F65: New F65 but missing parts...

B

bitnaut

Active member
I’ve just purchased an F65 for a good price but it’s missing some parts namely, belt bracket, cable clamp belt, B3 x 5 screws (4), riser plate, and Lemo 8-pin power cable but it does come with Anton Bauer battery plate and cable so I can power it when it arrives.

Are any of these missing parts essential?

Also, it comes with the standard HDFV-C30WR viewfinder. Is the HDVF-EL30 OLED HD viewfinder or, better yet, the DVF-EL100 optimal for F65 use or is the standard just fine?
 
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I cant help with the parts but it is interesting you are the one who bought that. I also made an offer but they rejected. This camera just keeps getting lower and lower in price. It will be interesting to see where it bottoms out.

To me, this camera has got to be value and worth pursuing, yet hardly anyone has a good word for it. At least not on the net.
 
Hi Jim,

Ah so you were one of the 90 or so watchers on eBay for that F65. ;-)

It apparently had 25 offers on it. I offered $7000 and it was accepted right away so I don’t know if that was close to their bottom limit or they were tired of waiting for a buyer to buy it at their price.

Anyway, I found a couple of cheap 1TB S25 cards and an SR-PC4 so I just need a couple of large Anton Bauers to feed this beast of a machine.
 
Well Glad I helped condition them for you ;-)

What are you going to do with it ? I mean what sort of work?
 
Shorts, music videos, etc...same as what I was doing with my old Sony FS700/7Q combo. https://vimeo.com/edaraquel After using that for a few years, I felt the need to trade up.

I first had a preorder for a Kinefinity MAVO S35 camera since March but since reading some reviews on the glitchiness of that camera and its quirky audio inputs, I decided to get my deposit back and the thought of the F65 appealed to me. Frankly, the F65 has turned out to be less than what I was going to pay for the Mavo but, I guess, time will tell.
 
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I will be really interested to hear of your progress. I too would love to get into the F65. 16 bit linear RAW. Pseudo 8K signal down rezzed to REAL 4K.... Whats not to love?

The thing that interests me is that again and again comments from colourists are that they love the F65 footage the best and they can push it around like no other. Thats got to be a good thing.

When do you receive it ? Or have you got it already?

P.S. Impressive catalog of work there!
 
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if anyone is interested in the story of my $1200 F65:

I brought it to Sony Repair Center in Carson, CA and learned a lot from the head engineer about the camera.

Mine is a unique pre production F65. It would not take the update as it had slightly different parts inside. Sony had me remove the Sys card and ran update on that alone in the shop model at Sony. My camera has an issue with the rotary. It will not start sometimes, the solution right now is restarting the camera a few times, once it is going it usually works until powered off again. I am hopeful I can find the issue and repair it but if not, I did pay $1200 for this F65. Sony said it wasn't economical to consider replacing this front unit as the rotary and ccd come as a single unit.

If you want to update to use the "digital" viewfinders of the F5 and F55, you need a hard to find upgrade board. Funny Sony does not have any of these in stock. If you can hunt one down, you can use the digital viewfinders, otherwise you are stuck with the HDVF line. Good news is Sony just released OLED HDVF so I'm not holding my breath to find an update board.

F35 top handle and F65 top handle are interchangeable! This might not be exciting to anyone but me because I have super rare panavision made F35 top handle that looks killer on the F65 setup.
 
Very interesting story yachacha.

As you say, its a $1200 F65! Maybe useful for shots where the camera is in some danger? I have a use case for it, but does it make sense to ship the thing half way around the world when for another 4K a good one can be had? This is the problem with the F65. Prices are dropping fasssst. Good in a way for low budget folks like me though. No way am I spending 20K on a RED-whatever- this-month-latest when I can get a decent F65 for 5-6K if I wait long enough.

The thing that draws me to this camera is the 16 bit linear RAW down sampled to real 4K. I dont have any illusions that the footage is somehow going to make what I shoot better or have some special secret sauce. Its about the post work on the footage. I have only read, not actually used, so at this time - for sure only an armchair user (sheeeesh - does the world need another one ?) that colorists say that the F65 is the best footage of any camera they have worked on in post because it is so "thick" - they can stretch it in anyway they like and not have issues. So thats one HUGE plus right there.

Plus as prices go down, no need for a repair center......just buy another body. Sounds crazy I know, but why buy expensive parts?

I am still very drawn to the F23. I cant seem to let it go. If you ever have a GOOD F23 rig set up and working with all the parts on it that you wanted to part with I would be interested, at a reasonable price. I know its probably stupid to go down this road, but .....what the hell, you only live once. I think we have all had an affair we knew we should not have gotten into ...right ?
 
yachacha said:
If you want to update to use the "digital" viewfinders of the F5 and F55, you need a hard to find upgrade board. Funny Sony does not have any of these in stock..
Click to expand...

Is this the infamous CBK-65EL v3.0 upgrade for the F65? Doesn’t every F65 owner need this done in order to get to the latest v4.2 firmware?
 
Good to know - so a slightly higher priced camera would be a far better buy if it has v4.2 firmware. Something to look out for then for sure.
 
Yeah the V3.0 upgrade is a circuitboard as well as firmware so it was $1000 back in the day but now that there are no boards around, who knows how much it will cost.
 
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