New F65 CineAlta camera makes European debut at IBC

AMSTERDAM (IBC Booth12.A10), 9 September, 2011: At NAB earlier this year, Sony introduced the new F65 CineAlta Digital Motion Picture camera, and captured the imagination of the industry with a stunning display of pictures from the camera in a 4K theatre on the booth. Five months on, Sony will make the European launch of the camera at IBC, will highlight its open strategy to enable alliance partners to integrate an F65 file-based workflow into their systems, and will unveil new products within its own SRMASTER™ line-up to bring some exciting new opportunities for production.

F65 – ultimate performance for true 4K production and beyond

The NAB introduction of the F65 raised the bar in the quest for the “look” of 65mm film, delivering on its promise to derive true 4K resolution and beyond– at the point of image capture.

At the heart of the F65 camera is Sony’s newly developed 8K sensor, which delivers pristine HD, 2K, and true 4K resolution today - and will go far beyond 4K in the future, as the industry needs evolve. This unique 8K image sensor, with a total of20 megapixels, offers higher image fidelity than any other camera through a combination of extraordinary resolution, 14 stops as total latitude, ISO800 sensitivity and wide colour reproduction to fit IIF-ACES* workflow. With 16-bit linear RAW output, the F65 also establishes the gateway to a complete, end-to-end 4K mastering workflow.

Other main features include:

• Ultra-secure recording onto SRMemory™ media using SR-R4 SRMASTER™ Dockable Recorder
• 60 Minutes of RAW recording onto a 1TB SRMemory card at 24FPS
• Rotary shutter model to remove motion artefacts. Four ND Filter is built-in with rotary shutter
• Wi-fi operation for remote control from tablet (Android Sony S1 and iPad)
• HD-SDI output with viewing LUT for on-set monitoring with focus assist zoom

F65 – powerful new features for HD acquisition

At IBC, Sony will also unveil a powerful new capability for the F65/SR-R4 - the ability to switch recording between 16-bit linear RAW and MPEG-4 SStP modes. Users will be able to configure the camera on a project by project basis, selecting either 16-bit linear RAW for ultimate quality acquisition or high speed operation at up to 120FPS, or MPEG-4 SStP (HDCAM SR native) for exceptional quality HD recording. MPEG-4 SStP also provides full compatibility for viewing, offline and post production using either the free Sony PC or MAC viewer or products using the Sony SDK (Software Development Kit) such as Final Cut Pro V7, Avid Media Composer, Avid Symphony, Vegas, Baselight, Da Vinci Resolve.

Open platform RAW file-based workflow

In order to facilitate end-to-end workflows at 4K, Sony is also adopting a similar open strategy of providing SDKs to enable alliance partner manufacturers to integrateF65 RAW workflow into their extensive line-up of production and post production tools. The SDKs will allow the user to extract the required resolution from the original RAW file, for example HD for off-line and 4K for final post production. Key partners implementing this RAW workflow will include Adobe® Premiere® Pro, AJA, Apple Final Cut Pro, ASSIMILATE, Avid’s Media Composer®, Blackmagic Design, Da Vinci Resolve, Colorfront, Deluxe, Digital Film Tree, EFILM, FilmLight, Fotokem nextLAB, The Foundry, Image Systems’ Nucoda, LightIron, Sony Vegas™ Pro, The PixelFarm®, Quantel, YoYotta.

New additions to the SRMASTER™ line-up

In addition to the SR-R1000 andSR-R1 and SRPC-5 launched at NAB, Sony is now introducing further addition to the line-up. The SR-PC4 has been designed to work on set for ingesting recorded material from SRMemory™ media, SDI monitoring and generating dailies. A variety of common data interfaces such as GbE, 10GbE and eSATA are provided.

Full details of the SRMemory™ card line up are also being disclosed. The line-up consists of six cards:

• SR-256S15 with a capacity of 256GB and a guaranteed write speed of 1.5Gbps
• SR-512S25 and SR-1TS25 with capacities of 512GB & 1TB and a guaranteed write speed of 2.5Gbps
• SR-256S55, SR-512S55 and SR-1TS55 with capacities of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB and a guaranteed write speed of 5.5Gbps

All cards have a data read speed of 5.5Gbps.

New CineAlta branding

Since its introduction over ten years ago, the CineAlta brand has come to represent the benchmark for the highest quality digital cinematography acquisition. Now, to coincide with the launch of the F65, a new CineAlta brand logo is being introduced. The logo signifies a quality of acquisition at Beyond HD resolution and reflects the open nature of the F65 and its file based approach.

“Screenings of pictures from the camera at and since NAB have left viewers in no doubt that the F65 takes digital motion picture imaging to a whole new level of performance” said Peter Sykes, Digital Cinematography Strategic Marketing Manager, Sony Professional. “Now we are highlighting our open approach to file-based workflow through partnerships with leading industry suppliers to offer ultimate flexibility to users of this exceptional camera”.

First deliveries of the F65/SR-R4 are scheduled for January 2012.First deliveries of the SR-R1000 and the SRMemory card line-up are scheduled for October 2011.

* IIF-ACES: Image interchange framework, Academy colour encoding specification