Cameras for Hire

The F800 is very similar to the Sony PDW-700, it shares the same body and much of the same electronics including the sensors and laser deck. It does everything the already well respected PDW-700 does plus a few extras.

The “F” in the F800 denotes that this camera is from the Sony CineAlta range of camcorders.

That means that it will shoot at 24P, well 23.98 to be exact, out of the box without having to buy any options.

The other key feature of the F800 is it’s ability to record for slow and quick motion also commonly known as “over-cranking” and “under-cranking.” This is a critical feature for cinematographers and directors of photography who need the flexibility of changing frame rates to create unique “looks” for their productions or to create special effects. The ability to shoot at slower or faster frame rates than playback delivers high-quality motion effects. It can in fact shoot at any frame rate from 1 frame per second to 60 frames per second, something that the PDW-700 can’t do and won’t ever do.

The new camcorder also features auto tracing white balance hold, output markers such as safety, aspect, and center on the HD-SDI output, slow shutter, interval recording, picture cache recording (up to 30 seconds), disc exchange cache and “shock-less” gain control. Option boards are available to enable pool-feed operation. The camcorder features a 2x digital extender to enhance zoom capabilities, enabling images to be doubled in size without any loss of image sensitivity. It also has slow shutter, 2x focus magnification, clean switching between the “live and playback” function, and a large, easy-to-view 3.5 inch colour LCD screen.