Firmware Friday: Sony updates CineAlta 4K video cameras

 

 

The final Friday of 2013 is here, and as we all get ready to celebrate the last weekend of the year, there's understandably little to report on the firmware front. It makes perfect sense: We've all far too much celebrating to do to be worrying about mere firmware. That's not to say that nobody's been hard at work tweaking the operation of imaging devices, though -- Sony has come through just a day ago with two updates for CineAlta 4K video cameras.

The Sony F55 CineAlta 4K and F5 CineAlta 4K are both truly lustworthy, capable of shooting pro-quality video at extremely high resolution from 8.9 effective megapixel (11.6 total megapixel)Super 35mm-format image sensors. The prices are eyewatering by consumer and enthusiast standards, at around US$30,000 and US$15,000 respectively, but for pros looking to shoot extremely high-res video for a degree of future-proofing, they're easily justifiable.

So what's new in the latest firmware? We'll leave it to Peter Crithary, Sony Electronics USA's marketing manager for Super 35mm, to provide the rundown:

"We are very pleased to release Version 3.0 for the F5, and F55 this Holiday season! With close to 30 new features, this is another big release for the leading digital motion picture cameras in the market.

This update is for F5, F55 and AXS-R5

Highlights:

USER LUT's, and look profiles 3D LUT
Center Scan mode for Super 16mm lenses
New log curve and color gamut (S-Log3/S-Gamut3)
XAVC QFHD recording (3840 x 2160)
MPEGHD 1280x720p recording
Slow and Quick motion on XAVC 4K, XAVC QFHD and Center Scan mode
User definable clip naming
AES/EBU audio input
………..and much more!"

It's a pretty big update then, with lots of new features -- just what we like to see here on Firmware Friday! For the full story, read Crithary's post on the Sony F5 & F55 community forums, where he provides the entire, vey lengthy release notes, download links, and more. A white paper explaining the new S-Log3 and S-Gamut3 curves is promised in January.

And that about wraps things up for 2013's firmware coverage. We hope it's been of help to you in keeping your cameras up to date, and we'll see you once more for our first Firmware Friday piece of 2014, coming soon. In the meantime, enjoy the new year, firmware fans -- and shoot plenty of photos!

(via Studio Daily)