F65: Where have all the users gone, long time passing…

I've never used either camera but I appreciate the where have all the flowers gone reference
 
F65 is not appealing to the same crowd as the F35. The F35 falls into a small category of digital Bolex, Ikonoskop - CCD's that are limited to HD but produce a different textured image than modern camera and maintain an indie user base. The F35 is also highly modifiable which makes it appealing to indie crowd, you are not locked into the original components like the F65.

F65 by todays standards does have more texture than most cameras. It is different than the F35 but also could be used if someone wanted to branch out from the new large format clean noise standard.

The F65 doesn't have any pathway to remove that big expensive media'd recorder. The F65 has a very very fragile rotary shutter - I owned one (literally the first one) for a brief time and found a lot of stories about rotary replacements while I was researching it. The good thing is the F65 will function just fine without the rotary and the rolling shutter is minimum even without it. I found a few F65 people saying the rotary wasn't really necessary. Is the Sony sponsored F65 forum completely gone? That's where the little limited talk of the camera seemed to be, but hands on experience seemed to be in that forum.
 
Just chiming in on this old thread, I would still love to get an F65, rotary or not, as I really enjoyed the look of certain TV shows like "Preacher" and of course the various movies that used it, the F55 would be great too but the F65 was always a showstopper in my book. I know the lack of 8K even as an option was kinda boring but it was some of the best 4K out there and it had a great filmic look overall. Other than the recorder, did it need anything else to make it run?
 
I decided a little while ago that I wanted an F65. It was actually the Alexa 35 that kicked this whole thing off for me. It was that launch that made me look into the used market for cinema cameras and realize that I could actually own a camera that was once considered one of the best. I was set on a used Alexa for a little while until I downloaded raw files from Arri's website and saw what the resolution was like. So then, F65 it was! I found this pristine looking sample with only 300hrs on it on ebay and it arrived on the first business day of the new year:

A06A5201.jpg

Unfortunately, no matter what I do, I cannot get the SR-R4 to show any signs of life. It almost feels like I'm missing something here. Or it just broke in transit. The camera itself starts up fine, but without the recorder it doesn't really matter as we all know. I've tried reattaching the recorder several times and flicked the recorder power switch on and off but still nothing. We'll see what happens but right now it looks like I'll have to send it back.

(the side display is working in the picture below, it just doesn't play well with the shutter in my stills camera)
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In the meantime, I have done some tests. I really dislike rolling shutter, hence why I wanted this camera with its rotary shutter and all that. But I haven't been able to find any info on the readout speed of the electronic shutter mode, other than in Samuel H's sensor readout speed thread on this very forum. In his list there, he qoutes the F65 readout speed as being ~14ms with the source being unknown. I did my own test using his method. I recorded the SDI out of the camera doing fast pans with an 11° shutter and used the rulers in Photoshop to measure and the result I got was ~14ms. So it appears Samuel's number is correct! It's just a little slower than I had expected. Mitch Gross was saying in a thread here somewhere that even in electronic shutter mode the F65 was faster than Alexa. I'd say 14ms is still acceptable for non fast paced things. It's even a whole millisecond better than the Ursa Mini 4.6K that I also have which clocks in at 15.5ms.


Zack Birlew said:
I would still love to get an F65, rotary or not
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Sony had plans on making a version of the F65 with only the electronic shutter but that never happened. So all F65s out there has the rotary. If that's what you mean.


Zack Birlew said:
I know the lack of 8K even as an option was kinda boring
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I tried the two downloadable raw files from Tears of Steel in Resolve and 8K debayer is the only option I can find. So 8K is most definitely an option.
 
Don't break it but put some force into pushing the SR-R4 down and wiggling, make sure you have that connection fully made on the back.
 
That's really cool that they added the 8K demosaic output! I guess if it weren't for the dependence on the SR-R4 it would be a very interesting 8K camera to consider but it's like getting proprietary RED Mag media for RED cameras and the RED Helium is dropping down to what I'm seeing some F65's go for and that's already in the range of newer options like Nikon Z9 and the URSA 12K so it's a toss up. I'll be keeping an eye out anyway though, the F65 does have a very nice look and knowing it can do 8K makes it more appealing for sure!
 
Olius said:
I tried the two downloadable raw files from Tears of Steel in Resolve and 8K debayer is the only option I can find. So 8K is most definitely an option.
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I remember going to the NHK 8K demo at NAB many years ago, and they were using the F65.
 
Does the SR-R4 definitely draw power from the camera body? I think I remember with the F35 there was some fiddliness with the I/O box needing to recieve power directly (so you couldn't power it through the camera receiving mains power - you had to have a battery or power cable feeding directly into the I/O box, and that would then feed through to the camera body).

Worth looking into.

Hell of a camera. 6k sensor, 800 ISO, internal NDs, great image. No reason you couldn't shoot any modern project on one. From memory (besides the hefty weight) it was the data workflow that was the most painful thing about it. None of the simplicity of cards out of the Arri. It seemed specificially designed to keep DIT employed by production.
 
yachacha said:
Grug - what is F65 I/O Box?
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I was referring to the F35's I/O box. Which attached to the rear of the F35 in much the same way as the SR-R4 attaches to the rear of the F65.

If you wanted to use the I/O box on the F35, you had to feed power through it directly (it couldn't draw its power from the F35 body - if the F35 body were being powered by mains or a battery block through its 8-pin power input port). So I'm wondering if there might be something similar going on with the F65 here - whether it perhaps needs power to be fed into the SR-R4 directly in order to turn on?
 
Olius said:
It does:

The R4 doesn't have a power input on it at all, except for the dock.
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Sounds like it's properly dead then. I'd be starting a return ASAP. It's one thing to get a steal of a deal on an unwanted camera body like this - but you won't get the same kind of deals when it comes to spares, media and maintenance.
 
Grug said:
I was referring to the F35's I/O box. Which attached to the rear of the F35 in much the same way as the SR-R4 attaches to the rear of the F65.

If you wanted to use the I/O box on the F35, you had to feed power through it directly (it couldn't draw its power from the F35 body - if the F35 body were being powered by mains or a battery block through its 8-pin power input port). So I'm wondering if there might be something similar going on with the F65 here - whether it perhaps needs power to be fed into the SR-R4 directly in order to turn on?
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What is I/O box for the F35? The Interface box? The only part of F35 labeled I/O is the port on the side of the camera?
What does "feed power through it directly mean?" The IF box had a 4 pin power input that could power the camera.
"it couldn't draw power from the F35 body" - I have no idea what this means. The IF box certainly draws power through the dock I am certain of it.
 
yachacha said:
What is I/O box for the F35? The Interface box? The only part of F35 labeled I/O is the port on the side of the camera?
What does "feed power through it directly mean?" The IF box had a 4 pin power input that could power the camera.
"it couldn't draw power from the F35 body" - I have no idea what this means. The IF box certainly draws power through the dock I am certain of it.
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Yes, the interface box.

Possibly I've got this muddled up and it's running it off on-board batteries that requires you to feed power through the interface box's DC input? (it's been a long time since I've used the camera)
 
I have a fully functioning F65 for sale, with 4 media cards and most importantly the SR-D1 card read, which makes life much easier to download media. Haven't put an ad in ebay yet but planning to do so soon. If anyone is looking for one or needs pics, tell me.
 
RayZan said:
most importantly the SR-D1 card read, which makes life much easier to download media.
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How are you using the SR-D1? There does not seem to be drivers available for it anymore as far as I can tell. Do you keep an older Mac to do it?
 
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