Sony announced a firmware upgrade for the PMW-F3 which enables S-Log gamma mode, Dual Link 4:4:4 RGB video output, 3G-SDI output, and a lot more. In layman’s terms, it jacks up the dynamic range of the F3 by 800%. Detail in the highlights and shadows magically reappears giving it, what some are saying, better dynamic range than the Arri Alexa or RED cameras.
The $3,300 upgrade isn’t due out till late summer/early fall but the guys at Next Level Pictures managed to get an early copy of it and decided to shoot a test while in Vegas for NAB. Â The test compares the original XDCAM footage vs. the S-Log upgrade.
Also watch the behind the scenes video about how the entire process happened.
Read more on Next Level Pictures or Wide Open Camera.
Thx for the layman’s terms bro. I want to be excited about this like everyone else, but I have no flippin’ clue what they were talking about with the acronyms and strange repeated numbers lol. That looks like Laforette in the 3rd video?
$3300 for a firmware upgrade? Really?
I think you may want to look a little more into how much more latitude 800% really is. If you read about the F35 and F23 here: http://www.aipcinema.com/ficheiros/Conteudos/SRW_ITG_S-Log_001_IO_EN.pdf It explains S-Log use with those two cameras and it’s basically giving the cameras about 5.3Tstops more dynamic range. I’m not sure if these numbers are the same on the F3 or what this equates to in f-stops but i’m almost positive the F3 will still lose the latitude battle against Red’s HDRx() and the ARRI Alexa which are both above 15 fstops of latitudes (I forget the exact #’s right now)
ALTHOUGH… this is still insanely impressive for the F3 and the images look awesome(given the compression on the net). Would love to get my hands one one to do some testing.
Zach. 🙂
http://www.TwoBrothersFilms.com
The F35 and F23 already had 5T stops. The S-Log added .3 stops giving it 5.3T stops over 18%.
sell your epic? little thing called hdrx, ever heard of it? RAW? Free upgrades? Anyone?
18 stops with hdrx champ.
This is a great camera for sure, but you’re title is desperate at best
Yes the Epic does outperform the F3 on paper, but the point is that the F3 is a contender in HDR but at a fraction of the price. You could get 3x F3s for less than the cost of an Epic. If you don’t need HDRx, than the F3 is a worthy option for people on a RED budget.
Fraction of the price maybe but then F3 upgrade to 444 is still around $3200 or something plus the cost of the recorder. And you’re still stuck at 1080 and 60p max frame rate. If you had the option for 1 epic or 3 F3’s i’d probably lean towards the epic solely on the 5K image and frame rate options. Or hell if the scarlet ever makes it to production in this century you’d be crazy not to pick one of those up over an F3. (yes yes i know they don’t exist for purchase, just saying)
Altho renting out the 3 F3’s could pay for your Epic 😉
z.
Trade in your Epic? For an F3? Dumbest thing I’ve heard all year, and I’ve heard some dumb things.
What Epic does that F3 can’t: 5K at 120fps, 2k at 300fps, HDRx 18 stops of DR, RAW video.
The F3 and S-Log are pretty cool, and I like the images a lot, but that sort of talk just makes you look bad.
Stick with how awesome the F3 is, and don’t waste breathe comparing it to Red One or Red Epic. It may be more fair to compare it with Alexa, but don’t be too tempted there either, because more fair isn’t fair at all in this case.
Also, I have no clue what Sony was thinking with $3000+ for a firmware upgrade. It should be FREE.
Finally … you should compare UNGRADED S-Log to ungraded XDCAM to draw any conclusions.
In fact it would be much better to compared the ungraded S-Log to ungraded 10 bit 4:2:2 footage to see what you are getting as an improvement- but I don’t think you can do that with real footage like you have here. Charts and such sure.
for any epic-m? sure. epic-x and epic-s? bit misleading don’t you think? and it’s not just on paper if the results show it 🙂
Don’t get me wrong, again, i like the F3, but before this costly upgrade (which brings the price to about 20,000 w/0 lenses) it really wasn’t any better than the fs 100. it’s marketing. Good camera? sure. but again, why in any way it would be considered superior to the features of an epic (the x’s and the s’s), which you make it sound like in your title, is just not realistic. Nothing against sony, i like them a lot better than Panasonic, after all, all they gave us was the af100…………’nough said i think.
I just think it’s funny that though red fans are accused of being “red fanboys,” that sony fans will say and write stuff like you’ve written which is equally as “fanboyish,” only difference is, the stuff said about red is normally true 🙂
ha,ha,ha. Funy article!!!
The F3 and Epic are totally different tools and are both useful. The title was more for “shock” value than literal interpretation. Read any blog and you’ll see the same thing (Engadget, Gizmodo, etc.)
And for the record, I’m not a fan of most Sony products, but I’ve been very impressed with the F3 and FS100.
I would totally gett three cameras that have excellent video quality over one.
I would totally gett three cameras that have excellent video quality over one.
3300/-usd!!!!????????
sony deserves W-T-F.
Fools all, The RED missed its mark at every point. While the F3 is not meant to compete with it, it does…far better than RED could ever hope to do with the Alexa. As for the 3,4,5K myth, the marketing departments at SONY, RED and ARRI are feeding the new, young, terrified of film and the cost thereof some line that 4K and 16mm are the same and that you can get 10-13.5 stops of lat. with HD.
Those that understand the CRAFT of filmmaking rather then the hobbie of videography understand these things to be fact.
Verry cool Video
No problems with the claims/title Tony, everybody does this, you gotta cheat to compete on a non level playing field. I do however completely agree with 2 emmys, that this field is now clogged with amateurs, mostly ‘photographers’ (people who own a camera – not the people who go to Afghanistan etc), turned ‘filmmakers’ (they bought a 5d or a red according to how much money they made at the office). The amount of people who can produce a meaningful image from any system is about the same as it was when 35mm colour film stock was introduced. I can get a ‘better’ image from an HPX500 with a chromatic dog zoom lens than 99% of PINK owners (can you tell I don’t own one?). This isn’t because I knew the difference between sharpness and resolution 30 years ago, but because I know what art is. The digital revolution is rubbish, it’s not producing better work, just selling more cameras.