Sony has unveiled one of the most aggressive and interesting packages on the F5 that i've ever seen. The going price on the PMW-F5 camera body has been $16,490, its been that way for a while. Sony has just announced a promo called the "Production Crew" bundle.

The "Production Crew" bundle sells for $15,995, or can be financed for $0 down and 0% interest over 24 months for $667 a month. Included in this bundle is the F5 camera body with the internal 4K recording firmware. Also included is an NEW a7SII camera body, the LCD viewfinder for the F5, the shoulder pad/VCT tripod mount for the F5, an SxS card reader, and a full copy of Davinci Resolve 12.

We're essentially providing the viewfinder, the shoulder pad, the a7SII camera, and the rest for $500 less then the camera body before. This all adds up to thousands of dollars of savings.

The price of $15,995 is surely no coincidence (hello C300mkII). If you prefer to upgrade the viewfinder to the amazing OLED viewfinder its only an additional $1000, making it $16,995.

This is truly the best time to be looking into a Sony 4K camera, specifically the F5. For more details on financing options please contact me. Let me know if you have any questions at all. Thank you very much.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now Professional Cameras | Portland, OR | Financing (http://provideoandtape.com/financing.php)

Here's a quick breakdown with a bit more detail.

Up through September 30th the pricing of the individual components would have gone as follows:

PMW-F5 camera body $16,490
VCT-FSA5 ENG shoulder pad/VCT baseplate $975
DVF-L350 LCD viewfinder $3,230
CBK-Z55FX 4K recording 'upgrade' key $998
SBAC-US30 SxS USB reader $319
TOTAL: $22,012

NEW F5 'Production Crew' package price: $15,995, ($6,017 less then above total)
Also includes an a7SII camera body and a full Davinci Resolve 12 copy worth, $2999 and $949 respectively.
Combine the savings on the F5 package components, the a7SII, and Davinci and you're looking at about $9,965 less then the same individual components would have run you prior to this package. If you add the OLED viewfinder the dollars saved actually increases as you're only paying an extra $1,000 for the upgrade but the regular price of the OLED is $4,930, normally a $1,700 upgrade over the standard LCD.

My personal take, i don't think this is a sign that an F5 replacement is "imminent". Will there be a replacement sometime in the next 12-18 months, highly likely. I interpret this as Sony saying "hey, we've already covered our R&D on this product. The rest is gravy. Lets go after the competition and hit'em where it hurts". But thats my own perspective, not representative of anything officially coming from Sony.

If you have any questions about the bundle, Sony CineAlta in general, Sony Financial Services, or any other production gear please let me know. I'm always happy to help any way i can. Thank you very much.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now Professional Cameras | Portland, OR | Financing (http://provideoandtape.com/financing.php)

You can see a screen shot of the official promo announcement from Sony attached in this post.

A couple of other odds and ends involving the F5 and F55: This promo with the a7SII is combinable with other promos. Sony is also running a promo on the F5 and F55 where, when you buy the camera and the CBK-55BK ENG-build up kit (great for any kind of news/ENG/sports/Docu shooting) you get an instant $3000 savings. This effectively brings the build up kit down from $8,000 to a more manageable $5,000. You could get the full F5+a7SII combo kit and the ENG build up kit for under $21K. ALSO, on the F55 only, Sony has several new bundles that include the ProRes codec board at no additional charge. Normally the ProRes board is $2000. With firmware ver6.0 this will enable 444 ProRes recording with an F55 with that board. While thats not as exciting as the F5 package, its nice to see Sony, once again, continuing to push what the F55 can do and not shying away from much-user requested features like 444 ProRes.

Let me know if you have any questions on these bundles, specifically the F5+a7SII combo. The Sony financing is applicable on all of these kits. The F5 and F55 both qualify for $0 down 0% 24 month financing, or 36 and 48 month options are available as well.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now Professional Cameras | Portland, OR | Financing (http://provideoandtape.com/financing.php)

Metabones is also starting to ship a new EF mount for the F5 and F55.

News Shooter | Metabones EF to FZ CIne smart adapter reviewed by Paul Ream of ExtraShot (http://www.newsshooter.com/2015/10/05/metabones-ef-to-fz-cine-smart-adapter-reviewed-by-paul-ream-of-extrashot/)

Supposedly it starts shipping in about a month and will be about $1,000

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now Professional Cameras | Portland, OR | Financing (http://provideoandtape.com/financing.php)

I know a lot of people speculate that a model must be done if there is a large price drop of some kind of hot incentive. That's understandable. Certainly that's part of our culture these days. New iPhone launches, get last years iPhone for half-price.

However, in this case i strongly do not believe we will see a 'replacement' model of any kind in the next 10-12 months, minimum. As a Sony dealer for the last 25 years there are certain internal signs that we typically see when i model in EOL. One of the most notable includes a change to the dealer sales programs from the manufacturer, alteration of sales incentives and modification of advertising rules. There have been no changes of these kinds with this model. We saw it recently with the NEX-FS700. Its recent public price drop were accompanied by behind the scene changes of how the camera was to be sold. Having said that, a product can remain End Of Life for 12 months or more, its not an instant kind of thing.

It's my belief that the recent package with the a7SII and accessories is simply realigning of market placement. Canon is launching a little camera thats generating some buzz called the C300mkII at $16,000. When you buy a C300mkII you get a viewfinder and internal 4K recording out of the box. Because it takes CFast cards you don't need an expensive card reader. Sony is addressing this by giving you a viewfinder, a card reader, the 4K capture, a shoulder pad (an essentially required item) all in the bundle.

Plus they're sweetening the pot by crossing over what is essentially two separate companies, the 'Consumer' division a7SII and the 'Broadcast' division F5. I don't think most people appreciate how difficult this is to pull off. From my position as primarily a Broadcast division partner i experience it frequently as working with Alpha series photo products presents logistical challenges for me. Of course Sony's doing this because there is a ton of buzz behind the Alpha products for video right now. Sony wouldn't be doing this simply to have a blow out sale on F5. They'd simply slash the price. That would be much much easier for them to pull off internally.

Finally i feel something that's extremely overlooked with pro-level cameras these days is that the presence of a new model does not negate the quality of a previous model. The Canon C300 didn't all of a sudden start making terrible pictures because they announced a C300mkII. IF there were some kind of "F5mkII" camera coming it would be closer the $20k and wouldn't have any extras bundled with it. Even if this happened tomorrow it wouldn't change the great value that the F5 bundle is offering. I think that, while a lot of users understand this and agree, its the uncertainty of what's coming next that drives people a little crazy when it comes to investing in technology.

I'll conclude by saying that i have NO insider knowledge of Sony's R&D or future product pipeline. Everything mentioned here is my own personal opinion. I can only speak to what i've learned in 25 years of working on this side of the industry and what i see in my daily communications with the manufacturer. Ultimately each owner/operator must decide for themselves if they need a really great camera today at an amazing price that's going to make fantastic pictures for years to come. OR if they don't need a camera today and can wait 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 18 months etc. for the inevitable replacement model that we all know is coming someday.

Please free free to hit me up with questions. Keep in mind that i'm offering great financing incentives on Sony CineAlta products including the F5+a7SII bundle, the FS7, and the upcoming FS5. For more information about Sony 0% financing programs email or call. Thanks for your time everyone. I'm happy to help any way i can.

Eric Petrie
epetrie@provideoandtape.com
503-598-9142
Finance the NEW Sony F5+a7SII bundle for $492/36 mo. $0 down
Finance the NEW Canon C300mkII for $459/36 mo. $0 down
Apply Now Professional Cameras | Portland, OR | Financing (http://provideoandtape.com/financing.php)