNOUNCES EX3

Published by Kendal Miller April 14th, 2008 in FreshDV, NAB 2008, News

Yesterday Sony announced their latest camera in their hand held Xdcam lineup the PMW-EX3. It looks to be a very promising camera however perhaps a touch high in price. The unofficial word from the press conference places the price somewhere just under $13,000 for the package. We will be at Sony’s booth this morning getting the official word on features and price. You can check out an advanced video posted by Philip Bloom.

Here is a press release via camcorder info.

: SONY PMW-EX3, NAB 2008 COVERAGE

April 13, 2008 – Sony announced the release of a new camcorder in its XDCAM EX series, the PMW-EX3 ($13,000 MSRP). This is the second model from Sony to use the SxS media format, a flash memory card similar to Panasonic’s P2 card. It is a step-up model from the PMW-EX1. Most of the body is similar in design to the EX1, but the new PMW-EX3 features a removable lens system. At the same press conference, Sony also announced a prototype 32GB SxS card. (View photo gallery)

The PMW-EX3 is 1080i/720P switchable. There are connections for Genlock and Time Code, making it suitable for multi-camera shoots. The camcorder ships with a kit lens, though the initial press information does not offer much information. The photo indicates that it has a maximum aperture of f/1.9, with control rings for zoom, focus, and aperture.

Also included with the PMW-EX3 is the Clip Browser Ver.2.0 software, which will allow XDCAM EX video files to be used in a DV editing workflow. There are optional plug-ins for exporting XDCAM EX files on SxS cards to Professional Optical Disc, and another to allow for simple upload to the web.

Sony clearly has plans to expand and popularize the SxS solid state format. In conjunction with the PMW-EX3 camcorder, they announced the PMW-EX30 recorder/player deck. It features two SxS card slots, HDMI, FireWire (iLink), and HD-SDI in/out ports, along with a color LCD monitor.

To extend recording times beyond the capacity of the SxS cards, Sony rounded out their XDCAM EX announcements with the PHU-60K hard disk recording unit. This 60GB storage device connects via USB, and offers recording times of up to 200 minutes in the highest quality (35Mbps) and 260 minutes in SP mode (25Mbps). The HDD unit features drop protection technology, along with a salvage function that allows content restoration damaged by power or connection disruption. The PHU-60k is powered by battery.

The adoption of the XDCAM EX format appears to be going well for Sony. According to the company, Adobe is set to announce native support for the format on Premiere Pro CS3. Avid is also expected to have support for 35Mbps 1920×1080/60i and 1280×720/60P.

The Sony PMW-EX3 camcorder retails for $13,000. The PMW-EX30 recorder/player unit retails for $30,000. The PHU-60K hard disk recorder price has not been announced. All products are expected to be available in the third quarter of 2008.

6 Responses to “SONY ANNOUNCES EX3”

Feed for this Entry

1 andrew_h Apr 14th, 2008 at 4:57 pm

$30,000 for the deck??? is that correct?

http://www.dvuser.co.uk/content.php?CID=174 < they claim a price of £3000. i’ll take it for that price :)
2 Jordan Apr 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pm

Andrew- that was a typo. We’ll have the final word on price later this evening with video coverage of the new products.
3 Cody Stanton Apr 19th, 2008 at 1:57 am

Matt,
the MSRP OF $13,000 on the PMW EX3 will not hold weight for much long. It makes no sense at all because the camera is basically AN EX1 on steroids. Of course there are major beneficial changes like removable lens system, an amazing viewfinder, shoulder support, and 60 GB external hard drive, to name but a few. But these changes don’t really justify such a steep price, making the EX3 almost double the price of the EX1. People will still opt for the EX1 if the EX3 is priced at $13,000.
Now if the price on the EX3 was too low, then the EX1 will not sell.
I see the EX3 settling for either $9995 or $10,995 and FAST.
It wont be priced at $8000 because that is the price of the Canon XLH1 and the EX3 is a much better machine.
B&H Photo will have it by September and I’m willing to bet that they price it in the $10,000 bracket.
Cody
4 Kendal Miller Apr 19th, 2008 at 12:20 pm

Cody,
all of the menus and chips are exactly the same as the EX1 the only difference is the removable lens and viewfinder and HDD and in theory the HDD could be made to work with the EX1.
5 Cody Stanton Apr 21st, 2008 at 12:54 am

Kendal,
I would be eternally grateful to you if you could explain to me how I could make the HDD work with the EX1. I currently own the EX1 and I simply love the portability that it has to offer. On the other hand, if the only differences between the EX1 and the EX3 are the removable lens, viewfinder and HDD(lets not forget the shoulder support and re-configuration of the buttons) then I seriously doubt that Sony will price the EX3 at ’slightly under $13,000′
That price will not hold for much too long, the reasons being obvious. People will just buy the EX1 since not everyone will subscribe to all of the major differences between both cameras. For example, my reasons for why I like the EX3 over the EX1 are limited to one, the viewfinder, thus not being enough to justify me spending double the money just to get my hands on the EX3. I don’t care about the interchangeable lens system or the HDD that much.
There needs to be more reasons for someone to buy the EX3 over the EX1 for twice the price, because the EX1 is same camera, minus a couple of bells and whistles. And it is smaller.
Kendal, I’m really interested i finding out how to make the HDD work for the EX1.
Thanks.
6 Kendal Miller Apr 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am

Well here is the deal the HDD just interfaces through the SxS slot so you could easily make it work with the EX1 the only catch is the EX3 is designed to allow the door to close over the cable on the EX1 I think you would have to find a way to make that work or leave the card bay open.