SET- UP | I NTERV I EW
had experienced the first CineAlta digital video cameras from Sony and valued the quality of the equipment – I know that what I see on-set is 90% of what I will see in finishing.” Hollywood DoP Claudio Miranda had to persuade his director, Brad Bird, on Tomorrowland to use digital as he initially wanted to use film. He says: “I was saying to him about the Sony F65 that this was a one- camera package to shoot everything and he was thrilled in the end. Now he says he was so happy that we went in this direction.” The F65 also featured in the high-frame rate experimental movie Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk as the only camera that could record the data heavy 4K 3D 120fps footage. VENICE Bringing the CineAlta legacy up to date is the Venice, which has just returned from its second Camerimage in Poland. We talked with Venice product specialist, Sebastian Leske, about how the camera had been received over the last year and what new features were coming in 2019. “The Venice started shipping at the end of February this year and it has gained a lot of interest,” says Sebastian. “The biggest compliment from our users, even at Camerimage, was that we had listened to Version 4 of the firmware is also coming next year and this will feature higher frame rates.
ABOVE Sebastian speaking at Camerimage 2018 about the Venice camera.
them, to their requests for the development of the camera. We also revealed our product roadmap, which at the moment goes up to version 4 and will be released in spring. Customers and potential customers are happy to see that requests can sometimes appear in the updates. We’re not locked into what will appear on the camera.” Sony is also seeing the Venice being used in other markets. Sebastian says: “In Version 2 we had the 25fps option, which appeals to the European market and now we are seeing the Venice appearing in Netflix productions and TV commercials. In fact, Audi has just used the camera to shoot the commercial for its new electric car, the e-tron. At Camerimage I met two DoPs who were using Venice to shoot documentaries in Norway and The Netherlands.” SENSOR EXTENSION We first saw the new sensor extension kit for the Venice at the Cine Gear show in LA, which coincided with the announcement that this version of the camera was going to be used to shoot the new Avatar movies over the next few years. Sony has
now commercialised this kit for use for everyone. “We managed to show this new arrangement as part of an in-car shooting set-up with the camera head attached to the screen,” explains Sebastian. “At Camerimage, we were showing the camera in a handheld design with left and right handles and the camera body placed in a backpack, based on an EasyRig system. It was like a DSLR-sized style. These kind of set-ups encourage DoPs to think about how they can use the camera in different ways.” FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS Venice firmware updates v3 and v4 are expected in 2019. Sebastian explained some of the new features appearing in cameras in the new year. “The new extension system will be shipping from February, at the same time Version 3 firmware will be released. New features will include cache recording and full wireless remote capability so you can control your camera from an iPad if you want. There will be simultaneous recording modes, meaning you can record at high res and also a small proxy file. “There will also be additional de-squeeze functions for the new anamorphic lenses, which are coming on to the market going up to full-frame,” says Sebastian. “We will be able to go down to the 1.25 de-squeeze of the Panavision lenses. There won’t be any limitations anymore. “In addition, there will be a new option for the X-OCN format. At the moment we have the standard and the light versions. In Version 3, we are adding an XT format for extreme recording, which has the same data rate as our F55 Raw recording, but has a higher picture quality. Again, this is based on user requests including shoots with a lot of VFX and IMAX productions. “Version 4 of the firmware is also coming next year and this will feature higher frame rates, so you can go up to 6K at 60fps, 2K up to 120fps and 4K higher than 90fps.”
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