Hi Ned - have you heard of an adapter for the Sony Alpha stills lenses for use on the EX3?

I heard a rumor that letus may be coming out with a 35 adapter mounting directly to the camera body for the EX3. Can anyone verify that?

Moderators from Letusdirect.com forum says it is going to be by the end of the year. Which year, it does not say...

P+S technik has come with theirs but it is $18K.

Nice being in your class Ned at DVEXpo.

ACM21 EX Lens Adapter, has anyone heard of it?

With this camara, you are basically stuck with a 1/2-inch lens even if you change the mount type. Anything else is Frankensteinizing it to some extent, you could have consequences such as vibration, soft focus, light loss, barrell effect, vignetting, etc, none of which is too good.

If you want to use B4 type 2/3-inch lenses best get a 2/3-inch sensor camera, like the Panasonic HPX500, which costs just a little bit more than the EX3 does. Also, being a 3CCD camera design, the Panny has the superior global shutter design instead of the Sony's rolling shutter. And we all know about those dreaded rolling shutter artifacts. You can only pan the camera ever so slow, for starters.

And if you want to use cine fixed focus and zoom lenses with the cinema industry standard Arri Positive Locking (PL) mounts, consider the Red One or Silicon Imaging's SI-2K camera, as both of those can come equipped with PL bayonet mount. No possible nasty surprises and thousands of dollars worth of additional "adapters" with that setup, either. Unfortunately, the Red and SI-2K uses CMOS sensor with the rolling shutter, so if the rolling shutter issues bother you (like if you pan with the camera or have fast motion front of it), you are sort of stuck with a CMOS sensor camera that has the superior global shutter (Arri D20/D21, Phantom), or else with a traditional 3CCD camera w. the global shutter mechanism (as perfected by Panasonic in their latest Varicam models). Too many of these Sony models come with CMOS and rolling shutter, unfortunately.

The Panasonic HPX300, Sony EX3, Red One, and Silicon Imaging SI-2K cameras have more in common that they have in difference. Yes, the first one has a 1/3-inch sensor and takes 1/3-inch lenses, the second one has a 1/2-inch sized sensor and thus takes 1/2-inch video lenses, the third one has film-size sensor and takes 35mm lenses (for 4K recording, but will work with S16 lenses for 2K capture), and finally, the SI-2K has 2/3-inch sensor and can take either 35mm or S16mm lenses.

What makes them similar is the fact that they have CMOS sensors, not CCDs, and that these CMOS sensors are coupled with a rolling shutter design of an electronic shutter. This is fine for still cameras and DSLRs, of course, however how this technology translates in real life when there is more than sedintary motion of the subject and/or the camera, that is another matter entirely.

A search for "rolling shutter" here in Vimeo and on YouTube and elsewhere will line-up video clips in which the various rolling shutter-related artifacts are displayed and highlighted in all of their hideous glory. Interesting to note that some of these cameras handle the rolling shutter-induced mess (bent vertical lines, wobble, skew, etc) better than the others do. But they all have it, it is inherent in this cost-saving technology.

Yes, coupling a CMOS sensor with a globnal shutter is an expensive proposition, that is why so far only two cameras that I know of (Arri D-series, Phantom) employ it. Now, with CCDs, they have their own issues, one of them being the vertical smear when a single bright light is in the frame, but the CCD artifacts, in my view, dwarf in comparison to the CMOS & rolling shutter artifacts.

There are some video clips parked on siliconimaging.com, for example, including the wonderful looking trailer for a Russian indie feature shot with the wonderful SI-2K camera. Fine looking, except you will notice immediately the lack of any camera movement. So, if you do not mind shooting thw whole movie with the camera locked down, and there are no fast fight scenes and whatnot taking place front of the lens, you should be okay with the rolling shutter. Otherwise, you will have visible, at times glaring problems, for instance when you need to follow someone who is running and needs to pan with the subject.

Odd camera out is the Panny HPX500, that being in the league (as with most of the Panasonic camcorders) of having a 3CCD global shutter design. Vertical smear possibiliity, yes, but fortunately no rolling shutter artifacts. The newest HPX300 little sibling is, unfortunately, of the cheapr CMOS+rolling shutter design, however. There is always something to spoil the party, it seems...

I am not sure what happened to Vimeo, but this clip and others like it do not play properly for me any more, only in extereme slow-mo, all chopped up, and with garbage sound.

Anybody else having similar issues (as of Sunday, April 26th?)

Letus 35mm Adaptor works a treat !
XM