Sony Introduces The New 4K PXW-FS7 XDCAM Series Camera
Sony has been busy for sure this year delivering new cameras and the new PXW-FS7 looks to have features in a price range that stands alone.
Sony´s new XAVC Intra and XAVC Long GOP formats, each supporting 10-bit 4:2:2 recording (XAVC-I, 180fps; XAVC-L, 120fps). Recording in UHD (3840 x 2160) resolution, slow motion up to 60fps and Full High Definition (1920×1080) with 60/50 progressive frames is possible. A firmware update in early 2015 will enable native HD recording in the Apple ProRes HQ 422 codec, when using an optional extension unit (XDCA-FS7). No pricing info on the extension unit yet.
Through the XDCA-FS7’s FS-RAW interface, the PXW-FS7 is capable of 4K/2K RAW recording with Sony’s HXR-IFR5 and AXS-R5, or with a compatible third-party external recorder. Yes. RAW 12 bit! ProRes for now is only in HD but I’m sure it will be unlocked for 4K later. Possibly with a free or paid update. The camera has a lot of potential to be built out for sure. The SDI out can record to a Convergent Design 7Q in 4K.
The Sony FS7 as seen in the video is ready to shoot handheld right out of the box. That’s a big savings and takes the hassle of attempting to rig it up. We all know how hard that is. The riffles deign could easily save you a $1000 in hardware attachments. The ability to shoot internal 4K is also massive to me. I never shot 4K until I got the GH4 and i’m hooked! The A7s is a great little beast but the fact that I have to buy a $2000 recorder and a cage to attach it is well kind of a expensive mess. I would grab the GH4 90% of time in good lighting conditions and always shoot in 4K .
I feel kind of bad for Sony F5 owners. They spent a lot of money on that camera and now this little bugger comes out that does so much for the price. Sony today is offering a internal 4K recording upgrade option for $1K to F5 owners. Thats a bitter pill.
The Soy FS7 is going to take a lot of business from the Canon C300. This camera is squarely aimed at that market and I for one would chose it over the C300 at this time. Canon needs to release a camera for people to get excited about. Sony sure has done this. They are really competing with themselves at the moment.
Here is the pricing are planned availability for the PXW-FS7 and accessories:
- PXW-FS7 4K XDCAM Super 35mm Camcorder (body only) – October 2014, suggested list price less than $10,000.
- PXW-FS7K 4K XDCAM Super 35mm Camcorder (with FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS lens) – December 2014, suggested list price less than $13,000.
- XDCA-FS7 Extension Unit – December 2014, suggested list price less than $2,500.
- SELP28135G FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS lens – December 2014, suggested list price of $2,500.
- VCT-FS7 Light-weight rod support system – December 2014, suggested list price less than $1,200.
Key features of the PXW-FS7
- Sony’s Super 35 Exmor CMOS Sensor
- Native E-Mount; Compatible with A-Mount lenses (LA-EA4 A-mount lens adaptor required), 18 mm flange back distance
- On-board UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) and Full HD (1920 x 1080) recording
- Wide choice of recording systems
- XAVC (Intra/Long GOP)
- MPEG HD, 4:2:2, 50 Mbps (HD only)
- Apple ProRes codec (with future upgrade and extension unit, sold separately)
- RAW recording (with extension unit and outboard recorder, sold separately)
- Slow & Quick Motion for over-and under-cranking
- Dual XQD card slots
- 16-bit analog-to-digital converter
- ISO 2000
- Supports S-Gamut3Cine/S-Log 3 encoding
- Die-cast magnesium frame
- Environmentally sealed electronics
- Wireless operation with CBK-WA100, sold separately
- GPS
Here are the latest videos I found on the new Sony PXW-FS7. This one is great from Nino Leitner. Sony guy walks you through the features.
Sony Professional: FS7 First Footage (3min) from Sony Professional on Vimeo.
Sony Professional: BTS with the PXW-FS7 and Den Lennie from Sony Professional on Vimeo.
Sony Professional: FS7 Revealed! from Sony Professional on Vimeo.
It features a 4K Super35 “Exmor” CMOS sensor and sup- port for shooting in 4K/60p or Full HD at a high frame rate of up to 180 fps with unlimited clip length recording . Selectable recording formats include XAVC, which supports 1080/60p with 4:2:2 10- bit recording and the MPEG-2 HD 422 format used by broadcast stations. Attach an optional Extension Unit (XDCA-FS7) to open up the possibilities of multi-camera shooting and Apple ProRes 422 which available early 2015 by firmware update. Connect an HXR-IFR5 interface and AXS-R5 recorder to enable synced external 4K/2K RAW and internal Full HD recording.
Support for QFHD 3840 x 2160 resolution will be available by the date of launch. 4096 x 2160 resolution support will be provided by firmware update scheduled for early 2015.
The FS7 is equipped with a Super 35 “Exmor” CMOS Sen- sor with approximately 11.6 million total pixels and 8.8 million effective pixels. The high image readout speed of the image sensor allows the FS7 to support 4K motion-picture shooting and Super Slow Motion. The sen- sor also realizes a high sensitivity of ISO2000 and a wide dynamic range of 14 stops.Thanks to its full-pixel read- out capability without pixel binning and sophisticated camera processing, jaggies and moiré are minimized.
The FS7 supports two formats, XAVC and MPEG-2 HD 422, which can be selected to suit the application. Two XAVC compression systems (IntraFrame and Long GOP) are provided through an H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec. IntraFrame supports recording with 4:2:2 10-bit sampling for 4K and Full HD, as well as a high bit rate of up to 600 Mbps*. In Long GOP, image quality and recording time are balanced to allow Full HD shooting with 4:2:2 10-bit sampling at 50, 35 or 25 Mbps, mak- ing this format suitable for longer duration shooting. Support is also provided for the MPEG2 HD 422 recording format which is mainly used at broadcast stations around the world. Supported formats and bit rates are indicated below.
* During 4K 59.94 fps recording.
The FS7 supports such log gamma curves as S-Gam-ut3.Cine/S-Log3 and S-Gamut3/S-Log3. Due to the fact that 18% gray is set at a bright level, S-Log3 is noted for delivering a wider dynamic range than the 1300% achieved by S-log2 incorporated in camcorders such as the NEX-FS700, a difference equal to 1.5 stops. The log gamma itself is close to Cineon log, so color correction is easier to perform and it is possible to achieve the look of film.
In addition, compared to the color gamut of S-Gamut3.Cine, which is geared toward reproducing the wide color gamut of DCI-P3 color space used in digital cine-ma, the color gamut of S-Gamut3 is geared toward the reproduction of almost all actual colors, and is thereby suitable for archival purposes. Support for S-log2, which is popular among cinematographers and videographers, is scheduled to be provided in early 2015.
he FS7’s XQD card slots consist of two channels that enable simultaneous and relay recording. During relay recording, when one media becomes full, recording continues automatically to the other media. During simultaneous recording, not only can the same footage be recorded on both channels at the same time, but also one channel can be used for random shooting while the other is being used for continuous recording as backup.
ND filters for adjusting the amount of light are provided in a built-in ND filter unit. The settings are Clear, 1/4 (2eV), 1/16 (4eV) and 1/64 (6eV).
Extension Unit “XDCA-FS7” can be connected directly to the PXW-FS7 to enable the use of functions that support the operator’s shooting style or workflow.
RAW output for external 4K/2K RAW
recording
The FS7’s FS RAW Interface can be connected to an HXR-IFR5 interface unit and RAW AXS-R5 recorder to enable external 4K/2K RAW recording. The interface also allows the use of compatible third-party external recorders.
Full HD footage shot with the unit is timecode-synchronized to allow offline editing of the content.
Support for multi-camera shooting
Precise timecode synchronization provided by Genlock and Timecode In/Out functions in the XDCA-FS7 enables multi-camera operations.
Support for Apple ProRes 422 format
(firmware upgrade scheduled for early 2015)
PXW-FS7 with XDCA-FS7 enables Apple ProRes 422 re- cording to an XQD card in the camera
The FS7 grip, designed for easy handling and operability, is the result of exhaustive consultation with videographers and cinematographers, as well as the production of various prototypes.The shape supports long periods of camera use and flexibly accommodates subtle differences among various users’ gripping styles.
The angle of the grip can be easily adjusted with the press of a button. In addition to a zoom button and Rec Start/Stop, the grip also has several programmable buttons that can be customized for easy access to any other functions such as the focus magnifier function.
The viewfinder is adjustable with degrees of freedom for easy confirmation of image quality
The Peaking and Zebra function buttons and contrast knob are positioned on the side of the FS7 viewfinder for easy adjustment of focus, contrast and exposure. Also, by turning a single knob, the position of the finder can be set, allowing for degrees of freedom. The finder is designed so that people with a dominant left eye can also use it comfortably.
Pretty nice camera with very good specs. It’s 1am now so I’m going to crash and update this post in the morning. Wait it’s already morning and I still haven’t pre ordered my iPhone 6 yet!
UPDATE Sept 12th 2014. After getting 5 hours of sleep I ordered a iPhone 6 and I dont even care…. Damn you Sony!
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Filed in: 4K • Camera News • Featured Post • Sony
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NOW we’re cookin. Waiting for the AJA Cion no more! This is my next purchase! Thanks Erik!
I think I’m in to. If it ships in early October that would be great. I doubt it. I havent bought a Sony in a long time. I wonder if they will offer any lease deals. I’m assuming they wont since the camera is going to be very hot.
I don’t recall if you owned the C300 you use or if that belongs to the station you work for. If you do own it, or were an owner, would you sell it and get the FS7 to replace it?
I own the C100 and use the C300 at work. I’m looking into selling my C100 and upgrading to the FS7. It’s a big jump up. I’ve been thinking about what I would do if I owned the C300 and I might do the same. 4K is important for me now. When you try it and see how great it looks with all the possibilities you have when delivering in HD it makes a lot of sense. The FS7 is also a 10 bit internal 4K camera. Sony built the camera everyone wants. So yes I would sell it if i could but I believe the bottom just fell out for used ones so getting $9000 for it might be tough in October.
Would you? Are you selling one?
I own two C100s, not a C300. The FS7 has my interest, but I’m planning on keeping the C100s even if I get an FS7 as their smaller size and form factor is much more conducive to weddings and events I do (I don’t really want to stick an FS7 in a bride’s face while she’s getting makeup done, plus I haven’t figured out how to control an FS7 on a monopod with it’s grip location). But for my corporate work the FS7 looks quite nice; I rarely shoot handheld (generally monopod, Glidecam, crane, slider, tripod) so I still really prefer the C100 form factor, though, and the C300 has a similar form factor, so if all I had was a C300 I may be hard pressed to trade it in for an FS7, but I would be tempted, hence the curiosity and question. I think at this point I’ll probably wait a few months to see what Canon’s response is and if nothing competitive arrives I’ll get more serious about buying an FS7.
Another consideration is batteries and memory cards which it seems a lot of people are glossing over. For a full day of event shooting at 4k (or even a lot of corporate work with long interviews and lots of b-roll), perhaps I’m overestimating my needs, but (especially if I want to use the awesome dual record feature I almost always use on the C100) I would figure on four 128GB XQD cards (around $2400), along with AT LEAST five Sony BP-U60 batteries ($1,345) (which is just 10 hours of battery plus the Sony BP-U30 (1 hour) the FS7 comes with, so 11 hours), in contrast to spending just $160 for a second C100 battery which gets you 10 hours with the already included five hour battery (we’re talking $32 per hour of battery on the C100 vs $135 per hour on the FS7 assuming you stick with the brand batteries). Of course you can turn off 4k for event shooting, and perhaps off-brand batteries would be the best way to go. Then an additional $370 for an active Metabones Sony E-mount to Canon Ef adapter, I believe losing IS and auto-focus, or making new investments in Sony glass. So those are some additional reasons I’d have a hard time selling a C300 or my C100’s as an event shooter who also does corporate work.