Sony Announces the F65 CineAlta Digital Motion Picture Camera
20 Megapixel sensor, 8k bayer, 4k 16 bit RAW!
Suffice to say, these are specs to dribble over. They are so impressive in fact, I might have to reduce my German allegiance, walk away from the Alexa I love and explore the virtues of ultra HD recording.
Here’s what Sony has to say about their new camera – shipping from January 2012:
The F65 exceeds the resolution of any previous digital motion picture camera (as of August 2011), the result of a remarkable Sony Super 35 image sensor. Sony has been developing semiconductor image sensors since 1973 and manufacturing commercial quantities since 1985. Through all the decades, our design goal has always been to match the photographic quality of 35mm film. But now we’re setting our sights even higher: to surpass the limits of human vision. The F65 image sensor is the first of this new breed.
Key Features
- Industry’s first 8K 20M-Pixel CMOS imager for digital motion picture production
- From this imager, the F65 will derive brilliant HD, 2K, True 4K resolution, and higher
- 16bit Linear RAW output
- F65 adheres to 1.9:1 aspect ratio, DCI Projection standard (4096 x 2160 or 2048 x 1080) Choice of picture composition as needed: 1.85:1, 1.78:1, 1.66:1, 1.33:1, 2.35 spherical, 1.3x anamorphic, or 2x anamorphic cropped
- Wide dynamic range, low S/N ratio, and high sensitivity
- Optional SR-R4 on board SRMemory recorder
- HD-SDI Monitoring outputs with viewing LUT’s
- The camera can shoot 1 to 120 fps
- 16 bit-RAW recording in SRMemory card (sold sep.)
F65 Imager
The F65 imager contains a total of 20 Mega-pixels. Half are sensitive to GREEN, and the other half are equally shared by RED and BLUE pixels. The sensor will provide pristine super-sampled HD and 2K images, and this is the first sensor in the industry that provides a dedicated green photosite for each pixel in the 4K (4096 x 2160) output image. The green channel is the most significant in creating the Y (or Luminance) signal. Having twice the amount of GREEN photosites compared with traditional 4K Bayer pattern sensors provides a significant improvement in image resolution.
SRMemory Card
The SRMemory card is an ultra high-speed, high-capacity, and high-reliability flash memory media for SRMASTER series cameras, ideal for demanding professional applications including 3D production, high frame rate digital cinematorgraphy, and high-resolution digital cinematography.
IIF ACES
With its significantly wider colour space, Dynamic Range and other processing, the F65 is the first image capture system designed from the ground up to support the Academy IIF-ACES, Image Interchange Framework, Academy Colour Encoding Specification.
Just off the chopper after having shot aerials using the Tyler Mini Gyro. I first came across this great little device touring the corridors of the last SMPTE exhibition and have been waiting for an opportunity to try it. The mini Gyro allows us to produce gyro stabilized images for sequences like aerials, car to car and the like. All at a very very cost effective rate, renting out at around $700 per day. The gyro sits on a pogo stick-like contraption which helps to smooth out any bigger bumps and the camera effectively just floats there.