What Does Sony's New A6700 Camera Mean For The Cine Camera Market?

How relevant might the new Sony A6700 be to the Cine Camera market ?

Sony launched the a6700 mirrorless camera last week, an APS-C back lit CMOS 26-megapixel (6K) sensor and recording capabilities from the Cinema Line of cameras. Could this be significant?

When Sony launched the Alpha 9 back in 2017, a mirrorless 6K FF camera with a CMOS stacked sensor, the Venice wasn’t far behind! Sony’s appetite for a F55 replacement might have improved with Arri launching the S35 to a willing customer base and the production of a suitable sensor in a retail camera might make the road map that much easier….

Sony’s PMW-F55 is soon to be 11 years old. Many still being used today it is one of those cameras that has stood the test of time. 4K Super 35 with global shutter. XAVC HD and 4K recording formats with RAW and XOCN if you added the R5 or R7. Small form factor and low power consumption. We saw the first OLED viewfinder with the F55, the DVF-EL100 later replaced with the DVF-EL200.

Currently Sony have a big gap between the FX9 and the Venice where a modern day F55 would sit. It’s not that we haven’t been asking for one for many years; I assume it’s difficult to decide what it would be, so it didn’t encroach on the Venice market but was that much better than a FX9 to afford a £25K budget.

So what would we want?

A Super 35 sensor would probably be acceptable as Arri have moved the goalposts and Full Frame is not the be all and end all, plus much easier to lens. E-mount is fine, you can go where you want from there. It would be good if it was 5K or maybe 6K. This would allow oversampling for a better 4K image or allow for zooming or cropping in frame without loss.

Maybe the internal ND Filter set from the Venice or probably better still the Electronic Variable ND from the FX9 and FX6. This would allow Depth of Field to be maintained in varying light conditions a positive for Documentaries or Natural History. Keep the camera light and cost down.

Still have XAVC 4K onboard but add XOCN . Maybe just light or light and standard. XOCN light (390 mb/s at 24P) would mean a low bit rate recording format that could be used throughout all the frame rates where you must change from XAVC 480 to XAVC 300 above 30fps. Maybe allow a R7 to be docked for the chunkier XOCN formats. If it was just XOCN Light onboard I’m sure you could use SxS cards still.

Dual Base ISO is a bit of a must these days.

Frame Rates. Say 120fps or even 240fps to rival REDs Raptor.

A new Viewfinder would be nice, the DVF-EL200 is getting a bit old now and could do with an update.