Shooters Can Now Record UHD in Camera and to an External Monitor at the Same Time

Sony has released a 1.1 firmware update for the PXW-FS5, the company's smaller Super 35 companion to the FS7 shipped late last year. One of several promised firmware updates for the FS5—culminating at a future date in full 4K recording—the download will let shooters record UHD (3840×2160; also known as Quad Full HD, or QFHD) internally and to an external source simultaneously.

To get around issues native to the camera's imaging processor, a 1.0 firmware update initially offered a trade-off: one could record to the camera's internal storage or to an external recorder (in most cases a monitor), but not to both at the same time. And even then, REC trigger, timecode and digital signals couldn't be sent via HDMI to those external devices.

Along comes the 1.1 update to fix that. Now, two identical versions of QFHD can be recorded in the camera and to an external device. Sony has added a new menu item, “QFHD REC OUTPUT,” in the recording menu to let users switch between simultaneous QFHD internal and external recording, including REC trigger, timecode and digital signals via HDMI out. The one downside? When switching between the two, you won't get to use the OLED viewfinder or 3.5-inch on-camera LCD monitor at the same time. Sony says this won't affect HD operations. Version 1.1 also adds some additional face-detection support.

The 1.0 update already made it possible to record to two SD cards at once and make simultaneous proxy recordings of the main HD or QFHD recording at much lower bit rates (720p or 640×360). These proxies use the same filename and have identical timecode to the original footage but are stored in a different folder on the same SD card.

Downloads for users in North America can be found on the Sony Electronics U.S.A. blog and, for those in the U.K. and Europe, on Sony Europe's support page.