First F3 footage

[Jason Bodnar]

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

[Dean Harrington]

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

[Erik Phairas]

100mbs nanoflash vs onbaord 35mbs xdcam comparison.

Sony F3 Clip Comparision on Vimeo

[Erik Phairas]

Here is the full music video (it works)

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

[Oleg Kalyan]

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.

[Erik Phairas]

Originally Posted by Oleg Kalyan

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

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Oleg Kalyan

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.

[Erik Phairas]

New test...

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

[Peter Moretti]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

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.

[Alister Chapman]

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.

[Doug Jensen]

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

[Don Parrish]

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.

[Alister Chapman]

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.

[Bob Grant]

Originally Posted by Don Parrish

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.

[Erik Phairas]

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.