Day in and day out we get to see newer technologies and these technologies getting implemented in newer cameras. 24fps and 25fps what was earlier thought of as must have and more than enough on a consumer and pro cameras have now shifted its atttention to higher fps shooting leading to high definition slow motion footages which was once limited to cameras like Phantom Gold etc. The intermediate cine cameras ( as i generally call it ) which sits between high end HD DSLRs and high end cine cameras like Arri, Red, Panasonic etc are the ones which are making huge waves since a few years. Late last year Red with the annoucement of its Scarlet X and also Canon with the annoucement of C300 redefined accessibility to high end features at “relatively” affordable price tag. Though on paper the Scarlet is a diff beast all-together compared to C300 or a Sony F100 or a Panasonic equivalents but still lies around in the same base price range of <10000 $. Anyways the relative specs and the end price are very debatable and who is it for is always a big question.
Few days back Sony created a huge storm by announcing a fancy new camera called FS700 which fits/sits between their flagship FS100 and F3 models. The 3 main specialites of this camera is the 4k futureproofing – which means that its 4k capture ready which will be a upgrade in the form of a firmware in coming months and secondly its capable of shooting at 240fps at full high definition giving the end result of a ultra slow motion effect in a 1080p video which was not possible other than the Red series of cameras and finally the built in ND filters which is a huge thing in cineworld. And its very attractively priced at around $9000 or less ( to be confirmed at NAB2012 ). From what i see this camera gonna be a game changer in many ways – firstly based up on its specs which boldly says that its 4k ready and secondly the price tag which will now make the other cameras very affordable and competitive.
Some blessed mortals were lucky enough to have got a chance to shoot with this beauty using a pre-production model and they have their views/concerns expressed to Sony which seems to have got addressed over the last 6 months or so. Below is a very lovely video released by Sony which shows the current capabilities of FS700 and what the people behind the cameras who got to use it have to say about it.
[vsw id=”39839187″ source=”vimeo” width=”600″ height=”400″ autoplay=”no”]
Click here if you cant view the video above > http://vimeo.com/39839187
Read some initial impressions of the camera here
First hand review of Sony FS700
***UPDATE***
One of the many videos that was shot by Den Lennie using the Sony FS 700
[vsw id=”39405035″ source=”vimeo” width=”600″ height=”400″ autoplay=”no”]
Click here if you cant view the video above > http://vimeo.com/39405035
we need Sony NEX FS 700 Sample Video cameras