White Paper 034 Addendum 46 (rev 3): Tests and Settings on a Sony PMW-350 camcorder

Alan Roberts

Abstract

Data for this section is taken from the handbook and two brief examinations of a Sony PMW-350. This is a 1080-line camcorder, of typical broadcast size but with much lower power consumption (18W). It runs at the normal television rates of 50Hz or 59.94Hz, 1080-line interlaced or psf, and 720p. It also runs at the film-related 23.978Hz rate. It has 3 1920x1080 CMOS sensors and thus should show rolling shutter effects. It very closely resembles the PDW700 camera, and has almost identical menus and performance.

It records full 1920x1080 images at 35Mb/s (MPEG-2), and at lower rates with lower resolution. Recording is onto Sony SxS cards which fit into two computer PCMCIA Express slots in the camera. The compression system was not tested, but is already well known and understood.

The camera has many internal menus for setting the performance, such that it can then be used without external controls. It is not ideally suited to multi-camera operation, although it can be controlled remotely. A standard feature is a 15-second picture cache, but there is only one filter wheel (neutral density filters), colour temperature compensation is achieved by electronic gain-changing.

The menu settings result from one brief measurement session, attempting to get good settings for drama or wildlife (film-style, with full colour grading), and for live/as-live shooting (no grading), and the settings reflect that. In the reported settings, the camera captures up to 300% overexposure (about 1.5 stops, using the full video range 109%) and is mimicking a film camera and telecine, with “best light” transfer to tape (totalling about 11 stops of tonal range). The range of controls is similar to those in the HDW range of HDCAM camcorders, and so it should be possible to make it mimic negative or positive film, with resolution tailored to 35mm or 16mm, to taste. Assuming that a grading operation will be used in post-production, the settings give the colourist the same range of options as with film. Detail enhancement produced some spatial aliasing, but the Aperture compensation produced a much smoother image with complete freedom from aliasing. For use in Sport or Light Entertainment, it would probably be beneficial to switch off the Black Gamma, and to set Detail On, with Detail Level to -5 (0, factory setting, causes visible aliasing).

This revision contains test results of the SD performance of the camera, settings for shooting live/as-live, and settings for News shooting to match existing SD settings for BBC News.

Download White Paper 034 Addendum 46 (rev 3): Tests and Settings on a Sony HXR-MC1P mini camcorder

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