Is the F55 still worth it in 2024?

[Samuel Berger]

Hey guys, due to the enormous price decrease, I've been thinking of finally getting a Sony F55 instead of the FX6. Do you guys have any experience with that camera? It seems a lot more impressive than the FX6 as long as I buy the AXS-R5 external recorder. @Tyler Purcell knows I avoided the FS7 like the plague back in the day (I'm a Canon shooter) but the F55 is something else.

[Chris Burke]

Go for it. Some cameras come with a ProRes option. I agree, having the raw recorder if you want it is a great option. 

[Max Field]

If you need a camera for some ENG capture style stuff, or you need to do films with a global shutter then I'd say a price point of around $2,000 for a shoot-ready F55 is a solid deal. Woody Allen used it for a few films and those pictures looked good enough to me.

If those above features are not something important to you then Blackmagic Pocket 6K is far more the way to go. As it will cost almost half the price of the F55 with cheaper accessories across the board. For some odd reason there is a bubble of around $1,500 that high end digital cine cameras never drop below no matter how ancient they get.

[Samuel Berger]

13 minutes ago, Max Field said:

If you need a camera for some ENG capture style stuff, or you need to do films with a global shutter then I'd say a price point of around $2,000 for a shoot-ready F55 is a solid deal. Woody Allen used it for a few films and those pictures looked good enough to me.

If those above features are not something important to you then Blackmagic Pocket 6K is far more the way to go. As it will cost almost half the price of the F55 with cheaper accessories across the board. For some odd reason there is a bubble of around $1,500 that high end digital cine cameras never drop below no matter how ancient they get.

Thanks Max, also, can't wait to tell my teen that the creator of CLASS OF '09 talked to me today, it's all the rage with the kiddos, haha! I think Jeffrey is hilarious!

[Samuel Berger]

On 9/12/2024 at 9:39 AM, Max Field said:

I'd say a price point of around $2,000 for a shoot-ready F55 is a solid deal.

I found a guy selling one with the ProRes upgrade for $2k. What do you think? The ProRes board alone used to cost $2k by itself! @Tyler Purcell what do you think?

[Samuel Berger]

I ordered it, it was just the right thing to do. Now to find a way of mounting an E mount lens on a FZ mount!

[Tyler Purcell]

1 hour ago, Samuel Berger said:

I found a guy selling one with the ProRes upgrade for $2k. What do you think? The ProRes board alone used to cost $2k by itself! @Tyler Purcell what do you think?

Oooo not bad! Go for it. Cheap! 

[Samuel Berger]

15 minutes ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Oooo not bad! Go for it. Cheap! 

Thanks! Hopefully this thread will help people making the same journey! Mine will come with a Gold Mount plate. I never owned one before. I wonder why the owners didn't just go with V-mount. I also wish there was a SxS-to-SSD solution, but I doubt that's ever going to be a thing. Edit: I just found out there are adapters that allow you to use SD cards in SxS slots, but, I have yet to see confirmation that it will work with the F55.

Edited September 13 by Samuel Berger

[Daniel J. Fox]

22 hours ago, Samuel Berger said:

I ordered it, it was just the right thing to do. Now to find a way of mounting an E mount lens on a FZ mount!

You can't mount Sony E-mount lenses to FZ due to the flange distance. There are however adapters out there for almost every vintage lens type and even LPL.

[Samuel Berger]

4 minutes ago, Daniel J. Fox said:

You can't mount Sony E-mount lenses to FZ due to the flange distance. There are however adapters out there for almost every vintage lens type and even LPL.

This is incorrect, I see Fujinon E-mount zooms on F55s all the time. 

[Balz Auf der Maur]

No, Daniel is right, it‘s not possible (source: owned an FZ mount camera myself up until recently). There is however an option to change the Fujinon Zooms (i assume you‘re thinking about the Fuji MK-E Zooms 18-55 & 50-135?) to an FZ mount, which is probably what you‘ve seen being used 😉

here‘s a linkt to mtf: https://www.lensadaptor.com/fuji-mk-lens-sony-fz-mount

[Daniel J. Fox]

1 hour ago, Samuel Berger said:

This is incorrect, I see Fujinon E-mount zooms on F55s all the time. 

I own an F55 and two F3s - I know these cameras back to front when it comes to lens options and what adapters can be used with the FZ mount.

You can "change" the mount to E-mount on the Fujinon zoom to FZ (I've 4 of the lenses in my store and an FZ mount kit), but you can't use an adapter, it's a full mount replacement.

If you want an MK 18-55 I could mod you one to FZ and give you a decent price 🙂

 

[Samuel Berger]

3 minutes ago, Daniel J. Fox said:

I own an F55 and two F3s - I know these cameras back to front when it comes to lens options and what adapters can be used with the FZ mount.

You can "change" the mount to E-mount on the Fujinon zoom to FZ (I've 4 of the lenses in my store and an FZ mount kit), but you can't use an adapter, it's a full mount replacement.

If you want an MK 18-55 I could mod you one to FZ and give you a decent price 🙂

 

Thank you for the clarification, yes you do have to unscrew the flange and remount. It's not like a Metabones thing, I guess. Sure, DM me what you have in mind for that zoom. Are you leaving the F55 environment?

[Daniel J. Fox]

Just now, Samuel Berger said:

Thank you for the clarification, yes you do have to unscrew the flange and remount. It's not like a Metabones thing, I guess. Sure, DM me what you have in mind for that zoom. Are you leaving the F55 environment?

No - the F3 and the F55 are the backbone of our camera kit and have been for a couple of years now and no plans to change that any time soon. I'll DM you re: the MK 18-55 - I have two basically new in box.

[Samuel Berger]

12 minutes ago, Daniel J. Fox said:

No - the F3 and the F55 are the backbone of our camera kit and have been for a couple of years now and no plans to change that any time soon. I'll DM you re: the MK 18-55 - I have two basically new in box.

That sounds great, do you work in ProRes or 4K XAVC 480? I can't wait to try my new camera out. I don't think I'll be doing the RAW because it requires buying the $600 add-on (AXS-R5).

[Daniel J. Fox]

My camera has the ProRes cards which are useful. I intend to get the R5 or F7 for very high-end work, but I need to pay off a few other bills first 😉 

[Samuel Berger]

Greeting, future readers. The issue with the F55 shooting RAW, for anyone Googling this years from now, is that it requires the AXS-R1 add-on. The add-on itself isn't that expensive. The real problem begins when you need to feed it AXSM cards. The cards are still used (I think on the Venice?) so their price has not come down at all. The AXSM-512S24 is around $200 used. The current model sells new for $2500. These are both 512GB.  If no one has hacked a way to use SD cards in an adapter by the time you read this, you will be spending quite a bit on media.

But here's where the cost skyrockets: You will need an AXSM card reader, the AXS-CR1. As of the time of this post, I have not found one for less than $1000.  Maybe in your time it will not be as expensive. I'm not getting any younger. If I am still alive in 5 years, I will update this information. 

You might be reading this 10 years from my time. Then, why are looking at buying an F55?? In my time, it was already a 12 year old camera. In yours, it's 22 years old. Maybe you're a future hipster (look it up -- they existed) and feel nostalgic for 4K and now every phone shoots 24K. If Blackmagic gave you AF, use that instead. 

[Tyler Purcell]

2 hours ago, Samuel Berger said:

The issue with the F55 shooting RAW, for anyone Googling this years from now, is that it requires the AXS-R1 add-on.

Forget that, the codec is basically a dinosaur, good luck getting it to work in anything smoothly. 

[Samuel Berger]

10 hours ago, Tyler Purcell said:

Forget that, the codec is basically a dinosaur, good luck getting it to work in anything smoothly. 

So, there is zero advantage to shooting RAW with the F55?

[Tyler Purcell]

5 hours ago, Samuel Berger said:

So, there is zero advantage to shooting RAW with the F55?

Not if you care about using the raw files. You need one heck of a beefy system AND storage for them to playback in real time. 

The newer X-OCN codec that launched few years ago and has been adopted by the Venice and Burano, is much better. 

[Giray Izcan]

There is a big advantage to using RAW. It's a 16 bit wide gamut color space. Just transcode it to whatever flavor you want for editorial and then conform it back to the RAW files for color timing and mastering in Davinci. You don't need raw files for editorial. I would put the raw files through davinci and would apply a rec 709 lut to have a more pleasing image, edit and then bring the edited material back to davinci for finising. Every editor I know works this way when it comes to handling raw files. I haven't met a single editor who wants or is ok with editing raw files. 

[Samuel Berger]

1 hour ago, Giray Izcan said:

I haven't met a single editor who wants or is ok with editing raw files. 

Same. I might just use ProRes 4444 or XAVC 480. Netflix suggests XAVC 480, S-Gamut3.cine/Slog3. Here is the suggested method:

[Aapo Lettinen]

On 9/17/2024 at 10:45 PM, Tyler Purcell said:

Not if you care about using the raw files. You need one heck of a beefy system AND storage for them to playback in real time. 

The newer X-OCN codec that launched few years ago and has been adopted by the Venice and Burano, is much better. 

Yes the R7 recorder is much more practical with the F55, saving lots of storage space. those are more expensive recorders of course but worth it if shooting lots of material per day. the original R5 stuff will easily run 1.2 - 2TB per day or more even when shooting very basic stuff with minimum takes

[Samuel Berger]

1 hour ago, Aapo Lettinen said:

Yes the R7 recorder is much more practical with the F55, saving lots of storage space. those are more expensive recorders of course but worth it if shooting lots of material per day. the original R5 stuff will easily run 1.2 - 2TB per day or more even when shooting very basic stuff with minimum takes

I see it still fetches upwards of $3000 and the AXSM cards are $380. The camera itself was $2000 so it would be silly to splurge on an overpriced add-on. If I want RAW I might be better off buying a Canon R5C. It has 8K RAW and is about the price of the AXS-R7.

I think ultimately that for the use I'm giving it, ProRes is more than enough. I do wish @Stuart Brereton came back to the forum so I could ask him about the F55.

[Samuel Berger]

On 9/17/2024 at 3:45 PM, Tyler Purcell said:

 The newer X-OCN codec that launched few years ago and has been adopted by the Venice and Burano, is much better. 

I just found out that the F55 can record X-OCN as long as you have the AXS-R7 recorder. Which, again, sells for $3000 used, then requires a $380 card. Unlike the stuff you record onto SxS cards, you can't just plug a USB cable into the camera and offload stuff from AXSM cards. You have to spend $1000 on a card reader.

I know the F55 is a beloved camera many people are nostalgic for. But it really seems like I should have saved my money and just bought a FX6, especially with the new firmware that was just announced. Because even though the camera plus viewfinder was $2000, when all is said and done I would need to spend almost $4000 extra to get a proper workflow out of it.