SONY PMW-EX1R V.S. Sony HXR-NX5U

[Conner Kent]

Hey everyone! Well I am directing a short film for T.V. and the T.V. Station is letting me use the Sony HXR-NX5U to film with! It's a $4000 camcorder and good from what I saw. THEN I started hiring crew and the sound mixer has a Sony PMW-EX1R and will let us USE IT!!! It is a $7000 camcorder! Now these both are good cameras and I know ones way more expenses but based on performance which one would be best? I am happy with 24fps and full HD which I think both have! Well what would you guys suggest? I could always use both but I want to stick with just one camera for now until I direct bigger productions.

[brianluce]

EX1 is long in the tooth and even it's day wasn't a 6k camera. But it's still really good. A clean, sharp image. It's got a bigger sensor than the NX so I'd go with it were it my call. Can you use both? See if you can match the footage. Actually that's a good thing to do anyway, test both cams.

[Conner Kent]

Originally Posted by brianluce

EX1 is long in the tooth and even it's day wasn't a 6k camera. But it's still really good. A clean, sharp image. It's got a bigger sensor than the NX so I'd go with it were it my call. Can you use both? See if you can match the footage. Actually that's a good thing to do anyway, test both cams.

Thanks Brian, I will test both and I'm sure with the same settings the footage will be very unnoticeable in the final product. Unfortunately I only have one DP and he is fine with either camera. I think I'll consider the EX1 but it would be pretty awesome to use both haha.

[jax_rox]

EX1 is 1/2", NX5 is 1/3" so EX1 has the slight advantage. Ex1 records mpg2 rather than NX5's H.264, so there's an edge there, but at the same time NX5 records to SD card, or at least MemoryStick if I'm not mistaken. The differences between the two are minimal.

[Conner Kent]

Originally Posted by jax_rox

EX1 is 1/2", NX5 is 1/3" so EX1 has the slight advantage. Ex1 records mpg2 rather than NX5's H.264, so there's an edge there, but at the same time NX5 records to SD card, or at least MemoryStick if I'm not mistaken. The differences between the two are minimal.

Thank you for the info So you have to use tape for the EX1?? That would still be doable we just need to print a lot of time-code sheets and buy lots of tapes haha.

[WalterB]

EX1R uses SxS Memorycards.
Although very reliable, it's an expensive medium.
However, you can use SD-adapters like MxR adapter to use SDHC-cards. (SanDisk Ultra work fine for me, but I only use SD when I run out of SxS.)

EX1R performs best when you use a pictureprofile.
There are a lot of them on the internet: try and find a true color profile.

EX1R has been around since january 2010, but it's still a great cam.

[jax_rox]

SxS is also a much more robust and trustworthy media (good enough for the Alexa). If it were me, I'd go for the EX1, but if you don't have the budget for costly SxS cards etc. go for the NX5. The NX5 is newer, but I prefer to view the NX5 as the new version of the Z1 or V1 rather than a direct competition with the EX1.

[WalterB]

Anyway: if you need to choose between EX1 and EX1R: the latter is better.

[DeJager]

I have an EX3, which is basically the same as the EX1R. I guess it's considered long in the tooth if 2010 is old. It's a great camera and the SxS media is great to work with.

[Conner Kent]

THANKS everyone for your knowledge it really is helpful. I just hope the Sound Mixer (person letting me use the EX1) has a good SxS card because we can't afford to stop filming because there is no memory left lol. If anything I'll use that then use the NX5 as back-up if possible.

[DeJager]

SxS cards are extremely expensive. About $900 for a 32GB SxS Sony PRO card. They tend to fill up fast so you might have to deal with dumping cards if both A & B Slots fill. Luckily, when spot A fills up the camera automatically switches over to card/spot B. It saves time and worrying about missing that crucial shot !

Good luck!