The F5 and F55 have new firmware

During this weekend Sony has revealed the new features of its two most talked-about cameras lately: the F5 and the F55.

The new 4.0 firmware comes with several qualities that have been quite requested by the user community. In addition, it seems that the Japanese company has focused part of these improvements on giving greater flexibility to customize both the images and the camera itself.

On the “physical” side, we now have a user menu that we can adjust from twenty frequently needed items in a single list. Seven available colors have also been added for the VF (Viewfinder) markers.

On the creative side, we support 3D LUTs. Thanks to this, you will be able to load LUTs generated by yourselves in camera to set a look from the beginning of the production.

Another important new feature is the “Picture Cache”, which provides the ability to record several seconds in cache memory, depending on the resolution and codecs used:

• Up to 15 seconds, at 50Mbps 4:2:2.
• Up to 8 seconds, in XAVC HD 2K.
• Up to 2 seconds, in XAVC 4K (3840×2160).

The recording options are joined by interval recording (from 1 second to 24 hours) and simultaneous recording with HDCAM SR and 50 Mbps 4:2:2 on SxS PRO+ cards.

Other functions include menu control on the SUB screen, the ability to start and stop recording (REC) using the RET button on the lens, or zoom and focus control with the CBK-DCB01 remote.

Finally, and only available for the F55, is HDMI 2.0 support, for 4K up to 60p.

For those of you who are eager to get these new features, don’t worry, you will only have to wait until this Friday, April 4th to get the v4.0 firmware. And if you want to learn more about these and other cameras, don’t forget that in June will be the next Digital Cinema Camera Course.