Please watch in 4K.
INTRO:
Well, I wanted to make a review and started working on a talking head type of video and decided it just wasn’t my style. I actually strongly dislike review videos where you barely see any footage or it’s just video of the person talking, or of nature and cats...So, I decided to type out my review and if you’d like to read it - great! If not hit play and just enjoy the footage.
DYNAMIC RANGE & COLOR SCIENCE:
The dynamic range is just about on par with all modern cinema cameras at this stage of the game. At 800iso in SLOG3 you can see how it compares to the Alexa at time code: 03:31. Pretty much identical. And this is with my custom LUT which brings down the highlights and smooths them out a bit just FYI. Sony claims the camera has 15+ stops of range at 800iso. They haven’t put the specs out on the range for 12,800 ISO. Unfortunately, I haven’t done enough tests to say how the two ISOs compare in that aspect. I do plan on doing that in the future though.
As far as color science goes you can see also how it compares to the Arri in that same clip. They’re quite similar and you could easily match them in post without an issue. I think color science can definitely be subjective now days. Cameras have just come so far in that regard. I’ve shown people both the FX6 and Alexa clips side by side and usually it’s 50/50 which people prefer. It just comes down to what you put in front of the camera.
ISO:
Sony doesn’t exactly say the FX6 is a dual base ISO, but some places they do. I will say compared to the FX9 the FX6 is not dual based. At ISO 12,800 the image is quite noisy. And if you plan on underexposing at all or want more info in your shadows -- you want to stray away from the high base in my opinion. Even at a good exposure you’re gonna need to do some de-noising. In fact I’ve been having to de-noise the 800 as well. But, having the flexibility to shoot at either ISO is great. The high base is especially useful if you’re looking to shoot at 240p.
RESOLUTIONS/CROPS/FRAME RATES:
There’s three different resolutions you can shoot in. There’s 4K, 3.8k, and 1080.
3.8k and 1080p are gonna give you the full sensor height and width while the 4K is going to give you a slight crop. I haven’t really noticed much chromatic aberration at 1080 like you see in the FX9 from skipping lines YET. However it is very prevalent at 240p in high contrast ratios. You can shoot up to 120p in 3.8k however and avoid this issue if you’re still looking to do slow mo. The ability to shoot at higher frame rates without having to crop in or get a lower quality image is one of the main reasons I got the FX6 and I’m loving the speed at which I can quickly change between them.
CODEC:
Codec wise I’ve only shot at XAVC-I. It’s 4:2:2 10 bit. I used this a lot with the FX9 as well. The codec is a lot more flexible in post than I thought it’d be. You can usually push your white balance quite a bit and pull colors slightly if you’re trying to dial in a look. If you’re trying to get more of a heavy grade I would 100% monitor with the LUT in camera and dial your settings in on the day however.
You can record RAW out of the SDI port of the camera and atomos just announced their converter so you can use the Ninja V if you do feel the need to shoot RAW. I think it is definitely something I will invest in in the future.
ERGONOMICS:
I really like the camera body. With a nice lens on it - it’s the perfect weight between a DSLR and a heavy cinema camera. You don’t get any micro shakes and you feel like you can put the camera anywhere. There’s plenty of mounting points and I actually find myself not having the top handle on - only using the side handle with the monitor mounted on the top. It’s just the perfect form factor for me. The camera doesn’t need a lot of power so you don’t need to mount a heavy vmount unless you’re adding a teradek or follow focus. But that’s not the size of productions I’m intending on using this camera for. This is my lower budget run and gun camera. If you need to build it out for those higher level jobs though you can.
AUTOFOCUS
I thought the auto focus was going to be a gimmick that I’d never use, but I actually found myself using it quite a bit. Kind of blows my mind how well it works. I see myself using it on many jobs. Just gotta invest in more lenses that support it…
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Sony really found a great blend between a cinema camera and a DSLR. With SDI, HDMI, timecode, XLR inputs, built in ND, high frame rates, and great form factor I think the FX6 will be used for a very long time on just about every type of production. I’m looking forward to using it more.
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Talent: / brittabug
My gram: / bendoescamera
My custom LUT I use on all my Sony footage: gumroad.com/l/...
4 окт 2024
