F55: Some disappointing news about 4K internal/external recording options.

[Bern Caughey]

Is it true that you can't use focus mag while rolling on C300II? not to hijack the thread but now that the C300II is in the wild I find it weird no one is talking about these things.

A number of users have reported the C300II's Focus Magnification being disabled while recording.

Hopefully it's not limited by the hardware, & there's a firmware fix.

 

[FrameFarmMedia]

A number of users have reported the C300II's Focus Magnification being disabled while recording.

Hopefully it's not limited by the hardware, & there's a firmware fix.

Thanks for the info. Its a camera I will end up shooting with at some point through the year so even though I have an FS7 I want to stay aware of the differences from the familiar C300.

 

[IronFilm]

I have a pre-order and I will be purchasing. For me 95% of the time I'll be sole operator for my bread and butter stuff and internal 4k and on board monitoring will be fine. But I have a colleague who I work with with an F55 and for some projects I'd see how the FS5 would be good for a B cam, providing it can be monitored and recorded onboard and with an external HDMI out for a director monitor. It does seem like a major oversight if this will never be possible.

So although the 5% of time I'll need the function I'll be in trouble, I can't turn down the camera solely based on that as it does fill most of my criteria.

FS7 just isn't an option. People state that 'it's not that much of a jump up to the FS7 in cost'. That's only partly true, when you factor in the more expensive lens and XQD cards, grip etc, the difference is more like £2000, which for me personally, is untenable.

The lens mount is the same on each, thus the lens prices for each are the same. Nobody is forcing you to buy a 28-135mm f/4

sounds like a FS7 is much more useful for you - price difference is not worth mentioning over a two year usage.

yup, chappelldigital should go for a FS7 as the C100 upgrade if 4K and client monitoring is so important

 

[kmoreau893]

I received my FS5 yesterday and I can confirm that in 4K mode both HDMI and SDI outputs are disabled when you hit the record button. HDMI can still put out the FS5 info, but there is no live video from the sensor. It's info with a black background. SDI is even worse, blue screen of death. I'm very strongly considering returning it and I hope that Jeremy Young of Atomos is incorrect here and that a firmware upgrade will fix this. I just cannot believe that a camera marketed as a 4K camcorder could even be designed with this limitation. I want Sony to realize that they cannot get away with this kind of deception if indeed Atoms is correct. Even a firmware update that disables the LCD/EVF in lieu of HDMI/SDI output is really not that acceptable either - you often need info from your camcorder to see what the settings are, you often need that on your camcorder's LCD while getting a clean HDMI or SDI to record. I want a larger monitor for the clients or just to check focus, framing or exposure. Unacceptable Sony!

I'll be discussing this on an upcoming episode of my cinematography podcast, TechMove, www.techmovepodcast.com