New shoulder mounted Super 35 Sony PXW-FS7 records 4K/60p out of the box

[Allen Facemire]

Just took delivery of my PXW FS7. Going to be a great camera. Sill waiting for a few accessories and also still sorting out some stupid Sony engineering issues.
One is you can not assign different output signals to the SDI out. They are either on or off and both pass the same info, though SDI2 will allow menu pass through. Doesn’t seem to be anyway to downcovert to SD either which is helpful when using a non HD video assist by TransVideo. That’s a stone cold drag.
But the biggest issue by far is there doesn’t seem to be any way to jam sync time code without having to also supply video sync. That’s just crazy talk. Not sure how I can talk to a smart slate. I generally jam sync a 788 recorder which has a great clock. Then a couple of times a day I just do a security jam. Now I reckon I will have to set the preset clock as close as possible and a couple of times a day jam from camera to the 788. That’s silly. Hopefully I’ve missed something and will be guided through.

[Dean Longfield]

…and now Sony introduces the PXW-FS5…$5,599 or so w/out lens.

Thing is, I have an FS700 and don’t have the need to shoot 4K yet.
By the time 4K jobs start rolling in, ( 3 years from now? ), they’ll be phasing this camera (FS5) out and introducing the new version.

If 4K work was here now, I’d get the FS5 or FS7 because it records 4K internally. To record 4K with an FS700 I’d have to get an Odyssey 7Q with FS700 capability activated and that would cost around $5,000 or so when you factor in buying an SSD card starter kit, (plus I’d rather have the internal recording)….BUT no one is offering 4K video work right now, so I’ll hold onto my FS700 and wait for all the above to come down in price.

[Craig Seeman]

4K have value if you want to reframe, stabilize, pseudo push in or pan in post. Sometimes a one camera shoot can be made to look like two. This is all if you work in a 1080 timeline. Also many like the way 4k downscaled to 1080 looks.