Sony PMW-F3, Brochure

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8 Sony PMW-F3
by Seth Emmons
Those of us who spend way too much time on camera technology
websites and travel the major industry tradeshow circuit like to
think we’re always one step ahead. We traffic in substantiated
rumors and informed speculation. We don’t guess at what’s coming
next—well, some of us do. Many of us thought we knew what to
expect from Sony’s Super 35mm launch at the George Lucas
Building on the University of Southern California’s Los Angeles
campus. We were in for some surprises.
Sony’s original promotional images for the evenst showed a cine-
style mattebox and cine lens poking out of a red cloth with what
looked like a camcorder-sized bump behind it. Many guessed
(correctly) that it would be the new XDCAM EX-like 35mm
digital camera that Sony had teased at NAB and shown under
glass at IBC. Sure enough, preliminary specs on the PMW-F3 were
“leaked” on the Sony UK website a week before the event.
Sure enough, Sony’s Peter Crithary, Marketing Manager,
Production, gave those in attendance an in-depth presentation on
the features of the PMW-F3. A new 35mm digital camera with a
huge amount of horsepower for such an affordable little package
that fits seamlessly into Sony’s existing motion picture camera line.
We were treated to a screening of material shot on the F3: two shorts
by USC students and faculty, and one short by Sam Nicholson,
ASC of Stargate Studios. Sam was the same cinematographer who
shot the Sony F23/F35 demo “Thoroughbred.”
The footage showed that the F3 has an impressive dynamic range,
even when recording directly to SxS cards. Nicholson’s short
included a good amount of nighttime exteriors, all shot with
available light and the camera set to 18db gain, which was one of
the features that impressed him most.
Nicholson said, “It’s like glass. This is one of the best signal-to-
noise ratios on any digital camera I’ve ever seen. We cranked it
up as high as the camera would go and couldn’t find the noise
in it.” However, the camera he used only had an Exposure Index
of 800. With the upgrade option to S-Log, Sony estimates the EI
“conservatively” at 1600.
Crithary also came up with the biggest surprise of the night. SR
Memory is closer than you think, and more affordable. Although
he declined to put a price tag or delivery date on the SR Memory
recorder, called SR-R1, he did expect it to be within reach of many
cinematographers. The ability to record up to 440 Mbs (and higher)
onto solid state, RAID-5 protected cards of up to 1Tb should meet
the needs of any high-budget, VFX-heavy feature.
As with all Sony cameras, one can rest assured that when the
camera arrives the post production path will be ready and waiting
for it. The PMW-F3 is no exception. The onboard SxS cards with
XDCAM EX 4:2:0 8-bit format provide the proxies with LUTs
baked in for offline editing. The dual link HD-SDI outputs provide
RGB 10-bit S-Log (available by software upgrade) as the master
format (recordable to SRW-1 tape now, SR-R1 solid state down the
road). And for on-set monitoring, enjoy a 4:2:2 10-bit image with
LUTs on your Sony BMV-L231. Use the EDL from your proxies
to pull from the S-Log originals and let the folks in post do what
they do best.
All of this originates from a $16,000 camera.
Sony F3 Launch in LA