F55: Sony F''s now shipping

klk said:
Not to beat a dead horse, but Reds (Epic, MX) are not nearly as stable/reliable as Alexa's and Sony products.
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Stability in all forms (camera, firmware, product availability, manufacturer roadmap) is the biggest reason I'm here discussing Sony!
 
Osslund said:
When Sony proclaimed "Ahead of schedule" they must have meant in the hardware department. It looks like their software department can't keep up. I said last year that I'll look into the F5 in 2014 and I reckon that by then it will be fully operational cameras.
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When they proclaimed 'ahead of schedule' I think that's exactly what they meant. They were ahead of their own bloody schedule!

:grin:
 
Not to derail the thread but I'm been very fortunate to have a flawless working RED on every shoot. Now back to the regularly scheduled event :)
 
Last year I hanged around the set for one of our commercial shoots and asked the DP and Red Epic owner if his camera hangs. He said he never had any problems and a short while (like half an hour) after that he had to reboot the Epic several times. Did I speak of the devil an the devil appeared or could it be he was in denial? :evil:
 
Osslund said:
Last year I hanged around the set for one of our commercial shoots and asked the DP and Red Epic owner if his camera hangs. He said he never had any problems and a short while (like half an hour) after that he had to reboot the Epic several times. Did I speak of the devil an the devil appeared or could it be he was in denial? :evil:
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Hmmm. Something very similar happened to me. A friend was directing and asked me if I wanted to come over to the set. They were shooting Scarlet. I of course got to chat to the DP, who was also operating and happened to own the camera. They were setting up a shot and we got to talk about the instability issues people talk about online and he went on to say it was just Red haters etc and he had never had a crash or any problems. When the shot was all set and he got to the camera, the Scarlet started crashing like a mother... (so I heard later from the AC). I was away and just saw him and the AC going nuts around it. I suspected what was going on and came over. When he saw me approaching he yanked the camera off the tripod and left with it. Came back a few minutes later with a smile on his face and the camera ON. Later my director friend told me the camera indeed didn't want to boot properly or something for a few other shots actually.

Denial happens more often than not. How many are willing to admit their tool of choice sucks?
 
I have two red ones mx - and they crash. They crash in weird ways. Sometimes they don't boot up correctly. Sometimes they freeze when you go to playback footage. On build 31 or whatever it is and they aren't 100% stable. The red fan boys drive me nuts sometimes about this. What does it do to help your camera if you hide the fact that it crashes?

I guess its pride in ownership that creates these fan boys.

The camera reminds me of something Steve Jobs would make in his garage. Its quite remarkable for what it does and how it got there and how it changed the industry but the whole time you use it you wonder about the makers. How the buttons are laid out in the weirdest fashion, the menu systems being confusing and all over the place - the two minute boot up time - and you wonder if any of them on the team consulted with cinematographers or if it is just made by software and computer hardware makers. But you know, warts and all - its still a great image.
 
Osslund said:
When Sony proclaimed "Ahead of schedule" they must have meant in the hardware department. It looks like their software department can't keep up. I said last year that I'll look into the F5 in 2014 and I reckon that by then it will be fully operational cameras.
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The hardware hasn't been without issues, either. Frrom the FD Times booklet: "The original intention was that you would be able to record to two internal SxS Pro+ Cards at the same time. In mid-January, it was announced that dual slot recording has been canceled due to hardware limitations.".
 
eddavid said:
On build 31 or whatever it is and they aren't 100% stable. The red fan boys drive me nuts sometimes about this. What does it do to help your camera if you hide the fact that it crashes?

I guess its pride in ownership...
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Same as BMW owners hide the fact their cars break down, and how expensive the repairs are.

Same pride too. Brand loalty, yadda yadda yadda....
 
Wait a minute... Pick on Red, OK. Pick on BMW-- that's getting personal. I'll have you know my BMW hasn't been in the shop for 6 whole weeks. And who cares if I've replaced two computer modules, 2 high pressure fuel pumps, 4 out of 6 injectors, and it gets 17mpg premium fuel. It has free service for 4 years or 50K miles. With only 28K miles, just imagine all the free repairs I'll be getting over the next 22K miles.

Ned
 
I've owned three beamers and loved them all dearly to be honest, and truthfully I've been pretty lucky with the repairs. So what if an entire Xeon light assembly was $1700 to replace (under warranty thankfully) and I paid $500 to replace the high pressure canister that deploys the airbag because the car computer reported a failure... oh man I can go on....

But you gotta admit it was a good parallel I drew !!!
 
Talking about a derailing thread.
Back on topic, over here in the Netherlands delivery's are being postponed.
first units were supposed to be available by now, but things are being pushed to later in march.
seems Sony first wants to supply North America.
 
Thomas Kist said:
seems Sony first want to supply North America.
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Maybe. I've been watching Twitter very carefully and I've seen a very comparable number of people posting their new cameras in the UK as I've seen from NYC and LA. Seems to go like this if I had to guess:

NYC
UK
Aus/NZ
LA
rest of U.S.

I feel you though because I'm quite aware UK is not Netherlands. But as I'm told locally, cameras are still "trickling", not moving in big numbers in any one spot.
 
Sony Europe is based in Basingstoke, they are very well connected with the camera crowd in the UK.
Sony Netherlands is a skeleton organization by now so that probably doesn't help.
Their European distribution center on the other hand is situated in the south of the Netherlands but that's nothing more
than a big shed with a lot of goodies.
My F5 is supposed to be in my hands in less then two weeks.
keep you posted.
 
I received my raw recorder, axs cards, and reader today. My F55 is in my hands tomorrow afternoon.

Ryan
 
Twitter is lighting up, looks like a lot of retailers got a lot of boxes yesterday and today. I've seen two retailers advertise that they have F5s ready to go, no waiting.

In related news, Abel called and I'll be picking my 55 up at end of today or tomorrow. No OLED though, no batteries, no charger. I'm rethinking my Sony battery choice at moment, but I'll probably stick with them because they'll go twice the cycles. If I need bigger batts for other jobs, easy and cheap enough to rent.
 
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