F5: Just Got Pre-release F5

Yep I got in a big twitter spat on that one. I find it inexcusable.

Really at that money Im not looking to be annoyed when I buy something - I want to smile

I spose someone will do a dogleg workaround

S
 
HI,
there's no need for camera bashing. true.
my f3 is perfectly fine and wonderful. (as are a lot of other cameras out there) on Monday (i hope) i can post another Garmin film we shot in December in
Girona, Spain and Tucson, Arizona. lots of challenges for DR and pic quality and the F3 held up wonderfully!!

still, as i said earlier, one or two things would make me trade my f3.
like loosing the samurai, frame rate...

looking forward to your review!
 
i am impressed with the overall physical design and integrated modularity. this is what i wanted the f3 to be in that regard. the viewfinder still looks like a big knobby growth sticking out there, but at least there's a specific provision for its mounting and i'm not sure what could really be done to streamline that design.
 
I'd love to hear about what you think about the VF. Will this mean the end of external monitors hanging off the side of the camera! Sparky x
 
Since I have AB rather than V mount and don't own (but really should buy) a V-mount to AB adapter, I will wear it down over the weekend and get charger from them on Mon.

Very lucky to have the chance to play with this early version. There are only a very few cameras in US right now.

One thing I am trying not to do is engage in F3 bashing (or even Red bashing-- I don't think any of these things are ultimately productive). Our F3's produce amazing images...

Hi Ned, I believe you have a 4 pin XLR power connector on the loaner. Hopefully you can snag a P-Tap to XLR or an AC power to 4 pin XLR from a Marshall monitor owner.

Yes we should all stop the F3 bashing. Not doing anyone here a favour by continuing in that vein.

I'm wondering if Sony could add a headphone jack to the add-on audio block? I highly doubt that Sony this late in the game will open up any kind of modificiation to the camera body.

Looking forward to your findings.
 
Does anyone know if I'll be able to use my Sony color HDVF-C30WR viewfinder on the F5? Best, Sparky
 
Does anyone know if I'll be able to use my Sony color HDVF-C30WR viewfinder on the F5? Best, Sparky

I am going to say extremely doubtful. It is a totally different connector. And, while I'm at it, the viewfinder is fine (details later) but remember it is a $3200 street price item as opposed to a $13K HDVF-C30WR. In other words, don't set your expectations $10K higher.

Ned
 
Does anyone know if I'll be able to use my Sony color HDVF-C30WR viewfinder on the F5? Best, Sparky

No. F5/55 is a different plug, digital signal. Your VF is an analogue signal. On the upside, the OLED VF is probably way better thank your c30 and less than half the price! Another case of than you RED for keeping Sony honest!
 
Yep I got in a big twitter spat on that one. I find it inexcusable.

Really at that money Im not looking to be annoyed when I buy something - I want to smile

I spose someone will do a dogleg workaround

S

There is already a clean solution that will be available before the camera. No Fear.
 
If anybody has a solution in mind, it's you Carlos. Let me know when you can release info and I'll give you some press.

Ned
 
So how is the testing coming along? My big question and dilemma is - I shoot a lot of shorts and full features but I do other types of work also. But the "cinematic look" is MOST important to me. From past opinions some have said that the F3 was not quite cinematic enough for them and the F5 shares the same color gamut. Ive taken a look at the trailers(Oblivion & After Earth- both looked great) shot on the F65 which is suppose to share the same color gamut as the F55. And of course we all know that Promethius plus a VAST amount of Hollywood features have been shot on the Red Epic and look great. How does this F3 fall in to the "cinematic" look and how do you feel the F5 will fall into this whole scenario? Any thoughts?
 
How does this F3 fall in to the "cinematic" look and how do you feel the F5 will fall into this whole scenario? Any thoughts?

Sorry Ned, I'm gonna jump in here.

It's not the camera. It's the people behind it. And the colorist.

I promise you.

Both the F3 and F5 have what it takes to make amazing images. The problem is Sony gives you enough rope to screw it up and get "non-cinematic" images. Red & Arri make it a bit harder. So it's easy to find F3 footage out there that looks pretty "non-cinematic".
 
the f3 is pretty awesome.
picturewise i don' think that the f5 will be that a big leap (have to see SLog2 Stuff to truly judge that...), surely sharper and maybe another stop of DR (?).

i'm also looking forward to what the wider gammut of the f55 actually does... wonder about that.
will be nice when all 4 of them shoot with the same lens the same subject.. someone will do that test for sure... ;-)

in the end, the difference between f3 and f5(f55) will never be as big as mediocre lighting vs brilliant lighting...
that's where cinematic lies in first place...
and talent.
then there's set design...
costumes/ make up...
color timing ad grading...
sound...
and somewhere down the road the camera...

but that's just my 2 cents...
 
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The F3 footage measures less than 1920x1080 resolution. Hopefully the F5 footage will resolve the full 1920x1080, which will be a significant improvement.
 
The Alan Roberts test doesn't explicitly report a measured resolution but states "the native resolution of the camera does not reach the limits of the 1920x1080 format" p.10.

http://tech.ebu.ch/webdav/site/tech/shared/other/WHP034-ADD68_Sony_PMW-F3.pdf

P.S. Reading between the lines (possibly incorrectly), the report estimates the native sensor resolution at 4800x2700 (p.12), which the camera down-scales to 2200x1238 (p.9) and then de-Bayers to a 1080p frame (p.10) with roughly 1238 * 0.7 = 867 lines of measured resolution.
 
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