SONY OFFERING BONUS GEAR WITH NEX-FS100PK SUPER 35MM CAMCORDER

Throughout February and March, Sony (Australia) are offering bonus accessories with the NEX-FS100PK Super 35mm camcorder, making this very affordable model for large sensor shooting even better value! Purchasers can claim a free HXR-FMU128 Flash Memory Unit and 2NP-F970 twin battery pack, total retail value of around $1,300.
See http://pro.sony.com.au for more details or contact any Sony Authorised Production Dealer.

Sony OLED Monitors- Gearhouse Broadcast Australia installs OLEDs in four OB trucks

Sydney – January 3, 2011 – Sony has continued to roll out its professional OLED monitors with placements across the country including the latest installation at Gearhouse Broadcast Australia, a leader in HD Outside Broadcast technology.

With Seven Network, Fremantle Media and Fox Sports as principle clients, Gearhouse Broadcast Australia is keen to keep its 18 month old fleet of OB units updated with the latest equipment. As part of this process the company has taken delivery of 16 PVM-1741 17-inch Professional OLED Picture Monitors and installed them in the largest four trucks of its outside broadcast fleet.

“I’ve been waiting for years for LCD to be superseded and was right on Sony’s door when OLED’s were released,” said Ray Martin, General Manager, Gearhouse Broadcast Australia. “I believe OLEDs are the first true grading monitors since CRTs and they have matched the hype - they haven’t disappointed and have met all our expectations.

“I first saw Sony’s 7 inch OLED monitors at NAB 2010 and the larger production models in 2011. I also saw them during a roadshow where OLEDs were show in a side-by-side test with LCDs and CRTs - you could definitely see the quality of the OLED monitor.”

The PVM-1741’s have been installed in CCU/grading and monitoring positions of Gearhouse’s HD-1 and HD-2 double-expanding semi-trailers and into TD/grading positions for the HD-3 and HD-4 single-expanding trucks.

Sydney – 14 December, 2011 – Lemac Film and Digital has become the first Australian rental house to commit to the new F65 camera, through Sony Australia.

Lemac Managing Director Sue Greenshields said “Lemac have always been the first to provide the latest in production technology and we believe the Sony F65 represents a very exciting addition to our high-end camera fleet. We are very pleased to be among the first in the world to offer this ground-breaking camera, as well as provide solid backup and support for on-set and post production workflows. Lemac will be rolling out new training programs that will start with an F65 course for Lemac customers.”

The AbleCine Blog released details of the new firmware for the NEX FS-100. Due in March 2012.

Sony will be releasing an major update to the popular AVCHD Super35 NEX-FS100 by early 2012. One of the most requested features is the ability to switch between NTSC and PAL recording, which Sony has added to this free update. In addition, you will be able to:

Save and load camera profiles to and from a memory card
Additional 4x and 8x Expanded Focus magnification
Selectable ISO or Gain sensitivity display
Selectable focus indication in feet or meters (E-Mount lenses only)
Selectable shutter indication as exposure time or shutter angle
Added the following Aspect-Ratio markers: 2.35:1, 1.85:1 and 1.66:1
Display ON/OFF button enables Zebra and/or Histogram overlay onto video output

The new firmware will also allow you to use the new Sony LA-EA2 Alpha to E-mount adaptor with full support for continuous phase-detect autofocus, auto iris, and lens metadata on most Alpha mount lenses.

Nov 2011. Sydney, Australia.
Sony is continuing to expand its range of options and lenses for the PMW-F3.
An RGB and S-LOG Gamma output option, the CBK-RGB01 is now available to deliver uncompressed 10-bit RGB 4:4:4 1080p, over industry-standard Dual-Link or 3G HD-SDI.

This signal can be recorded on units such as Sony's SRW-1 HDCAM-SR recorder or the SR-R1 SRMaster recorder due in December - both are capable of up to visually lossless 880 Megabits per second image capture.

From November the SCL-Z18X140, 18-252mm, 14x power zoom lens and the CBK-3DL01 3D Link option will be available. The 3D option enables users to operate two PMW-F3 cameras at the same time via one camera remote controller.

January 2012 will see the arrival of the SCL-P11X15, an 11-16mm 1.5x wide angle zoom lens.

From Sony (Aust).

Melbourne-based director/editor Will Horne (williamhornes.blogspot.com) is representative of a new breed of image makers who have moved up to the F3 via the DLSR path.

Having started out as a Final Cut Pro editor who began shooting his own material, he has made the most of digital cameras to quickly gain recognition in the very competitive advertising industry. His recent work for Myer has attracted a lot of industry attention for its lush, cinematic look.

“I started shooting using handycams but bought a Nikon D90 DLSR while travelling overseas, then used a Canon 5D for online content when I got a job with an advertising agency,” said Horne.

He then moved to his current job with ONE20 creative services and photographic studio and was given the task of going on location to shoot behind the scenes for the 2010 Myer Spring/Summer campaign.

“I shot that with the Sony PMW-EX1 which had previously been used for online content and everyone loved it. Our TV work was expanding so I suggested we needed a better quality camera and Videocraft Melbourne suggested the Sony F3 would be a good option. It was a more expensive camera than what we had used before but I convinced my boss it was worth it.

Pieter de Vries’ (ACS) (www.pieterdevries.com.au) first foray into digital formats was with the introduction of Sony’s Digital Betacam and his DVW-970 camcorder is still in use today. However he began looking for a new camera late last year amid a lot of interest in large sensor cinematography.

“Most cinematographers have been waiting for large sensor cameras to come along so they can work the same way they did with 35mm film - we are used to that level of production value and the cinematic look we got,” said de Vries. “DSLR cameras have helped turn the tide in favour of this as they can process the large amounts of data the chips generate.

“I wanted to avoid any interim developments and was after something that was more expandable and practical than some of the camera systems out then. When the F3 arrived I looked at it quite closely because it seemed to nail all my requirements in a very practical camera.”

Practical benefits
de Vries points to the benefits of the F3 where, unlike many smaller cameras, the camera body is big enough to have sensible spacing between its operating buttons and can accept a multitude of fittings.
“The F3 has enough real estate so the buttons
are easy to find and use. What that means is that you can pick it out of the box and go out and shoot - I was right at home with the menu system because it is a very familiar XDCAM EX structure. (continues)

Workhorse solution for drama, TVCs, behind-the-scenes and corporate shoots
Sydney – 25 October, 2011 – The Sony PMW-F3 Super 35mm digital cinematography camcorder, the company’s first professional handheld digital production camera with a Super 35mm imager has been rapidly adopted by Australian camera operators for a wide variety of roles.

The F3 camera was introduced in February 2011, in both a body-only version and also with an affordable PL lens kit of 35/50/85mm T2.0 prime lenses.
Three of those cameras were bought on the recommendation of Laszlo Baranyai ACS/HSC, (http://web.mac.com/lbaranyai/Site/Welcome.html), a seasoned DOP currently leading a crew shooting the family drama series “Conspiracy 365” in Victoria.

With a full spectrum of feature, documentary and series projects behind him, Baranyai was well qualified to judge the new camera for the demanding arena of television series production.
“When I first met the producers we discussed the six month shoot and I recommended using small, high quality cameras. The Sony F3 was very new at the time so I rented one from Videocraft to test and we all loved it,” said Baranyai.

“In the middle of the night I went to a shopping strip to test available light - I was blown away because you can use this camera with 12db gain with low lighting. I thought I wouldn’t get anything but it delivered a very good quality image. I have worked with Red cameras before and they were not even close to what the F3 can produce. In an emergency you can go up to 18db gain and the picture is still useable - it’s a bit grainy with some texture but it’s better than nothing and if you record in 4:2:2 at 10-bit there is plenty of room to grade with.”

In a move that reflects the F3‘s competitive sub $16k pricing (without lenses), the production team took the unusual step of buying the cameras when research revealed the six month hire cost would be three times the cameras’ purchase price.

XDCAM Transfer software PDZ-P1 V2.13.0 has been updated for use in Max OSX Lion.
Not suitable for FCPX as yet.
Release Notes:
What's New:

This version of XDCAM Transfer is qualified to run under Mac OS X v10.7 (Lion). However, this version is still not compatible with Final Cut Pro X (read the associated release note).

Note to Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, or Compressor 4 users:

Summarizing from Apple's tech note HT4714 (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4714)
After installing Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, or Compressor 4, be sure to run Software Update to download and install Pro Apps QuickTime codecs.
This update adds the following video codecs needed by certain Sony products for use by QuickTime-based applications:

HDV
XDCAM HD / EX / HD422
MPEG IMX

This update is recommended for all users of Final Cut Pro X, Motion 5, or Compressor 4.


General Notice:
The installer for XDCAM Transfer software version 2.13 no longer installs the Mac i.Link FAM driver. Please download and use the standalone Mac i.Link FAM driver installer.

Provides support for 32/64-bit Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Includes Optical FAM driver v2.30 for Mac - 32/64-bit Snow Leopard.

Sony Downloads

Sydney – 1 October, 2011 – Sony Australia has completed the roll out of a multi-million dollar deal with the Seven Network for the supply of Sony XDCAM cameras for the network’s electronic news gathering (ENG) operations across Australia.

The Seven partnership with Sony is part of a replacement program that encompasses all ENG cameras for the network. The deal includes a total of 60+ PDW-700 XDCAM HD422 disc camcorders, two PMW-500 XDCAM HD422 memory camcorders for the network’s LA bureau, and a large quantity of supporting PDW-F1600 decks, PDW-U1 drives and PDW-HR1 field stations.

The new XDCAM camera systems will allow speedy transfer of footage from remote news locations back to the station – enabling high quality news coverage to get to air in less time.

“In an extremely competitive news environment, TV crews on the ground need to get video feeds of high quality back to their stations almost immediately for transmission to viewers,” said John Albiston, Technical Services Manager, Melbourne, Seven Network (Operations) Limited.

“Flexibility of the XDCAM professional disc was a primary consideration regarding workflow and integration into our existing plant. The ability of the Sony system, in conjunction with third parties, to automatically extract rushes and FTP them back to base was considered key in this fast-paced news environment,” he stressed.

Rushes are imported to Final Cut Pro in the field and FTP’d to the local station via 3G. In addition, 2.5GHz analogue and digital links are also used for real-time contribution. Discs transported back to base undergo baseband ingest to Quantel server platforms. This will migrate to file-based ingest once the Quantel systems are upgraded.