Sony PMW-EX1: Our New Camera

In mid-June I was sent on a last minute trip to France for a video shoot with barely a week’s notice. I know that sounds like a bit of poor planning, but yup, it happens. Our client—a not-for-profit research group on the fast track to finding a functional cure for diabetes—was having its annual meeting just outside of Geneva, Switzerland and about a week before the meeting decided it was a good idea for me to tag along and interview the scientific team about their work.

A week’s notice and an expired passport weren’t the worst of my problems, however. The company camera, a Panasonic DVX100, had served us well over the years. An old work horse from the dying era of DV, the camera had, on recent shoots, been giving us trouble in the form of a mysterious blinking red “X” appearing on the viewscreen from time to time. To date, the presence of said red “X” never impeded our production in any way (though we haven’t yet brought it in for a checkup). Taking it halfway across the globe only to have it fail, however, was not necessarily a risk I was willing to take. And getting it fixed in under a week wasn’t likely, so it was with some urgency that I grabbed a crowbar and pried the petty cash box open to set about on a mad dash of my own for a new video camera.