Sony Makes Surprise Announcement of New “R Series” of System Cameras

Well, this is more exciting news to explore as we head into the kick-off of NAB 2026 this weekend in Las Vegas. Sony has announced that it is set to launch a new series of system cameras, called the “R Series,” that will incorporate improved imaging performance and system expandability.

These five new system cameras will feature enhanced imaging performance, powered by a 2/3-inch three-chip 4K CMOS image sensor with global shutter functionality, aiming to provide system expandability for high-quality 4K and HDR live production.

Let’s take a look at these five new system cameras and explore the features they will inherit from the previous multi-format HDC-5000 and HDC-3000 series, including high-quality 4K shooting, a wider dynamic range, and no rolling shutter distortion.

Sony R Series System Cameras

As mentioned above, we have five new Sony system cameras to check out. The full lineup for this new R Series will include the following models:

• Sony HDC‑5500R
• Sony HDC‑5500RV
• Sony HDC‑3500R
• Sony HDC‑3500RV
• Sony HDC‑3200R

This new R Series of system cameras is pretty unique as they’ve all been designed to allow for sensitivity selection based on scene conditions while reducing white clipping by maintaining a balance between sensitivity and dynamic range.

As Sony shares, this is all made possible by an excellent S/N ratio of -64dB that minimizes impact on image quality, helping enable more natural, three-dimensional video capture in outdoor stadiums with mixed sunlight and shadows, as well as in live music venues with challenging lighting.

Flexible Transmission and Improved Operability

As for operability, the HDC-3500R, HDC-3500RV, and HDC-3200R models can connect to camera control units with the newly released HKCU-LUT35 option board installed, enabling them to operate with 3D LUTs for more advanced color adjustments.

The R Series will provide enhanced transmission functionality, enabling the cameras to achieve more flexible system configurations. The HDC-5500R and HDC-5500RV models will now support video trunk with two 1.5G SDI lines, and the HDC-3500R and HDC-3500RV models will support the new transmission method HB+, enabling video trunk and prompter with one 3G SDI line or two 1.5G SDI lines.

The HDC-5500R, HDC-5500RV, HDC-3500R, and HDC-3500RV models will also include a helpful slide mechanism for a large viewfinder that accommodates the 7.4-inch OLED color viewfinder HDVF-EL760, which has already been released.

Price, Availability, and Key Features

While not cameras for all filmmakers and video professionals, this new R Series is quite intriguing and worth checking out. If interested, here are some more key features for each model in the R Series:

Common to All Models

• Enhanced Imaging Functionality

HDC-5500R and HDC-5500RV

• Newly supports video trunk with two 1.5G SDI lines
• Unification of the intercom operation panel and newly supports the standard slide mechanism for the viewfinder in the HDC-5500R

HDC-3500R and HDC-3500RV

• Newly supports HB+ transmission, enabling video trunk with one 3G SDI line and two 1.5G SDI lines, as well as prompter transmission
• Unification of the intercom operation panel and newly supports the standard slide mechanism for the viewfinder in the HDC-3500R

HDC-3200R

• Newly supports network trunk with a maximum of 1Gbps
• Newly supports S-Gamut3/S-Gamut3.Cine, expanding the supported color gamut

Sony has not shared pricing or availability just yet, but stay tuned as we’ll update with more info once available. For now, you can find more info on Sony’s website here.

Check out more of our NAB 2026 coverage!