Sony’s F65 – King Of The Pixels?

Sony’s new flagship digital camera – the F65One of the worst kept secrets at this year’s NAB was Sony’s new 4K camera the F65. Sony is aiming at recreating the 65mm look with digital cinematography and has come up with some technology and specs that deserve respect. They are calling the F65 ‘true 4K resolution and beyond – at the point of image capture’. Can’t think who that quote is aimed at.

Sony’s new F65 has a unique 8K image sensor, with approximately 20 megapixels, and a 16-bit RAW output, for end-to-end 4K mastering workflow.

“Sony’s new F65 digital motion picture camera combines true 4K resolution with an expansive dynamic range that enables a more nuanced reproduction of fine textural and tonal details,” said Curtis Clark, ASC.  “Along with excellent contrast and exceptional colour reproduction the F65 produces images that have a rich filmic look and feel, providing filmmakers with significantly enhanced creative photographic possibilities.”

At the heart of the F65 camera is Sony’s newly developed 8K sensor, which will deliver HD, 2K, and 4K resolution today – and Sony promise will go far beyond 4K in the future, as the industry needs to evolve. The Sony imager is also the first to provide a dedicated green photosite for each pixel in the 4K output image. This is twice the amount of green resolution compared with traditional 4K Bayer pattern sensors, promising an improvement in image resolution that is ideal for VFX processing.

“Sony already has a successful track record in developing 4K technology, with our 4K digital cinema projection system literally re-defining the movie-going experience,” said Olivier Bovis, Head of AV Media Business, Sony Professional, Sony Europe. “However, Sony is committed to driving every aspect of a 4K workflow – starting with acquisition. This camera is the pinnacle of 30-plus years of research, experience and engineering breakthroughs and is the latest example of Sony’s ongoing pursuit of the highest quality content creation and production.

“The 8K CMOS sensor can run up to maximum 120Fps.  This sensor performance combined with 16 bit RAW output makes the F65 the first image capture system designed from the ground up to support the Academy IIF-ACES, Image Interchange Framework, Academy Colour Encoding Specification.

“The F65 has also been designed for multiple production applications, including 3D rigs and Steadicam, and will offer a detachable camera T-head for these configurations. In addition, an optional mechanical rotary shutter will be available for completely eliminating motion artefacts that are inherent with other CMOS sensor technology.”

A dockable SR memory recorder – model SR-R4 – attaches to the camera to record directly onto an SR memory card of 256 GB, 512 GB or 1TB capacity with data security and sustained throughput of 5 Gbps.  The recorder will enable ultra high speed recording of 16-bit RAW data.

“A 1TB memory card recording at 24 fps will store 50 minutes of footage in 4K 16 bit RAW. As with previous generations of CineAlta systems, Sony continues to work closely with the industry to develop this next generation digital motion picture camera technology and storage, workflow system.”