This question comes up a lot, which gamma curve will give me the best results on a low key (dark) shoot. A common example would be “Should I use Gamma 2 which is brighter or should I use Gamma 5 which is darker but with a bit of gain”? or “Which is better to use in low light, normal gamma or log gamma”?
Log gamma (SLog, LogC etc) is great for capturing scenes with a large dynamic range, but it comes at the price of compressed highlights and overall less data per stop of exposure. Standard gammas have a lower dynamic range, but as a result the amount of data you are recording per stop of exposure is greater. It’s also vital to remember that if you do shoot in the dark with log you still need to expose correctly keeping middle grey and white at the correct levels in order that you keep mid tones and skin tones out of the heavily compressed part of the curve for the best results, so your images may look very dark and very flat. This can make focussing a big challenge (Top Tip – Use a large waveform monitor to check focus, as you go in and out of focus you should see the fine details in the waveform increase in amplitude as you become more focussed).
If you don’t need 13 or 14 stops of range, then use another gamma, don’t use log. Again with any of the extended range gammas like Cinegamma or Hypergamma watch where you place your skin tones, your exposure levels with these types of gamma curve are normally a little lower than with standard gammas (typically -0.5 to -1 stop).
A basic principle to understand with any video camera is that the actual sensitivity of the camera is purely a function of the sensor. Gain or raising the ISO is simply amplifying the signal off the sensor and results in more noise as the noise gets amplified too. Just like a music amplifier where you can make the music louder by turning up the volume (adding gain) you can make your pictures louder (brighter) by adding gain or raising the ISO. Listen to the music amplifier at high volume levels and what do you hear in the background? More hiss and noise, it’s the same with your video camera, more gain = more noise.
Gamma is also a form of gain providing different amounts of gain for different sensor output (brightness) levels to achieve specific recording and camera output levels, but it’s still gain (it can sometime be negative gain). The nearest you have to a gamma control on an audio amplifier would be an equaliser or bass and treble tone controls. Turn up the treble control on an audio amp and again you will here more hiss and noise, it’s nothing more than a selective gain control that shapes the sound you hear. Video camera gamma is very similar, it shapes the tonal range of the images you see.
So – and this is the bottom line: With any given gamma, combined with any given ISO or gain level, to achieve any particular brightness of output, for the same input level the total system gain (gain + gamma) is the same for that particular point in the scenes brightness range. So the noise level for any given brightness of output will be almost exactly the same whether you mix ISO “A” with Gamma “B” or ISO “B” with Gamma “A” because the combined gain of A + B is the same as B + A. At the end of the day the real sensitivity is governed by the sensor and anything else that makes the image brighter is gain, either regular “gain” or gamma gain.
So, choose a gamma curve that can deal with the dynamic range that you need and no more, don’t waste recording data on unused dynamic range. That way when you grade or do any post production noise reduction you have more data per stop to work from and that will help with the final image. If you do use log or a high range gamma (Hypergamma, Cinegamma etc) watch your exposure levels, the same rules apply in the dark as in daylight, you don’t want to over expose any skin tones as they won’t grade nicely.
Great news for PMW-F5 owners. The F5 will get the ability to record 2K raw at 240fps (with the R5). In addition it will also get 1.3x Anamorphic De-Sqeeze. Sony have just released an updated firmware timeline. There are no major changes to the timing of the already announced features, but now we can see that in the July release the cameras will get Reel Number and Camera ID for SxS recordings. In the September release as well as 2K raw, the cameras will get waveform and histogram exposure tools as well as rotary knob audio level setting. Then in the December update we’ll see S&Q motion up to 240fps and monitor LUT’s for both the F5 and F55. Great news and good to see things pretty much on schedule. The new ND filter knob for the F5 and F55 should be out later this month as well.
Now I also notice something else on the chart for the F5 in December— Quad HD XAVC and 50Mb/s simultaneous recording!!! Really, is this correct, will the F5 really get the ability to record 4K XAVC???? I hope so, but somehow I think this is a typo. Lets not get too excited just yet. This is an error in the graphics. The F5 will not get QFHD.
When an engineer designs a gamma curve for a camera he/she will be looking to achieve certain things. With Sony’s Hypergammas and Cinegammas one of the key aims is to capture a greater dynamic range than is possible with normal gamma curves as well as providing a pleasing highlight roll off that looks less electronic and more natural or film like. To achieve these things though, sometimes compromises have to be made. The problem being that our recording “bucket” where we store our picture information is the same size whether we are using a standard gamma or advanced gamma curve. If you want to squeeze more range into that same sized bucket then you need to use some form of compression. Compression almost always requires that you throw away some of your picture information and Hypergamma’s and Cinegamma’a are no different. To get the extra dynamic range, the highlights are compressed.
Compression point with Hypergamma/Cinegamma.
To get a greater dynamic range than normally provided by standard gammas the compression has to be more aggressive and start earlier. The earlier (less bright) point at which the highlight compression starts means you really need to watch your exposure. It’s ironic, but although you have a greater dynamic range i.e. the range between the darkest shadows and the brightest highlights that the camera can record is greater, your exposure latitude is actually smaller, getting your exposure just right with hypergamma’s and cinegamma’s is very important, especially with faces and skin tones. If you overexpose a face when using these advanced gammas (and S-log and S-log2 are the same) then you start to place those all important skin tone in the compressed part of the gamma curve. It might not be obvious in your footage, it might look OK. But it won’t look as good as it should and it might be hard to grade. It’s often not until you compare a correctly exposed sot with a slightly over shot that you see how the skin tones are becoming flattened out by the gamma compression.
But what exactly is the correct exposure level? Well I have always exposed Hypergammas and Cinegammas about a half to 1 stop under where I would expose with a conventional gamma curve. So if faces are sitting around 70% with a standard gamma, then with HG/CG I expose that same face at 60%. This has worked well for me although sometimes the footage might need a slight brightness or contrast tweak in post the get the very best results. On the Sony F5 and F55 cameras Sony present some extra information about the gamma curves. Hypergamma 3 is described as HG3 3259G40 and Hypergamma 4 is HG4 4609G33. What do these numbers mean? lets look at HG3 3259G40
The first 3 numbers 325 is the dynamic range in percent compared to a standard gamma curve, so in this case we have 325% more dynamic range, roughly 2.5 stops more dynamic range. The 4th number which is either a 0 or a 9 is the maximum recording level, 0 being 100% and 9 being 109%. By the way, 109% is fine for digital broadcasting and equates to bit 255 in an 8 bit codec. 100% may be necessary for some analog broadcasters. Finally the last bit, G40 is where middle grey is supposed to sit. With a standard gamma, if you point the camera at a grey card and expose correctly middle grey will be around 45%. So as you can see these Hypergammas are designed to be exposed a little darker. Why? Simple, to keep skin tones away from the compressed part of the curve.
Here are the numbers for the 4 primary Sony Hypergammas:
A decent tripod is a critical piece of your camera kit. It’s not something you should skimp on as a poor tripod is difficult to work with, will cause frustration and lead to inferior footage. Invest wisely and your tripod should last a decade, far longer than most cameras. I’ve got tripods that are as good today as they were when I purchased them in the 1990’s.
When choosing a tripod the range of models available is confusing and baffling. There are so many different tripod weights, payloads and heights to choose from, so it can be difficult. Also while there is such a thing as a good all round tripod (as we shall se in a bit) there is also no such thing as one tripod that will be perfect for every shoot. The most important thing to consider when choosing a tripod is the payload that it will need to carry. This is the total weight of the camera, lens, batteries as well as any support equipment like rods and rails or monitors attached to the camera. Don’t underestimate how heavy this lot can get. You will want a tripod that can comfortably carry the payload you have, you never want to be right on the upper limit. At the same time you don’t want too big a tripod. The pan and tilt resistance on an excessively big tripod may be too much for a very light camera. Overall I’m a big fan of heavier tripods. The extra mass of a heavy tripod tends to make it more stable, in particular it will help reduce vibration, but this comes at a price, a big tripod is hard to lug around and if you fly a lot will cost a lot in excess baggage fees.
Rainbow under a severe thunderstorm. Miller Tripod.
I travel a lot, so I was looking for a lightweight tripod that could carry my PMW-F5 kit. The main use for this tripod was for my self funded storm chasing and natural extremes stock footage shoots as well as for the many film making workshops I run all over the world. A tripod I have had my eye on for a while is the Miller Solo – Compass 15 tripod package, so I decided to give one a try.
The Solo is unlike most professional video tripods as the legs are of the single tube, telescoping variety as opposed to the more traditional double tube variety.
Miller Solo tripod standing tall. it’s almost 2m to the top of the head.
They are constructed from Carbon Fiber, so they are very light, yet they can extend very heigh (1.87m for the legs alone), which is a great thing to have on news shoots or at an event or conference where you need to get the camera up above the heads of an audience. There is no mid level or floor spreader with this tripod, the spread of the legs is governed by latches at the tops of the legs that have 3 different positions, each one restricting the maximum leg spread by a different amount. At the same time as being able to go very tall by lifting a latch at the top of each tripod leg the legs extend outwards almost flat to the ground and this allows you to get very low down at a height similar to a Hi-Hat yet the tripod remains very stable and solid.
Miller Solo would be a winner in a Limbo dance. Here it is in low mode.Miller Compass 15 head tilt drag and balance controls. The levelling bubble is illuminated.
The Compass 15 head is a middle weight fluid head with a 75mm bowl for levelling. The drag for the pan and tilt is varied using click stop rings, each with 6 settings from zero to 5. The drag range is very good with position 5 giving considerable drag, something useful when you working with a long lens or trying to do very slow pans. For counterbalance there is another click stop ring, this time with 4 different counterbalance settings. The difference between the minimum and maximum counterbalance settings isn’t huge, but adequate provided you camera is within the heads payload range.
My first major project for this tripod was a bit of a baptism by fire. Every year I spend around 6 to 8 weeks shooting severe storms and tornadoes in the USA for stock footage. These shoots are always tough. You have to be extremely mobile. As I’m based in the UK, first of all there is the initial flights across the Atlantic to the USA. Once in the US I will typically drive between 400 to 600 miles a on an active storm day. In a month I’ll clock up around 10,000 miles. I don’t have an assistant on these shoots so have to do all the kit lugging myself. As well as the camera kit there is also 20kg of additional equipment needed to get real time weather data via satellite, two way radios, laptops, hard hats and safety gear. So anything I can do to save weight and bulk else where is welcome and the Solo tripod scores highly for portability.
Me shooting a tornado with the PMW-F5 and AXS-R5 on my Miller Solo tripod.
Filming a tornado is challenging. Very often the only way to get a good view of a tornado is by being in it’s path. Lots of rain and hail falls behind a tornado obscuring it from view and a strong, sometimes deadly wind called the RFD occurs around the back of a tornado, so, you need to be in front of it. A tornado can travel across the ground at speeds of up to 70mph, so if your 2 miles from a fast moving tornado you have only got about 90 seconds to get out of the car, set up your tripod, get a couple of shots, jump back in the car and drive out of it’s way. For this the Miller Solo was fantastic. With no spreader to getting in the way but the leg spread limited by the adjustable stops I found it a very fast tripod to deploy and pack away.
Storm Chasing in the USA with the PMW-F5 on the Miller Solo.
At the same time it was also very stable. It is not as stable as a bigger, heavier tripod but still remarkably solid given it’s light weight. I’ve used bigger tripods in the past and it really helps having that extra bulk when shooting in the often strong winds that surround the storms I shoot. But because these took longer to deploy I wasn’t always able to use them, reverting to handheld when time was short. The Solo’s portability meant I was able to use it much often, so although some shots taken in high winds do suffer from a bit of wobble and buffeting, the more frequent tripod use means that I cam away with a lot more steady and stable shots from this assignment than I would have with a heavier conventional tripod. I guess really for me I will have to consider taking two tripods if I can. Something substantial and heavy for use when the wind is really strong and the Solo for everything else.
Storm chasing with a PMW-F5 and Miller Solo.
Talking of everything else” what about shots done when things are not so frantic? Well a big part of the storm shoot is to document the whole life cycle of the storms. This means shooting a lot of panoramas and landscapes, often with very slow pans. One of the things that really took me by surprise with the Compass 15 head was the smoothness of the pan and tilt drag. This really is one of the best tripod heads that I have ever owned. The pan and tilt drag really is silky smooth and there is no perceptible backlash. It really is a delight to use. It’s so good that I think I’m going to have to take a close look at some of Millers larger tripods for when I want a heavy weight option. Smooth, slow pans were easy to achieve, even at longer focal lengths. One small criticism of the tripod kit is that the single tube Solo legs twist a little more than most traditional double tube tripod legs, but then that’s the price you pay for going light weight.
So overall I thing this combination of Compass 15 head with Miller Solo legs is fantastic. I’ve used a lot of tripods over the years, and this one stands out from the crowd. But, as I said at the start there is no such thing as a tripod that works for every application. I would not recommend the Solo legs for long lens work, they just don’t quite have the stability that can be obtained with a larger set of legs. That said, for portability and great performance in most everyday applications the Miller Solo and Compass 15 is a delight and I highly recommend it.
For information on the Miller Solo System click here.
Disclosure: I approached Miller and requested the loan of the tripod. Miller provided me with a Miller Solo and Compass 15 head on a loan basis for review and use at my workshops etc. The review is my own opinion and Miller did not have any input into the review content. I really like this tripod!
Every time I get to play with a Convergent Design Odyssey I am impressed. It a really nice piece of kit, first off it’s a fantastic OLED monitor with excellent tools such as waveforms and some very sophisticated focus aids. But in addition it’s recording capabilities are second to none. For Sony’s FS700 the Odyssey 7Q is in my opinion a far more elegant and practical solution for 4K and 2K recording than Sony’s IFR5/R5 raw option. In addition I’m excited about being able to record 2K raw at 240fps using the 7Q.
The 7Q has always been competitively priced, but it’s still not what you would regard as a cheap device, at least not compared to the many cheap compressed HD recorders out their now. But don’t forget this is a 4K capable recorder and the monitor is as good as it gets. You are getting some cutting edge technology and that’s never cheap. Convergent Design have been listening to FS700 owners and in an attempt to make the 7Q not only the best, but also the cheapest way to get a 4K recorder they have re-assed their pricing. Previously, you had to have multiple options if you had several different Sony cameras and wanted the Odyssey to work with them all, the separate options for the Sony F3 + FS700 were each $1,495 USD.
Now though there is just one single option for Sony cameras that will support both the F3 and FS700, and it will be only $795 (US)
In addition Convergent Design will be reducing the SSD prices while increasing their capacity.
The 240 GB SSD, was $595, will be priced at $395 and will be 256 GB.
The 480 GB SSD, was $1,195, will be priced at $895, and will be 512 GB.
So this means that the Odyssey7Q ($2,295) + Sony Option ($795) + two 256 GB SSD’s ($395 each) + Thunderbolt Reader ($99) will total $3,979 which is an absolute bargain compared to the cost of a Sony IFR5/R5, 1x AXS card and the Sony CR1 reader which comes to around $9k. It’s also a much tidier device to rig.
I also think that for many FS700 users, compressed 4K will be easier to work with than 4K raw.
Just a reminder to everyone that I am a DoP, DiT and Instructor and that I am available for hire! What’s more my rates are very reasonable, I don’t cost the earth and I can bring 20 years of experience to your project, shoot or workshop. I also have a range of cameras, lights and support equipment that I can provide. So next time your crewing up a project, drop me an email using the contact form and I’d be glad to give you a quote.
Sony have just released an update to Content Browser. The new version (2.1) now has a 30 day trial period before a licence key is required. From version 2.0 Content Browser has included support for XAVC as well as XDCAM and NXCAM, so just one unified content management tool is required for the majority of the Sony professional camera range.
Well I’ve just got back from what was meant to be a one week trip to Broadcast Asia, that turned into a 2 week trip that included a visit to the Movie Production for Digital Migration event in Manila. This was an inspiring event, led by a group of like minded individuals keen to see the Filipino movie industry take a giant leap forwards by embracing the latest digital production methods combined with digital distribution and presentation. I think that for smaller economies with limited budgets, digital movie production could be a real enabler. But, with so few people with real world experience and technical skills in these areas, education will be crucial to making it work. I wish them luck and hope to get back soon to see how they are getting on.
One surprise in my inbox was a rumour that Sony are about to launch a new smart phone that has a built in 20MP camera that can shoot 4K video! At first I though this had to be a joke, how would you store the files? But then I discovered the phone can take what I assume must be Micro SD cards up to 64GB. I’m not convinced that this is really a practical use of 4K, but an interesting development none the less. Below is the rumoured specification:
Sony Xperia “One”
Specification :
*SCREEN = 5″ Triluminous LCD Display (Used in 2013 Bravia TVs with quantum dots over regular RGB) with X-Reality filter & White Magic technology (Use of white pixel with regular RGB) : Overall better saturation , contrast & viewing angles !
*CAMERA = Camera 20 megapixel 1/1, 5 inch Exmor R (Same as Sony REX II), 4K Video Recording , Bionz Image Processor Mobile , Integrated Lens G lens , F2.0 aperture , SteadyShot Image Stabilization , ISO 50-12800 , Cybershot UI with Multiple features.
*SOUND = Separate audio processor chip , such as Walkman S-Master MX , 5.1 Support , Stereo speakers magnet technology Bravia liquid (Still in rumour stage , to be confirmed).
*BUILD = Waterproof , Dustproof with IP58 certification , 9mm thickness , uses Aluminium , Glass & Iron frame!
SOFTWARE = All new interface , new set of features , updated Sony Media apps & new Augmented reality.
Cinematography workshop at Broadcast Asia.
The workshops I ran at Broadcast Asia went down very well with all of them ending up as standing room only. There was a lot of interest in Sony’s new PMW-300 camcorder and the FS700 was seen working with the R5 raw recorder and Convergent Design Odyssey. The FS700 raw is almost indistinguishable from the PMW-F55’s raw. There was lots of discussion with various people about running some large scale digital film making and documentary production workshops in Asia later in the year, possibly centred around Singapore.
Cinematography workshop BC Asia.
If you are in Asia and you would like to attend a workshop do let me know. If there is enough demand and I can show that demand, then I can look for sponsors to bring the workshops to your country.
Some people are struggling with lens options for the Sony half inch interchangeable lens cameras. Many try to use 2/3″ lenses via the ACM-21 with disappointing results. Lenses are designed to meet certain criterion. The lenses for the PMW-EX3 and PMW-320 actually perform very well, yet these are inexpensive lenses, so why when you use a much more expensive 2/3″ ENG zoom lens can the results be disappointing?
There is a very big difference between the way most typical ENG lens focus and the way an EX1/3, PMW-320 or PMW-200 lens focusses. An ENG lens will be a Par Focal lens, a lens that maintains constant focus throughout the zoom range. This is incredibly difficult to design especially with large zoom ranges and is one of the reasons ENG zooms are normally expensive pieces of glass.
The lenses used on the EX1/EX3, PMW-320 are not Par Focal, this makes them much cheaper, the focus shifts and changes as you zoom….. But clever electronics inside the camera and lens compensates for this by adjusting the lenses focus as you zoom so that in practice the lens appears to stay in perfect focus. An electronically compensated lens like this is lower cost to produce than a sophisticated typical ENG type zoom and makes the lens compact and lightweight as well as much cheaper.
Another factor is that as you increase the resolution of a lens, trying to bring everything in to focus on an ever smaller point, you run in to more and more problems with chromatic aberrations. Different wavelengths (and thus colours) of light get bent by different amounts when they pass through a glass lens. As you make the focussed light for one single colour smaller and sharper, the other colours of the spectrum become more dispersed. As a result, generally a softer lens, for example an SD lens (lower MTF) will exhibit fewer colour aberrations than a sharper HD lens. To compensate for these aberrations lens manufactures use very exotic types of glass with different refraction indexes to try to cancel out or at least minimise CA (chromatic aberration), but this glass is extremely expensive. The higher the resolution of the lens, the more expensive the glass gets.
With a camera like the EX1/EX3, PMW-320, PMW-200 when you know the exact characteristics of the lens (as they all use essentially the same lens) instead of employing exotic glass, you can program the camera to electronically remove or reduce the appearance of the CA and this happens inside the EX1/EX3, 320 and PMW-200 etc.
Next you must take in to account pixel size. In simple terms to work with the resolution of the cameras sensor, the lens has to be able to focus a point of light small enough to hit only one pixel. A typical 2/3″ HD camera has much bigger pixels that the pixels on the 1/2″ sensor of the PMW-320. As a result a lens that is only just able to achieve HD resolution on a 2/3″ camera, will not achieve HD resolution on the PMW-320 with it’s smaller pixels, it’s simply not designed to work with such small pixels. This means that you really need an HD lens designed for the 1/2″ sensor size and the corresponding pixel size.
These factors combined mean that the standard kit lens on the EX3, PMW-320 etc appears to perform very well and it takes a much more expensive, designed for 1/2″ lens to even match this apparent performance in most cases. Perhaps the new 16x lens coming for the PMW-300 will be available to purchase on it’s own. This would offer EX3 and PMW-320 owners the option of a high performing lens with a greater zoom range, probably for less than a similar performance conventional lens.
As things quieten down after the very busy Broadcast Asia show in Singapore and while I kill some time before flying to Manilla tomorrow, I decided to look at some raw clips I shot with the Sony FS700 and R5 recorder. On the Sony booth there was a PMW-F55 with a 50mm f2 Sony PL lens next to an FS700 with the 18-200mm Sony servo zoom and this was attached to the IFR5/AXS-R5 combination for raw recording. This gave me the opportunity to grab some almost side by side raw comparison footage from both cameras. Now this is hardly a fair contest. The F55 had one of Sony’s great PL mount lenses and the FS700 had the low cost zoom. The cameras were at least shooting the same scene, a reasonably contrasty set with about a few shiny highlights and with strong colours. Despite the vastly different lenses the results were quite surprisingly close.
NEX-FS700 4K raw converted to SLog2 in Premiere CC frame grab.
I didn’t really expect to see much of a difference, after all these are both cameras shooting raw with very similar sensors (the FS700 quite possibly uses the same sensor as the PMW-F5). The F55 sensor has a wider colour gamut and the raw output is 16bit while the FS700 is 12bit. So how does this translate into real world footage? Although I have included a couple of frame grabs from the raw footage converted to SLog2, DO NOT USE THESE TO LOOK CLOSELY AT THE IMAGE QUALITY. They are 8 bit jpeg frame grabs, so they do not have the amazing flexibility or grade-ability of the original 12bit and 16bit raw files.
PMW-F55 raw converted to SLog2 in Premiere CC. Frame Grab.
To compare the clips I used Sony’s raw viewer software as well as Adobe Premiere CC with the Sony raw plug-in (see bottom of post for links to the apps). I tried to use Resolve, but it won’t open the FS700 raw clips at this time, full FS700 raw support will be included in Resolve 10. I have uploaded a couple of very short raw segments from the clips for download from here: www.alisterchapman.com/samples/fs700-f55-raw-samples.zip As always I ask that if you do download the files (380MB) and find them useful that you make a small donation to help cover my hosting costs. I suggest a $5 donation per download, but any donation, no matter how small is gratefully appreciated.
So what do I see? Frankly there really is very little difference between the two. The 18-200mm zoom exhibits a bit more flare on highlights, but otherwise does a pretty good job. One thing that did surprise me was to see the native ISO of the FS700 marked as 500ISO in the raw viewer. I don’t know whether this is normal or whether I had the camera set in some odd mode, but I had expected to see a higher native ISO. I need to learn more about the FS700’s raw mode and do some further tests! You can see the wider colour gamut of the F55. The colours are not just richer but also deeper. By that I mean that there is greater colour contrast between some of the very deep and strong reds in the scene. In addition the F55 material can be manipulated just a little harder before the image degrades, but this is still only a small difference and you really can push both very hard. Perhaps a scene with a greater dynamic range and the exposure pushed more towards it’s limits would show a greater difference, but for this scene the differences are tiny. I would expect 16bit raw to have an edge over 12bit raw, but clearly, exposed correctly and with a fairly typical scene contrast range both are very, very useable. Looking at the highlights and reflections on the wooden chair I suspect the dynamic range of both cameras is about the same.
The FS700 in raw mode clearly punches above it’s price point and it begs the question: Why by an F5 or F55 when the FS700 is almost as good? Well, not everyone is going to shoot raw all of the time. The F5 and F55 have the ability to shoot 10 bit compressed internally using XAVC or SStP (The HDCAM SR codec – coming soon in a free update). You can also shoot 8 bit XDCAM with the F5 and F55 to create a proxy file to the raw for editing, although admittedly you can shoot using AVCHD at the same time as raw with the FS700. The F5 and F55 are far better ergonomically and have a multitude of outputs for monitoring. Adding the IFR5 and R5 recorder to the FS700 does create a somewhat clumsy camcorder with either the recorder mounted on rails behind the camera or kept separate and used as a portable recorder. The F5/F55 with R5 docked to the camera is a beautifully elegant design. Don’t forget as well that the F55 also has Frame Image Scan which completely eliminates rolling shutter artefacts. But these features and ergonomics will deprive you of more of your hard earned cash. In pure “bang for you buck” terms the FS700 and IFR5/R5 is a very powerful combination.
I have an FS700 and I’m trying to decide whether to get the IFR5 so I can use it with my R5. I don’t think I’m going to bother, instead I’ll wait for the Convergent Design Odyssey 7Q. 2K raw at 240fps will be very nice to have and 4K compressed will also be useful as an alternative to the F5 and 4K raw. The Odyssey 7Q is a much neater solution with the FS700 and works out cheaper than the IFR5/R5. As well as being a raw recorder it is also a first class OLED monitor, so has many uses beyond the FS700 adding to it’s value.
It’s a great time to be a cinematographer on a budget. If you want 4K raw, only the IFR5/R5 can record this with the FS700 (it’s a shame that Convergent Design are not allowed to record 4K raw on the Odyssey, it could do if Sony would let them). The image quality from the FS700/R5 is incredible and there is no reason why you could not shoot a Hollywood blockbuster with it. I do much prefer the ergonomics and recording flexibility of the F5/R5 but it is quite a bit more expensive, the FS700 is a fantastic camera that just became a whole bunch better.
