Sony PMW F5 4K Recording Workflow

This workflow is based on menu settings that can be seen either through the eyepiece or a monitor connected via SDI

You will not see these menu settings on the LCD on the side of the camera

Turn on the Sony F5 using the on switch

Use the knob to Navigate through the menus and press the knob to select the menu item

Go to System Menu

Reset the camera to defaults

Go to System>Scroll down to All Reset press the knob and choose Reset >All Reset>Reset

Press Reset again

If this menu comes up: It's a maintenance self check that the camera does every 5 days or so.

It's best to let the camera do APR whenever it reminds you.

Press Menu to set up some more settings

Go to System > Record Format> HD

Select the Record Format

class 480 is the 480Mb/s version of 4K XAVC. This gives a bit rate of…… drum roll……. 480Mb/s at 24/25/30fps. At 50 and 60fps it runs at a whopping 960Mb/s, this is the top limit for XAVC in it’s current form.

Sony’s PMW-F5/F55 and the FS7 currently record XAVC using Class 300 which is up to 300Mb/s at 24/25/30fps or 600Mb/s at 50/60p. So as you can see Class 480 has the potential to improve the compressed image quality from these cameras still further should it ever make it into a camera.

Change to the 4K settings

Go to Color Space and choose which slog to use

SLog3 extends dynamic range about 1.5 stops. So it might be best for very high contrast (high dynamic range) scenes, and SLog2 might be best for low contrast "flat" scenes.

S-Gamut3:

• Camera native color space, wider than REC-2020
• Very good for archiving.
• In camera Look Profiles and 3DLUT’s are not designed for S-Gamut3
• For experienced Color grading only
• You need two 3DLUT’s to grade effectively:

1) SLog3SG3toSG3Cine.cube (provided below) +

2) Either Sony provided Look Profile or 3DLUT

S-Gamut3.Cine:

• Very natural color reproduction, wide color space
• Very easy grading
• Slightly wider than DCI-P3, and much wider than REC-709
• Look Profiles, and 709 3DLUT’s provided by Sony are designed specifically for S-Gamut3.Cine

Use these Sony SXS Pro +

64 gig will hold 21 min of footage

Choose the basic HD XAVC 1920 x 1080P setting

Now set to record press record on the Sony F5 camera and it will begin recording

Now we need to load the files into a computer for editing

Open Adobe Media Encoder

Go to File>Add Source

Make sure the Cineon/DPX File Sequence is checked and then navigate to the firs file of the folder with the lowest number


Then Click "Open"

Change the Format to QuickTime

Click on the "Yellow" Preset to set the quicktime settings

Choose the following:
Format – Quicktime

Export Video only

Choose the Apple ProRes 4444
Video Codec



Video Settings set to 100


Frame rate 23.98
Progressive
Square Pixels
24 bit


Choose to save and click OK

Click on Output File

Click the green arrow to start the encode

Open AVID and create a AVID 1920 x 1080 Color Space - RGB

File>Import

Click on Options

Choose Image sized for current format


Choose the 601 or 709 Pixel to Video Mapping


Click OK

Choose the file and the resolution as Apple ProRes 4444 MXF and select the Storage drive as the destination for the AVID file

The import will fast import the video. You should see the term Fast Import or else the image is not coming in at 10 bit 4444