Sony Puts an $80,000 Price Tag on the RIALTO 65 Cinema Camera

Sony has officially listed the RIALTO 65 medium format cinema camera at $80,000 at B&H Photo, with availability tentatively set for the first half of 2027. That price puts it firmly in rental-house and high-end production territory, not in any working photographer's kit.

The headline spec: Sony calls this its first true "IMAX" sensor camera. The imaging area runs 123% larger than full frame and 33.5% larger than the sensors inside the Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad X2D medium format bodies. In plain terms, this sensor swallows medium format stills cameras whole — but it shoots movies, not stills, and it costs as much as a house in much of the country.

What does the RIALTO 65 actually add?

The camera functions as an expansion of the existing VENICE 2 system rather than a standalone body. Sony's press release frames it as a familiar toolset: the CineAlta color science, S-Log3 tonal expression, S-Gamut3 wide color gamut, and X-OCN recording all carry over, which matters for productions that have already built VENICE workflows and color pipelines.

The new hardware capabilities break down as follows:

• A 9.6K 1.5:1 Open Gate readout, using the sensor's full width for flexible framing in post
• A 9.6K 2.20:1 readout mode with a diagonal of approximately 59.04 mm, which widens the pool of usable lenses
• Dual Base ISO of 2500 or 10000, with 15+ stops of latitude at Base ISO 2500
• 11 types of drop-in ND filters with electronic contacts, so the VENICE 2 body automatically reads the inserted filter's density

Sony also says future readout modes will arrive via software updates to the VENICE 2 body. Count on some of those landing after purchase, not at it — that is how these roadmaps usually play out.

What Sony is not saying

The "tentative" availability date deserves scrutiny. A first-half 2027 window announced now leaves roughly two years of runway, and cinema-camera ship dates have a habit of sliding. No firm release month, no delivery quantities, and no rental pricing structure appear anywhere in the announcement.

Sony has published the first short sample videos shot on the camera. Sample films are marketing artifacts, not measured tests; there is no independent footage analysis yet, no dynamic range testing outside Sony's own 15-stop claim, and no third-party lens-compatibility data for that 59.04 mm diagonal mode.

Who should care?

For stills photographers, the RIALTO 65 is a curiosity — a sensor that dwarfs their GFX and X2D bodies but lives exclusively in the cinema ecosystem at eighty grand before lenses and support gear. For cinematographers and rental houses, the calculus is different: the X-OCN workflow continuity and existing VENICE 2 install base lower the integration cost considerably.

The pricing also signals where Sony sees the ceiling of its cinema business. At $80,000, the RIALTO 65 competes with dedicated large-format cinema systems rather than any hybrid stills/video camera on the market.

Watch for firm ship dates, rental rates, and real-world latitude tests as the 2027 window approaches — those will tell us whether the IMAX-class claims hold up outside Sony's own sample reels.