Sony Venice hands on

[Robin R Probyn]

Laid hands on the Venice today.. wow what a lovely camera.. very pleasing to the eye.. and the EVF is really there best.. and at last Sony have seen the light and the camera will ship FF ready.. phew thanks Sony.. only its major selling point.. !..

 

For those that can make Slog or Sony Raw work.. this will be the camera to have.. you can even put Sony E mount lenses on .. if the camera rental is too high .. :)..

[Mark Kenfield]

6k Vistavision from launch is the right call to make. I'm glad Sony have seen the light.

There's still appears to be no word on downsampling, and whether the camera will be able to record 4k (ideally up to 50fps at least) downsampled from the full width of the sensor.

Not being able to get a basic 2x slow motion from the camera in full-frame mode would be a serious downer.

 

What monitoring features does the new EVF offer Robin? And is it able to show a LUTted image whilst still measuring levels from the underlying log exposure? (that's always been the biggest issue with Sony EVFs I think).

[Robin R Probyn]

ah yes damn I was going to ask that.. re the down sampling.. they don't mention it.. . although I agree that would silly not to .. and the f5/55 down sample from 4K to HD in camera so its not a new concept for them.. presumably it does ..or hopefully !..

 

I had a play with the "vista vision mode" and 16-9..the camera body is really a lovely shape .. and very small.. its not much bigger than the f55.. actually shorter I think but a bit wider.. I think you could even put it on a heavy duty gimbal setup..

 

Sorry didn't ask about the monitoring thing.. it only has Slog3.. so if it says it has false color then it must for slog3.. it had all the usual stuff and a separate EVF menu button .. don't know about the LUT/ LOG level thing.. but your right on the f5/55 there is no choice .. I always work off the LUTed image so for me its fine.. but not sure if there is an option ..maybe as even the fs7 has the choice I believe .. at least for the WFM..

 

But the image in that EVF is really something else.. Ive used the new Pana one.. and had a look at the new Canon one.. the Arri,s are of course great.. but this thing is amazing.. it looks like glass.. estimated price I was told..¥650,000.. about $5,800 US.. not bad really as prices go for those high end OLED EVF,s..and light years better than the older OLED.. which was about the same price..

 

Not a camera I,ll be buying.. but really its a work of art.. great design.. and a EVF to die for.. I imagine it will be very popular on rental f55,s for any high end work..

[Mark Kenfield]

Hmm... more details have come out on the full frame from launch announcement. It'll still be a paid licence to access the FF sensor, but the camera will ship with a free six month FF licence (to get people hooked I suppose).

[Robin R Probyn]

Hmm... more details have come out on the full frame from launch announcement. It'll still be a paid licence to access the FF sensor, but the camera will ship with a free six month FF licence (to get people hooked I suppose).

 

 

Oh .. not what I read .. or more likely was left out of what I read..!!.. really have to wonder what goes on in the marketing department .. have a history of this craziness .. its like advertising a fancy V8 engine car but 2 cylinders are blocked till you pay more.. they only need tack a little more onto the pretty reasonable price tag.. strange logic..

 

I,ll bet the actual engineers are pissed off..

Edited November 16, 2017 by Robin R Probyn

[Stuart Brereton]

 

its like advertising a fancy V8 engine car but 2 cylinders are blocked till you pay more.. they only need tack a little more onto the pretty reasonable price tag.. strange logic..

 

It's a basic sales technique to keep the sticker price as low as possible, and then sell add-ons. A lot of people aren't going to want the FF anyway, if it means they can't use their favorite lenses.

[Robert Hart]

Uh-oh. Temporary enablement to bait folk into the FF thing. They are just asking for some clown to hack it. I guess there will be very intimidating warnings about a very real risk of bricking the camera and Sony turning round and telling the owners of bricked cameras "stiff bicks". or charging a premium price to unbrick it.

[Igor Trajkovski]

from FDTIMES.COM by John Fauer:

Sony Venice Fully Functional FF in February

 

"I would imagine that Sony headquarters reacted to a frosty reception by

rental houses and users by deploying a squadron of software engineers to

work round the clock since then."

[Mark Kenfield]

Poor Sony, I'm sure they see Arri doing this with all of their cameras and think "that's a good idea, makes the entry-level price more appealing - we'll do that too", but for some reason, unlike the Germans they get pilloried for it :unsure:

[Robin R Probyn]

Yes thats true.. but does it mean that the 4K can't be a down sample image if the FF sensor is not "activated ".. presuming it would be largely a rental camera rather than owner user.. it still seems to me better they had just jacked up the initial relatively very low price a bit..

 

But its great that the EVF can be used on the f5/55.. now if they would just put the price down a bit..!

[Mark Kenfield]

I seem to be only person who thinks the price is pretty reasonable. Compared to Red's Vistavision camera, it's almost cheap. And the price is fairly close to a Mini or Epic-W setup, so it's not THAT exclusively priced anyway.

 

Another interesting point, is that the E-mount opens up the option of using the full range of speedboosters with it, which gives you an effective Vistavision image anyway. Or should at least tide people by until they can afford to licence the full sensor.

[Robin R Probyn]

No.. I say the same.. I was only referring to the EVF.. the camera is very reasonable .. thats my point.. put the price a bit and give the FF for free.. I paid more for a digbeta ..

[Mark Kenfield]

I couldn't agree more.

 

Was there any word of autofocus via the e-mount down the road? That'd be pretty handy for gimbal work.