There are rumours of a Sony 4K camcorder called the FS700 flying all over the net and some interesting miss information as well, I have it from a source deep in the heart of Sony itself that we are about to witness not only a 4K FS700 but an 8K PMW-F7.
Sony have lost a ton of sales to Canon and are looking at throwing down the gauntlet with their new PMW-F7 8K sensor camcorder.
This baby will have 4:4:4, 12bit, 8K full frame sensor, at first it will only record 4K but with a paid firmware upgrade coming in June 2012 you will be able to record 8K onto an external recorder, this is also a direct hit at the ARRI Alexa and RED.
This holds problems with people using Nikon lenses that are not full frame FX lenses as you will get vignetting if you don’t use FX lenses or better still 4K PL glass.
It uses a new recording format called the “G” card, the “G” card will record at 150 Mbps and comes in 500G and 1TB sizes. Sony have a tentative price of G.500 @ £650 and the G.T1 @ £900. We are looking at about 40mins of footage onto a 500G card.
Sony have also struck a deal with Canon and developed the EF-F7.001 adapter that will allow Canon L glass only but with full electronic control of the iris and IS part of the lens if it has IS built in (June 2012), the reason for this is that the camera has digital handshaking between the lens, adapter and the camera so third party vendors will not be able to offer adapters for the F7. An electronic Nikon adapter will be available in July 2012.
This news is earth shattering but the cost will be around the £16K mark so not a camera many of us will be affording but the quality will be astounding. In true Sony fashion the camera will down convert to 4K or 2K via USB3 or a Thunderbolt port. This is also the first camera to have Apples Thunderbolt technology built in.
The F7 does not ship with a viewfinder, like the PMW-500, but two hi res viewfinders will be available at the time of shipping, one being the conventional viewfinder as seen on the PMW-350 costing around £2000 and a higher spec cinematic type viewfinder costing £3500.
Update. This will also work with the Sony SR-R1 portable recording system compatible with any camera, camcorder, and other equipment with an HD-SDI interface, including the PMW-F3, PMW-F7, F35 and SRW-9000PL.
A Sony Cretanology tour will be arranged during July 2012 showing off the new FS700 and PMW-F7,
Well,
Now i feel sorry for all F3 owners. They had very short run. Thanks for that info …
I got about a paragraph in…then realised that while it’s only 3.30am, it is April 1st. Nice one!
and we are…. April 1st!
It’s a world first for you, Philip. Well done.
A PMW-F7 will be quite expensive at around US$30,000 when all the extras are thrown in and then what sort of batteries will it use? In addition, more upmarket PL and Canon mount lens will be required. Certainly, you’re right, Philip. This one is aimed at RED and ARRI users. It’s also pitched beyond the Canon C300 crowd.
Still makes the PMW-F3 relevant in the equation. With the addition of a moderately priced external recorder you are somewhat nearer to a PMW-F7. (except for the 4K.)
I’m still thankful for the F3. As an indie person it was always going to be the best I could afford.
Wow…..and this looks interesting also-
http://www.varidof.com/VariDoF press Release.pdf
….as real as petrol prices falling to their price before panic buying…….
No Idiot Can Ever Own Nice Equipment !!
I’ve got to stop taking things so seriously.
The F3 lives again.
http://www.techradar.com/news/television/bbc-talks-super-hi-vision-plans-for-london-2012-1068914
I find it funny that there really will be Japanese 8K NHK camera shooting in London in 3 months!
No need to jest, it’s real, but not Sony brand!
I imagine an advanced S-Log specification with improved DR, advanced highlight control, higher bit depth, etc., will be included. With specs like this on the F7 it’s gotten to the point here that we have achieved the technical limits of scalability in image capture, in which anything beyond this would be irrelevant to human perception. The direction from here is to engineer refinements, and compete on price and volume as the costs of manufacturing decreases over time.