The F5 has landed!

PMW-Sony F5 with 3Ality Technica system.
PMW-Sony F5 with 3Ality Technica system.

So here it is, my own F5 and R5 all ready to go with from front to rear: Genus Elite matte box,  Samyang 35mm T1.5 lens (watch this space I have some exciting lens news coming soon). Genus Superior Follow Focus, MTF FZ to Canon adapter, Element Technica Micron bridge plate system and Micron top plate and handle. The viewfinder is the Sony L350 3.5″ LCD finder. Docked on the back is the R5 raw recorder and it’s all powered by a LiTH  150SI compact 150Wh battery. Still waiting on the AXS media 🙁 so no raw shooting just yet, the media should arrive later in the week.

LiTH 150SI compact 150Wh battery with built in charger, powering my F5.
LiTH 150SI compact 150Wh battery with built in charger, powering my F5.

12 thoughts on “The F5 has landed!”

    1. It’s a LiTH 150Wh battery, good for about 5 hours F5 only or about 3 hours with the R5. Using the R5 brings the power consumption up to about 45w. The new Sony batts only give an hour which the F5/R5.

  1. Looks good.. is there a reason you went with the Technica set up rather than the Sony VF mount that comes with the camera.. wonder if Sony?someone will come up with an on board mic set up.. how is the LCD finder..?

    1. I’m trying to standardise on one system across all my cameras. The LCD finder is great. Not as good optically as the OLED, but more versatile.

  2. Looks great! Lens options are of interesst to me for the F5/55. Are 2/3″ B4 lenses a realistic quality option using the B4 -Pl adaptor? I’m need long glass for wildlife and am considering the Canon 40×14. I undertand the 2x extender needs to be in and theres a 2 stop loss on the lens even without the adaptor. Alterntively I could use the canon 150 – 600 PL. I appreciate your thoughts.
    Mike

    1. Using a 2/3″ lens on a super 35mm camera is a compromise. The image quality you will get will never match a decent dedicated s35 lens and it certainly won’t be much use for 4K. Of course there are however many times when you need a servo zoom with a large zoom range. As such lenses don’t currently exist in PL mount etc often there is no choice other than using a 2/3″ lens ad an adapter. The Canon 150-600 will be better optically, but it’s only a 4x zoom. When we used the MTF adapter with a Canon HJ40 we ended up with a 40x zoom and a longest focal length of 1400mm. The pictures looked fine, we could not have obtained the shots any other way.

  3. Hi Alister

    Following on from what Mike asked, what are you using for an “everyday” zoom on the F5? I just got mine and I’m planning a lens inventory.

    I have a Tokina 28-70 Nikon mount and a number of EOS lenses for stills. I will rent higher end glass when required but I’m considering the Optitek EOS adapter. Have you tried it? I’m used to B4 and PL glass and although I’ve shot a little with stills lenses, I have my concerns about how useable they are.

    Can you give an update on the exciting news mentioned in the post yet?

    Many thanks for all the effort you put into the blog, it is excellent and very informative.

    Mike

    1. I have not tried the Optitek adapter, but it certainly sounds like an interesting device. I’ll have to try to get a demo of one.

      I have a 24-70mm f2.8 Sigma nikon mount that I use a lot, I also have one of the old Angineaux based Tokina 28-70mm f2.6 lenses which at f3.5 produces a picture that is almost like a Cooke lens. For my storm chasing trip next week I will be using a not so fast Canon mount Sigma 18-200mm lens. Most of the time light won’t be an issue so f4 – f6 will be OK and having an image stabiliser will be a big help. I’ll be using an MTF Effect adapter.

      Stills lenses are useable. The higher quality lenses are quite good, things like Canon L series or Zeiss ZF’s etc. The Samyang Cine lenses are very good prime lenses for very little money. Many DSLR lenses do however suffer from very short focus throws and image shifts as you focus. But when in focus, the images can be very good indeed.

      The news is that Zunow and Alphtron are bringing out a very nice set of lightweight and compact prime lenses. The glass is made by a top end optical company in Japan with the lenses being hand finished. They are T2 with a 95mm front diameter. All the lenses in the set are the same size. The price is expected to be around 3K Euro each. They also have a new FZ mount wide angle zoom lens. The test I have performed so far indicate that the quality is excellent.

  4. So would a B4 top end HD zoom lens be better/as good as top end stills zooms,even with taking into account the adaptor.. .. for non 4K work..?

    Thanks

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