I was surprised to get a phone call from Sony asking me if I would like to take a look at a new camera. I was told it was a shoulder mount version of the EX1, to say I was intrigued was an understatement.

I’ve owned many cameras over the years from Sony PD100’s through to Digibetas. I’ve had a couple of compact shoulder mount or semi-shoulder cameras including a Canon XL-H1 and a JVC HD101. I have to say I liked the Canon H1. The combination of high picture quality in a compact shoulder mount camera gives a nice balance between portability, professional looks and ease of operation. However, I’d never really been a fan of the Sony low-cost shoulder mounts, but that was about to change…

First impressions...

When I arrived at Sony’s Basingstoke office to pick up the camera, I was presented with what at first glance looked like a stretched EX1. The EX3 is about 60mm longer, and on the whole, looks remarkably similar but with one quite striking exception: the viewfinder.

The viewfinder dominates the EX3

Sony has taken the excellent LCD panel from the original EX1 and re-packaged it in a new housing with a removable monocular eyepiece. Attached under the handle on a rotating arm, the viewfinder provides forwards and backwards adjustment. In addition, it has a sliding bar for side-to-side movement.

If you’ve used an EX1 you’ll know just how good the high resolution LCD panel is. Now, the addition of a rotary peaking control along with brightness and contrast controls, this original EX1 viewfinder just got a whole lot better.

Sharp relief...

I loved the new peaking control. You can simply wind the peaking up and focusing becomes a breeze as the picture snaps in and out of sharp relief. With the monocular in place, shooting in bright light is easy. If you’re using the camera on a tripod or in a studio, you can either tilt the lens assembly up and out of the way, or remove it altogether.

There are also push buttons for zebra and display info, plus a mirror switch. This switch gives you a mirror image on the LCD - perfect for using the camera with 35mm style ground glass adapters (mini35, Letus etc), that would otherwise make monitoring difficult.