F23 with F35 conversion kit

K

kassim

Active member
Hey guys, I'm new to the community but I've been reading through the F35/F65 thread for a couple months now. I'm about ready to pull the trigger on getting an F35. I've found one but the owner is telling me that the camera started as an F23 but was converted to an F35. He said that at the time you could easily have this operation done to your F23 with an F35 conversion kit. I'm not sure how accurate this is and I've tried to research online how true this is but I could only find one site stating this conversion. I figured you guys could help me sort this out or maybe one of you may be able to shed some light on wether this conversion kit thing is true or false? I would hate to buy this thing without some research. I'm currently waiting back for him to tell me the details on who exactly did the conversion for the camera. Also the camera won't come with an IF box..so I also wanted to know have any of you bought your F35 without an IF box and had to purchase one separately?

Any help from you guys would be awesome. Btw, good to be apart of the community guys :-)

Kassim Norris
vimeo.com/kyoshi
kyoshiart.com
 
There are people on here more expert than me, but as far as I know this was standard procedure. The F23 came out first, about a year before the F35, but released with the upgrade path to F35 announced at launch. It was done by Sony and cost about £40,000! There seems to be very few F23s out there, so I get the feeling that most were converted and that many of the F35s out there started life as F23s.

Also I think it's unusual, and not really acceptable, to have an F35 without the IF box - it should be there and it's needed, and could be expensive / difficult to find one.

I'd be interested to hear how much of my understanding is exactly correct though, let me know guys.
Steve
 
Thanks Steve! Interesting, just learned something new today. But, yea I found it unusual as well that it doesn't have an IF box but I figured maybe I could get one on ebay...theres a few on there now and one for about $1300.
 
I've not had personal experience with the conversion, but yes, it's a real process. Essentially the cameras are the same with different optical blocks and front plates. If you're buying in person it's no sweat since you can personally verify the camera's operation. Otherwise, you might consider using escrow so you have a window to verify that the camera is in good working order. Conversion or no, you deserve to verify operation before being committed to the purchase.

It's something of a shame that there are cameras selling without the IF box. On the other hand, if the price is right, then that works. One of the IF boxes available on eBay is a spare that I own. I've tested it with my camera and it's in good working order.

If you use the camera without an IF box you have to record via the monitor out port, which means you have to keep the markers and overlays off. The monitor port is limited to 422, so for 444 or 50/60p modes you absolutely must have an IF box.
 
Viddovation said:
I've not had personal experience with the conversion, but yes, it's a real process. Essentially the cameras are the same with different optical blocks and front plates. If you're buying in person it's no sweat since you can personally verify the camera's operation. Otherwise, you might consider using escrow so you have a window to verify that the camera is in good working order. Conversion or no, you deserve to verify operation before being committed to the purchase.

It's something of a shame that there are cameras selling without the IF box. On the other hand, if the price is right, then that works. One of the IF boxes available on eBay is a spare that I own. I've tested it with my camera and it's in good working order.

If you use the camera without an IF box you have to record via the monitor out port, which means you have to keep the markers and overlays off. The monitor port is limited to 422, so for 444 or 50/60p modes you absolutely must have an IF box.
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Awesome thanks for the info. Learning more and more from you guys about the F35 here everyday. It does suck that the it doesn't have the IF box included. The asking price is extremely reasonable though :laugh:....I definitely CAN'T go without the IF box. I think the one that you own is the one that I'm looking at right now actually. Small world huh. Are the ebay seller from Tennessee?
 
kassim said:
Awesome thanks for the info. Learning more and more from you guys about the F35 here everyday. It does suck that the it doesn't have the IF box included. The asking price is extremely reasonable though :laugh:....I definitely CAN'T go without the IF box. I think the one that you own is the one that I'm looking at right now actually. Small world huh. Are the ebay seller from Tennessee?
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I live in Nashville, Tennessee and have the Viddovation account on eBay if that's what you're asking. Even though I'm just a freelancer Tennessee expects me to maintain a business license, and that means when I sell inventory (don't have any) or fixed assets (cameras, gear, etc) I'm required by law to collect sales tax if the item sells to a Tennessee buyer. It's a pain in the butt, and hurts my bottom line, but it is what it is. When I sell things on craiglist I tend to do it "tax included" and pay the state out of the total. For eBay I use the listing tools to charge it on top of the selling price.

If you're local, I'm happy to sell to you in person for cash and avoid eBay completely.
 
Viddovation said:
I live in Nashville, Tennessee and have the Viddovation account on eBay if that's what you're asking. Even though I'm just a freelancer Tennessee expects me to maintain a business license, and that means when I sell inventory (don't have any) or fixed assets (cameras, gear, etc) I'm required by law to collect sales tax if the item sells to a Tennessee buyer. It's a pain in the butt, and hurts my bottom line, but it is what it is. When I sell things on craiglist I tend to do it "tax included" and pay the state out of the total. For eBay I use the listing tools to charge it on top of the selling price.

If you're local, I'm happy to sell to you in person for cash and avoid eBay completely.
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Yea Im sure thats a pain man. Unfortunately I'm not local. I live in Indianapolis. I noticed you have OBO on your ebay. Whats the lowest you would accept?
 
kassim said:
Yea Im sure thats a pain man. Unfortunately I'm not local. I live in Indianapolis. I noticed you have OBO on your ebay. Whats the lowest you would accept?
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Forum etiquette, that might be a private message question instead of a public one.

But that said, I think it's always the onus of the negotiating party to name their desired price when the other party has already named their asking price. That said, if you were interested in buying a larger quantity of items, say, a SRW1/SRPC1 or such, I'd consider deals in bulk.

Also, while I'm happy to sell items through eBay, if you wish to do an outside sale, it reduces my fees, and that certainly helps.

Send me a PM if you like.
 
Viddovation said:
Forum etiquette, that might be a private message question instead of a public one.

But that said, I think it's always the onus of the negotiating party to name their desired price when the other party has already named their asking price. That said, if you were interested in buying a larger quantity of items, say, a SRW1/SRPC1 or such, I'd consider deals in bulk.

Also, while I'm happy to sell items through eBay, if you wish to do an outside sale, it reduces my fees, and that certainly helps.

Send me a PM if you like.
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understandable..will do sir..inboxing you now
 
Yes the upgrades exist. They were on ebay for $2500 a few months ago. The user system associates on ebay could tell you how the process is done. I think you switch the optical block and change some internal jumpers.

Did the seller keep the F23 Optical Block?? That's something I'd be very interested in. I have seen one F23 sell for 10k in the last year but it is a rare camera indeed.
 
Yes the only F35 I could hunt in my distant part of the world, was one I later knew was a f23 converted to f35. I contacted the man and he said, the F23 was upgradeable by Sony Repair Centres to an F35 by purchasing a Conversion Kit part-named "CVK-2335". It was a 50 thousand Euros hardware kit plus the Repair Centre fees. He said it was that expensive as the kit contained a 35mm sensor of the highest technology at that time and a PL lens mount plus "significant" internal hardware components". You basically shipped you F23 to Sony, and recieved an f35. It's a complicated process and only Sony who make the f35 can convert the f23.

It seems like the upgrade Sony is giving to the F5 to F55, which includes also a new sensor and done at Sony Centres. Sony themselves who make the f35 from the ground up are the nes who make these changes so it's pretty safe to assume that once the upgrade is performed the camera is just like a regular new f35, they just use some of your existing f23 parts to reduce the cost of you having to buy them again.
 
Yes. Camera is like regular F35 once upgraded from F23. Panavision upgraded some F23's into F35's back in the day after buying Plus8Digital and getting our inventory.
 
I know a guy who works at a big camera rental company in Hollywood. His engineers assured me that any F23 to F35 conversion meant all new circuit boards and electronics. Whatever wear and tear the F23 may have, the F35 conversion brings the working components back to brand new.
I have wondered if the converted cameras would have been rented as often as the F35 originals were, since they may have had a "stigma" of not being the exact same camera as a "real" F35. If that's the case, the F23 conversions would probably be the most cherry F35s you could buy from a rental house.
Just a thought I had, anyway.
 
I don't think anyone renting cameras, certainly not things like F35s, really asks about their histories.

Upgrading major cameras throughout their life doesn't seem unusual nowadays - the F23-F35, RED ONE - ONE M-X, ALEXA to ALEXA XT, etc....

I have seen at least one F23 that was a darker colour than the F35, looked pretty much black, similar to Sony's broadcast cameras. I also wonder if the cameras got a new serial number on them?

The F23 had internal filters a la Sony's broadcast cameras, which would have had to be removed during the F35 upgrade.

JM
 
JMtheDP said:
I don't think anyone renting cameras, certainly not things like F35s, really asks about their histories.

Upgrading major cameras throughout their life doesn't seem unusual nowadays - the F23-F35, RED ONE - ONE M-X, ALEXA to ALEXA XT, etc....

I have seen at least one F23 that was a darker colour than the F35, looked pretty much black, similar to Sony's broadcast cameras. I also wonder if the cameras got a new serial number on them?

The F23 had internal filters a la Sony's broadcast cameras, which would have had to be removed during the F35 upgrade.

JM
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Wow thank you guys!!! The guy who's selling it to me gave me the original serial number as he did say that it's the original F23 serial number so apparently sony swapping the serials wasn't apart of the conversion.
 
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