F5: NEW Sony F5 Bundle Includes a7SII Body, Viewfinder, Shoulder Pad, & More

M

mitch@provideo

DVXuser Sponsor
Sony has unveiled one of the most aggressive and interesting packages on the F5 that i've ever seen. The going price on the PMW-F5 camera body has been $16,490, its been that way for a while. Sony has just announced a promo called the "Production Crew" bundle.

The "Production Crew" bundle sells for $15,995, or can be financed for $0 down and 0% interest over 24 months for $667 a month. Included in this bundle is the F5 camera body with the internal 4K recording firmware. Also included is an NEW a7SII camera body, the LCD viewfinder for the F5, the shoulder pad/VCT tripod mount for the F5, an SxS card reader, and a full copy of Davinci Resolve 12.

We're essentially providing the viewfinder, the shoulder pad, the a7SII camera, and the rest for $500 less then the camera body before. This all adds up to thousands of dollars of savings.

The price of $15,995 is surely no coincidence (hello C300mkII). If you prefer to upgrade the viewfinder to the amazing OLED viewfinder its only an additional $1000, making it $16,995.

This is truly the best time to be looking into a Sony 4K camera, specifically the F5. For more details on financing options please contact me. Let me know if you have any questions at all. Thank you very much.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now
 
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I just saw this mentioned on another message board, too. F5 sales must be in the dump(because of the FS7)!
 
When it Sony announced a major price drop on FS700, I immediately thought that it was a sure sign that some sort of a replacement was on its way. Shortly thereafter, FS5 appeared in the news.

As to the financial incentives here -

B&H lists the LCD viewfinder for $3,230 and the OLED for $4,930. the lowest priced SxS card reader is $320. DaVinci Resolve 11 is $1,000. Finally, A7SII is $3,000. A tripod mounting plate can be several hundred dollars too. So, this is roughly $7,500-$7800 worth of goodies included in the price (with the $17,000 package, you get about $9,000 worth). The only thing that makes little sense is the giveaway of a A7SII instead of SxS cards or the price break on R5 external recorder.

So, uhm, the replacement is coming?
 
I wonder if there is a replacement.. its sort of already here.. the FS7..

I think there will be a new F65... smaller and cheaper.. and the F55 comes down in price a bit.. the F5 is in a bit of an odd place now.. does look like clearing the ware house..
 
Replacement is of course coming but it's time for highest end now. I've got a feeling f5/55 still have one year till successor.

At this price point sorry to say that but it's almost stupid going Canon route. One more thing is that you can upgrade your f5.

With an upgrade that's basically brand new f55 for around $25k. This is mental.
 
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Yes I know there will always be a replacement .. Im was referring specifically to the F5.. in the very near future.. there is a $1,000 (was) up grade to purely internal 4K..( it was there all the time but had been disabled) without the whole F55 sensor change.. but I guess that would hard to apply now with the Fs7 offering it out of the box
 
Here's a quick breakdown with a bit more detail.

Up through September 30th the pricing of the individual components would have gone as follows:

PMW-F5 camera body $16,490
VCT-FSA5 ENG shoulder pad/VCT baseplate $975
DVF-L350 LCD viewfinder $3,230
CBK-Z55FX 4K recording 'upgrade' key $998
SBAC-US30 SxS USB reader $319
TOTAL: $22,012

NEW F5 'Production Crew' package price: $15,995, ($6,017 less then above total)
Also includes an a7SII camera body and a full Davinci Resolve 12 copy worth, $2999 and $949 respectively.
Combine the savings on the F5 package components, the a7SII, and Davinci and you're looking at about $9,965 less then the same individual components would have run you prior to this package. If you add the OLED viewfinder the dollars saved actually increases as you're only paying an extra $1,000 for the upgrade but the regular price of the OLED is $4,930, normally a $1,700 upgrade over the standard LCD.

My personal take, i don't think this is a sign that an F5 replacement is "imminent". Will there be a replacement sometime in the next 12-18 months, highly likely. I interpret this as Sony saying "hey, we've already covered our R&D on this product. The rest is gravy. Lets go after the competition and hit'em where it hurts". But thats my own perspective, not representative of anything officially coming from Sony.

If you have any questions about the bundle, Sony CineAlta in general, Sony Financial Services, or any other production gear please let me know. I'm always happy to help any way i can. Thank you very much.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now
 
eric@provideo said:
Here's a quick breakdown with a bit more detail.

Up through September 30th the pricing of the individual components would have gone as follows:

PMW-F5 camera body $16,490
VCT-FSA5 ENG shoulder pad/VCT baseplate $975
DVF-L350 LCD viewfinder $3,230
CBK-Z55FX 4K recording 'upgrade' key $998
SBAC-US30 SxS USB reader $319
TOTAL: $22,012

NEW F5 'Production Crew' package price: $15,995, ($6,017 less then above total)
Also includes an a7SII camera body and a full Davinci Resolve 12 copy worth, $2999 and $949 respectively.
Combine the savings on the F5 package components, the a7SII, and Davinci and you're looking at about $9,965 less then the same individual components would have run you prior to this package. If you add the OLED viewfinder the dollars saved actually increases as you're only paying an extra $1,000 for the upgrade but the regular price of the OLED is $4,930, normally a $1,700 upgrade over the standard LCD.

My personal take, i don't think this is a sign that an F5 replacement is "imminent". Will there be a replacement sometime in the next 12-18 months, highly likely. I interpret this as Sony saying "hey, we've already covered our R&D on this product. The rest is gravy. Lets go after the competition and hit'em where it hurts". But thats my own perspective, not representative of anything officially coming from Sony.

If you have any questions about the bundle, Sony CineAlta in general, Sony Financial Services, or any other production gear please let me know. I'm always happy to help any way i can. Thank you very much.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now
Click to expand...
Any idea if this deal will be USA only or worldwide and we should expect it here any day?
 
eric@provideo said:
Here's a quick breakdown with a bit more detail...
Click to expand...
Thanks for filling in the gaps.

A $10,000 discount in this price range is kind of mind boggling. My bet is that the over/under on the F5 replacement announcement is about four months.
 
Alohype:
Unfortunately i'm only given the information for Sony USA. I'm not sure if the other regions are going to be running similar promos or not. If you're interested in discussing further details on how we might be able to work something out internationally please hit me up via email. I'm always happy to talk to someone about trying to find creative solutions. Thanks for your question.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now
 
Holy mackerel, that's a bundle deal if I ever saw one. But with the features of the FS7, I'm sure F5 sales have slowed a bit. Maybe there is an F7 and F77 in the near future?
 
If this only came out 6 months ago, before I bought the FS7! I would have considered it and pulled the trigger. Interesting price point and exciting package. I am jealous!
 
That is a brilliant move.....the crazy thing is that you can turn around and sell the a7sii and resolve for at least 3000.... Which puts this kit at 13000..... Or just about a fs7 (with kit lens) with the raw adapter......
on the other hand I really like Cine-I and slog-3.....
raven will not be a lot cheaper and this is a much better camera....
 
The F5 is in an interesting place at the moment. Certainly for 10-bit 4:2:2 recording, the FS7 is basically cutting its mustard, offering the same quality for a lower price. However, the FS7 doesn't offer a high-end 4:4:4 or raw mastering codec without going through the awkwardness and complexity of external recording, which can be a major consideration on set.

The F5 with the R5 recorder is really in another league entirely in terms of on-set ergonomics, and it doesn't really have any direct competitors on a price-performance level. There's Scarlet Dragon, which offers a great image but is far less versatile, doesn't offer any compressed recording options, and without internal NDs basically requires a mattebox at all times; then there's the Canon C300II, but that's really more comparable with the FS7, and has the same ergonomic limitations and operational concerns that come with external raw recording.

All of which makes it really tricky to sidestep away from the F5 at the moment (and I know, because I've spent quite some time looking into it), you can step down in price and features to an FS7, step sideways in price and down in features for Scarlet Dragon, step down in features and sideways in price to the C300II, or step up in price and features to the F65, F55, Alexa, or Epic Dragon. There's no clear alternative that offers what the F5 does, at the price it does.

So the F5 remains strangely alone in the middle of the pack for the moment. For people who can't justify the extra expense of the high-end cameras, but need the feature-set, recording versatility and operational simplicity that they offer, it really is the only option at the moment.

...which perhaps explains the F5's lack of popularity in the broader market, it's a camera that offers immense appeal to owner-operators, but significantly less to those who are renting (and most likely want 'the best'). That said, I still find it's lack of rental appeal rather baffling, considering how much it offers, for a significantly lower rental fee.
 
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