Freefly Wave High-Speed Camera – First Batches Sold Out

Camera News

by Jeff LochOctober 27^th, 2020

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Freefly Systems just announced that the first three batches of their new Freefly Wave High-Speed camera are now sold-out. If you want to purchase one for yourself, they have opened up reservations for batch 4.

Freefly Wave High-Speed Camera – Features

The Freefly Wave High-Speed camera was announced a couple of weeks ago, and if you missed it, you can read our entire article about the camera here.

In a nutshell, below are the main specs of this compact and lightweight cinema camera:

• It features a Super35 sensor with a locking Sony E-mount.
• The native ISO is 250, and the native dynamic range is 10-11 stops, according to Freefly.
• The camera is made out of a 6061-grade aluminum. It measures only 15 x 9.7 x 4.7cm for a weight of 716g.
• The Freefly Wave has a global shutter, so there won’t be any rolling shutter issues at any framerates.
• Talking about framerates, it can shoot in 4K at up to 420 frames per second and in 2K at up to 1440 fps. There’s no record-time limit.

• The camera records to a built-in M.2 NVMe SSD, which is user-interchangeable. Two versions are available: 1TB and 2TB. There’s a USB Type-C port to offload your footage.
• Footage are recorded in a proprietary compressed Bayer RAW format with a compression ratio of 5:1 to 6:1. These files can’t be opened directly by other editing tools. You need a PC tool called WaveViewer to export them to other formats. Export formats include Cineform, H.264, and PNG/JPEG sequences. A Mac and Adobe Premiere-Pro plugin should be available later.
• The camera doesn’t have any built-in display, but there is a full-size HDMI port (1080P30 output), so you can monitor your image.
• Wave has an internal battery, and there’s a power connector on the side of the camera. The DC Input accepts 12-26V from an external power supply (included) or battery and draws a maximum of 24W to run the camera and recharge the internal battery.

On paper, the Freefly Wave looks like a really promising high-speed camera, perfect for gimbal and drone usage thanks to its small form factor.

First Batches Sold Out

Freefly Systems told us that the first three batches of the Wave are already sold, including:

• Batch 1: 20 units (sold out). Shipping starts 11/18/2020
• Batch 2: 30 units (sold out). Shipping starts 12/01/2020
• And Batch 3: 50 units (sold out). Shipping starts 02/15/2021

Freefly claims that they expected “modest excitement about Wave for specific scientific and industrial applications.” but that they were wrong. Honestly we are not surprised here at CineD, simply because of the fact that it’s still fairly difficult to get your hands on a decent high-speed camera for a reasonable amount of money, and also because of the fact that Freefly’s existing user base (who they are marketing this camera to) consists mainly of professional filmmakers anyway.

It’s also nice to see a manufacturer to be very specific about shipping dates, which gives a lot of confidence.

A small number of rentals units will be available in late November.

To catch up with demand, Freefly opened up reservations for Batch 4 now.

Price and Availability

You can already reserve your unit here with no deposit/payment until your camera is ready to ship. The Freefly Wave high-speed camera retails for $9995.00.

What do you think about the Wave? Do you consider getting a high-speed camera for yourself? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!