Administrators Andrew Reid Posted May 1, 2013 Administrators Share Posted May 1, 2013 My friend Nino has his F55 review out http://ninofilm.net/blog/2013/04/30/sony-f55-review-music-video-deja-struck-by-the-light/ Some stuff stands out - - Very clean image even at high ISOs, but like Nino I have my doubts whether they are actually high ISOs as we know them. - Built in 0.9 and 1.8 ND filters not strong enough for shooting at the native ISO 1250 in day light, still needs a matte box or an ND on the lens! Nino had to stop down to F8(!!) to get exposure in day light with the 1.8 ND setting. As far as I know, Sony had to introduce an entirely new material to make an ND filter on the F55's large sensor even possible (with high quality) so seemingly it has a lot of room for improvement in terms of the strength of the ND in future cameras. - The camera has issues with burning strong blue electric light sources even when they are not over exposed. This seems to be something which is common to a lot of Sony cameras. Nino noticed it as far back as the EX3 and even the NEX 7 does it. - In-camera downsampling to 1080p is done very well, can barely tell the difference between downscaling 4K to 1080p in post and the in-camera 1080p XAVC - Important options buried in menus, which aren't very responsive. Another Sony issue. Says Nino - A lot of very important menu points are hidden away deep in submenus and so I think there is still a lot of space for optimization. The menu really could use a rearrangements with some of the most important settings positioned more prominently. - 50MBps MPEG-2 4:2:2 proxy files generated in-camera on the fly. Very useful features for editing 4K, makes it much easier and less time consuming. Aside from the quirks it certainly seems to be a Red Epic beater for low light, speed of workflow with XAVC and motion (global shutter). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husah Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Sony released the cameras one year earlier before they were fully functional. Maybe that's why the name, "Future ahead of schedule" Basically, they are releasing firmwares almost twice every month to fix bugs and add features. Not even all of the hard buttons work right now. But it was clever move to release the camera right away. They could have waited till 2014 but then they would have lost one year head start to competition. Another plus is that they can use all the feedback while they still have a full development team working on the firmware. http://community.sony.com/t5/F5-F55/F5-and-F55-Challenges-from-ICE-Team/m-p/122669 Aside from higher resolution sensor, Red doesn't compete with F55 (dual recording, better ergonomics, global shutter, better internal compressed codecs, full-sensor 2K, 1080 etc., etc. It's a very long list ). F55 doesn't have any competition actually. It easily beats Red and C500 on paper at least. Alexa and F65, on other hand, are much larger and more expensive cameras targeted at high budget Hollywood studios. It's weird Shane Hurlbut would pick C500 over F55 for "Need for Speed" but he probably had his mind set on using Canon cameras Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbsy Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Used the F5 the other day. I have to say, it's mighty impressive especially for the price. You'd be kicking yourself if you bought a C300!! Regarding 2000ASA my guess is that the roll in ND's are to bring exposure to a level where you can actually control light with glas infront of the lens. Also the fact that using XAVCHD codec you can to fit over twice the amount of footage on the SXS pro + than you can when shooting pro res on the Alexa (without any discernible quality loss) is something that shouldn't be over looked. Yes skin tones are not quite up to the standard of the Alexa but for the price the thing is amazing. In fact I have a mate who bought a F65 last year and he is spitting chips. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcs Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 A 3D LUT is all that's need to get any skintones you want (color curves and grading will work too). The problem with bright blue is interesting- shared with the FS700. Fortunately pretty rare, however hoping that Sony will fix in future (firmware or HW fix). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Hmm, in comparison the Red Epic crop options are amazingly useful, but it's also really buggy and feels very american: huge specs but kinda rudimentary! Like an old muscle car. If you know you're deliver 1080, to use 2K for zooming in and 5K for wide is great! I've not touched the Sony F55 but I'm convinced it'll have menus a thousand layers deep and a few horrific quirks that grind... cos that's how they make cameras. Arri Alexa is a thing of beauty to use, solid as fuck, only has what you need, looks beautiful. It may only be 1080, but it just looks so good... The weight is a real downer though. But it's the only one so far that feels complete, not beta. Very German, and thus I love it ;) C500 I've not used, and though it lacks the stats I think that'll be the lightest and easiest to use, and will likely be less beta than the Red or Sony. I've yet to use F65 either... It looks kind of Red like from what i've seen, a ton of resolution and sharpness, very large gamut... But so far, when you push the footage, the only one I've found to have a film-like grain structure is Alexa. If I had to take a camera bride, it would be Alexa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrad Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 On the subject of high-end cinema cameras, I'm curious to see the first film shot on the Aaton Penelope Delta. CCD sensors can have a lot of character, and it's quite a quirky camera in a lot of ways. It wouldn't surprise me if that camera has a filmic look that can compete with the Alexa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husah Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 On the subject of high-end cinema cameras, I'm curious to see the first film shot on the Aaton Penelope Delta. CCD sensors can have a lot of character, and it's quite a quirky camera in a lot of ways. It wouldn't surprise me if that camera has a filmic look that can compete with the Alexa. http://nofilmschool.com/2013/04/aaton-financial-trouble-red-dragon-update/ Unfortunately, mass production has been hampered by defects controller Dalsa sensor, then the uneven performance of the sensors themselves, the quality was not up to the prototypes. Unable to deliver the ordered and already made many cameras, Aaton found itself short of cash and had to resort to bankruptcy proceedings to allow its purchase by a buyer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrad Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 Well, shit. Was wondering why it wasn't out by now... Very sad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgharding Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 That's a shame, the Delta was pretty innovative! Arri should buy them up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Husah Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 [media]https://vimeo.com/65343068#[/media] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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