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Sony F55 and F5


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I've been working with the F5 for a couple weeks and though it produces pretty pictures like any camera of that price point, the UI is standard "Sony".  Its an easy transition if you ever had to deal with other Sony cameras; pretty straight forward as far as audio setting and TC in the menu.  BUT the menu response time is atrociously slow, no numbered meter marking on the display, the TC I/O switch next to the connector does not work (Could be only an issue with the one I've been using) so it could only output TC, and you have to be careful not to max out the monitor out setting or you could distort your return from the camera.

 

Otherwise with a nice set of glass or not; on a recent job the DP used a $14 lens and the images still look good, you could make some nice moving pictures.

 

Had a poke around with these today at a trade show, apparently the fan can be turned off while rolling (not sure how long for).  Menus are pretty straightforward but they seem to only display in the viewfinder (unless it's a setting I missed), which could be a bit awkward.

The DP I've been working with on it for a few jobs discovered that putting the system in thumbnail mode and then going into the menu  settings would pop up the menus through any of the SDI outputs, I believe.

 

Gabe

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Am also finding out the F55 and AVID are having some issues playing with each other...

 

Ah, no clips longer than 20 minutes! That's a huge drag, especially for nutty directors that shoot and shoot and shoot without cutting.

 

I bet the menu response time will be fixed with future updates. This sounds like a stupid operating system issue or something that could be improved with better programming. The camera has only been out for a couple of months, so I'd expect they have a few bugs to work out.

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Yes. A big gaping hole with huge teeth. I can hear it from this picture alone. FFVVVvvvvVV

There's this horrible monitor that Sony makes that has a fan in it. Looks just like this one.

And is it just me or does it look a bit skewed right there at the fan? The SDI connector and the hirose on top seems.... photoshopped.

Those connectors look angled to me.

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worked with F55 recently. only small wrinkle: line out of SD mixers are 0db(u?) Sony cam wants to see +4 it seems. Not a big problem, but gain increments in menu (don't recall numbers) wouldn't let me line up to -20 mark exactly. close but off a db or so. there were no manual pots only menu trims. Maybe i was missing something. I was the guinea pig on this one as camera was brand new and I was the first to feed sound to camera. this was a simple single system setup, no separate recorder. playback sounded fine, Probably same audio front end as XDCams. perfectly useable.

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further note: we used the cam's internal tone with bars and it lined up to -20 exactly. only printed manual was in Japanese. everything worked fine. picture was excellent. they were using the onboard memory cards, not the add-on box with the gigantic files. camera ran pretty hot I thought. fan noise not an issue in our situation.

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The user manual for the F5 and the F55 are in one booklet, available for free at this link:

 

http://community.sony.com/sony/attachments/sony/large-sensor-camera-F5-F55/981/1/F5_F55.pdf

 

Sound info is on page 49. It seems to indicate that you can go from "-99" to "+99" on audio input level adjustments, as well as mic level or line level. No question, it's not a very well-written manual, but I'm hoping this is because it's kind of a "version 1.0" product.

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  • 1 month later...

I realise now with the benefit of hindsight that my question was somewhat open ended..

 

I take it the other two channels are AES digital inputs, i suppose my real question is, how many of you out there have actually used these inputs and sent 4 channels of sound to the cam?

 

It might be quite useful jobs that require fast editing turnarounds?

 

Thanks all

 

j

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  • 2 months later...

Just worked with an F5 yesterday..

despite both input channels being set to mic... they required radically different ammounts of gain on the internal settings to avoid clipping..

Operator advised me not to try line in. as it "was even worse"

 

I will be working with them again in a couple weeks, and will have more time to explore..

And yes... I did send a test tone in line level from a 442... results were bizzare, and the switches on all devices were double checked..

Again.. will test more in a couple weeks.

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I'm currently on a longer F5 shoot, as well. The camera crew updated its firmware a few weeks into production and now the TC IN function does not work anymore. Since the camera uses the same BNC for either TC in or out (switchable with a button), it's unlikely that this would be the problem, as TC OUT still works. Right now my recorder receives TC from the camera, which seems to be fine. Still, I wonder why this is. Has anyone else experienced this? Or is this confined to only this camera?

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I spent 2.5 months ona F5 show this summer.  You can see the fine audio metering on a monitor by pressing status check, but not on the camera screen.  I did mono mix via SRB on Channel 1 set at line level +5 dub output.  MKH50 at mic on channel 2.  Denecke SBT sending timecode only jammed from 788T to the BNC connector with the switch set to the in position.  Audio gain in the menu for the SRB channel was set to 77 and was pretty hot on camera, but sounded fine.  

 

This was a 6 camera show with 3 788Ts.  No complaints from post.

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I spent 2.5 months ona F5 show this summer.  You can see the fine audio metering on a monitor by pressing status check, but not on the camera screen.  I did mono mix via SRB on Channel 1 set at line level +5 dub output.  MKH50 at mic on channel 2.  Denecke SBT sending timecode only jammed from 788T to the BNC connector with the switch set to the in position.  Audio gain in the menu for the SRB channel was set to 77 and was pretty hot on camera, but sounded fine.  

 

This was a 6 camera show with 3 788Ts.  No complaints from post.

Thanks, I will do some testing from this baseline..

issue is I show up on a doc style shoot where there is single camera, taking a feed over a 411 from another source into 1 channel, and the second channel is an onboard mic (didn't check what kind yet, as I am not to change that channel)..

 

What I am expected to do is pull channel 1, send a signal from my boom to it over a cable, and that's all...

 

However.. we break in and out of this setup frequently, and I need to go into the menus to reset the camera before and after each of these events..

VERY similar to other projects I have done for years, except that it's the company's and this operator's first project with an F5..

 

Also, this is usually something I can do from hard switches and knobs onthe outside of the camera... here the gain settings are burried in a menu.  The f3 is easier, due to the physiscal controls.

 

the first symptom I've spotted is that he has a 411 on the camera with the audio level for that channel set to mic and -70db

 

I have not had the permission and time to check the gain staging of his tx and rx link.. so that's where I was going to start.

 

to line up the tone for my feed, I have had to set the same channel to line in (on camera) and -14db on the audio input level menu.

I then send standard line level out of my SD442.

 

in order to monitor the return from camera... audio monitor output reguires "90" on the scale.. don't think that's db.. just 90% of available preamp.. Its a sony, that's typical of their headphone amps going back at least a decade..

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The audio on the F55 has been fine for me, but the headphone out seems to want to clip on peaks if you set it higher than about 75%.  I really don't like all the sync and audio etc etc stuff being only in the finder or on the moni out--it makes for a big crowd scene around the camera with everyone trying to get set up and the shooter trying to make a shot.  Several times now I've had to back off with a warning that once they have a shot I need 5 min of alone time with the camera (unlike the Alexa, where i can be working with the camera and not be in anyone's way.).  The menu setting changes are very latent, you can't move quickly on the camera, you have to wait 2 beats at least after every button push for the camera to catch up.  We also have not been able to get it to take ext TC on 29.97, and while it will take normal 1080psf Trilevel sync @ 23.98 the manual says it wants 59.94i sync as external sync @ 29.97.  So far my rental house buds have no answers from Sony about this.

 

philp

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