Sony has sold more than 500 units of the new PMW-EX3 camcorder in the first month since its launch.

UK equipment dealers and resellers have been quick to embrace the solid-state camcorder with£3m worth of orders taken between 14 and 17 April at the NAB show in Las Vegas.

Resellers WTS Broadcast, H Preston Media and CVP-Mitcorp have all committed to 150 camcorders each, while units are also going to Visual Impact, Optex, Gearhouse Broadcast and Jigsaw.

Sony PSE general manager Mark Bainbridge said this year was “pretty much” the company's most successful NAB ever, claiming the EX3 to be the star of the show. Asked why he thought it had been so well received, Bainbridge pointed to the homework that the company had done while developing the camera.

“We researched the various markets and discovered that one size doesn't fit all,” he said. “So we developed a range of products that fitted our customers' workflow needs, that gave the best picture quality and used the most cost-effective and up-to-date recording technology. We also got the dealers and the customers involved with the factory design team in Japan and they were able to feed back some of their ideas.”

The shoulder-mount EX3 has three 1/2-inch type CMOS sensors, a hybrid LCD viewfinder/screen, interchangeable lenses, Genlock, timecode in and out and a variable frame rate dial on the side of the camcorder. It records at 35 Mb/s or 25 Mb/s to solid state SxS PRO memory cards.

The finished version of the PMW-EX3 was shown for the first time at NAB. It will be available from July for£6,500.

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