Sony FX5 IBIS Lock Service Targeted for December – Sony Answers Our Open Questions

Camera News

by Nino LeitnerAugust 10^th, 2026

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We asked Sony how filmmakers can actually order a Sony FX5 with permanently locked in-body stabilization, and the short answer is that they cannot yet: the company has not decided on a date or on which regions will offer the service, and is targeting an announcement and a possible start by December 2026. Sony also went on the record with answers to three further questions raised by our FX5 coverage, covering the missing 25p and 29.97p options in H.265, the idea of a continuous cache buffer for high frame rate capture, and the reboots some users are seeing after format changes.

Since our Sony FX5 review went online, a handful of questions have kept coming back from readers, and the most persistent one concerns the sensor lock service Sony mentioned at launch but never explained in practical terms. We put that question, along with three technical ones that surfaced during testing and in our FX5 poll results, directly to Sony. The answers below come from Sony’s product team in Japan and, for the technical questions, from Reiko Beitz, Pro Video Manager at Sony Imaging Products & Solutions Europe, and are published with the company’s approval.

Where the IBIS lock service actually stands

When the FX5 was announced, one of the more unusual items in the specification sheet was a paid service through which Sony will permanently lock the camera’s sensor. The reasoning is sound: on cars, drones, and other high-vibration mounts, in-body stabilization can fight the external motion instead of smoothing it, and the result is a floating, unnatural image that no post-production stabilizer will fully rescue. Owners send the camera to Sony, and the sensor stays fixed. The catch, as we noted in the review, is that the procedure is irreversible.

What was never published is how to order it. Sony’s answer to us is refreshingly direct: the company has not been able to decide on the actual date or on the regions in which the service will be available. It is preparing the service and targeting to announce it, and possibly to start it, by December 2026, and asks users to watch its website for an update.

For production planning, that means the FX5 is currently a camera you buy now and lock later, if and when the service reaches your territory. If your work regularly involves vehicle rigs or drone mounts, it is worth factoring that timeline into purchase decisions, particularly for multi-camera fleets where a locked body would sensibly be a dedicated unit rather than your only FX5. Given the irreversible nature of the modification, most owners will want to see the final terms, pricing, and turnaround times before committing a body to it anyway.

Why 25p and 29.97p are missing in H.265

Several shooters, ourselves included, noticed that certain compressed recording formats on the FX5 do not offer 25p and 29.97p. According to Sony, this is applicable to XAVC HS/H.265 only and is a specification of the codec rather than of the camera. The company says it appreciates the feedback and will continue to investigate.

We flagged to Sony that this answer is likely to raise eyebrows, since 25p in particular is the working standard across large parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and HEVC-based recording modes elsewhere on the market generally do offer it. In practical terms, no one is blocked: X-OCN in its LT, C1, and C2 flavors is unaffected, as are the XAVC-I and XAVC-L modes. What PAL-region shooters lose is the most storage-efficient long-GOP option for exactly the frame rate they deliver in, which matters most on long-form documentary and event work where card and archive budgets are real constraints. That Sony says it will keep investigating leaves the door open, without promising anything.

A cache buffer for high frame rate capture? No comment

The second question looked forward rather than back. With high frame rate recording coming to the camera, we asked whether Sony would implement a continuous cache buffer, writing to temporary memory in a loop so that a moment that happens a second before you press record is not lost. Pre-record functions of this kind have become common on other cameras, and on a body that will eventually push to 4K 240p, the appeal is obvious for wildlife, sports, and one-take action work.

Sony’s response was short: the company cannot comment on future plans. That is the standard corporate line rather than a rejection, and it is consistent with what we heard in our FX5 interview about the firmware roadmap. Worth remembering, though, is that Sony has repeatedly asked users to send in feature requests, and the company’s own representatives have made a point of saying that feedback is read. If a pre-record buffer matters to your work, the comment sections and Sony’s own channels are where that case gets made.

The reboots, explained

The third question came from hands-on use: the FX5 reboots when you change certain settings, which is jarring on a professional camera in 2026. Sony confirms the behavior but corrects the premise. It is not any format change that triggers a restart. According to the company, the reboot is limited to switching between PAL and NTSC settings and back, and to switching between 16:9 and 17:9 and back, which is also the case on both the FX3 and the FX6. Sony points out that the FX5 offers considerably more specific settings and formats for sensor readouts and recording formats than its predecessors, and adds that the reboot itself is very fast.

That matches our experience with the camera, and it turns the issue into a workflow detail rather than a defect. Set your region standard and your aspect ratio at the start of a shooting day, or at least before a critical take, and the restarts stay out of your way. It is the kind of answer that will not satisfy everyone, but it is at least a precise one.

Jake Ratcliffe, who you best know from our sponsor CVP and who has recently started his own YouTube channel next to maintaining the CVP one, dedicated a video to this, and it’s worth watching.

X-OCN files now land natively in Resolve

Sony also drew our attention to a piece of news our post-production readers already have: DaVinci Resolve 21.0.4 adds native support for the FX5’s internally recorded X-OCN clips. For the first wave of owners receiving cameras this month, that removes the transcode detour and lets the LT, C1, and C2 files go straight onto a timeline and into a grade.

The FX5 body only (ILME-FX5B) is priced at $4,898 / €5,399 / £4,699, while the version bundled with the XLR handle unit (ILME-FX5) sells for $5,498 / €5,999 / £5,199. European and UK prices include VAT. Shipping begins in mid-August in the US, with the Japanese release set for August 21, 2026, although Sony has already warned of possible delivery delays after orders exceeded its forecasts. Pricing and turnaround times for the sensor lock service have not been announced.

Is a permanently locked sensor something you would pay for, or is the missing 25p in H.265 the bigger issue in your workflow? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!