Sony Broadens 35mm Line-Up

At IBC 2010, Sony Professional announced that it is reinforcing its 35mm acquisition line-up with a wave of new developments.
These include the addition of new features to the F35 camera, news that shipments of the SRW-9000PL camcorder will begin in volume within the month and commitment on delivering a 35mm upgrade to the SRW-9000 camcorder.
Sony also showcased an R&D prototype of an affordable 35mm professional camcorder that will bring additional choice for budget conscious creatives.
Olivier Bovis, Head of AV Media Business at Sony Professional, commented: "IBC is the ideal platform for Sony to showcase its commitment to a growing line up of 35mm cameras. The demand from the industry to produce content with the "cinema look" continues to grow as producers and networks strive to differentiate from competitors and explore new creative possibilities.
"Working with a Super 35mm size sensor is more and more popular, not just in the high-end feature film market, but for prime-time drama, pop videos and in budget movie productions too. As part of our '35mm World' vision, we understand that producers are increasingly looking to 35mm because of the artistic ability to control the depth of field and to utilise the huge range of PL mount lenses available. Once again, we believe in bringing choice to users by offering them endless creative options."
Also at IBC 2010, Sony announced an upgrade to the F35 camera with a new range of features designed specifically to enhance the dynamic range, tone and colour graduation. First introduced by Sony two years ago, the F35 is widely regarded as the industry's leading high-end digital cinematography camera and forms the blueprint for Sony's 35mm product range.
The upgraded F35 includes an ISO 800 Hyper Gamma and S-Log 800EI setting to offer outstanding performance in low light conditions and the ability to output a 12-bit signal in the near future. The SRW-5800/2 will also be able to record this 12 bit signal, helping post production to deliver a higher quality output.
Shipment of the SRW-9000PL is also to begin within the month. Announced at NAB in April, the SRW-9000PL is an updated version of Sony's groundbreaking SRW-9000 camcorder with a 35mm imager and PL mount to increase its flexibility and offer increased control over the captured image. The camcorder has the same sensor and recording capabilities as the F35/SRW-1 combination, but is half the weight, size and power consumption. It offers full RGB image capturing without colour sub-sampling, ultra-wide dynamic range, S-Log and HyperGamma capability as well as ISO800 Hyper Gamma and S-Log 800EI setting.
Existing SRW-9000 customers are also able to experience 35mm too with the HKSR-90PL upgrade package. In the future, the camcorder will also offer 12 bit recording, and the ability to migrate to SR Memory. SRW-9000PL will be available at the end of September 2010.
Finally, following on from the announcement at NAB, Sony also re-affirmed its plan to introduce an "affordable 35mm camera" to join the F35 and the SRW-9000PL. The demonstration of an R&D prototype will re-affirm the goal of establishing a 35mm line-up to cover applications from high budget to lower budget production.
(KMcA)