Today Sony announced the PMW-350, a 2/3″, 3-CMOS shoulder-mount camcorder shooting XDCAM EX and DVCAM on dual SxS cards. The camera, shipping in January, will come with a new Fujinon f1.9, 8-128mm zoom patterned after the 1/2″ EX-series zooms: it offers full autofocus as well as full manual focus, a first in 2/3″ interchangeable zooms as far as I can tell.

SxS card slots and an Exmor badge reflect the 350’s EX heritage.

While its AF/MF lens, EX recording format, EXMOR CMOS sensors, SxS cards, and flippin’ gorgeous 3.5″ EVF mark it as a descendant of the PMW-EX1 and PMW-EX3 camcorders, the rest of the camera’s DNA comes from its PDW- and HDW-series relatives: its physical structure, control layout, and “switchology” evolved on a long line of field-proven, shoulder-mount machines.

Controls will look familiar to users of other Sony shoulder-mount cams.

I’ve had a pre-production prototype PMW-350 in my hot, sweaty hands for the past four days (and a draft of the ops manual for the past three). So far, I like what I see—but it’s too early to render a verdict just yet.

Early proto: note the repurposed nameplate.

Interested? Make sure you’re signed up for the PVC Pipeline | Production newsletter; the next issue is due out the first week of November, and I’ll have a proper “first look” preview in it. Stay tuned…