F65 For 6k on eBay

still going through everything but it appears I got the deal of the century. Camera turns on and rotary spins, CMOS sensor is really clean, I don't think buyer understood a shutter covered the sensor when it is off. The control panel cable is damaged, so that will be replaced.

Does anyone know if there is any difference between F65 control panel and SRW1 control panel? Looking at photos they look identical.
 
Well I am almost certain the controllers are the same. It would be good to know because SRW1 controller sells for $50 on eBay, the SRR4 controller sells for $2700.

Has anyone else read the F+D Times article about the SRR1, SRR3 and SRR4?

There was a short period of time when Sony supported the F35 and the F65. The plan was to unify the high end line with SR Memory card readers. This article also mentions and shows the 9000PL SR recorder which would replace the HDCAM deck.

If you look at the SRR1-SRR4 they are almost identical. The beautiful SRR3 attached to Sony F35 makes me sad, this was the way this camera was supposed to be and it might of lived a little longer as a rental had they gotten it out on time.

It also makes me wonder if you bought a SRR1 and a SRW1 and you took them apart if the connections from the SRW1 could make SRR1 talk to F35. I doubt it but I also wonder because the units all look so similar. Does the SRR4 talk to the F35?
 
I have a SRW-1 and a 9000PL and while they looked identical I did run into an issue upgraded the firmware on the 9000PL because I was using the controller from the SRW-1. I cannot help with the F65 but I can try to use the SRW-1 controller on the 9000PL and let you know if it works or not.
 
I just put the control panel from the SRW-1 on the 9000PL and everything seemed to work just fine. I was not able to upgrade the 9000PL to the latest firmware with the SRW-1 control panel on it but that seems to be the only issue so far.
 
Thanks for trying this out. I bought one on eBay from SRW1, I really only need the cable which I am sure is the same.

There is damage to corner of the outer case, I might try some carbon fiber repair layup but I took panel off and damage is only cosmetic.
 
This is really cool!

Glad i didn’t end up bidding against you on that one. Haha. Let me know if you want an extra hand when testing between it and the f35. I am really curious to see what a rotary does for the motion. But also, i can bring an F55 along to add to the test.
 
yachacha said:
still going through everything but it appears I got the deal of the century. Camera turns on and rotary spins, CMOS sensor is really clean, I don't think buyer understood a shutter covered the sensor when it is off.
Click to expand...

Wow wow! Super jelly! Glad your gamble appears to be paying off. Fortune favors the bold!
 
I have been having some strange issue with the rotary shutter. A few times yesterday when I started the camera it would stay stuck in diagnosis yellow and on the sony screen. I could hear the rotary start, then stop. I took off the side paneling, F65 is very easy to get into, there was a little red light lit up on what looked like the power supply board labeled : "POW" I guessed something like "power over wattage" who know but the Sony techs. My feeling was the mechanical part of the camera hadn't been run in a long time and this was the source of the issue.

I have a few theories. The camera probably hadn't been powered in years. After it ran for a few hours, I didn't get this error again. Almost as if the rotary needed to loosen up. 2nd theory my batteries are 130Wh new but they were at 1/2 charge so it could be that they just weren't giving enough juice. More testing but I can't seem to get it "Stuck" again on the Sony boot screen. I also have noticed boot time dramatically get less and less, which I think has to do with the rotary coming up to speed. The camera lights yellow while this shutter spins up you can watch it then once at speed it goes green. It is very interesting part of the camera because it is a constantly spinning disc. Film cameras from the 1950's still pur fine so I don't think it's necessarily a weak point, just interesting to have moving parts inside a camera again.

I must say the menu system of the F65 is lovely and very simple. More like F5/55 system.

The F35 uses the standard menu system all Sony broadcast cameras use, and I like it because I have have to use many Sony ENG Cams, however the F65 has no learning curve at all.

Looks like the camera needs to be brought in if you want firmware update and CBK-65EL board which is the digital viewfinder port. I probably will skip this for a while, I don't see a need for 8k RAW files. I don't want to put money into this camera until I am sure it's working. Right now I can borrow SR Memory cards and Lens so I don't need to invest anything while I play around with the system.

Checked the camera hours was at 216 which is cool because that isn't very much. My F35 is in the 2000's.
 
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Wow! Very cool! Would've been a good deal just for parts, but that it actually works is incredible!

The F65 has been known to pull up to 11A, so regular batteries with 10A peak draw might not cut it. You probably want 15A sustained draw batteries, just to be on the safe side. But even so, I've never seen it behave the way you've described in the few times I've had low batteries or lesser Amperage batteries. So not sure if it's a battery thing, but you can probably test that again once your battery is drained...just for certainty.

As far as software and hardware upgrade, you can still use the same viewfinder you use with your F35...or othe ENG viewfinder sony still makes with that plug. There were two more important updates, one for the viewfinder board and new port, and another for the camera to run S-Log 3.

The menus are indeed simple, like a film camera. But there is the deeper sony menus to get into output selections, LUTS, so on and so fourth. How are your NDs? Have you been able to put a lens on it yet and check out the image? If you ever need a lighter set up and just want to use F65 for mechanical shutter, you can load LUTS into the camera and record the 10bit 422 from one of the outputs. The LUT gets you to a place where you don't have to push the image in post too much. I haven't ever done this for any jobs, but I'm always recording as I monitor on the O7Q and use it as dailies...so once in a while I bring those files into Nucoda and am always pleasantly surprised! I do think at some point I will try to use the camera without the recorder, just recording the 10bit signal.

Anyways, have fun!
 
thanks for advice. ND works fine, I tested with 50mm pl prime and 7Q like you mentioned because I don't have SRMemory yet. I was already thinking about making dockable AB Plate like I did with my F35 to use the F65 like you mentioned as HD cam.

I am pretty sure the camera is fine, I ran it for about 4 hours straight and now the rotary shutter seems to start quicker. I have not been able to replicate the problem.

Do you happen to know the cost for update? I was also curious how they get the digital viewfinder port to fit, does Sony cut the F65 body to fit square plug in round hole? or do they replace the entire side panel?
 
Yes it definitely goes up on the top of the eBay "win" list for me. I buy and sell quite a bit on eBay so I have also lost many many times buying cinema equipment from unknown sellers. I recently discovered an Eclair ACL I bought a few years ago actually had all the guts removed also so it was just a shell of what I thought was a camera. I still managed to salvage because I combined 2 1/2 complete cameras into one working one and I bought both cameras for next to nothing, but usually if a description say" rough" the thing literally fell out of an airplane.

My smashed F35 is a good example. The seller listed it as damaged IR glass, possibly working camera. Still a good deal to me, but the seller tried to pitch it as a possible fix when they clearly could see it was big damage.

I have been running the camera a lot just to test reliability, since the first day when I had stuck on power up/ no rotary shutter, it hasn't happened again. I am very curious as we enter the year of the sub 5k F65 if others will encounter this, there are lots of F65's sitting in hibernation right now, way more than F35's out there.

What is the value of a F65 package without media? Adorama can't seem to sell them for 8k. 6k?

The eBay sellers won't agree with me but the actual value of F35/IF box and battery plate option has settled around $4500 in 2018. Ikonoskop D16 is a good example of a low volume, niche independent filmmaker camera that has help price at 7k in value for the last 5 years. Ikonoskops haven't dropped at all but they are desired for unique image and also very limited quantity. F35 is special this way.

I think the F65 is actually going to tank below the F35. The F35 is a "look" just like film is a "look", that is hard to replicate with other cameras. The F65 was the first true 4k workhorse, now we have lots of smaller options, and the F65 doesn't have quite the same built in magic.

Although I am very curious to see how close I can match F35 to F65. I would not replace the F35 with F65.


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