Sony Announcement, 26th July.

[Alister Chapman]

According to the Sony Europe Facebook page the Sony Pro Europe are making an important announcement on July 26th.

http://www.facebook.com/SonyProfessionalEurope

Anyone care to guess?

[Jacques Mersereau]

I'll bite. How about a new F3 - aptly named the F4 that does 4K and high speed.

[Alister Chapman]

Won't be an F4, maybe an F5. Sony don't do even numbers, unlucky I believe.

[David Heath]

OK - I'll bite as well. I can't help wondering if the fact it's the day before the Olympic opening ceremony is no co-incidence? Something Olympic related?

That aside, the more likely possibility must be more formal anouncements of what the 4k upgrade to the FS700 will consist of?

[Jacques Mersereau]

Ha, even is bad luck? Okay, how about the Sony F5 with 5K on-board recording via SSD.
Heck, RED's doin' it. We know Sony could if it wants to.

[Zach Love]

A EX1 or EX3 with 4:2:2 & 1080p60?

[Mike Marriage]

Possibly a more professional (maybe XDCAM) camera using the high frame rate advances of the FS700.

Hopefully with better ergonomics... in case I haven't said that enough times already! ;)

Please not in the F3 body, at least let's see a decent EVF in a usable position!

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Sony don't do even numbers, unlucky I believe.

Four is unlucky in Japanese culture. Four is pronounced "shi", which also means "death".

As I understand it, that's why we had the D1, D2, D3... and D5 tape formats.

[Dylan Tobias]

5k,4k, ssd, high speed, bla bla.

You are not going to get any of those things in this announcement I will put money on it, history has proven nothing is going to change that quickly and they are not willing to give these things to the masses either as those in power don't want the masses having those kinds of powers in their affordable cams.

4's and 5's superstitious stupidities. I remember when I worked at Toyota none of the Asians would accept a car if we got them their plates
with any 4's or 5's in them, unreal.

[Mark Andersson]

Obviously a Firmware update for the EX1R to record 50mbps 422 :) PLEASE!!!

[Bill Koehler]

The only thing I am sure of is that it is related to this:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...next-week.html

Sony | Micro Site XDCAM

[Andrew Stone]

Most obvious, a 4K recorder to way out there, an OLED based EVF with a proper mounting system that will work across existing cams in their XDCAM lineup.

A follow up to the F3 announcement seems to be ill timed at the end of July based on previous release cycles.

[Gabor Heeres]

Or as an EX5: A semi-shouldermount camcorder with 2/3"chips and 422 50 Mbps :-)

Or an EX1R with the NX70's waterproof housing?


But, looking back at how long they are on the market and how slow they sell nowadays I do more expect an update of the 1/2"XDCAM disc recorders PDW-F335 and F355. One with progressive framerates and one without, providing 422 sampling and 50 Mbps. Targeted to fill the gap between the PMW-320/350 and the PDW-680/700. There are still a lot of broadcasters around that solely use discs as their workflow and Sony distributors tell these clients discs will survive SxS in the end.

And @AlisterChapman, Sony does no even numbers? What about PMW-100, PMW320, PMW-350 ?

[Svein Rune Skilnand]

I am thinking a new Super 35 camcorder in the price range between the FS700 and F3, recording to SxS cards with the XD Cam EX codec. I think that would be the next logical step for Sony, that is if they are announcing a camera at all.

[Raul Rooma]

New motorized zoom lenses for nex cameras ;)