As reported by HD Video Pro, Sony has taken the interesting step of pre-announcing a new CineAlta camera setup to assembled journalists, and later to the public, at the CineGear trade show.
Announcing a new full-frame system that is currently in development and scheduled to be released “in early 2018” the company said that the “next gen” system will be a “brand new full frame sensor for digital motion picture development.” Sony did not provide any specifics about the resolution of any sensors in development, though clearly, the presence of 8K workflows from Red and others at the show hints at the direction of the new CineAlta system.
Outlining the benefits of full-frame cameras, Sony mentioned agnostic lens use, through direct mounts and adapters, the ability to shoot anamorphic lenses, a wider latitude and greater dynamic range. They also pointed out that full-frame lenses “share many of the characteristics of 65mm,” with smaller lenses.
The new system is promised to work with the existing 16-bit RAW X-OCN and XAVC format workflows.
Calling to stage Claudio Miranda, ASC, the cinematographer talked about the benefits of using classic, and slightly imperfect lenses, to achieve specific looks.
“I feel like a big thing we’re missing is being able to choose any lenses you want” “to me the juicy parts of anamorphic are at the edges. “sometimes it’s not always about the sharpest, it’s about capturing some of these older lenses.”
He discussed, he said, emotional impact with Sony engineers, so that they understood the need to be able to work with classic, stylistic lenses.
The announcement of the development of a full-frame camera comes on the heels of the recent Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for 2017.
To highlight the company’s end-to-end approach to digital cinema capture and development, they screened the documentary Le Ride on the digital projection system at Paramount. Shot on the F55 at 4K, the clarity of the film was remarkable, obviously intended to make viewers wonder how much better the results would be if it were captured full-frame.
Information on the Sony cinema system cameras are listed at the company’s website.
You can read our original coverage of the F65 here.