Today, one of our excellent local rental houses, Videofax in San Francisco, held an Open House to show off the Sony F5 and F55 large-single-sensor cine cameras. I was able to get a few pictures of these new beasts, which Videofax has kitted out using third-party support accessories and a couple of rather nice lenses.

Sony F55 with Canon 30-105mm T2.8 zoom. The silver lens mount locking ring tells you it's F55, not an F5.

Sony F55. It's more the size of an F3 or FS700, not a big 'un like the F65.

Sony F55, with 960×540 OLED EVF, raw recorder, Solid Camera power adapter, battery

F55 menu panel. Does it remind you of an Alexa's panel, by any chance?

It even adjusts (somewhat) like an Alexa. However, the menus are rather more complicated than on the Arri camera.

Solid Camera makes this top plate, handle, rod clamps, and EVF mount.

More detail on that handle… tapped for accessories, of course.

Solid's top-side accessories from the other side.

Solid also makes the power adapter, side plate, and audio adapters: dual input plug with 'SOLID' on it, cabled to modular adapter box taking a mike feed in front and/or a mixer feed in the back.

This is the 4K raw recorder for the F5/F55. Cards fit beneath that top door. Note the fan.

Here's an F5/F55 raw memory card. Not quite as big (or expensive) as an F65 raw memory card… but this “only” has to handle 4K raw, not the 8k raw from an F65.

This is the F5 (you can tell because the lens mount lock ring is black, instead of silver).

The F5 wears a Fujinon Cabrio 19-90mm zoom, Sony's 720p LCD EVF, and Element Technica accessories.

The view down the side. The Cabrio has an ENG-style handgrip with zoom rocker. The audio sockets don't stick quite as far out as I feared they would.

This F5 isn't wearing a raw recorder or a battery; DC is patched straight into the body.

Both the F5 and the F55 are quite compact if you don't hang a bunch of stuff off of them.

The LCD EVF is attached using Element Technica bits. EVFs are bought separately; either camera can use the OLED or the LCD EVF.

If you've used a RED ONE, that E-T logo and clamp probably look mighty familiar!

Want more? Jon Fauer's Sony F5 and F55 Booklet has all the inside dope. And if you're shooting near San Francisco, both Videofax and Chater Camera will have these cameras available.

Disclosure: There's no material connection between me and Sony, Videofax, or Chater, except that I've been a customer of all of 'em in the past. No one offered me any compensation for this writeup.