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Sony BURANO Camera Teased

Hello Earthlings,

Now that embargo is over, brief thoughts.

A few notable things. Sony is positioning this camera as a "baby Venice" and it is that. Not the younger brother even, but baby. It's not much different in some regards. Major differences really come down to frame rates, image stabilization, autofocus, codecs, ND, size, etc. No 3:2 recording here on this body.

Internal RAW on Burano is limited to X-OCN LT, both good and sort of a medium warmth there. Many shoot on some Sony cameras (as well as others) to tap into very lightweight codecs like XAVC. This camera is an interesting place where it provides a decent somewhat nimble RAW format and much more nimble codecs. And I suspect for those new to working with X-OCN, this might be a nice way to begin.

Sony isn't going to poach the higher end Venice market, so feature-wise, it's just not going to be "there". At $25,000 you get an 8.6K full frame camera that tops out at 30fps. Personally, I would have pushed for 60fps in something in this realm to make that price tag feel a bit more right.

The biggest camera to take a hit here really is the FX9. But that camera also took a major hit when the FX6 came out.

Generally speaking, Venice II competes rather squarely with Monstro overall, though that isn't how many look at that. And more recently people have seen the power of V-Raptor 8K VV in side by sides showing where the notable gains are (HBO's CAS comes to mind). This camera situates in a rather different spot honestly.

We're talking 8.6K 30fps FF35 versus 8K VV up to 120fps, with Raptor being a notably wider image and in this case ever so slightly taller. Venice II however can roll the full 3:2 image, Burano is 8.6K 17:9 or 16:9 max.

Raptor however is a more expensive system as a whole to get up and running when you kit it out, but not by too much in reality. But that honestly should be the case considering the differences. And I'm not event getting down to things like Dual Record or any of that.

I'm certain it will be a popular camera, but in this case it's not some sort of weird doom and gloom. It is interesting how Sony has been building on this sensor design since the A1 through Venice to Burano. I suspect what's going on here is closer to A1 in terms of implementation just due to the AF alone, but perhaps with some other improvements.

Raptor is about 2 years old this month/next month. And it's clearly got legs comparatively to other options on the market.

This being September and Burano targeting an April 2024 release is pretty wild advance notice, but I'm betting they will be doing a lot of firmware work leading up to this camera's release.

I would say a major thought in my head is where Canon might take say a revised Canon R5c sensor, perhaps stacked CMOS based, and putting it into something close to a C500-ish body. 8K 60fps with that range of RAW found in the R5c and additional codecs might be spicy. And I think they'd float in the $15-20K range. But that's theory crafting.

I guess some quick last words. Cameras at various price points are very powerful now. I have a bunch of them, but there's a mega difference between something like Raptor and say some of the mirrorless fair when it comes down to it. Those differences may be very meaningful and visible to you, to many, perhaps not. Really depends on what you're doing and how you're doing it.

To that point on the premium side of things between Arri, RED, and Sony it's nice to see all three taking different roads providing a vibrant landscape. Sony clearly wants to encroach further particularly on Arri's turf when you look at the cameras here. RED's kind of doing their own thing, which is probably the best course of action.
 
XOCN may be flexible but not the same as a RAW mode, Venice 2 has RAW with the R7...
Point taken Zack. I haven't had any problems with the Venice X-OCN codec, but that footage was shot well. Had to work some very badly lit green screen that was alternately recorded in both Sony Raw lite and the full uncompressed raw on an F65. Much, much easier to pull a key with the full raw, same shots with lite required roto. This was a very crazy DP, mind you.
 
From the Sony Burano FDTimes Report pages 30-31, I prefer the "WARM" Built-in Lut from which to start from because all the rest crush the Shit out the "Shadows". I mean why use anything else?

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Screenshot-11168.png

Screenshot-11169.png
 
XOCN may be flexible but not the same as a RAW mode, Venice 2 has RAW with the R7 recorder so that’s clearly a higher end feature codec. RED very well could and probably should consider a price adjustment if nothing else is in the pipeline for a while. As for the Pocket 12K and Alexa 8K, re-read what I said as I was stating a hypothetical but it is something of note as such developments have been speculated for quite some time and are very likely to happen probably not that much further out than people think.

At the end of the day though you can defend a camera or brand all you want but if I’m not seeing the right value for my money then it’s a no-go no matter what. The Raptor may be RED’s top camera but it’s only selling point comes down to size, FF, and frame rates but there’s a lot of new small FF cameras now that are very good and 120fps and 240fps+ aren’t too hard to find and if I don’t care about size then I’ve got the URSA 12K OLPF which can have speed boosters added to it if I need FF and for a fraction of the price enough for me to have two, one speedboosted and one left at S35. The Burano is showing that even though it may not have every feature I want, it’s very much competitive and cameras that come out from now on will at least have to match or exceed that quality barrier and Raptor is going to get left in the dust if RED holds on much longer without some innovation or intervention as they are not the only 8K game in town anymore.
1) X-OCN is RAW. Repeat after me “X-OCN is RAW”. 2. RED’s not dropping the price of the RAPTOR to $15,000. 3. You made the preposterous claim that a Pocket 12K and ARRI 8K are about to be released. Provide the evidence now or admit you were spinning fairy tales.

Edit: Re-read your post and seeing as neither Blackmagic nor ARRI are releasing the cameras you’ve created out of whole cloth anytime soon, then according to your own logic, nothing is ‘pushing RAPTOR to the side’.
 
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I know they are Screengrabs from a PDF, But I think you get what I meant from the grades below from the "WARM" images. Graded in ACES with "REC709" input Transform.




new-2-1-1-4.jpg


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new-3-2-1-3-5.jpg
 
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Sony BURANO - CineAlta Designed for Solo Shooters


By

B&H Photo Video




 
1) X-OCN is RAW. Repeat after me “X-OCN is RAW”. 2. RED’s not dropping the price of the RAPTOR to $15,000. 3. You made the preposterous claim that a Pocket 12K and ARRI 8K are about to be released. Provide the evidence now or admit you were spinning fairy tales.

Edit: Re-read your post and seeing as neither Blackmagic nor ARRI are releasing the cameras you’ve created out of whole cloth anytime soon, then according to your own logic, nothing is ‘pushing RAPTOR to the side’.

With the size of the URSA 12K, a smaller 12K camera or a "Pocket 12K" is obviously coming and has been talked about elsewhere including Blackmagic's forums for a while now and an 8K Alexa camera is also obvious and I'm surprised we haven't had one yet as they historically dropped a 4K Alexa once everyone else started going 4K as we're now seeing with most new cameras having cinematic 8K by default and a growing number of them having RAW video built in too.

As for the Raptor, aside from Venice 2 or the emergence of a Blackmagic Pocket 12K or 8K Arri, take your pick for what's pushing it to the side, even Komodo/X with its price and global shutter steals a lot of thunder, but the main thing is the new mirrorless cameras which are getting 8K RAW and innovations like the URSA 12K breaking the price barrier and features, it's all over the place. Even in the trades it's all about Sony's FX6 and FX3 making up a lot of ground with their ease of use and cinematic 4K video and now the Burano makes it clear that it is just the first turn on the dial before we get 8K versions of the sub-$10K Sony cameras within the next couple years if not sooner. What is sure is that the Raptor will still be viable for a while yet as not many are going beyond 8K but at its current price it could be a tough sell for many with the other 8K+ offerings available.
 
Sony BURANO | In-Depth Review & Test Footage


By CVP




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Damn, it looks better in shadows than Raptor in 3200 Base ISO.Thats crazy and plus this camera offers BUILT IN ND AF IS and bunch of stuff which Red wont be offering until next 2 generations.
Since Venice crushing Raptor in 8K sharpness and i guess it ll be same with Burano and its probably sharper than Raptor image at 8K..
So whats there left for Raptor to survive in this market? No leading Dynamic Range? No competitive AF? No IS ? No sharpness?
Maybe 8k 120fps is the only thing left for Red.
 
Damn, it looks better in shadows than Raptor in 3200 Base ISO.Thats crazy and plus this camera offers BUILT IN ND AF IS and bunch of stuff which Red wont be offering until next 2 generations.
Since Venice crushing Raptor in 8K sharpness and i guess it ll be same with Burano and its probably sharper than Raptor image at 8K..
So whats there left for Raptor to survive in this market? No leading Dynamic Range? No competitive AF? No IS ? No sharpness?
Maybe 8k 120fps is the only thing left for Red.
You keep repeating the word sharpness, when the proper term is resolution. Sharpness isn't a selling point for me. Filmmakers do everything they can to counteract digital sharpness. 6K is the sweet spot as far as I'm concerned; but wherever you stand in the resolution wars, ultimately it's the lenses and processing that determine just how sharp the images look. I thought Steve Yedlin put this nonsense to rest ages ago.

No leading dynamic range

If memory serves me correctly, CineD showed that the Raptor beat the Venice 2 in the dynamic range department. Sony claims 16+ stops for the Burano, but my guess is it'll come out to around 12 stops give or take, which is behind the Raptor and far less expensive cameras like the Canon C70. However things turn out, it's too early to claim that the Burano surpasses the Raptor in dynamic range.

No competitive AF? No IS ?

I know, right? According to your criteria, the entire ARRI lineup should be consigned to a landfill! LOL The loupe situation appears to have been poorly thought out and I'd pass for the camera's lack of anamorphic recording options. But in the minds of certain commenters here, specs alone determine a camera's worthiness, every new release (as well as imaginary ones) crushes RED's lineup and it's not possible to conceive that different cameras can coexist.
 
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so is the compressed raw patent from RED outdated ? (at last)
So does this mean that licenses costing thousands of dollars to unlock features like high frame rate, full frame and anamorphic on Sony flagship cinema cameras are outdated? Oh, snap!
 
IMHO this camera is a winner. It combines the features usually reserved for hybrid cameras (e.g. GH6) and the features that only cinema cameras have.

Rand, you are right that this matters more than the GFX 100 II for professional crews. The GFX does 8K but only in VV and up to 30fps. It is cheaper but a film crew would not choose it over the Burano.
 
Yeah,


I think this is a great camera but i don't think anyone whom already has a Red Komodo/X or V-Raptor is going to be loosing any sleep over it. It has alot of value added features I wish either the Red Komodo/X or V-Raptor had . However each camera company has decided in what specific area they want to focus their attention and resources. I believe all of these camera that have been unveiled now and will be unveiled in the near future will find their own unique niche in this ever growing camera market.
 
Looks like you might be selling that Raptor, Nick. Pretty fantastic specs on this today, albeit no global shutter that I'm seeing. That's been a valuable feature for vfx and compositing for me with F65 and F55 footage.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explor...-with-sonys-compact-cinealta-burano-8k-camera

Things I loved:

Got the 8.6k sensor ( which resolves more detail than Raptor)
Has internal NDs
Has image stabilzation
Has autofocus.

Things I do not like:
Has worse DR than Raptor since it inherited the same Venice 2 / A1 sensor.
Extremely small FPS modes
Bigger than a Raptor
Terrible on board monitor/ evf
No Open Gate (wtf)


Probably gonna sell my cam anyway…. that’s if anyone is actually interested in a body for 19,500. We will see. There are things the Raptor does better. Smaller, better DR, better low light, more high speed settings, slightly larger sensor, you can put it in a backpack or rs3 pro.

Granted not interested in the Burano either. I’ve heard this isnt the Venice Mini camera, but it is a camera between fx9 and venice. I just think buying cameras that are over 10k now are becoming obsolete too quickly. Too much of an expense and an annoyance to sell compared to cameras coming out below $10K that take already great images.

To say you can’t make a movie with a camera below 10k is nonsense. Look at The Creator. Literally shot entirely on FX3s.

Most cameras have enough DR for me. Color is thrown out the window since I apply my own look for whatever project I am shooting.

I think it’s an amazing time to be a shooter, you dont have to be rich to work with equipment that will produce amazing results.
Buy an fx3 or an R5c or an A1. If you can’t make something look beautiful with those cameras, well it’s time to switch work fields
 
I would say this announcement is going to tank the prices for the F5/F55 camera bodies, but... I am not sure if they can go any lower!

But this is very much aimed at the F5/F55 owner.

It's a big jump up from the FS7 (which is what the FX9 was aimed at).

While being massively cheaper than the F35/F65 was (which is what the VENICE is aimed at).
 
The biggest camera to take a hit here really is the FX9. But that camera also took a major hit when the FX6 came out. .

I don't see how the FX9 is going to take a hit. The new camera is 2 and a half times the price of the FX9. You could buy 2 FX9s with all the accessories for the price of one burano. And that's just for the body, you're gonna have to shell out a lot more to get the new camera running.

seems like 2 different markets to me
 
I don't see how the FX9 is going to take a hit.

As I mentioned. Sales dropped drastically on the FX9 when the FX6 came out. Sales since have been extremely poor and now there is a "better camera" in some ways, despite being more expensive.

I agree it's two different pricing tiers. I'm more or less explaining what retailers are dealing with on that front.

Personally and professionally I have thoughts as to why this has transpired.

To David Peterson's point. Sony isn't concerned about F5 or F55 prices at all. Legacy cameras they no longer ship aren't turning profits for them. And yep, that is very much the target market here.

At about 4am yesterday I added all the new cameras that I could to phfxtools.com for format comparison. The most interesting format on the Buranon is the FF Crop 6K mode, which uses about smaller 8K image to create a 6K one and also allow for 60fps. I'll have to get some clarity from Sony if this is a 25% scale or line skipping technique to get those fps. I do think it would have been useful to have an actual 6K extraction mode on this camera based on what I see, similar to the 4K format. But that's their decision. The camera won't be out for over half a year really, so they have time to make firmware updates or more likely strategize about their camera lifetime firmware update plan.
 
According to CVP, there’s no line skipping or pixel binning in any of the modes.
 
Sony Burano: First Impressions


By
film-tv-video.de




 
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