FS7: New Sony F7 XDCAM 4K Super 35mm Camcorder

Viddovation said:
Ned,

You certainly tend to be more informed than I am, and have been in this game a lot longer, so I may be pissing in the wind here...

When I go to the S&Q settings in the camera, it has a "High Frame Rate" menu item, and the options listed are "Off" and "Full Scan", which I understand to mean "read the full sensor, no crop", but what's the point in saying "Off"/"Full Scan" instead of "Off"/"On" if there is no intention to offer a crop scan down the road? Looking through the menus it certainly feels like they've been configured in preparation of options that aren't yet available.
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There are several ways to interpret this. One certainly is the provision is there for center crop. But I think it is still worth the campaign to request the feature of Sony.
 
truelife said:
When I ordered from Abel they sold me 4 x SWIT S-8U63 batts- these don't have the cable attached but are supposed to work with all of the recent Sonys- PMW100, 200, F3 etc. I would assume they could power this camera- but won't know till I try it.
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The problem becomes exactly how identical the chip encoding is. If the emulation isn't exactly the same as for the Sony batteries, then Sony could kill the compatibilty via firmware update.
 
Reading the manual I'm glad it's very similar to my F3. To bad there's only three buttons to assign custom functions. I guess the grip wont be used so much by me so that leaves me to have the three buttons assigned to; S&Q/MLUT, Focus assist and Rec Review.
 
I must be in the minority but when I tried the camera on my shoulder a few weeks ago I loved the grip it seemed well spaced for my hand. Of course I'll get a better idea when mine arrives (praying next week as I'm not booked on anything and have time to play). I see the grip arm being a great opourtunity for 3rd parties to create something with more adjustability like tilta handles and some left right adjustment. I know I'm going to look into adding a spacer to move the grip an inch or two to the left.
 
Quite surprised only Vocas are offering any rig support for it so far. Hopefully Movcam and Wooden Camera will follow shortly. The grip is on a standard Arri rosette, right?
 
Ben Scott said:
Quite surprised only Vocas are offering any rig support for it so far. Hopefully Movcam and Wooden Camera will follow shortly. The grip is on a standard Arri rosette, right?
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I think it is a standard rosette, but that means using the whole arm. The hand grip is attached to the arm via 4 screws. I expect we'll see some kit that allows you to rig just the hand grip without the arm.

That said, I'm curious if the remote port is Lanc based. if so, it may be practical to either use an existing commercially available controller, or to make one that can access those other 3 assign buttons. I can imagine a small microcontroller that could be rigged flat to the camera on the back top or something.
 
Ben Scott said:
Quite surprised only Vocas are offering any rig support for it so far. Hopefully Movcam and Wooden Camera will follow shortly. The grip is on a standard Arri rosette, right?
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The zacuto VCT baseplate or shape baseplates should work just fine. I tried one with an older shape shoulder baseplate and it was comfy. What I don't like about the Vocas one is because of its custom shape for the camera you can't slide it forward for heavier lenses to get the weight back. That is important to me. Not to mention the vocas is pretty pricey and only for one model of camera.

Viddovation said:
I think it is a standard rosette, but that means using the whole arm. The hand grip is attached to the arm via 4 screws. I expect we'll see some kit that allows you to rig just the hand grip without the arm.

That said, I'm curious if the remote port is Lanc based. if so, it may be practical to either use an existing commercially available controller, or to make one that can access those other 3 assign buttons. I can imagine a small microcontroller that could be rigged flat to the camera on the back top or something.
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Even a remote box via wifi might work for basic controls. I wonder if wifi could be programmed for custom button mapping to external box. Who knows but lots of posibilities out of the box.
 
RatLabProductions said:
Even a remote box via wifi might work for basic controls. I wonder if wifi could be programmed for custom button mapping to external box. Who knows but lots of posibilities out of the box.
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I think it certainly could be programmed. But then you have to have the nubbin attached to the WLAN port. For that matter, with some effort, you could program a hardwire remote via that usb port. It would have to lie to the camera and claim to be the wifi transmitter, but the data transfer would be possible.
 
Babu said:
Cinemasteve87 between the u30 amd u60 roughly how many hrs are you getting? Sony stated the 30's are 1hr and 60's are 2. That's in 4k mode so HD could be even better. Thanks
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Yup, that's about right. When I put the 60 in, the battery indicator read 230 minutes, but it loses charge in chunky increments.

Is there any way to activate the histogram while recording in 4k? It seems to be completely disabled when I'm in that mode.
 
Ben Scott said:
Just saw this for download https://vimeo.com/110498281
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Wow, that looks great. I definitely like the look of ungraded S-Log 3 better than S-Log 2. It looks a little more natural. S-Log 2 can look pretty "alien" ungraded.

Excited for this camera but I can't get it till Jan 1st 2015 for tax purposes. Bought to much stuff this year.

But yeah, probably better that way and let everyone else be the Guinea pigs.
 
I am certain we will see numerous third party enhancements and accessories. Vocas was just the first out of the box with a baseplate. I agree that a more universal system represents a better investment. I am so looking forward to mine but still glad that I'm ordering with the kit lens despite the added wait. And gives me time to accumulate some additional glass.
 
nsoltz said:
I am so looking forward to mine but still glad that I'm ordering with the kit lens despite the added wait. And gives me time to accumulate some additional glass.
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How much less is the lens with the kit then without for you?

Here in Canada there was almost no discount for getting the lens as a package or buying separate from the body. I had both the kit and body only on order and went body only when I found out about the wait. I am camera-less at the moment (other than dslr kit I keep handy) so getting out and shooting and not renting a cam was important to me.
 
Same here in the UK. Made no financial sense to buy with the lens, especially when I've not tested it.

To be honest I'm more excited about the back with the v-mounts and pro res. I'm coming to this from a Red background for the last few years but what is Sony like with firmware and the like? Is it likely that at some point Pro Res 444 or Pro Res 4k will be enabled further down the line? And if so will it be a wallet busting 'upgrade' or a freebie like all of the Red firmware/functionality updates have been?

I guess that might be dependant on the fastest XQD cards or something.
 
firmware is free, unless its unlocking some major function then usually there is some small cost and the camera has to go to Sony service. Other features (like on the F3) were unlocked with a SXS card with a file on it.

As for ProRes unless any new information has been provided about it, unfortunately it does not appear that it will be 4K, and still not sure if 12-bit 444 will be an option...
 
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Ah okay. I know pro res 442 comes with the XDCA-FS7 extension unit purchase so I guess/hope the capacity is in that unit already, waiting to be unlocked - like proper 4k.
 
gene_can_sing said:
Wow, that looks great. I definitely like the look of ungraded S-Log 3 better than S-Log 2. It looks a little more natural. S-Log 2 can look pretty "alien" ungraded.
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S-Log 3 looks perfect for those Log-ish looking, dreamy fashion spots that I've been getting lately. :) Psyched for this camera.
 
Is there any mounting holes on top of the handle? Like a couple of 1/4-20?

I love mounting holes on the handle, so I might have to buy a 3rd party handle for that. But that shouldn't be a problem as I predict this camera will sell by the truck loads. It's gonna be awesome!
 
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