Saving Picture Profiles for Sony’s PMW-EX3 on your Camera Rental

When considering a camera rental, the Sony PMW EX-3 is still a workhorse if you’re looking for a classic, 1080 simple to use camera with a built-in lens. The Sony PMW EX-3 has been designed to shoot spectacular images right out of the box, using the preset default settings. 

Sony PMW-EX3 CineAlta XDCAM EX SxS solid-state camcorder.

Sony PMW-EX3 CineAlta XDCAM EX SxS solid-state camcorder.

However, like all Cine Alta-branded Sony cameras, the EX-3 also comes with the ability to customize the final look of the recorded images through the manipulation of an extensive array of choices in recording formats, gamma curves and color matrix options.

The EX-3 gives the shooter the ability to save directly in the camera’s memory up to 6 different “Picture Profiles”.  The adjustments for gamma, white balance offset, color matrix, detail, knee, black pedestal, and black gamma are all selected and saved as a Picture Profile, which is accessed through a separate menu from the main menu.

The Picture Profile menu button is located to the immediate left of the power switch. Use this menu to choose or fine tune your profiles.

The Picture Profile menu button is located to the immediate left of the power switch. Use this menu to choose or fine tune your profiles.

The main menu is used to choose all the other camera settings, including video format and frame rate, gain setup, audio input and output settings, viewfinder settings (markers, zebra, etc.), video output options, and many others. For reference, here’s a link to the manual: http://www.movingpicture.com/downloads/pmw-ex3_ops_manual.pdf

It is a simple procedure to save these camera settings, as well as a single Picture Profile, to an SxS card for quick camera setup for future use, or to set up another Sony EX-3. (Please keep in mind, that whenever transferring “looks” and gamma and color settings from one camera to another, the resulting images may vary.  That is why in critical situations, it is necessary to utilize a high-quality test chart and instruments, such as a waveform monitor and vectorscope, especially when matching cameras on a multi-camera project.)

Once you have finished selecting the various camera settings in the main menu and chosen a Picture Profile that you have created, simply open the main menu, choose the last option, “OTHERS” and then the second option, “CAMERA DATA”.  This is where you can save (“STORE”) the settings to a pre-loaded formatted SxS card, or load (“RECALL”) settings from a previously created SxS card.

With a SxS card inserted in one of the slots, use the main menu to either "store" a profile on a card, or "recall" a profile from a card. Unfortunately at this time, although the camera's internal memory will save up to 6 picture profiles, only 1 profile will save per card.

With an SxS card inserted in one of the slots, use the main menu to either “store” a profile on a card, or “recall” a profile from a card. Unfortunately at this time, although the camera’s internal memory will save up to 6 picture profiles, only 1 profile will save per card.

Since only one file can be created per SxS card, and the smallest of those cards (8GB) can cost hundreds of dollars each, one solution is to purchase the Hoodman SDHC SxS adapter card (approximately $100), which will allow you to use less expensive, high-quality SDHC memory cards, and thereby economically create and save multiple set-up files for different shooting scenarios.

A variety of SxS cards are on the market including Hoodman's RAW SxSxSDHC adapter and RAW SDHC cards.

A variety of SxS cards are on the market including Hoodman’s RAW SxSxSDHC adapter and RAW SDHC cards.

Finally, once you’ve secured your camera rental and your new settings are loaded in the camera, there are still many important options that need to be selected via the various manual controls and switches on the camera and lens itself. These include shutter on/off, ND selection, white balance, gain, and auto or manual lens functions such as zoom, iris and focus.  

Content provided by:

Steve Ciffone, First Assistant Camera

http://www.ciffone.com

ciffone@att.net