Venice V F55 V Mini

The Sony Venice is the new kid on the block taking the features market by storm. But like the Arri cameras before it, and Sony’s own F55 is there room for it in the Doco and Drama World. Price: In it’s basic form the Venice comes in at circa £35K + VAT, It sits in the middle price wise between the Arri Mini and the F55. Recording Formats (on board): The main difference between the Sony Cameras currently with recording formats  is that the Venice uses ProRes 422HQ and 422 for HD where the F55 uses XAVC-I; for 4K and UHD the Venice uses the same XAVC codecs as the F55, XAVC Class 300 & 480. The Arri Mini uses ProRes 422, 422HQ, 4444 & 4444 HQ for HD and UHD. Weight & Size: Now, manufacturers like to give weights based on body only without handles, viewfinder etc. So when you pick one of these up they’ll be a bit heavier. Now, the F55 is the same if not a bit lighter in weight than the mini. Bar 6mm in length, the F55 and Mini are the same dimensions, ( the Mini wasn’t as mini as you thought ! ). So lets compare that against the Venice. The Venice dimension wise compared to the Mini is 13mm Shorter, 8mm wider and 19mm higher, so a little bit bigger overall but shorter. Weight wise the Venice is chunky, 3.9Kg for the body only, 1.6Kg heavier than the Mini. Due mainly to the rugged body, but also there’s not a lot of space inside; it’s full of electronics. Aspect Ratios & Resolution: For definition purposes, UHD is 3840 x 2160, 4K is 4096 x 2168 (although anything with 4096 pixels horizontal is regarded as 4K ). In Basic form the cameras are much of a muchness with 16:9 as the standard Aspect Ratio with some derivatives such as 17:9. There are more Aspect Ratios available under license for the Mini and the Venice. Arri have various Licenses as Sony have a Full Frame and Anamorphic License. The F55 is standardised at 16:9. With the Full Frame Licence the Venice goes up to 3:2 5.6K The Achilles Heal of the Mini is that it can’t resolve 4K and therefore suffers when Productions Specs such as Netflix are mandatory. Arri have produced the LF to meet these requirements. The Sony F55 and Venice are both Netflix approved. Frame Rate ( Onboard ): The Mini goes up to 200fps in HD and 60fps in UHD. The Sony F55 180FPS in HD and 60fps in 4K. The Venice currently 60fps in HD and 60fps in 4K. The Venice Frame Rates will be increased early next year to 120fps in HD and 90fps in 4K ( 60fps in 6K ). Lens Mounts: Arri produce PL, EF and B4 mounts for the Mini. The F55 is native FZ Mount but comes with a PL Adaptor. Third party adaptors can get you to EF and B4. The Venice comes in Native PL and Native E Mount, the E Mount means you can get to any other lens mount.