During a training and product launch event in Montreal, Canada, I was allowed to take a preproduction PDW F350 for a couple nights, and let me tell you, I’m impressed!
Sony has created a camcorder that is easy to comprehend in spite of its comprehensive feature set. (This is not a review of the Sony PDW F-350, per-se but a report of my first impression of the camcorder.)

On first opening the Kata case, the camera came out sleek and pretty with a 2″ viewfinder, Fuji BRD-S38 lens (an upgrade option I’d recommend) and all the trimmings.

Powering up the camera was immediate, I dropped in a blank XDCAM Professional Disc (Professional Blu-Ray-like Disc media) and hit record. About that fast, I was ready to roll.

Menus are immediately understood, whether the shot calls for a quick trigger or an in-depth setup. The menu features eleven pages, easily spun through, and arranged so the most common settings are on the first menu, with the less used (and potentially destructive) menus at the end of the pages. Menus are accessed and features executed by the selection knob, which is rotated and clicked inward to select and set the desired attribute.

This camcorder shoots just about every required format in the broadcast, industrial, and independent production world. No joke. From 60i/50i to true progressive 24p (23.98), 25p, the camera also records at variable/user selectable bitrates depending on the length of time needed and the complexity of the image. Additionally, the F350 is capable of recording DVCAM, offering recording times of approximately 90 minutes in 24p, 50i, or 60i. Four channels of 16 bit PCM audio are also part of the standard features on the camcorder.

One of the most exiting features outside of the quality of the image, is the over and undercrank features. I was simply stunned at the quality of the images seen on both the Luma monitor and SXRD monitor I watched my recordings on. The image stayed sharp and clean on the static parts of the frame while the moving elements in the frame simple were organic and smooth. Over/under crank speeds of 4 to 60p are available in either 24p or 60i modes, 4 to 50p in 50p mode, and shutter options are a wide 1-8, 16, 32, and 64 frame accumulation per second. So, if you’re looking for that super-fast “Power Rangers” sort of motion, or beautiful slow mo, this is the tool that can do it clean and sweet.

For the run n’ gun shooter, one unusual feature for a high end HD camcorder is the auto-focus. Focus is critical for HD, and Sony made it easy, even for a green photographer fresh on the job at the broadcast house. The F350 provides a 2″ B/W viewfinder and it really makes auto-focus somewhat superfluous, as it is easy to snap into focus with this viewfinder. Additionally, the camera has an LDC display that looks very impressive. I was not able to find out the pixel count of the display.

Another extremely valuable feature is the +48dB “Turbo Gain” that the cam offers. I assigned a gain boost to one of the two assignable buttons found on the top grip. Engaging the +12dB Gain didn’t display any noise in the shot whatsoever, demonstrating that like the HVR-Z1, the DSP in this camera is well-appointed. Another revolutionary feature is the fact that this camcorder is built around a half-inch chip, allowing the camera to fall into the upper middle between HDV and HDCAM in terms of chip size, but the image quality puts the camcorder firmly at the upper end of the available compressed formats. The relatively low cost makes it the best value I’ve seen to date.

The camcorder records to the XDCAM disc format, a widely accepted format for broadcasters and industrial users due in part to the time-saving tapeless, file acquisition format. More importantly, the cam provides MXF (Material eXchange Format) support, meaning that metadata and proxy files can be output from the camera to be read in the postproduction workflow. An example of use might be that a field crew ships small proxy files back to a home base so an edit may begin on the story, and when the data is shipped to the homebase, or the shooter arrives back at the station, all they need to do is exchange the proxies for the HD media, saving huge amounts of time, getting a scoop on the air almost immediately. Of course, the proxy files are quite good as well; don’t be surprised if you see CNN broadcasting small windows with proxy origination.

The data may be output via file transfer (computers will read the XDCAM HD disc as if it were just another hard drive on the system), or for a traditional facility that hasn’t upgraded to file transfer systems, HD/SDI output with embedded audio, or DV/HDV AVC via i.LINK, it’s all included in the F350.

There are lots of options available to hotrod the XDCAM HD cameras such as field monitors, wireless systems, lights, memory sticks, etc.

This camcorder is well-balanced, very smooth on the shoulder and easy to reach all important controls with a thumb or finger during shooting. From every angle pushed and prodded with the F350, it appears that Sony has hit this ball out of the park.