Sony's Super 35 digital cinema camera — top of the mid-range CineAlta line, from 2013.
The Sony PMW-F55 CineAlta is a Super 35mm digital cinema camera announced in October 2012 and shipped from early 2013, sitting at the top of Sony's mid-range cinema line above the PMW-F5. It was Sony's flagship working cinema camera of its era, shooting UK and international drama, commercials and high-end documentary throughout the mid-2010s.
Its 8.9-megapixel 4K Super 35 CMOS sensor is notable for a true global shutter, eliminating rolling-shutter skew entirely - still a rare feature today. It records 4K XAVC internally to SxS PRO+ cards, supports wide-gamut S-Gamut/S-Log2 and later S-Log3 workflows, and pairs with the AXS-R5 dock for 16-bit linear RAW, including high-frame-rate 2K RAW up to 240fps. The native FZ mount takes Sony's own glass and, via the supplied adapter, standard PL cine lenses.
The F55's significance is as the camera that carried Sony's CineAlta name through the transition to 4K broadcast and streaming production, with a modular build-up philosophy that let owners configure it from stripped body to full studio rig. Now long discontinued, it offers a genuine cinema-grade global-shutter image for a small fraction of its roughly £25,000 launch price, though the surrounding ecosystem is costly and ageing.
Buying used, the ecosystem matters more than the body: an F55 without a viewfinder (the DVF-EL100 OLED alone still fetches serious money), SxS PRO+ cards and reader, shoulder plate and power solution can cost plenty to complete. Ask for the head hours from the service menu, listen for fan noise, check the FZ mount and PL adapter shims, and confirm the final firmware is installed. Bodies bundled with the AXS-R5 recorder and media are the ones to hunt. Factor in that SxS media is obsolescent, and check the OLED viewfinder for burn-in if included.