Sony EX1 camera (PAL) options cheat sheet

CAMERA SET menu

Shutter

Speed electronic shutter speed in fractions of a second.  It doesn't have a mechanical shutter, this just gives an exposure control that operates in a manner that would be familiar to still camera photograpers.

Angle shutter speed set in a manner like a cine camera mechanical rotating shutter (how many degrees of the rotation it's open for).  It doesn't have a mechanical shutter, this just gives an exposure control that operates in a manner that would be familiar to cinematographers.

ECS (Extended Clear Scan) used for reducing interference patterns when filming video monitors (or multiplexed displays?) at a different scan rate than the camera's frame/field rate.

SLS (Slow Shutter) to specify how many frames (2 to 8) to keep the electronic shutter open in very low-light filming (not really suitable for live action).

EX Slow Shutter (Extremely Slow Sutter) specifying how many frames (16/32/64) to keep the sutter open for extremely low-light filming.  Unlike the other shutter modes, this one is only controlled by the menu, not the shutter on/off switch under the lens.

MF Assist when switched on, the camera will do a fine-focus adjustment automatically after you've done a manual adjustment (the lens will have to be in electric focus mode).

Flicker Reduce tries to compensate for interference patterns caused by lighting that strobes at a different rate than the camera frame rate.  This may be needed when filming under some fluorescent or dimmable LED lighting.

Zoom Speed sets the slow and fast speeds for the zoom switch on the upper handle (which isn't pressure sensitive like the rocker on the lens grip), and the speed for the infra red remote control zoom buttons.

TLCS (total level control system) allows tweaking of various features when in fully automatic mode (such as the speed that changes happen, and the range that they can adjust to).

Shockless White adjusts how rapidly the auto white set completes (instantaneously, or slower with a choice of 3 different speeds).

Wide Conversion is for correctly handling the video signal when an optical wide lens has been fitted.

AUDIO SET menus

TRIM CH-1 & TRIM CH-2 allows adjusting the preamp gain for the external mike sockets.  It's not functional when the XLRs are used as line inputs, nor for the internal mikes.

AGC Link this can link the automatic gain to both channels together for stereo mike pairs, or unlink them for independent use of both channels.

1Khz Tone switches the test tone on or off when colour bars are on.

Wind Filter is a low-cut filter to reduce the noise if wind is blowing across the microphones.  This will result in a loss of bass response.

EXT CH Select selects whether a single mike plugged into XLR-1 will be fed to both audio channels (CH-1), or whether each XLR is independent (CH-1/CH-2).  If you're post-producing videos, then this is a pointless setting, as you should be adjusting for varying audio channel use when editing (stereo, single channel mono, dual-channel mono).  It also means you lose the ability to use the second audio channel until you go back through the menus.

MONITOR CH selects what's heard in the headphones.

VIDEO SET menus

Adjusts the video output modes.

YPbPr/SDI Out Select chooses HD, SD, or off for SDI and Component Video outputs.

YPbPr/SDI Out Display chooses whether any on-screen status displays or menus visible in the viewfinders are also shown on the SDI and Component Video outputs (this option won't be selectable when SDI and Component video is off).

VIDEO Out Display chooses whether any on-screen status displays or menus visible in the viewfinders are also shown on the analogue video output (this option won't be selectable when component and SDI video output is on).

Setup for adjusting the video pedestal level (this option won't be selectable when in 50 Hz PAL area mode).

Down Converter for adjusting the analogue video out to deal with wide screen video as anamorphically squeezed, letterboxed, or edge cropped (this option won't be selectable SDI or Component Video out is on).

24P System (this option won't be selectable when in 50 Hz PAL area mode) chooses how 24P is output as pseudu-interlaced 60i (59.94 Hz in 2:3 pull-down) or 24PsF (apparently 48 Hz pseudo-interlaced, but is poorly explained in the manual, if at all).  A whole progressive frame is split into two fields (like interlaced video), but the two fields of one frame are time-coincident, rather one after another—this allows progressive video to go through systems that only handle interlaced video.

LCD/VF SET menus

EVF submenu, POWER auto/on selects whether the eyepiece viewfinder switches off when the LCD screen is flipped out, of if it's always on.

ZEBRA options:  The ZEBRA SELECT 1/2/both choose which zebra patterns you want to see.  Zebra pattern 1 comes on at the level you select in the ZEBRA1 Level option below (usually preset to 70% for skin tone).  Zebra 2 comes on at 100% exposure.

OTHERS menu

CAMERA DATA stores or recalls camera settings in an SxS card.

DIRECT MENU ALL option takes control away from panel switches (shutter, gain, white balance) and requires using a menu to adjust such settings.  Part returns control to switches, but allows some menu-driven configurations (selecting the shutter speed, AGC, ATW and white balance presets) by navigating around the on-screen status display.

VIDEO FORMAT

Adjusts the video resolution, frame/field rates, and MPEG bitrates.

Resolutions (50 Hz areas, falsed called PAL areas)

* The oddball 1440 pixel-width SP resolution has its origins in some older DV media formats that couldn't manage the data speed for full 1920×1080, it has a slightly narrower picture, and is the only option that will allow digital video over the Firewire connector.

Two options (HQ 1080/50i & HQ 720/50P) have been highlighted as the only resolutions in common television broadcasting use here.

HQ modes record as MPEG-2 MP@HL 35 Mb/s VBR (variable bit rate),
SP modes record as MPEG-2 MP@H-14 25 Mb/s CBR (constant bit rate).

24P is only an option in 60 Hz areas, and is actually 23.98 FPS.

Resolutions (60 Hz areas, falsed called NTSC areas)

* The oddball 1440 pixel-width SP resolutions has its origins in some older DV media formats that couldn't manage the data speed for full 1920×1080, they have a slightly narrower picture.

** SP 1080/24P is actually recorded in 59.94 Hz interlaced mode using pull-down processing.  Though it is progressive video (the second field will be coincident with the first, time-wise, rather than after it).

Again, the SP modes are the only ones that will allow digital video over the Firewire connector.

HQ modes record as MPEG-2 MP@HL 35 Mb/s VBR (variable bit rate),
SP modes record as MPEG-2 MP@H-14 25 Mb/s CBR (constant bit rate).