Sony RIALTO 65 Launch: Why the New 65mm VENICE 2 System Matters to African Storytellers

Some camera launches arrive with a whisper. This one arrives like a wide, slow sunrise over a plain that goes on forever. On 2 November 2026, Sony announced the RIALTO 65 Camera Extension System, a new way to take its VENICE 2 CineAlta camera into the 65mm format. For anyone who tells stories with light, from the film set to the safari lodge, it is worth sitting down for.

Grab a coffee. This is a ten minute read, and we promise it ends somewhere beautiful: with young filmmakers, a drift track in KwaZulu-Natal, and an open invitation to one of the world's great technology brands.

What Sony has just launched, in plain language

Sony's RIALTO 65 is a compact camera head that carries a 65mm sensor with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio. It plugs into the VENICE 2 body that many productions already own, so the camera you know suddenly sees the world through a far bigger window. Sony describes the sensor as one of the largest used in commercially available cinema cameras, and it gathers roughly 2.2 times the imaging area of a 35mm full frame sensor.

Why does size matter? Because a larger sensor draws people and space with more presence. Sony says the system richly renders the sense of distance between subject and background, and the depth of the space around them. Think of the difference between looking at a landscape through a keyhole and stepping out onto the veranda. Same view, entirely different feeling.

You can watch it work for yourself. Sony has published two sample films, the RIALTO 65 Camera Field Test and LOCAL PEOPLE by Łukasz Żal, PSC. Both are worth ten quiet minutes of your life.

The numbers that matter, without the jargon

We are storytellers, not engineers, so here is what the specifications mean for people who live behind a lens.

• A sensor of 53.75 mm by 35.83 mm. That is a diagonal of about 64.60 mm, and it is the heart of the whole system.

• 9.6K Open Gate readout. Enormous detail, with flexible framing across the whole sensor. A 9.6K 2.20:1 mode also welcomes a wider range of lenses, and Sony says more readout modes will arrive through future software updates.

• Base ISO of 2500 or 10000. At ISO 2500 Sony quotes more than 15 stops of latitude, which means rich detail from the brightest highlight to the deepest shadow.

• A head that weighs about 1.5 kg. It measures roughly 115 mm by 154 mm by 63 mm. A 65mm sensor in something you can carry is a small miracle.

• Familiar colour and workflow. VENICE 2 colour science, S-Log3, S-Gamut3, internal 16 bit X-OCN recording and the AXS memory cards crews already use.

• Eleven drop in ND filters. They carry electronic contacts, so VENICE 2 recognises the density of each filter automatically.

• Your choice of cable. A 4.5 m cable comes with the system and a 12 m cable is available separately.

• Lens freedom. There is no built in lens mount. Filmmakers choose a third party mount adapter to suit the production, and lens data such as focal length, focus position and aperture can be recorded as metadata when the lens supports it.

Extension Mode and Studio Mode: two ways to see

The cleverest idea in the system is that the camera head can live in two places. In Studio Mode the head attaches directly to the VENICE 2 body, the way you would expect. In Extension Mode the head separates from the body and travels on a cable, so it can slip into tight corners, sit up high, or ride close to the subject.

Sony says this opens up shooting situations that have been difficult with conventional large format systems, including confined spaces and handheld work. The head can also record camera tilt and roll as metadata for post production. In human terms, it means the big image no longer has to arrive with a big, stubborn camera attached.

Why a safari and lodge storyteller is paying attention

Adventure Lifestyle Magazine is a travel and lifestyle magazine, so why are we writing about a cinema camera? Because the way the world sees Africa is changing, and the tools matter.

Picture a lodge film shot from inside a boma while the fire is still crackling, or a conservation documentary filmed from a hide so low and so close that the story feels like it is breathing on your shoulder. Small, light, detachable camera heads are the kind of freedom that brings those scenes within reach. Large format cinema has long belonged to the biggest budgets. A compact 65mm head that bolts onto a system many crews already own makes the format feel a little more like a neighbour and a little less like a mountain.

Our own work is rooted in conservation, lodges and the great outdoors, and we have written before about how an African safari helps protect wildlife. The better the pictures, the stronger the call to protect what is in them.

Price and availability

Sony's South African release asks readers to check with an official local Sony retailer for pricing and availability in their country. International trade press has reported a United States price of $80,000 for the extension system alone, with availability expected in the first half of 2027, and notes that it requires a compatible VENICE 2 body. PetaPixel covers the details. Specifications are current as of the announcement date and may change, so please confirm everything with Sony before you plan a budget.

From a Sony launch to a drift track: where our story gets personal

Here is where the road bends. At Adventure Lifestyle Magazine we believe nobody gets left behind, and nobody should take the back seat in life. That sentence is ours, and we have lived it in the most literal way.

Not long ago we were guests at a drift weekend on the KZN South Coast, and we came home with a long story about a man called Hennie van der Walt. Hennie is the force behind Torque Titans, and you can read the whole thing in One Burnt Tyre at a Time: How Torque Titans Is Changing Lives Through Drifting. He is building drifting in South Africa from the ground up, with a series that fills grandstands, a drift school where children as young as ten learn in specialised cars, and a workshop, KM PowerLab, that builds those cars to a budget.

Then there is the part that does not go on a poster. Hennie has helped children from his community who could never afford a prosthesis, seeing that they were fitted with legs, and then gifting running blades as well. You can follow his journey on his Instagram. We think a story like that deserves the biggest, most beautiful frame in the world.

The drivers deserve it too. Two young drivers, Brandon van der Walt and Nathan van Rensburg, stole the show at that event, and watching them you could see a skill, a team and a place to belong all working at once. We were also guests of the van der Walt family of Rock Raceway, and thousands of people stood on that ground with their children on their shoulders. Imagine that energy captured on a 65mm sensor. Hot rubber, bright liveries, a granny laughing so hard she wants another lap. That is cinema.

Where Red Bull gave us our wings

There is a thread running through all of this, and it is a red and silver one. Red Bull was the very first client of Adventure Lifestyle Magazine. They gave us VVIP access to their event on the day the magazine took its first breath, and they gave us our wings. We have never forgotten it.

Red Bull has built a global reputation on one idea: that sport, culture and storytelling belong together, and that young talent deserves a stage. Torque Titans lives in exactly that world, and we believe the series is a natural fit for a brand that champions motorsport and creativity. We are proud to tell the story of the people behind it, and we are open about our ambition to see Red Bull and Torque Titans share a stage.

An introduction to Sony: stories, young filmmakers and shared purpose

This section is written directly to Sony, and we write it as a publisher and storyteller introducing ourselves, not as someone with a hand out.

Adventure Lifestyle Magazine is a South African digital travel and lifestyle magazine built from nothing and grown on the strength of its storytelling. We write long form editorials, we photograph the places and people we feature, and we have reached more than 2.8 million people organically. Our readers are largely in the United States and Europe, and we work with lodges, hotels, conservation organisations and global brands across Africa. Every piece we publish stays online as a lasting asset, found on Google and shared across our social channels.

Sony's own mission speaks of creating the future of entertainment through the power of technology together with creators. That is a sentence we could have written ourselves. So here is what we would like to explore together.

• A social responsibility grant programme for young filmmakers. Sony's tools already sit in the hands of a generation of emerging African filmmakers. We would like to introduce a storytelling grant, supported by Sony, that puts cameras and mentorship into the hands of young people from communities like the ones Hennie serves, and we would document every step of it.

• A sponsorship partnership with Sony products at the centre. From lodge films to conservation stories to motorsport, we would feature Sony cameras and equipment in real working editorials and behind the scenes content, with proper credit, honest reviews and a global audience.

• A story that ties it all together. Sony technology, Red Bull energy, Torque Titans heart and young storytellers behind the lens, told in one unforgettable feature series that Sony is welcome to share and reuse.

• A launch partner for the African market. We would be glad to cover future Sony professional launches with the same long form care, and to host them in front of our readers.

We would be delighted to hold a short conversation with Sony Middle East and Africa and with the team at Tribeca Public Relations, and to share a full media kit on request. Our work is already on its way to the rest of the world. Sony is warmly invited to be part of that journey.

Frequently asked questions about the Sony RIALTO 65

What is the Sony RIALTO 65?

It is a Camera Extension System that expands the VENICE 2 CineAlta camera to the 65mm format, using a compact camera head with a 65mm sensor that has a 1.5:1 aspect ratio.

When was it announced?

Sony announced the launch in South Africa on 2 November 2026. Please check with an official local Sony retailer for availability and price in your country.

Can it be used away from the camera body?

Yes. In Extension Mode the camera head separates from the VENICE 2 body and connects by cable, which suits confined spaces, handheld work and elevated positions. In Studio Mode the head attaches directly to the body.

Where can I read Sony's official information?

Visit the official RIALTO 65 product page or learn more about Sony Corporation. Media enquiries are handled by Tribeca Public Relations.

A bigger window, and a bigger heart

The RIALTO 65 is a remarkable piece of engineering. But the thing we keep coming back to is not the sensor. It is the faces: the nervous granny who climbed into the drift car, the teenager in the purple Silvia, the child who may soon run on a blade a kind man made possible. Technology becomes magic when it is pointed at people like these.

That is what we do at Adventure Lifestyle Magazine. We make travel dreams come true and find the extraordinary in the mundane. Come and find the wanderlust in the mundane with us at adventurelifestylemagazine.com, where travel stories begin. If you enjoyed this, you may also like our look back at past Samsung events and what to expect from JHB Day.