Convergence - Short Film shot on Sony PMW-F3 on Vimeo

Very nice, they used Zeiss Primes and an SR recorder though.

Really nice piece. Even with all the work done on that footage in post, you can see that the colour palette in very Sony so you will be able to cut back and forth with footage on other Sony cams. Excellent.

Sony pmw_f3_launch_promo on Vimeo

and some more

Very, very impressive!

I must be getting old and finicky. they look soft to me. Also, the amount of area that is out of focus is just distracting. My apologies, no disrespect intended, but I just did not like it. In the opening scene the womans face is just soft. The area in focus is very small and to me it takes depth away from the scene to use such shallow DOF all the time. No disrespect iintended, it was like watching a movie who's lens has been smeared.

Look pretty sharp to me! Beautiful footage.

Same here - I thought it was nice and sharp - very impressive. The sleeping giant has awoken

I have some raw footage straight from the PMW-F3 available for download. It's a zipped BPAV folder with 24fps MP4's.

Chris... feel free to host the zip file yourself. Just give me a credit for providing it.

XDCAM-USER.com PMW-F3 Raw Footage. (http://www.xdcam-user.com/?p=1136)

Al - thank you sir you are a legend. Lovely colours

Thanks AL!!!

another


compulsion - teaser on Vimeo

excellent, so glad these keep popping up, its like Easter eggs on DVD's only this is on the whole internet. Sony did the RIGHT thing by putting this camera in the hands of some good DPs and let them shoot with it. It's also cool how there was no real master link saying heres all the DP's that shot with it, now check it out... they are just kinda springing up on their own and its wonderful. Very good way to pre-sell a camera.

Panasonic really kicked the bucket on the first "video tests" they showed. They were just completely scatter brains and sent a bunch of dps around one day on a wild goose chase to get whatever footage they could and that was it. That is not the way to launch a camera, their footage was filled with horrible clipping and overall bland images that were either super close ups or super wide shots and thats it.

I ALWAYS loved what sony did when they put out a new camera. I had the dvd set of the projects they did when the new F900's were coming out. They literally got a ton of great dps and directors and put out 5 dvds worth of stuff to show off their cameras. Now thats the way to do it. +1 for Sony yet again.

I forgot to post this one sorry.

bonHomme Sony F3 test on Vimeo

It's funny, but for some reason this new one isn't my taste. The cinematography for whatever reason doesn't do it for me. No idea why but it doesn't feel as filmic as the others.

I noticed they stopped down the lens a lot more, so maybe thats it, but for whatever reason this one (at full screen mode) just doesn't feel the same as all the others.

Either way it was technically good. The story was great, I'm just purely stating my opinion about the looks only. I actually liked the direction and everything else. Just I dont know... something didnt wow me cinematic with this one.

Thats ok, can't please them all I guess haha

I wanna see someone not try and make art, just take it outside at night and show us how much detail this puppy can pull out of the scene.

It's funny, but for some reason this new one isn't my taste. The cinematography for whatever reason doesn't do it for me. No idea why but it doesn't feel as filmic as the others.



Its probably the softer light and perhaps because they used more wide angle lenses. DOF wise it looks like your everyday typical 35mm film.

Its probably the softer light and perhaps because they used more wide angle lenses. DOF wise it looks like your everyday typical 35mm film.

I guess so, its funny, because I found myself analyzing it a bit more than the others. It does have typical 35mm depth so its not the dof, its something about the lens choices or ... I dont know haha. For whatever reason it felt like a different camera shot it. I know thats not the case, (or is it! dun dun DUN... just joshing) but it kinda felt different.

Oh well, just my view points It wasn't really a negative thing, it just for whatever reason felt different to me. Any info on the lenses used?

EDIT: after watching it again, I know what bothers me, on the wide shots the dof is just too much, I'd like it a bit more shallow. Because the CU's are wonderful and have a good amount of dof (not overkill like some DSLR stuff) but then when it cuts between the wides, it just seems flat.

I do like their story idea though, you can see it was specifically written to show off what the camera can do with all different types of lighting.

Wide shots using short focal length lens do tend to have a large DOF, even with the lens wide open at f1.4 it can cover several feet either side focused at say 10 feet on a 25mm (which isn't that wide).

Wide shots using short focal length lens do tend to have a large DOF, even with the lens wide open at f1.4 it can cover several feet either side focused at say 10 feet on a 25mm (which isn't that wide).

Well this I know, but the lens that was used wasn't that wide, I can see they were stopping down a bit. maybe to use more of a sweet spot on the lens, or maybe the lens was only a T4 and they stopped down a little more or something. It just seemed a bit too much for me, thats all I'm saying. Its an aesthetic thing, thats all. It felt too much of a jump for me between the CUs and the wides, the dof felt a little too inconsistent.

I think I'm now diving to deep into this, it was just a side note thats all. If someone else sees what I'm saying maybe they'll get it too.

Keeping things consistent is always a problem and needs to be worked at.

Yes, I did notice the much softer background in the CUs than you'd expect given the nature of the wide shots.

yeah exactly, I think thats what had me going.

On a lighter note, I really cant wait to see more footage trickle down the pipeline. I got my hands on some raw footage which is nice to play with, but now I'm loving what others are doing with the camera so far.

I have some raw footage straight from the PMW-F3 available for download. It's a zipped BPAV folder with 24fps MP4's.

Chris... feel free to host the zip file yourself. Just give me a credit for providing it.

XDCAM-USER.com PMW-F3 Raw Footage. (http://www.xdcam-user.com/?p=1136)

I put that on a timeline to compare to the EX3. Very nice. Super clean, colorful, and sharp. Makes the EX3 video look hideous.. :)

I don't know if it's the grading, but I'm not very impressed by the look of the footage.. It looks very 5Dish to me, and I very much dislike the "Canon look", especially on the skintones. They are either harch or very soft, Like it's trying to give some sharpness/detail in processing thats not captured by the sensor.

My EX1 looks much more organic. Skins can be detailed and pleaseant at the same time. Again this might be a post issue.

I believe its a post issue, also there are a few videos that are just way too video looking for my taste, but all you really need to do is look at the first film from convergence to realize its the DP behind it that makes this camera shine, just like any other.

You put a good man behind the camera and you'll get good footage, cameras don't shoot and color themselves.

I watched the UK shot promo projected at 4K in the Norwegian Film Institute Cinema in Oslo on Tuesday. All I can say is Wow! It looked wonderful overall although I did spot a few slight artefacts in highly saturated reds, which look like typical 4:2:0 sampling artefacts. Overall is was just about impossible to tell this short from the short used to promote the SRW9000 which was shown about an hour earlier.

Can't wait to get mine!

Just a test but here is another sample, it's linked as a download only. 5D vs the F3.

fxguide quick takes F3 vs 5D MkII (http://www.fxguide.com/qt/3210/f3-vs-5d-mkii)


http://www.fxguide.com/qt/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/5DvsF3_H264s31.mov

Two more samples...


These two go together
It's called Model on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oTRS0o3nCg
Sony and Cooke S4 50 mm test on F3 on Vimeo


This is a separate short
Painter- Sony F3 on Vimeo

pics from the shoot

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56612561@N06/sets/72157625513616824/

This is actually 9 days old. I haven't seen anyone post it. How come you guys aren't out looking for video like me? :)

This is the making of the Red Ballon short. You can see lots of nice shots of the camera on set and they sprinkle a few in camera shots as well.

Sony F3 - Making of 'The Red Balloon' on Vimeo

Another short shot with an F3.

Game On - Sony F3 on Vimeo

Iscorama 54 on Sony PMW-F3 Camera Test on Vimeo

This was one of the first Videos out there but since it is not posted in this thread...for good measure! That ariel footage over LA is fantastic!!! by Stargate Studios http://vimeo.com/stargate

Sony PMW F3 Camera Test on Vimeo

I saw this film and it's beautifully done ... no question about it. I expect more to come.

100mbs nanoflash vs onbaord 35mbs xdcam comparison.

Sony F3 Clip Comparision on Vimeo

Here is the full music video (it works)


Low by The Earlybirds - shot on Sony F3 - CREWS.TV on Vimeo

No detail in the sky, where is the latitude? Lot's of lost detail in whites, everywhere, dissapointed, sorry, really hoped for that camera, need better footage, it looks worse than most of DSLRs, imho.

No detail in the sky, where is the latitude? Lot's of lost detail in whites, everywhere, dissapointed, sorry, really hoped for that camera, need better footage, it looks worse than most of DSLRs, imho.



Three more new shorts for you to look at here...

Sony VideON | Home (http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/video/videon.do)

No detail in the sky, where is the latitude? Lot's of lost detail in whites, everywhere, dissapointed, sorry, really hoped for that camera, need better footage, it looks worse than most of DSLRs, imho.

Well, you can't blame the camera when it's placed in the hands of someone who clearly can't shoot or knows how to set it up properly. Blame the craftsman not the tool.
You've seen better stuff from a DSLR? I've seen better stuff from an iPhone.

New test...

Rainy Day - Informal Sony PMW-F3 Evaluation by CREWS.TV on Vimeo

Well, you can't blame the camera when it's placed in the hands of someone who clearly can't shoot or knows how to set it up properly. Blame the craftsman not the tool.
You've seen better stuff from a DSLR? I've seen better stuff from an iPhone.

Okay Doug,

You can't do drive by like that and not explain what is so egregious to you a little more.

FWIW, the lack of sky detail is clearly a result of not having infinite DoF and it being an overcast day (so it's quite possible that there was no sky detail to being with).

The blacks looked very clean and you could glimpse the camera's latitude by looking at small bright spots like the tuning knobs on the guitar. But overall, the scene just doesn't look like it had a lot of DR to begin with.

But seriously, I'd like to know what you found so objectionable with the shot. I didn't shoot it, so I'm not posting this in defense.

I'm inclined to agree with Doug. The Earlybirds video is somewhat crude and amateur IMHO. It just looks to me as though they were handed the camera and shot randomly with no thought given to the pace or structure of the video. Framing is poor. Many shots are out of focus, overexposed or both. Skin tones are often too high and washing out as a result, so the sky had no chance.

To be fair, if they had only minimal time with the camera before the shoot, which I suspect to be the case, the exposure and focus might be down to unfamiliarity with the VF and the zebra and peaking setup.

As an example of how you can "throw together" a music video then it makes a point, like it or not. As a technology demonstrator it misses the mark by a wide margin. It really doesn't do anything to show off what the camera may or may not be capable of.

Thanks Alister for saving me the trouble of responding. I agree with your assessment, and you said it much kinder than I would have. :-)

There are some shots that make this camera look like a Hollywood production, and even then I see OOF scenes, such as the bus where the man pulls the DSLR to his eye (but I really liked the video), this leads me to some questions.

Is there a particular lens with the 3 lens kit that has such shallow DOF that it gives the operator a hard time with focus ??

Is this camera not meant for an individual, will it always have to be a pre-planned production ??

Is the viewfinder/LCD not sufficient for critical focus ??

I see the beauty in this camera, it's obvious that in the right hands it will make the BBC and Discovery list right away, maybe even the gold list.

I would expect the F3 to get Discovery Silver approval, just the same as any other EX camera, but I doubt it will get Gold without an external higher bit rate recorder. As for the BBC, who knows, there was a time when we all thought that any camera that did not meet the BBC's 50Mb/s 1/2" sensor minimum would not get approval, but then they approved the 1/3" XF305. To be honest I doubt it will get BBC approval without an external recorder for two reasons. The first is the obvious sub 50Mb/s internal recordings ( I still think the 35Mb/s EX codec is surprisingly good), but the second is that IF they did approve it, out of the box, there is the risk that many production companies would jump on the camera, handing it to inexperienced so called DoP's (that are really PA's with a few camera skills) and then wonder why half of the footage is out of focus and poorly exposed.

No, I think it will be very welcome by the BBC, but only provided the appropriate external recorder is used, which will make it less PA friendly.

Is the VF adequate?? Well it IS possible to as a one man band to focus and expose correctly provided you make full use of the coloured peaking and zebras, especially if you use the flip out LCD as opposed to the minuscule VF. However it takes a bit of practice and you have to be very careful to get it spot on. So it's not perfect, adequate... perhaps, ideal.... NO. A large external monitor, preferably with focus assist and a waveform monitor will be a big help, as it would with any camera. Canon DSLR users have shown us that it is possible to shoot with even lower quality viewfinders and get good results, just don't expect it to be easy.

The longer the focal length of the lens, the shallower the DoF for any given aperture. The wider the aperture the shallower the DoF. I think anyone seriously considering an F3 should know this already. Buying an F3 (or any other camera) won't make you a better camera operator or automatically improve the quality of your productions. Shallow DoF is just one tool in the film makers toolbox. The "filmic look" is a combination of many things, exposure, frame rate, colourimetry, DoF, image sharpening (or lack of) and grading.

There are some shots that make this camera look like a Hollywood production, and even then I see OOF scenes, such as the bus where the man pulls the DSLR to his eye (but I really liked the video), this leads me to some questions.

Is there a particular lens with the 3 lens kit that has such shallow DOF that it gives the operator a hard time with focus ??

Is this camera not meant for an individual, will it always have to be a pre-planned production ??

Is the viewfinder/LCD not sufficient for critical focus ??

I see the beauty in this camera, it's obvious that in the right hands it will make the BBC and Discovery list right away, maybe even the gold list.

1) All else being equal all lenses of the same focal length yield the same DOF.
2) Large format cameras in general favour pre-planned production. In the past they've been expensive and hence not attractive to the run and gun crowd anyway. The cheap DSLRs and the F3 are really a case of be careful, you might get what you wished for.
3) For critical focus no. 1080p projected onto a large screen from a camera with a S35 sensor and top shelf glass wide open can give a DOF that's paper thin.

Man I hope this camera gets into the hands of some hobbyist like me. If you guys think that street music video looks armature, just wait until you see a few videos I make with this camera! :) If I manage to get one that is.

Even with DSLR lenses, counting tax and so forth it looks like double the price of an EX3 just to get something that will shoot video.

Christmas with the PMW-F3 (testing the camera, or sort of...) on Vimeo

test pmw-f3, www.gecofilms.cl on Vimeo

This Flight Tonight - Always Be Mine on Vimeo

"Stardust Nathalie" :Sony F3 on Vimeo

Great images and nice job on the edit.