Tiffen IR Filter Test on Sony EX3 from Mike Marriage on Vimeo.

QUOTE Mike Marriage (DVINFO.COM) “Carey Duffy of Tiffen (and formerly South London Filter Ltd) was kind enough to lend me the new Tiffen IR cut filter which is currently 4×5.65 but apparently will be available in different sizes including a screw on for the EX1/3.

I used it for a shoot at the National Theatre which is a short documentary that will be streamed into cinemas all around the world on 1st October. I was shooting on an EX3.

This will be THE MUST HAVE filter for EVERY EX1/3 owner. IMHO the IR contamination without this filter is unacceptable and has caught me out in the past. This filter corrects what I see as the biggest fault with the EX line. It requires about a one stop compensation, maybe a little less. It has a green tinge, which seemed to remain after white balancing to some degree but could probably be corrected in camera if I had the time to play with the settings. For this shoot I’ll just do it in post.

I have uploaded a video to Vimeo to demo the filter. It was shot very quickly between interviews, so sorry for the messy frame and terrible lighting, I just pointed a rifa straight towards the frame as I was lighting the interviews with kinos and wanted a tungsten source. The material in the background and draped over the chairs is black cloth of different types but all look black to the eye – Not to a bare EX3!! Carey’s jacket is also far better rendered with the filter in.”

Up till now the standard filter to help solve this Infra Red (IR) problem is to use a 486 IR cut filter.

Sony were far too quick bringing out the EX-3 and if they had spent more time developing the camcorder they may have solved this inherent IR problem.

If nothing else this test by Mike shows the IR problem very well and let’s be honest Sony should be the one’s supplying us all with FREE filters.