F55: Would You Buy A used F55

[IronFilm]

But when did the F55 become a large camera.. its a tiny box.. with a prime lens and V mount battery.. the thing is small small small.. I,d rather have some weight at least to put on my shoulder than an Fs5 C200 et el.. prosumer design cams.. held out in front on my body.. put a different camera on your gimbal not your A cam..

But if you're doing a lot of gimbal shots, then it isn't unreasonable to want your A cam to also be your gimbal cam.

Doug's HFR examples from his F55 always looks sweet and a match for any Amira/Alexa HFR I've seen and better than HFR from the FS7. I shot a lot of HFR stuff on the FS7 and mixed it with UHD in projects and no one ever said anything about it, not a whimper. Full frame HFR you have to pick your battles and not have a load of regular patterns but in crop mode the footage is clean if a tiny but soft but with a touch of sharpening in post it's great.

The F55 is still an excellent camera for a certain segment of users but for the jobbing video producer/small outfit there's better ways of spending money as the real world difference between an FS7 and F55 at this level is mostly moot and a second hand FS7 mkI and a load of support gear could be had for the same cash.

Personally, I would be waiting for the FS7 MkIII that's the size and weight of the current FS5 which could be easily thrown around on your favourite gimbal. Smaller high quality cameras that are good enough make more sense to me than a bargain priced excellent large camera.

Yeah, and that is probably why the very excellent Arri Alexa has seen a massive tank in its prices on eBay.

Do you really think the FS7mk3 will be the size of the FS5??

Card prices shouldn't be a problem. Sony says their XQD cards in their SxS adapters are approved for everything the 5/55 can do. Even my sales rep talked me into going that route instead of SxS cards. A 128 GB Sony XQD is $159(US/B&H), $340 for 256 GB and an adapter maybe $25. It's actually very un-Sony to offer a fully approved and functioning, less expensive alternative...

Does the XQD in SxS adapter also fully work 100% when used in Arri cameras?

 

[Donny 123]

Yes if you specifically do gimbal work alot of the time it might not be the best choice..( either would alot of cameras) but can be fitted to a Ronin with extension arms and powered from the rig.. maybe it depends where you are coming from.. compared to Digibeta,s and F900,s or an Alex/Amira for that matter.. the F55 camera body is tiny and very light..and not battery hungry .. compared to DSLR I guess it would be considered big..
Seldom you want to have the A cam for gimbal too though.. its such a pain to change everything over time wise.. people only work like that once . always better to have a designated one set up and ready to go..

 

[Sttratos]

True. I wouldn't want to bet on any camera as to which will depreciate the least after one year (a not unusual number number pluck out of the air for an indie feature film to shoot for, once you count on one or two times the dates being pushed back, then a few pick up shots spread out later on which happen when they can).

But if I had to bet on one, it would be a secondhand Arri Alexa Classic to depreciate the least (in terms of %) after a year of ownership.

Absolutely agree. I think with the prices the Alexa Classics are at now they have reached a stable price and will stay there for a while. Look at the F35. After the initial drop it has now stabilized and has stayed at basically around the same price for a few years.

 

[Run&Gun]

Yes if you specifically do gimbal work alot of the time it might not be the best choice..( either would alot of cameras) but can be fitted to a Ronin with extension arms and powered from the rig.. maybe it depends where you are coming from.. compared to Digibeta,s and F900,s or an Alex/Amira for that matter.. the F55 camera body is tiny and very light..and not battery hungry .. compared to DSLR I guess it would be considered big..
Seldom you want to have the A cam for gimbal too though.. its such a pain to change everything over time wise.. people only work like that once . always better to have a designated one set up and ready to go..

+1

I come from the world of Betacams and VariCams, so I consider the F55 to be a small camera, BUT it is too big and too heavy for a normal Ronin, even the "extended" Ronin. I was brought in on a shoot a few years ago and it was with my 55 and a Ronin(and Ronin op)(should have been a Steadicam shoot). We ended up having to rent an "extended Ronin", because the operators "normal" Ronin could not accommodate the 55. Even the extended version JUST barely worked and it was a complete pain, because it was at the VERY top of the working payload, so the Ronin at times would not balance the camera properly, would occasionally freak out and you can not power the 55 from the Ronin itself(you can power a 5).

 

[Run&Gun]

Does the XQD in SxS adapter also fully work 100% when used in Arri cameras?

That I do not know. This may be a "Sony Specific" situation. Arri may be the only ones who could tell you, but my philosophy on media is well known, it it's not approved by the equipment manufacturer, I won't use it. Too much to lose...

 

[Donny 123]

+1

I come from the world of Betacams and VariCams, so I consider the F55 to be a small camera, BUT it is too big and too heavy for a normal Ronin, even the "extended" Ronin. I was brought in on a shoot a few years ago and it was with my 55 and a Ronin(and Ronin op)(should have been a Steadicam shoot). We ended up having to rent an "extended Ronin", because the operators "normal" Ronin could not accommodate the 55. Even the extended version JUST barely worked and it was a complete pain, because it was at the VERY top of the working payload, so the Ronin at times would not balance the camera properly, would occasionally freak out and you can not power the 55 from the Ronin itself(you can power a 5).

Yes I would never put forward the F55 as good camera for gimbals.. but it can actually be done on the Ronin if you really have no choice.. (when as you say 99% of the time it should be steadicam anyway) but this wasn't the criteria for the OP.. but my main point to Iron film was that you would never want your A cam to be used alternatively between gimbal and not anyway.. so pretty much a moot point in consideration of buying a used F55.. unless ofcourse 70% of your work is gimbal.. then better to buy a Sony a9 .. or similar..

 

[IronFilm]

Absolutely agree. I think with the prices the Alexa Classics are at now they have reached a stable price and will stay there for a while. Look at the F35. After the initial drop it has now stabilized and has stayed at basically around the same price for a few years.

I'm guessing probably true too. But then I saw another drop by a thousand or two in prices of Arri Alexa Classics over the past six months.

They might keep on sliding down.... who really knows? Would require owning a crystal ball to be certain!

 

[jpham]

Agreed, Sony marketing sucks at selling this to the indie/tv/web/film world.

not sure, but ever see consumer willing to pay for video taping - about $15/hr. At that price - you can
only offer DSLR or handycam.