Band Pro’s own Randy Wedick breaks down the ins and outs of the Sony Venice and the Rialto, with Wedick bringing his own experience shooting a documentary with the Venice in Israel and Europe last year.
The Sony Rialto
When you need to mount your VENICE camera on a drone, stabilizer, or fit it into a tight space, the Sony Rialto Camera Extension System enables you to remove the sensor block and extend it up to 18′ away from the camera body with no loss of image quality. This allows you to acquire images remotely with the same 6K image quality and functionality the VENICE is known for.
Not only does the Rialto maintain all the VENICE’s functions, it also adds an SDI monitor output and power output at the sensor end of the extension. The 12/24 VDC output enables powering accessories, and the monitor output is useful for an on-camera monitor when hand-holding the sensor block case. The sensor block case also features mounting holes on all top, bottom, and both sides as well as the back, for mounting onto camera supports or handheld rigs. The Rialto works with any VENICE camera body provided the camera has the version 3.0 firmware installed.
The Sony Venice
Providing a flexible design configuration within a single camera body, the Sony VENICE 6K Digital Motion Picture Camera is meant to provide you with just the amount of camera you need, so you don’t have to invest in more than necessary. It features a full-frame CMOS sensor with 15+ stops of dynamic range, but in its basic configuration it windows the sensor to shoot Super 35. The camera comes with a removable PL Mount that supports the Cooke /i Technology lens metadata protocols, allowing you to work with cinema-style glass ranging from vintage to modern. As is, the camera supports DCI and UHD 4K capture, while planned and scheduled firmware updates will enable anamorphic, full-frame, and select frame rates from 1 to 60 fps.
Remove the PL Mount to reveal a Sony E-Mount with a locking outer ring that allows you to mount your lens and then rotate the ring to secure it, creating a strong mounting system that does not require you to rotate your E-Mount lens when mounting it to the camera. Eight integrated and motorized ND filters range from clear to seven stops of ND in one-stop increments. The camera features a built-in assistant-side info screen, along with a smaller basic info display screen on the operator side or the camera. It features dual SxS card slots that allow you to capture XAVC or HD ProRes in-camera.
You can find out more about each product by following their links above, as well as simply visiting BandPro.com/SonyRialto.html and BandPro.com/Sony-Venice-Full-Frame-and-S35-Cine-Camera.html
*Filmed with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4k and Carl Zeiss Light Weight Zoom
