F5 and F55 Release Event at Sony Lot in Hollywood

So if any of you are contemplating a purchase, what packages are you thinking about? As for me, I'm thinking the f5 plus the Sony 4k recorder or an after market one. I bet we will see a bunch at NAB next year, including an affordable Blackmagic 4k Raw shuttle...so I'll prob hold off on the 4k options.

edit: any decision to move forward will be based on the footage of course. I'm sure Bloom will get his hands on one among other people. Then we will see the f5 vs red videos...etc....
 
So if any of you are contemplating a purchase, what packages are you thinking about? As for me, I'm thinking the f5 plus the Sony 4k recorder or an after market one. I bet we will see a bunch at NAB next year, including an affordable Blackmagic 4k Raw shuttle...so I'll prob hold off on the 4k options.

Isn't it only the F55 with a 60p 4k output over SDI? I beleive the F5 only outputs RAW 4k over the proprietary connection to their raw recorder. Offboard 4k recording may only be an option on the F55.

I'm waiting for street prices, but contemplating a minimal F55 starter kit, rent the recorder as needed.
 
So if any of you are contemplating a purchase, what packages are you thinking about? As for me, I'm thinking the f5 plus the Sony 4k recorder or an after market one. I bet we will see a bunch at NAB next year, including an affordable Blackmagic 4k Raw shuttle...so I'll prob hold off on the 4k options.

edit: any decision to move forward will be based on the footage of course. I'm sure Bloom will get his hands on one among other people. Then we will see the f5 vs red videos...etc....

Just be aware Richard, the F5's 4 HD-SDI outputs won't actually output a 4K signal for recording to a 3rd party recorder. Only the F55 does that.
 
What I need to know is if the F5 will record internally with choice X codec simultaneously while recording 2k RAW or 4k RAW externally to AXS recorder?
 
"The event was almost horrific."

Interesting, Ryan - I had the same impression. From my perspective I didn't sense any excitement, much interest but no excitement in the room. Had to leave after 2.5 hrs and did not get to the hands on. Canon wowed people with their premiere, Sony could learn a lot from them. What impressed me the most was the cameras are all new from the ground up and the number of engineers that worked on the project.
 
What I need to know is if the F5 will record internally with choice X codec simultaneously while recording 2k RAW or 4k RAW externally to AXS recorder?

I believe it will.

As I understand it, what it won't do is a combination of HD/2K/4K formats to the SxS cards. That sort of trickery is reserved for the 55.
 
I was always more interested in the F55... but I thought you could record 1080p to the card and 4k to the recorder on the F5... 2k I always just thought it was just 2k... not 2k raw on either camera...
 
Ah, ok. I need to read up on the PDF. But the Sony raw recorder will work with the f5...just not more than 60fps, right?

Right. And you get 4K AND 2K. 2K raw is much faster in post than 4K raw.

If the AJA Quad Pro is 4 grand, and the AXS recorder plus card is 7 grand, honestly, I'd dig up the other $3K and get the Sony.

One, because I've been down the 3rd party external recorder path with the F3 and I don't care for it (complications with high speed, extra gack, power, etc, and

Two, the Sony recorder does away with all this plus is completely integrated with camera, and controlled via camera. I took the AXS off the back of a 55 last night, it's really lightweight and pops on and off in seconds. When it's locked on, it effectively just becomes part of the camera body. It's pretty slick.
 
Nate,

have any more pics of the new element technica stuff?

Apologies, I don't.

But James from ET was right there and answered some questions I had:

1-Top cheeseplate is new. The handle is "The Man Handle", which you can buy now. Cheeseplate was small, simple and looked to be just what the doctor ordered. On the front of the handle they had the same EVF shoe the Sony handle has, with the additional twist that it could be quickly relocated to the back of the handle for studio-style.

2-He said two things about the Micron baseplate...I thought he first said it was a generic design they've had out for a little bit that is designed to be adapted to a few cameras...and then later I thought he said it was for the C300 and was adapted. So I'm a little confused. Maybe this generic design came out around C300 release? It's not the Micron base they have for the FS700 on the website, I know that.

3-I spoke to him about the prospects for my ET F3 baseplate working, and he confirmed what I already kinda knew, that measurements are off a little bit. Besides missing rosettes, what they had on there looked to be perfect.

4-Everything will be ready to go before the cameras are shipping.
 
Apologies, I don't.

But James from ET was right there and answered some questions I had:

1-Top cheeseplate is new. The handle is "The Man Handle", which you can buy now. Cheeseplate was small, simple and looked to be just what the doctor ordered. On the front of the handle they had the same EVF shoe the Sony handle has, with the additional twist that it could be quickly relocated to the back of the handle for studio-style.

2-He said two things about the Micron baseplate...I thought he first said it was a generic design they've had out for a little bit that is designed to be adapted to a few cameras...and then later I thought he said it was for the C300 and was adapted. So I'm a little confused. Maybe this generic design came out around C300 release? It's not the Micron base they have for the FS700 on the website, I know that.

3-I spoke to him about the prospects for my ET F3 baseplate working, and he confirmed what I already kinda knew, that measurements are off a little bit. Besides missing rosettes, what they had on there looked to be perfect.

4-Everything will be ready to go before the cameras are shipping.



Thanks Nate,

yeah, I am in the same boat as you, with the F3 plate, I haven't done much research on the micron stuff,, but that means buying new pieces, along with a dovetail..

good to hear it will be availible prior to camera shipping, thats super important, no sense in having the camera, and not being able to mount it,

Ryan
 
I was very impressed with the OLED viewfinder. No strobing on pans and no noticeable delay at all. I could easily see the entire image also, which I haven't been able to do with any of the current F3 options. The new LCD viewfinder is also a big improvement over anything now available for the F3, although it does strobe on pans. It's nice that it will still work as a small monitor too, although I found the way the viewfinder flips up at two separate points kind of funky. Completely agree with the reviews of the demo films. I wish I had followed Nate's lead and gone to play with the cameras before the rush. The image from the 55 on the 4K monitor in was really impressive.
 
I was very impressed with the OLED viewfinder. No strobing on pans and no noticeable delay at all. I could easily see the entire image also, which I haven't been able to do with any of the current F3 options. The new LCD viewfinder is also a big improvement over anything now available for the F3, although it does strobe on pans. It's nice that it will still work as a small monitor too, although I found the way the viewfinder flips up at two separate points kind of funky. Completely agree with the reviews of the demo films. I wish I had followed Nate's lead and gone to play with the cameras before the rush. The image from the 55 on the 4K monitor in was really impressive.

It seemed the OLED viewfinder was very welcomed. When they showed the slide of it on the screen, a murmur went through the crowd. Seems to be a crowd favorite.
 
In my view, the footage from the F5 on the 4K projector looked just as good as anything else they were showing. I'm sure if there were direct, side by side comparisons you'd see something different between them but I don't think it would be much and no lay person would ever know. It proves once again that well done HD is completely acceptable when up-rezzed in a 4K viewing environment. I was close to the screen too. I can't imagine there being too much difference on a monitor, given this was a huge movie screen.
 
I was also at the event. Skipped the first screening to play with the cameras ahead of time, I had a few contacts who got me in early. Ended up seeing the footage in the colorworks theater and got to speak to a colorist about the footage. Love the modularity of the new system. The F55/5 , I'm a C300 owner so I'm pretty jealous of the multiple outputs/codecs, though there seem to be a lot. I must agree though, the most impressive thing seemed to be the $5000 OLED view finder. Looking through it was a dream come true.

The thing that strikes me as odd with the new camera design is it seems like it was designed as a cheaper Sony Alexa, then halfway through the process they wanted it to be a single operator camera. Operated from the shoulder the screen and buttons are pressed against your face. The headphone jack is also on the left/operator side of the camera while the xlr's are on the right side. So if you're connecting a breakaway audio cable it's gotta be wrapped around the camera someway with the headphone cable pushing into the operator's cheek. Strangely only one record button near the operators face as well.

Image out of the camera was incredibly sharp. Certainly noisy in the high ISO's. I bumped the F55 to it's highest setting, 12000 something, and examined the picture on the 4k monitor. Still lots of detail, image seems to hold up, though even stopping down the lens it seemed the highlights would clip (at least via the monitor). I was told the stops over and under medium gray shift drastically based on the iso and gamma curve set.

I only saw the F55 footage, the Sam Nicholson short about the elephant. Like everyone else the shutter took me completely out of it. Not sure if it was a 360 shutter or not. I can't understand why he would use that in a daytime ext. shot. One person I was with commented it was actually due to the global shutter tech in the camera, I'm not certain of which is the culprit. Extremely sharp and clean images, virtually no noise in the footage that I saw. Though it just lacked something
 
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