What you should know:
After a few of years of denial that 4K was even necessary and thousands of RED camera sales, broadcast giants Sony began to get their act together and move toward 4K image capture. The stunning F5 and F55 cameras are the culmination of those efforts and more interestingly, an indication of a complete, and necessary, change of attitude at Sony.
What it offers:
The F5 and F55 are identical 5 lb. (2.3 kg) rectangular bricks – to distinguish them the F55’s lens mount is silver rather than black – but their technical capabilities are different. The base camera bodies feature 4K (4,096 x 2,160 pixel) super 35 mm sized sensors with 14 stops of exposure latitude that can shoot 2K and HD to two internal SxS Flash memory card slots using various MPEG2 and MPEG4 compression codecs. The F55 can also store compressed 4K to the internal cards. Both cameras can shoot 4K uncompressed RAW (film-style digital negative) to the latching modular AXS-R5 recorder that uses new AXS solid state drive cards.
The advantage:
The big workflow enhancer is that both HD and 4K images can be captured simultaneously, allowing for the rough editing of material using the HD proxies while the 4K RAW files are archived, color-corrected etc. This is a very attractive feature for producers and directors on busy sets.
Additionally the F55 possesses an electronic frame shutter (often called a "global shutter") that completely removes the wobbly effect that can be seen when fast panning a camera with a progressive CMOS sensor chip. The F55 can output 4K through its connectors and can shoot HD up to 180 frames per second for slow-mo effects. The F55 also utilizes a more "filmic" color filter array over its sensor than the cheaper F5.
The unfavorable:
The cameras won’t be available until February 2013, many features will require (free) firmware updates throughout the year and prices are not yet announced, though are estimated at US$35,000 and $20,000 for the F55 and F5 respectively.
The price:
estimated at US$35,000 and $20,000 for the F55 and F5 respectively.
After a few of years of denial that 4K was even necessary and thousands of RED camera sales, broadcast giants Sony began to get their act together and move toward 4K image capture. The stunning F5 and F55 cameras are the culmination of those efforts and more interestingly, an indication of a complete, and necessary, change of attitude at Sony.
What it offers:
The F5 and F55 are identical 5 lb. (2.3 kg) rectangular bricks – to distinguish them the F55’s lens mount is silver rather than black – but their technical capabilities are different. The base camera bodies feature 4K (4,096 x 2,160 pixel) super 35 mm sized sensors with 14 stops of exposure latitude that can shoot 2K and HD to two internal SxS Flash memory card slots using various MPEG2 and MPEG4 compression codecs. The F55 can also store compressed 4K to the internal cards. Both cameras can shoot 4K uncompressed RAW (film-style digital negative) to the latching modular AXS-R5 recorder that uses new AXS solid state drive cards.
The advantage:
The big workflow enhancer is that both HD and 4K images can be captured simultaneously, allowing for the rough editing of material using the HD proxies while the 4K RAW files are archived, color-corrected etc. This is a very attractive feature for producers and directors on busy sets.
Additionally the F55 possesses an electronic frame shutter (often called a "global shutter") that completely removes the wobbly effect that can be seen when fast panning a camera with a progressive CMOS sensor chip. The F55 can output 4K through its connectors and can shoot HD up to 180 frames per second for slow-mo effects. The F55 also utilizes a more "filmic" color filter array over its sensor than the cheaper F5.
The unfavorable:
The cameras won’t be available until February 2013, many features will require (free) firmware updates throughout the year and prices are not yet announced, though are estimated at US$35,000 and $20,000 for the F55 and F5 respectively.
The price:
estimated at US$35,000 and $20,000 for the F55 and F5 respectively.
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