I finaly chosed to have evreything about the Sony PMW-EX1 here. So here we go :

Profile test

I made some test footage with different profile settings. Matrix, Gamma, Detail…
The goal was to define a picture profile for a global low light picture with a bright light. The light here is a big candle. The scene is also lite from the left with a small desk light and with another light from the right. For the latest test, the light on the right is turned off.

You will find a table with all the values, then the pictures. The picture on the page is a 480×270 pixels PNG file. If you click you will get the full framed image as a tiff file (direct export from Final Cut Pro).

The cat on some pictures is « Mouchette ». She decide she had to help me…

Gamma test

Test 1 2 3 4
Matrix CINE CINE CINE CINE
Level 0 0 0 0
Phase 0 0 0 0
         
Gamma Cine 2 Cine 1 Cine 3 Cine 4
Level 0 0 0 0
Black Gamma 0 0 0 0
         
Detail 0 0 0 0
         
White 5600 - - -
         
Focal 5.8 - - -
Iris 1.9 - - -
Macro ON - - -

test1

test2

test3

test4

Balck GAmma

Test 5 6 7 8
Matrix CINE CINE CINE CINE
Level 0 0 0 0
Phase 0 0 0 0
         
Gamma Cine 4 Cine 4 Cine 4 Cine 4
Level 0 0 0 0
Black Gamma +10 +25 0 -25
         
Detail 0 0 0 0
         
White 5600 - - -
         
Focal 5.8 - - -
Iris 1.9 - - -
Macro ON - - -

test5

test6

test7

test8

White

Test 9 10
Matrix CINE CINE
Level 0 0
Phase 0 0
     
Gamma Cine 4 Cine 4
Level 0 -
Black Gamma 0 -
     
Detail 0 -
     
White 5600 3200
     
Focal 5.8 -
Iris 1.9 -
Macro ON -

test9

test10

Detail

Test 11 12 13
Matrix CINE - -
Level 0 - -
Phase 0 - -
       
Gamma Cine 4 Cine 4 Cine 4
Level 0 - -
Black Gamma 0 - -
       
Detail 0 +25 -25
       
White 3200 - -
       
Focal 5.8 - -
Iris 1.9 - -
Macro ON - -

test11

test12

test13

Matrix

Test 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Matrix CINE CINE CINE CINE FL LIGHT HIGH STANDARD
Level 0 25 -25 -40 0 0 0
Phase 0 - - - - - -
               
Gamma Cine 4 - - - - - -
Level 0 - - - - - -
Black Gamma 0 - - - - - -
               
Detail 0 - - - - - -
               
White 3200 - - - - - -
               
Focal 5.8 - - - - - -
Iris 1.9 - - - - - -
Macro ON - - - - - -

test14

test15

test16

test17

test18

test19

test20

Matrix Level/Phase

Test 21 22 23 24 25
Matrix STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD STANDARD
Level 0 0 0 25 -25
Phase 0 -25 25 -25 -50
           
Gamma Cine 4 - - - -
Level 0 - - - -
Black Gamma 0 - - - -
           
Detail 0 - - - -
           
White 3200 - - - -
           
Focal 5.8 - - - -
Iris 1.9 - - - -
Macro ON - - - -

test21

test22

test23

test24

test25

Very Low light Gamma

Test 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37
Matrix CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE CINE
Level 0 - - - - - - - - - - -
Phase 0 - - - - - - - - - - -
                         
Gamma Cine 1 Cine 2 Cine 3 Cine 4 Cine 4 Cine 3 Cine 2 Cine 1 Cine 1 Cine 2 Cine 3 Cine 4
Level 0 - - - - - - - - - - -
Black Gamma 0 0 0 0 15 15 15 15 25 25 25 25
                         
Detail 0 - - - - - - - - - - -
                         
White 3200 - - - - - - - - - - -
                         
Focal 5.8 - - - - - - - - - - -
Iris 1.9 - - - - - - - - - - -
Macro ON - - - - - - - - - - -

test26

test27

test28

test29

test30

test31

test32

test33

test34

test35

test36

test37

Conclusion

Not much to say. As you can see you won’t get that much exposition latitude, a lot less than 10 bits professional camera (which are 10 times the price). hopefully you will get a lot of possibilities in control of the color and detail. Remember you must NOT be in full manual to be able to use the Macro option. Then you will be able to have a perfectly sharp image at around 30cm of the lens.I will make more testing, then I hope to come out with 2 picture profile for low lights. Then 2 for daylight, and maybe one special for extreme sunny days.
In the meantime, comments are welcome.

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