Last night I made the trek to Sony's Toronto HQ to get my eyes and hands on their new F55. Even though the night began with talk of the Mayan calendar, the message was loud and clear: if the world doesn't end on the 21st, a new day will dawn.
When I first read about the F55 weeks ago, I recognized the game had suddenly evolved. An Alexa with a Global Shutter, priced at $35k -- exciting times, indeed. But the F55 isn't just an Alexa, it's a future-proof beast that will shoot 4K (4096x2160) RAW up to 60p and up to 240p at 2K RAW -- mind you, RAW recording
only comes at the added expense of Sony's R5 recorder. I had read a few times over the past few weeks that the R5 recorder was included in the price of the body, but it was confirmed to me last night that this is (unfortunately)
not true. What does that mean for those of you wanting to just buy the body and shoot on SxS Pro+ cards? Without the R5 the F55 will
not record in RAW, but will instead top out at 4K with the XAVC 422 codec at 600Mbps.
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| The Camera Everyone's Talking About |
A big portion of last night's show-and-tell was devoted to showing how easily the XAVC footage will slip into your workflow: FCP, PP, Resolve, etc. Early buzz on Sony's new codec is definitely positive, yet the XAVC h.264 based codec is but one option available to you on this rig. The F5 and F55 have (in-camera) multi codec capability: MPEG4, SStP (at 4:2:2 and 4:4:4) and XAVC. Slap on the R5 and you can add RAW to your options. Truly versatile.
This 4lb 14oz body comes with another great selling point: the ultra-versatile FZ lens mount with a flange focal depth of 19mm, that compares to the 52mm depth of the PL mount. Sony includes a PL to FZ adaptor, meaning that out of the box you've got options. Because of the FZ's short depth, it provides you with access to virtually every mount out there: Canon, Nikon, Leica and so on.
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| The Camera Everyone Wanted Their Hands On |
Sony paired one of last night's F55s with the exceptional Fujinon 19-90mm T2.9 Cabrio, an ENG lens lighter than I expected and powered through the FZ mount, eliminating cable clutter. While the Fujinon rep told me they're still waiting for a doubler and 1.4x to be available, these items
are in the pipeline. Hoisting the F55/Cabrio combo (complimented by a shoulder mount), the first thing to strike me was that it was front-heavy, but with the R5 (or other rear-end accessories) slapped on, this rig is ready for the field. Battery, lens, viewfinder, body, shoulder mount and you're topping out around 20 lbs -- not prosumer/DSLR light, but definitely in the same range as the F900 or F800. I'm not a linebacker sized guy, but I've worked many 13-15 hours days schlepping the 900 and 800, so I'm confident the F55 will be a viable handheld option.
The one gripe I heard from a few in attendance was the vulnerability of the cable connection for the F55's viewfinder. This is a legitimate observation since the cable and its plug do appear to be a bit of an afterthought, begging the question: why Sony didn't (at the very least) affix a cable clamp/pinch to the body to prevent accidental yanks? Perhaps this opens another can of worms: being a modular camera, add-ons are going to be less streamlined than what we've seen on the ENG cameras we've battering to near death for years. This makes me wonder if a modular camera will be able to stand up to the rigours of battlefield/run-and-gun filmmaking.
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| Just Waiting to Get Yanked Out Accidentally |
As for pricing, here's a rather crappy photo I took of Sony Canada's Press Release. What you're looking at is a 4K RAW ready rig for about $50K:
In non-F5/55 related news, I was told by Sony's on-hand rep that the FS100/700 will
not be redesigned / upgraded in the near future. In other words, the piss poor ergonomics and stovepipe loupe are going to continue frustrating us until we make the switch to the F5/55.
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