My F35 Is ALIVE!!! Plus Some 7Q Info And More....

T

TheWakePlace.com

Well-known member
OK, so some of you know that salt water killed my F35 on Saturday night. Just picked her up from the Sony service center in LA and she is back and ALIVE! They also updated the firmware on the camera and i learned some interesting things today from Sony and someone who has worked on the cameras a LOT. Here is what the firmware now allows, and some info on the prores on the Odyssey 7Q:

Oh, and a huge thanks to macgregor who let me use some of his F35 accessories to troubleshoot the problem on my F35.

So the new firmware now allows:
- 60p 422 and 444 (if i use quadlink running 2, yes thats TWO, IF boxes on the camera)
- A bunch more Rec709 gammas that allow a highly accurate 709 image
- Different white balance controls that essentially allows you to turn 5600k on and off to switch between color temps (this one is a little weird)
- Ability to manually select between 10 and 12 bit from the IF box

Now these may be what a lot of you are already running on your F35. If not, get it into Sony for the update...

The Odyssey 7Q now does prores and will do it on the F35. Now, you do not need the IF box for this, as it will receive a 422 signal from the monitor port on the side of the camera. If you try to use the IF box you will keep getting a unsupported message on the 7Q. Using the side port will also allow you to see all the in camera LUTS and menu systems through the OLED of the Odyssey.

Anyone seen any good new mounting options for 7Q at NAB?
 
Thats excellent news wakeplace!

Just to note,
- 60P will not work, I have latest firmware, it sends out 10 "junk" frames extra per second. Trust me. If Im not mistaken the 60P was only for use with SRW HDcam tape in variable frame rate "ramp" mode, called S60P.
- You CAN use the IF Box for ProRes, just make sure you set the F35 to 10bit 422, 24P, 25P or 30P otherwise you will see "unsupported" and only use "single link" i.e.. one sdi cable into the 7Q in "prores mode"
- for all F35 modes except 12 bit flavours, set 7Q in "DPX mode" and plug both SDI cables "dual link" into the 7q and it will pickup whatever the signal is (24P-> 50P)
 
The guy at sony, i asked him twice, he said that with 2 IF boxes on the camera, quad link into the recorder, you can get 60P444. Now he didnt say what recorder, but that fact that he referred to the iF boxes and not the SR recorder would suggest its an external device.
 
The 50p 60p thing has been discussed and tested here before. While I'm not aware of anyone actually doing a record test of the 60p444 quad signal, I myself and others have tested the 50p and 60p 422 output from a single IF box.

The conclusion was as follows: The camera is only capable of acquiring 50 frames per second from the sensor. It can, however, conform those 50 frames per second to a 60 frames per second output video signal, similar to the way a camera recording 24p can conform an output signal to 30p for monitor output. In the case of the F35, this generates 10 repeat "junk" frames when outputting 60p signal. People on this forum have done tests with the 422 and confirmed this to be true. I doubt it's different for the 444 output. All the documentation ever put out for the Sony F35 confirms it maxes out at 50p.
 
Notice the 60P has an "S" before it, S60P, the "S" stands for "Select FPS"
All the "S" frame rates are part of the "Ramp" mode, which is only compatible with the SRW1 dock recorder. Sony were apparently gonna release an SR2-R2 or 3? recorder for the F35 that would've handled the "ramp" function in 12bit 444, but that never happened, and I suppose Sony updated the F35 in lieu of the new recorder. Maybe James could pipe in here.
I haven't tried 2 IF Boxes, but as far as I know, the quad link is needed to transport 444 colour space with frame rates greater than 30P.
 
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Even so, like Viddovation said, the F35 has been documented in many places to max out at 50P, and I'm not sure even with the SRW1 that it would do the 60P, but conform the 60P into a 50P signal.
 
The F23 does do a genuine 60P.

I think a lot of the confusion stems from the fact that they share the same electronics, so they left it in there for people with the 2/3" front end.

The Panavision Genesis and Sony F35 will only ever do 50 Frames Per Second maximum. End of.
 
TheWakePlace.com said:
Was the test done on the most recent firmware and with 2 IF boxes? thats whats important to me here...

Even in the official documentation for the most recent firmware, it mentions both 50p and 60p at 444 0 https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-software-model-F35.aspx
Click to expand...

I understand exactly why this confusion exists, but if you read the document you're linking to carefully, it states those are "output formats." In the case of the 60p, feel free to go to all the effort of linking two IF Boxes and recording the quad signal if you like. Record something with clear 60p motion, like a slate running 60p. You'll find out for yourself there are 10 repeat frames, and only 50 real frames.


Sony had intended to put out a SR-R3 for the camera, but never did. It would have been solid state and handled the select FPS.

Now, in *theory* there are a couple ways you could force the select FPS out of the camera - for ramping and such. The camera has a BNC port on the back that you can push a pulse signal to through the menu, noting a frame. If you had a custom recording setup that could accept this input to decide which frames were real, you could record the select FPS material.
 
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