SONY PMW-150 & PMW-200 CAMCORDERS HAVE MET TIER 2L STANDARDS FOR MAINSTREAM EUROPEAN HD PROGRAMME MAKING

Two separate EBU reports, by Alan Roberts, gave the following conclusions:

Assessment of a Sony PMW 200 camera
The camera should qualify for Tier 2L (Long Form) according to EBU R118, in that it passes all the advisory criteria, although individual broadcasters are free to assign tiering to cameras.
Resolution is good, alias levels are very low, and 720P performance is good.
The dynamic range of 9.4 stops is a little on the low side as a result of the rather high noise levels. Motion artefacts from the ‘rolling shutter’ are as expected for a CMOS camera.

Assessment of a Sony PMW 150 camera
The camera could qualify for Tier 2L (Long Form) or 2J (Journalism) according to EBU R118, but only just. The noise level is rather high and very near the limit for both tier levels.
Resolution is good, alias levels are very low, and 720P performance is particularly good for a small camera.
The total dynamic range is only 8.3 stops, which is typical for a camera of this size, and is directly related to the high sensitivity. Motion artefacts from the ‘rolling shutter’ are as expected for a normal CMOS camera.