F65 Getting Cheaper

Grug said:
Thanks for posting those photos. I came within a bee's dick of buying an F65 in the wee hours of this morning. I desparately wanted it, but looking at those photos it's apparent that for the crew and resource restrictions I'm usually faced with on set, the F65 would just be a bit too unruly to handle smoothly, so common sense prevailed.
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Yeah good call. Personally I would only buy something like an F65 if I was an A-list cinematographer who was booked out for the foreseeable future on drama or advertising shoots. If you wait another year or two it's going to lose another 5k of value anyway.

In ten years time we'll all have Alexa's in our shed's to play around with when we are bored.
 
If you could handle an F35 on your own, the F65 is probably even easier (compared to most part-DIY rigs the guys on here have/had, myself included).

That said, I wouldn't want to take either a 35 or a 65 out on my own.

I see a few F65 rigs out there for sale at strangely cheap prices. Many are missing important things, like memory. I would budget AT LEAST $10,000 for memory cards on the F65, more if you do a lot of high speed.
 
Good point JM, and behind those cards you need a stack of hard drives. The F65 will never get retrofitted the way we have with the F35 because it doesn't have a 4k SDI output. If that were the case, F65 and 7Q might be a killer combo.
 
It is worth noting that the "cheap" 256-S15 cards can handle F65 Raw-Lite at base speed. Not a highend solution, but they're available much more affordably for "everyday" shooting on the F65.
 
One 1TB card would be all the card you'd ever need if you didn't want the 4K RAW. Unless doing doco or something, in which case it is not the right camera IMHO.

I would have liked to see a 4K "video" mode with the F65 but the reality is the data rate difference between high-end 1080P and the base rate 4K raw is not much
 
I watched Winter Sleep today, and I've gotta say: I really, really love the look! I've NEVER seen so detailed color gradations from a digital camera before, and the way different temperatures blend together with this camera is simply amazing! The highlight rolloff is also very pleasing, as is the dynamic range in general.
 
Bilge is another F35->F65 up grader


Winter Sleep (2014), F65
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011), F35
Three Monkeys (2008), Sony HDW-F900
 
I know it is cheap, I also know it is in perfect condition and it comes as a complete system, usually the F65 is sold without a VF or cards.

best regards

Mark
 
SJX said:
Wow it was cheap but nobody want it. It was relisted 2 times and didn't sell.
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I wanted it really badly - bad enough to stay up to 3:30am debating whether I click the 'bid' button on it. In the end I decided not to. Not because the camera doesn't produce great images, but because it's unwieldy for smaller scale productions. Wrangling data for it requires an experienced data wrangler (and producers willing to pay for the massive amounts of storage), keeping it running (on batteries) requires significant battery infrastructure (in terms of batteries and chargers). So although it would be an incredible camera to own, it wouldn't be a practical one for most people - and let's face it, we generally have enough to worry about on set without the camera getting in the way of things.
 
data

data

Grug said:
I wanted it really badly - bad enough to stay up to 3:30am debating whether I click the 'bid' button on it. In the end I decided not to. Not because the camera doesn't produce great images, but because it's unwieldy for smaller scale productions. Wrangling data for it requires an experienced data wrangler (and producers willing to pay for the massive amounts of storage), keeping it running (on batteries) requires significant battery infrastructure (in terms of batteries and chargers). So although it would be an incredible camera to own, it wouldn't be a practical one for most people - and let's face it, we generally have enough to worry about on set without the camera getting in the way of things.
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data depends on shooting raw or HD in SR quality, F65 can do both and SRlight is same datarate as DNXHD....
camera uses the same power as the Alexa XT does, this a list that compares all the 2014 camera's: enjoy !

http://www.cineverse.net/images/2014_Camera_Comparison_Chart_v11.pdf

best

mark
 
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As much as I would like to secure an F65, for me it still sits in the nice to have vs. must have territory. My hope is always to compete by outputting good work for clients rather than having them focus on equipment lists. If they hire me because I have a certain piece of gear, I feel like I’ve already lost.

With that said, the F65 has an amazing picture with double the light sensitivity and higher resolution (vs F35), but not sure if my clients would really see the difference based on 1080P deliverables.
For me at least it seems like deliverables will remain HD in the near future (2-3 years), until solid 4K streaming (with better bandwidth) and rec2020 screens really kick in.

Once clients start asking for giant IMAX quality film blow ups, or footage for giant Time Square billboards then it’ll definitely be time to use an F65 or whatever the best camera is. The times I’ve shot 4K we’ve had to heavily soften skin with filters and plug-ins because the added resolution can be so distracting, 4K will definitely have it’s place in the future as screens get bigger. Though render times and retouching/clean up work also quadruple which not everyone factors in.

F65 Raw SQ file size is roughly 1TB per hour. Ironically, F35 12bit HD uncompressed files also clock in @1.06 TB per hour of footage. Gemini 12bit 444 DPXs get unpacked from 12 bit to 16bit, and per frame sizes go from 9.3 Megabytes to 12.3 MB (so Davinci can read it.) Both deliver get a great picture at 1080P, but the F35 feels like a little less work for me at this point.
 
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