Went to the launch of the new Sony CineAlta cameras a few days ago, got to go hands on and watch some of footage in 4k. Figured I'd post my thoughts.
The two cameras are pretty much identical, with the main differences being inside - it's really an Epic/Scarlet type deal, with the F55 shooting 4k on-board. The F55 also exhibits the same colourimetry of the F65, the F5 is closer to the F3. Interestingly, they both like like a big brother to the F3, rather than smaller brothers to the significantly larger F65.
The camera body itself is quite light, and very small. There was much comparison with a RED body from the crowd. This whole 'modular design' thing they're going for sounds very RED to me, but the benefit of the Sony is the fact that the body is pretty much ready-to-shoot, assuming you have a 3rd-party EVF and SxS cards (and lenses
).
The F55 was a non-production model so the menu wasn't functioning, but the menu is identical to that of the F5 which was functioning. The menu system is pretty much a carbon-copy of the Alexa's menu - I guess the greatest form of flattery is imitation. The Alexa's menu works really well, and whilst I don't feel Sony's menu is quite there, it's still 100x easier to navigate than the menus of say the FS series or the F3. One big difference with the Alexa is the side the menu is on. The F5 and F55 both have it's menu on the operator side, which is an interesting choice. It's great for those who need to run n gun, but I'm sure will prove annoying for those shooting narrative who have their Focus Puller set their settings.
Both cameras come with Sony's 'FZ' mount, which allows you to adapt any lens mount to the cameras, though they come bundled with a PL adapter.
Amongst the new stuff Sony announced is a new AVCHD-based codec (XAVC) that their cameras will shoot in, new SxS Pro+ cards that are more reliable for higher bitrate and higher framerate shooting, as well as their completely new AXSM storage card that slots in to their new raw recorder. Interestingly, for any FS700 users, the raw recorder will be able to slot into the FS700 and record 4k raw. The raw recorder slots in much like a battery and is easy to swap around.
Sony mentioned the availability of three EVFs, though whether that was a mistake I'm not sure, as only two were detailed and I can only find the mention of two online. The 3.5" LCD EVF was attached to the F5 and was okay. I'm not a big fan of Sony's flip-up LCD type EVF, but it would work okay. I did find the 3.5" to be a tad small. The F55 had a different EVF on and I thought it was great, it was just the right size and looked great. I though it was the OLED EVF but turns out it wasn't. Sony promised us that the OLED EVF is absolutely stunning, but apologised that we weren't able to put our eyes up to it.
Interestingly, the F55 has a lower base ISO than the F5 - the F55's base is ISO 1250, the F5 ISO 2000. They're impressive numbers, but I've already found issue with stacking NDs in the Alexa, and this is a whole stop more than that. Impressive if you need to shoot low light.
Ben Allen ACS showed us some exposure tests he was able to rush through in an afternoon. Interestingly, he showed that you could push the camera 4 stops over-exposed and grade it back to completely normal exposure and you could hardly notice the difference. Under was a different story, with 4 stops under getting really noisy when pushed back to normal, but there was still detail at 4-stops under. 1-stop under actually looked quite nice and would probably be where I'd shoot at if I were to use this camera. One thing I immediately noticed, however, was that the highlights even on the normal exposure shot were completely gone. I wondered if it was because they were pushed for time.
My question seemed to be answered though, as we then watched the demo footage in 4k. Here's a link to what we watched:
http://vimeo.com/54499106
The global shutter meant there were absolutely 0 rolling shutter artifacts which was a pleasure to see, however the entire demo just seemed to look very video. It had a very Sony look about it, and I wasn't impressed at all. There was nothing that jumped out at me and made me go 'wow'. Maybe I'm spoiled from seeing Alexa images, but I found that the images weren't even really as good as those you can get from an Epic, and an Epic is cheaper now. The resolution was certainly there, and from simply a 4k perspective, the resolution was nice (though I felt it was also way too sharp and clean, something else you don't really see from the Alexa). The whole thing seemed like it would suit documentary really well - if you were looking to make beautiful documentaries, you wouldn't look any further as it does create nice 4k images. I was shocked, however, at how quickly the highlights blew out. One would assume that it comes down to the grading, but all demo footage I've seen so far has had blown highlights and to me that doesn't bode well. An Epic doesn't blow the highlights that easy. There were skies that were completely gone with no detail in them, and even in the river scene, the highlight on the river had no detail. Even some of the highlights on the darker skin were starting to go, and in a demo movie, with numerous Gaffers, shooting raw, I struggle to find a reason that would happen if the camera was able of keeping that highlight detail.
It was somewhat of an anti-climax, we'd gone hands-on first, then been preached to by Sony and so we were all prepped and excited to see what the footage was going to be like, only to be let down by the image that was eventually presented.
I'd be interested to see how the camera performs in the hands of a more experienced DP, as I remember not being overly impressed with the F65 footage when that came out (although I'm still not overly impressed with F65 footage). Sony also announced a firmware update for the F65 that would allow it to debayer 6k video and 8k still images.
Lastly, they announced that they'd refreshed their PL lens lineup - three new lenses, and an all new sturdier build quality. The optics, however, will be identical to the F3 primes.
Overall, the camera is decent and seems like it would work much more efficiently than a RED - Sony knows how to build cameras that don't have issue on just about every shoot. Unfortunately, it seems Sony only knows how to make broadcast cameras, as the images out of the cameras just looks way too broadcast for my liking, though I'll have to wait and see what an experienced set of hands does with it. Considering it's now more expensive than a RED, it seems you'd get more highlight detail out of a RED, and potentially a better picture. I'd be happy to shoot on the F series, but I'd need to do my own tests to see just how quickly those highlights do blow out.
The two cameras are pretty much identical, with the main differences being inside - it's really an Epic/Scarlet type deal, with the F55 shooting 4k on-board. The F55 also exhibits the same colourimetry of the F65, the F5 is closer to the F3. Interestingly, they both like like a big brother to the F3, rather than smaller brothers to the significantly larger F65.
The camera body itself is quite light, and very small. There was much comparison with a RED body from the crowd. This whole 'modular design' thing they're going for sounds very RED to me, but the benefit of the Sony is the fact that the body is pretty much ready-to-shoot, assuming you have a 3rd-party EVF and SxS cards (and lenses
).
The F55 was a non-production model so the menu wasn't functioning, but the menu is identical to that of the F5 which was functioning. The menu system is pretty much a carbon-copy of the Alexa's menu - I guess the greatest form of flattery is imitation. The Alexa's menu works really well, and whilst I don't feel Sony's menu is quite there, it's still 100x easier to navigate than the menus of say the FS series or the F3. One big difference with the Alexa is the side the menu is on. The F5 and F55 both have it's menu on the operator side, which is an interesting choice. It's great for those who need to run n gun, but I'm sure will prove annoying for those shooting narrative who have their Focus Puller set their settings.
Both cameras come with Sony's 'FZ' mount, which allows you to adapt any lens mount to the cameras, though they come bundled with a PL adapter.
Amongst the new stuff Sony announced is a new AVCHD-based codec (XAVC) that their cameras will shoot in, new SxS Pro+ cards that are more reliable for higher bitrate and higher framerate shooting, as well as their completely new AXSM storage card that slots in to their new raw recorder. Interestingly, for any FS700 users, the raw recorder will be able to slot into the FS700 and record 4k raw. The raw recorder slots in much like a battery and is easy to swap around.
Sony mentioned the availability of three EVFs, though whether that was a mistake I'm not sure, as only two were detailed and I can only find the mention of two online. The 3.5" LCD EVF was attached to the F5 and was okay. I'm not a big fan of Sony's flip-up LCD type EVF, but it would work okay. I did find the 3.5" to be a tad small. The F55 had a different EVF on and I thought it was great, it was just the right size and looked great. I though it was the OLED EVF but turns out it wasn't. Sony promised us that the OLED EVF is absolutely stunning, but apologised that we weren't able to put our eyes up to it.
Interestingly, the F55 has a lower base ISO than the F5 - the F55's base is ISO 1250, the F5 ISO 2000. They're impressive numbers, but I've already found issue with stacking NDs in the Alexa, and this is a whole stop more than that. Impressive if you need to shoot low light.
Ben Allen ACS showed us some exposure tests he was able to rush through in an afternoon. Interestingly, he showed that you could push the camera 4 stops over-exposed and grade it back to completely normal exposure and you could hardly notice the difference. Under was a different story, with 4 stops under getting really noisy when pushed back to normal, but there was still detail at 4-stops under. 1-stop under actually looked quite nice and would probably be where I'd shoot at if I were to use this camera. One thing I immediately noticed, however, was that the highlights even on the normal exposure shot were completely gone. I wondered if it was because they were pushed for time.
My question seemed to be answered though, as we then watched the demo footage in 4k. Here's a link to what we watched:
http://vimeo.com/54499106
The global shutter meant there were absolutely 0 rolling shutter artifacts which was a pleasure to see, however the entire demo just seemed to look very video. It had a very Sony look about it, and I wasn't impressed at all. There was nothing that jumped out at me and made me go 'wow'. Maybe I'm spoiled from seeing Alexa images, but I found that the images weren't even really as good as those you can get from an Epic, and an Epic is cheaper now. The resolution was certainly there, and from simply a 4k perspective, the resolution was nice (though I felt it was also way too sharp and clean, something else you don't really see from the Alexa). The whole thing seemed like it would suit documentary really well - if you were looking to make beautiful documentaries, you wouldn't look any further as it does create nice 4k images. I was shocked, however, at how quickly the highlights blew out. One would assume that it comes down to the grading, but all demo footage I've seen so far has had blown highlights and to me that doesn't bode well. An Epic doesn't blow the highlights that easy. There were skies that were completely gone with no detail in them, and even in the river scene, the highlight on the river had no detail. Even some of the highlights on the darker skin were starting to go, and in a demo movie, with numerous Gaffers, shooting raw, I struggle to find a reason that would happen if the camera was able of keeping that highlight detail.
It was somewhat of an anti-climax, we'd gone hands-on first, then been preached to by Sony and so we were all prepped and excited to see what the footage was going to be like, only to be let down by the image that was eventually presented.
I'd be interested to see how the camera performs in the hands of a more experienced DP, as I remember not being overly impressed with the F65 footage when that came out (although I'm still not overly impressed with F65 footage). Sony also announced a firmware update for the F65 that would allow it to debayer 6k video and 8k still images.
Lastly, they announced that they'd refreshed their PL lens lineup - three new lenses, and an all new sturdier build quality. The optics, however, will be identical to the F3 primes.
Overall, the camera is decent and seems like it would work much more efficiently than a RED - Sony knows how to build cameras that don't have issue on just about every shoot. Unfortunately, it seems Sony only knows how to make broadcast cameras, as the images out of the cameras just looks way too broadcast for my liking, though I'll have to wait and see what an experienced set of hands does with it. Considering it's now more expensive than a RED, it seems you'd get more highlight detail out of a RED, and potentially a better picture. I'd be happy to shoot on the F series, but I'd need to do my own tests to see just how quickly those highlights do blow out.
