When paired with a Venice 2, the Rialto 65 will be able to record 9.6K 3:2/1.5:1 open gate footage at up to 30p and 9.6K​ 2.20:1 footage at up to 50p, though the fastest framerates aren’t available in the highest-end Raw X-OCN XT format. Sony says it’s working on a few other readout modes: 9.6K 17:9 at up to 40p, 6.4K​ 3:2 at up to 60p from a full-frame-sized crop of the sensor, and 4.3K​ 17:9 at up to 100p from an APS-C crop, which will be added via software update.

Sony

Of course, if you’re buying a sensor this big you probably want to use all of it. While its diagonal is just short of actually measuring 65mm, this class of format has a rich history in filmmaking, which we go into in our article covering the original announcement. While it’s still quite a bit smaller than the full 70mm IMAX film that auteurs like Christopher Nolan use, Sony says it’s the “industry’s largest image sensor” in the digital realm.

Cinematographers will have to contend with finding lenses with large enough image circles to cover the sensor, and those are likely to be so varied and relatively esoteric that Sony hasn’t even bothered to include a lens mount with the Rialto 65 sensor block. Instead, you’ll have to get a third-party one that matches the lenses you want to use.

Sony

One interesting trick of the Rialto 65 is that it can be used directly attached to the camera, or extended away from the body, letting cinematographers fit it in smaller spaces. It comes with a 4.5m (14.8′) cable for this purpose, though Sony is selling a longer 12m (39.4′) one if you really need to get the imaging package far away from the body. That, however, won’t come cheap either, coming in at $9000.

Sony is also making a set of drop-in ND filters for the system, which have electronic contacts to automatically tell the camera body what filter is being used.

Alongside the announcement, Sony has partnered with two filmmakers to make shorts that show off the Rialto 65’s capabilities. While they’re definitely impressive, it’s also clear watching them that YouTube’s compression absolutely is not doing this footage justice, even if you set it to 4K.

While the price is jaw-dropping, especially since you then need to attach it to a roughly $60-70,000 Venice 2 system, it’s also not particularly surprising. The Rialto 65 is destined for the sets of the highest-end Hollywood productions, and the bulk of them are likely to be purchased by rental houses, rather than individual cinematographers. It’s also worth noting that it’s competing with the likes of the Arri Alexa 65, which is rental-only.

Sony says it’s tentatively planning to launch the camera in the first half of 2027.