Sony PMW-F3, Brochure

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5 Sony PMW-F3
consumes very little power, generates very little heat, and doesn’t
need a fan.
A tilting viewfinder is attached at the rear of the top handle. It looks
similar to the HVR-Z7U finder, with about 1.2 million pixels. An
LCD monitor pivots out from the camera’s left side. I hope the next
model has a detachable finder that can mount either at the rear or
in front for shoulder-resting, and the 1/4-20 tripod mounts on the
bottom are replaced by industry-standard 3/8-16.
At the rear of the F3 are 2 Sony SxS ExpressCard slots. The F3
records natively onto SxS cards at 35 Mbps in 4:2:0 8-bit XDCAM
EX format. The SxS cards are formatted in standard FAT file
format; a 32 GB card will record 100 minutes in highest quality.
Many users will be happy with this. But, like Oliver Twist, many
will want more. And they can have more–with onboard SxS cards
as immediately editable proxies, while simultaneously recording
to a higher standard. That might include 4:4:4 10-bit S-Log HD-
SDI dual link to an SRW-1 /SRPC-1 SRW tape recorder at visually
lossless 440 and 880 Mbps or (next year) 1 TB Solid State Memory
Cards with potentially even greater data rates.
HD-SDI dual link outputs enable external recording (4:2:2 1080
50/59.94P normal; and RGB 1080 23.98/25/29.97PsF as an option).
You’ll be able to select S-Log and HyperGamma to seriously
increase the dynamic range. S-Log is Sony’s take on RAW “Digital
Negatives.” The image, uncorrected, looks pale and washed out
(like a negative), but when a Look-Up Table (LUT) is applied,
shows the full dynamic range of the image, giving you greater
flexibility for color and contrast correction in post.
Recording formats include 1920x1080, 1440x1080, and 1280x720
at 23.98/25/29.97p, 50/59.94i and, in DVCAM mode, 25/29.97PsF
and 50/59.94i. Under- and overcranking is called S & Q for “slow”
and “quick” recording, from 1 to 30 fps at 1920 x 1080 (17 to 30
fps in dual-link mode) and 1 to 60 fps at 1280 x 720 (17 to 60
fps in dual-link mode). Sony’s column-parallel A/D converter
mechanism makes 60 fps possible with less noise.
Who’s going to shoot with Sony’s F3–and how? If you’re a student
or independent, you’ll probably take the simplest package possible:
a zoom or primes, record to SxS onboard cards, and go directly to
edit. Of course, you’ll be sure to diligently back up those SxS cards
using Sony’s PXU-MS240 Mobile Storage Device, which not only
backs up the cards, but also carefully checks the data to be sure it’s
all there (parity). Next, you’ll copy the SxS card to your Avid or
Final Cut Pro system. (Go to sony.com/cinemon to download the
Sony Cinemon plug-in. It enables MPEG to be transparent to FCP
Quicktime. You’ll be able to edit natively in FCP, with drag and
drop capability. All files will be instantly viewable on a Mac. Avid’s
AMA (Avid Media Access) plug-in mounts the XDCAM EX files
directly into Avid Media Composer.)
When shooting documentaries, commercials or TV, you might
follow a similar path. Of course, you will not reformat your SxS
cards until the job is safely completed and many archives and
copies have been cloned. Cards are relatively cheap. The dreaded
word “Oops” is very expensive when a once-in-a-lifetime scene
is reformatted. I shudder when I see people reformatting cards
during a job. It’s like re-recording over your existing videotape.
High-end productions, recording to SR tape or memory, should
soon have native support of SR codec on Avid and Final Cut Pro.
The HD-SDI outputs of the Sony F3 will be eyed with great interest
12 VDC
4-pin XLR
dual SxS Card
slots
HD-SDI dual
link Out
HDMI Out
Composite
Video Out
2x USB ports
700 Remote
Control Port
3D Link