» Posts Tagged ‘sonyf5’
Sony’s tight cluster of NAB 2013 4K-centric announcements featured some of the most affordably priced UHD TVs yet seen all the way over to the external recorder-enabled 4K shooting capabilities of its FS700. The latter announcement also made it clear that Sony is looking to put a wide variety of encoding and format options into the hands of shooters — and beyond, potentially. Aside from external and third-party recording expansion, Sony is opening up its efficient 4K XAVC codec — native to the F5 family — to the consumer as well as the prosumer. Read on for some details regarding these new ‘lite’ encoding/wrapper options, dubbed XAVC S. More »
Hot on the heels of the unscheduled recent firmare update, V1.03, Sony has issued V1.10 for the F5 and F55, which addresses a number of issues. Since the AXS-R5 recorder has its own internal processing and is considered part of the camera, it also needs the same firmware update to be applied separately. We’ve also got a recent 4K test done by the guys over at cinema5D that intercuts Canon’s 1D C with the Sony F55. Click through for more on both. More »
In the midst of some tension and even some quite literal (and legal) contention, Sony’s RED/Alexa-aimed F55 and its less feature-rich sibling the F5 are in-stock at B&H and shipping out order to order. We’ve previously mentioned the comprehensive firmware update timeline released by Sony for the F5/F55 family, which also sees eldest little brother the FS700 rejuvenated with RAW support using Sony’s R5 recorder in July. Meanwhile, Sony is urging F5/F55 owners to update their cameras to firmware release 1.03, a previously unscheduled update which corrects a “black edge on highlights issue” in S-Log2 or HyperGamma modes. More »
A lawsuit from rival RED hasn’t stopped the Sony F5 and F55 cameras from shipping on-time, and now we’ve got some more concrete information about what is currently enabled and when we can expect future features to be implemented. For FS700 owners, we also have a pretty good idea of when you can expect full 4K support from Sony with their AXS-R5 recorder, which needs a separate piece, the HXR-IFR5, to interface with the camera. Click through for all of the currently supported frame rates and resolutions, and when you can expect them to be updated. More »
We have seen a few examples of what the new Sony F55 is capable of, but there aren’t really many samples showing what its similar-looking sibling, the F5, can do. A group of students over at USC produced a recent project called The Contract that was shot exclusively with the new camera, and they wanted to explore just how - the camera was and how it would perform in mixed-light situations. Check out the movie, written and directed by Rodney Hooks, below. More »
Sony gave us some official prices back in November — which was a part of the RED back-and-forth — and it looks like we’ve finally got real street pricing for both cameras, the F5 and the F55, and some of the accessories. I’ve talked a bit about where I expected them to be, and the F5 is priced even more aggressively than I thought it would be. Sony is serious about taking back marketshare in the medium to high-end digital cinema arena, and it also shows just how far technology has come in a short time — because really — the F3/FS100 were just stopgap solutions in the meantime while they prepared for their real 4K sensor and true cinema cameras. Click through to check out the pricing. More »
You may have already seen some of the first films shot on Sony’s new cameras, but now you can have the chance to discuss the cameras with the filmmakers themselves. Sony is hosting another #TheNewF webchat (similar to the last one) on December 4th at 1PM Eastern/10AM Pacific, where product experts from Sony as well as some cinematographers who’ve worked with both the F5 and the F55 will answer your questions. Check below for all of the details. More »
While it seems like it has been all Sony around here, it’s really because the news and videos have been trickling out slowly, rather than in one burst after the recent presentation. We already saw what the Sony F55 with its global shutter could do with one crew, now we’ve got the opportunity to see it in the hands of another. Dig, written/directed by Martin Scanlan and shot by Steve Lawes, premiered at the Camerimage Film Festival in Poland, and was part of the European launch for the F55. Check out the full film below. More »
Last night Sony went in-depth about their new camera offerings, the F5 and the F55, and their accompanying accessories, and also detailed the list pricing for all of those items. In addition to the presentation they showed a plethora of footage from both the F5 and the F55. Now we’ve finally got one of those samples online — from the F55 — thanks to the good people over at Stargate Studios. Click through to check out some of the first images from this camera. More »
Sony and RED have been playing an interesting back-and-forth over the last month or so. Sony announced brand new cameras, but didn’t reveal pricing information. Then RED announced significant price drops for their cameras. After an event introducing the F5 and F55 in Los Angeles tonight, Sony has finally released the pricing information for both cameras and for all of the related accessories — including the new PL lenses — and interestingly, they closely match a Sony Japan leak we had earlier in the month. More »
Either someone has made a mistake at Sony or they are planning on announcing prices soon, but a Sony Japan site has listed a press release showing prices for not only the F5 and F55 cameras, but also the AXS-R5 4K recorder and some of the other accessories. While these are currently listed in Japanese Yen, doing a rough conversion can yield us pretty close to where we might be seeing these actually retail for. I had already speculated based on a number of different sources what the prices might be, but this is the first time we’ve gotten a real source from Sony themselves. Click through to check out all of the listed prices. More »
Some of you may have noticed something very, very interesting about the body designs of Sony’s upcoming F5 / F55 Cinealta cameras (they are, after all, nearly identical). These newcomers display something that the still rather-young F65, and for that matter, pretty much any other Sony cinema camera before now, has never featured (yes, aside from being shoulder-mount-friendly) — true modularity. Since its big announcement last week, Sony posted a video featuring Cinematography Product Specialist Richard Lewis demonstrating the level of modularity and extensibility built into the New F series — read on to check it out. More »
As you likely already know, Sony has made some pretty major announcements recently, which we’ve been hard at work following, though pricing details are currently still under-wraps (likely because of a major price cut by RED). We do know that the F55 will be capable of on board 4K compressed shooting and 4K RAW with an external recorder, while that recorder will also enable 4K RAW capabilities with the on board 2K-capable F5, and bring a 2K RAW recording option to the FS700. Plus, further RAW resolution abilities are down the road for the F65, to be activated in conjunction with an upcoming firmware update. As far as handling some of this media goes, Sony has developed new AXSM media cards (for use in the external recorder module) as well as new XAVC codec technology for 4K shooting (among other things) — a lot to take in all told, we know. With all these details (and X’s, and A’s) flying around, it can be tough to see the importance of each one. Rest assured, though, that this new codec marks an important new step for Sony and its shooters. Read on to find out why, with some discussion of the F65′s future as well. More »
Jim Jannard, the man with the plan for RED, has said a lot of interesting things on the RED forum over the last few years, mostly about how 4K is the only format we should be aspiring to, and 1080p and 2K is not enough — even stated by Arri’s own material on film scanning to 4K. It’s not very often that he gives credit to another product, but that’s exactly what he does here. Why does this matter? RED didn’t have any competition as far as price was concerned until now, and with a little pressure, we could see some drastic reductions in price. Read on for what Mr. Jannard had to say about Sony. More »
Sony announced a few new cameras mere hours ago, but they’ve been rather vague on the details regarding pricing. The F5 will record 2K/1080p maximum internally and 4K RAW externally, while the F55 will record 4K compressed maximum internally, and 4K RAW externally with higher frame rates than the F5 — as well as feature a global shutter to completely eliminate rolling shutter artifacts. Click through for some pure speculation on where Sony might be headed with their pricing. More »
We had a few ideas about what might be coming on this day, but Sony has just dropped what seems like an infinite amount of technology in one announcement. Not only do we have two new cameras, the PMW-F5 (capable of 120fps max) and the PMW-F55 (capable of 240fps max), but we’ve got a new 4K RAW recorder, new media, new monitoring options, and new lenses. Pictured to the left is the Sony F55, which is actually identical in most ways to the F5, except for the higher frame rate options, and, oh yeah, this little thing called a global shutter. That’s right, it seems like Sony engineers have figured out how to get rid of the dreaded rolling shutter artifacts without affecting the rest of the image, like dynamic range (but we won’t know for sure until we see the camera in action). Click through for a rundown of the announcement.
More »
We already discussed XAVC, which will likely be a new codec that Sony will be introducing when they announce new cameras on October 30th, but now it seems the details for their upcoming cameras have been outed. Nothing is concrete until the cameras are released (of course), but Matt Ryan on the REDUser forum reportedly attended a Sony Demo Focus Group where the new F5 and F55 cameras, as well as a 4K recorder, were all introduced. He not only mentions many of the specs, but the current pricing information as well. Read on for more details. More »
We’ve already speculated a little bit about the possible new camera Sony will be announcing October 30, which may be the long-rumored F5 camera. Sony may be releasing an additional camera on that day, but it’s likely that whatever is announced will be 4K compatible, and that may also include a new 4K recorder that would work with the FS700 as well as any other Sony 4K cameras (besides the F65). Now Sony has reportedly been developing a brand new codec to replace or augment the XDCAM codec, called XAVC. More »
Just before NAB this year, there were plenty of rumors that Sony would be introducing a higher-end Sony F3 with the potential for 4K. That camera, dubbed the F5 by many, never materialized, quite possibly because they wanted some space for their newly announced FS700, which took everything the FS100 already did, and added ND filters, slow motion, and a 4K upgrade path. Now it looks like Sony will be announcing a brand new camera on October 30th according to some recent Tweets and a Facebook posting. More »
Awhile back I had talked about the advancements that Sony was making with the low-end camera division, and how that would likely lead to a better codec on the still unannounced Sony F5 (if you believe Sony’s product line, it’s coming). Turns out Sony’s insistence on putting such a high-end codec in a low-end camera may have been all for nothing for a huge segment of users. Historically the BBC has been very difficult and strict on standards, and they’ve required cameras to shoot at a minimum of 50mb/s. Sony added this feature to the PMW-100, but it seems the BBC is not just concerned with bitrate. More »
Rigman: Typo, i mean 9 years obviously...and I would be careful with kurtzveil stu… H.265 is Now Officially Approved, is 4K Streaming and Broadcast Just Aroun…
andrew: Great post - thanks Christopher! a slightly tangential but essential le… Five Screenplay Transition Tips to Improve Your Script from John August &#…
Rigman: H.265/HEVC was in development from 2004 to this day(thats 8 years btw) by … H.265 is Now Officially Approved, is 4K Streaming and Broadcast Just Aroun…
Rigman: And comparing video new video codecs in yt h.264, thats genius idea ! :D … Will the Google-Supported WebM Open-Source V9 Video Codec Surpass H.265?
Rigman: My computer struggle while editing H.264 lol. Sometimes, all those news se… Will the Google-Supported WebM Open-Source V9 Video Codec Surpass H.265?