Sony PMW F5 4K Recording to SxS cards and AVID Project Setup for Transcoding Media

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

Choose SxS Format > XAVC 4K Class480

You can choose 300 for MOST cases as it will use less drive space but if you are needing

more latitude use 480.

Confirm the Change Select Execute

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

Next we will show you how to set the camera to Slog 3 for recording Slog

Go to >User Menu

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.

Here is what SONY states about the difference between S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3.Cine:

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 (Sony LUTs provided in the next column)

2) Either Sony provided Look Profile or 3DLUT (Sony LUTs provided in the next column)

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

4K 4096 x 2160

3DLUT’s are the Kelvin settings 3200, 4300, 5600

NOTE Use these Sony SXS Pro +

64 gig will hold 21 min of footage

Put the card in the SD Card slot in the camera and format it.

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

BACK UP THE FILES YOU RECORDED ON THE SXS CARDS IN THE EXACT FORMAT

THAT WAS ON THE CARD

MAKE SEPARATE FOLDERS FOR EVERY CARD

Open AVID and create a AVID 4096 x 2160 Color Space - YCbCr 709

Click OK to create the project

Go to >Tools>Source Browser

Navigate to the folder you backed up your card data and click on Link

The files should open in the selected Bin or an existing Bin depending on what the

Target Bin was set to

Format should be 4096x2180/23.976 frame rate

Video should be XAVC Intra 4K

Select the clips and choose > Clip>Consolidate/Transcode

Then select where you want to save the consolidated files and choose the “Target Video Resolution”

We recommend

DNxHR LB MXF

Then Choose Transcode

Edit with the master clip not the linked file