Is the F3 a baby F35?
- Thread starter ultramaze
- Start date
Harry Lime
Well-known member
I've been using the F35 IDT in Resolve, but it skews red. Still, better than what I was getting before.
I'm looking into getting an ACES workflow running in Nuke with OCIO. My workstation died recently and I'm waiting for a replacement, so that whole investigation has stalled as of lately.
Harry Lime
Well-known member
Also does the Pix240 record uncompressed 444 or only Prores444?
The Odyssey is $500 off at the movement and a lot more flexible.
IR pollution.... The lack of built in ND, XLR, long battery life. The overall attitude towards them when working with others ( I have no friends and people I work with who shoot on them and take them seriously) I dont trust the company.
I have a massive background with the F3 (and I'm selling one right now, btw) and the best bang for your buck that will outdo most everything else close to the price range is a Atomos Blade going into the single SDI on the F3 with S-log gamma turned on. You don't need an RGB update for that, or anything else. I use a 1TB drive and can roll on docs. for an entire day if I want to. No problems ever and the footage has massively blown away any other camera used on the docs, commercial and music video stuff I've done with it. Using an F35 in the same way would simply be impossible... battery issues, low light, mass, etc. etc... although nothing beats the F35 color and mojo but its not a *working* doc and all-arounder camera in any way at all. The F3 with the new Zacuto baseplate/shoulder rig is the best thing since sliced bread and makes it a real doc cam when you add an EVF. And people like to complain about the internal XDcam footage but test it yourself, it works and intercuts REALLY WELL and yes, even in slog.
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ReelFilmGeek
Well-known member
Can confirm this about the internal XDCam footage. In areas where we need another camera at work I bring my F3 in and have been having no trouble intercutting with the Sony FS7 shooting 10 bit 4k and my coworkers aren't really able to tell the difference. Haven't got to try an external recorder yet (trying to get my hands on the ataomos blade with sdi) but I know my next personal short will be using it for sure.
Also Vincein you say you use a 1TB drive wit the atomos, is it a SSD or a regular 1 tb? I just dont like the idea of using a spinning harddrive in one of those things for some reason.
Hard drive, never an issue. It was whatever their top recd. model was. SSD's have issues as well but in theory are better. I just dont see the need for me yet since mine works so well. I know someone that bought the best rated SSD on amazon or newegg and had it fail. I wonder what the current comparisons would be for reliability?
I shot a ton of A-cam, S-log on xdcam on a high-end corporate doc, which was later followed up with an FS7 for the other 40% and the editor didnt know which was which. Some of that was UHD but he complained about it due to data rates and said he saw no reason for UHD unless we were going to IMAX, lol. In the final ProRes deliverable, no one could tell what was from what camera, including me (I forgot many shots due to time elapsed and volume)!
I shot a ton of A-cam, S-log on xdcam on a high-end corporate doc, which was later followed up with an FS7 for the other 40% and the editor didnt know which was which. Some of that was UHD but he complained about it due to data rates and said he saw no reason for UHD unless we were going to IMAX, lol. In the final ProRes deliverable, no one could tell what was from what camera, including me (I forgot many shots due to time elapsed and volume)!
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I own an F3 and intend to keep mine. Way more valuable than the $1800 to $2000 you can get for it on Ebay. I record to an external Atomos Blade with SLOG firmware update. I found the internal XDCAM codec to have a lot of compression artifacts and macro blocking especially in wide shots. If you shoot 8 bit XDCAM/SLOG and do a lot of grading the images often fall apart. It's an old codec and AVCHD at 24 Mb/s seems to do better on my D810 than XDCAM at 35 Mb/s on my F3. Great camera though, overall still a keeper for great 1080p footage and by all means, shoot 10 bit!!
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The short answer would be, no. A baby F35 to me would be the F35 sensor in a smaller body.
The F3 doesn't look much like the F35, if at all. Not in color, not in motion and most definitely not in highlight management and image depth.
A F3 at current prices of 1.5-2K is the best cost/benefit ratio of any HD "video camera". But if what you need is a "digital film" camera, the F3 won't do for you what the F35 will. Which of course doesn't change the fact the F3 is a superb camera.
The F3 doesn't look much like the F35, if at all. Not in color, not in motion and most definitely not in highlight management and image depth.
A F3 at current prices of 1.5-2K is the best cost/benefit ratio of any HD "video camera". But if what you need is a "digital film" camera, the F3 won't do for you what the F35 will. Which of course doesn't change the fact the F3 is a superb camera.
macgregor
Veteran
100% agree
Very helpful Dr Wu. The reason I asked the question was simply because looking in old Sony promotions they put the F3 in the Cine Alta line and at the time that included the F35. In fact, in an old F3 ad it said that the F3 is part of the same family and was designed to be possibly even a B camera to the F35. The F3 clearly doesn't have the same image as F35, however it has a more similar look to it. At least to my eye. More so than their modern cameras do and more so than any other camera manufacturer I've seen. Also it seems to be the only camera in the 1.5-2k range that does 10bit 4444 ProRes that is in a professional video camera body with all the convenience of ND, long battery life, etc...
SJX
Veteran
Is called marketing!
rogar-BigGrin(DBG) But F3 is good but not really pro body. This is why people cut useless viewfinder off and put ET armor. F3 is handy cam body. Side grip on body show this.pchristoph
Well-known member
So...Did you end up with an F3? It's a great camera. I've got matched twin cams dressed in element armor. makes life easy with very satisfying results for corporate or doc work.
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