The Sony ILME-FX6V Owners Club

[drboffa]

I had the Zacuto on my Fs5 for about a year before ultimately selling it (the Z-Finder, not the camera). As good as it was it felt almost comically overbuilt, especially on a camera as small as the Fs5. When I was fully building up the camera with rails, hand grips, shoulder rig, Shogun, etc., it made sense. But if I was just using the camera alone (which was how I was shooting most of the time) its size and weight seemed to defeat the purpose of the Fs5. The extra rigging necessary to support the Z-Finder also meant I couldn't just throw the camera in and out of a bag. Detaching the viewfinder assembly doesn't take tons of time but, again, I felt it defeated the purpose of a small video camera that I could pull out of a bag and use immediately.

While there's some irony in that I ultimately settled on using a 5" monitor—which adds more weight/size than the Z-Finder—at least the monitor provided a vastly superior image as well as LUTs and better monitoring tools. The Z-Finder was a lot of weight just to blow up the absolutely terrible stock LCD image.

I have a cheap Kinotehnik viewfinder (meant for the BMPCC) that I would occasionally use with the Fs5, and it seems to work with the FX6 as well (if imperfectly). But really I'd like something lightweight that can be used as needed and doesn't require special mounting, or that uses mounting that doesn't add to the camera's footprint.

[Ben Scott]

I already have the FS7 loupe which fits nicely but it's big and heavy. Anyway I gave the Kamerar a try.

Interesting. So it clips on fine with no quirks or workarounds needed?

In a couple of pages time I'm going to update the OP with a list of hints and tips compiled from contributions so far. That will definitely get mentioned.

[GGeoff Addis]

Images available here:
https://i.imgur.com/mENXQg9.jpg,
https://i.imgur.com/1JTgyOh.jpg

[Ben Scott]

Nice.

[Andy9]

I have the Kinotehnik as well. Used it on the FS5 and also on the FX6. It works surprisingly well but it's not perfect. Surely someone will come up with a higher-quality alternative that is just as light. It doesn't have to be cheaper than the Zacuto, it just has to (unlike the Zacuto) not weigh the same as the camera.

[broughtonfilm]

I had the Zacuto on my Fs5 for about a year before ultimately selling it (the Z-Finder, not the camera). As good as it was it felt almost comically overbuilt, especially on a camera as small as the Fs5. When I was fully building up the camera with rails, hand grips, shoulder rig, Shogun, etc., it made sense. But if I was just using the camera alone (which was how I was shooting most of the time) its size and weight seemed to defeat the purpose of the Fs5. The extra rigging necessary to support the Z-Finder also meant I couldn't just throw the camera in and out of a bag. Detaching the viewfinder assembly doesn't take tons of time but, again, I felt it defeated the purpose of a small video camera that I could pull out of a bag and use immediately.

While there's some irony in that I ultimately settled on using a 5" monitor—which adds more weight/size than the Z-Finder—at least the monitor provided a vastly superior image as well as LUTs and better monitoring tools. The Z-Finder was a lot of weight just to blow up the absolutely terrible stock LCD image.

I have a cheap Kinotehnik viewfinder (meant for the BMPCC) that I would occasionally use with the Fs5, and it seems to work with the FX6 as well (if imperfectly). But really I'd like something lightweight that can be used as needed and doesn't require special mounting, or that uses mounting that doesn't add to the camera's footprint.

I find the Zacuto gear to be extremely crude and clunky. Weight is always a problem. Yes, it is sturdy and lasts forever but it's almost like that sturdiness comes as a lucky side effect of the pieces being not refined. Many of the Zacuto pieces seem to be very "egotistical" in that they then force other adjustments of the camera rig, they solve one problem but create two new ones. This in turn requires another and another Zacuto piece to be added... Grossly overpriced. If you consider what goes into creation and manufacturing of a product such as Z-Finder kit and compare it with the level of precision, complexity, material quality, manufacturing cost of, in example, a lens of an equivalent price, the craziness of the Zacuto price becomes obvious.

[Ben Scott]

Only exception is this, plus the 15mm rod adapter.

https://cvp.com/product/zacuto_usa_z-qrsp

Which is fantastic and lightweight. Agree about all the rest of it. Seems only Smallrig and Bright Tangerine are getting that people want to keep the rig small.

[drboffa]

I find the Zacuto gear to be extremely crude and clunky. Weight is always a problem. Yes, it is sturdy and lasts forever but it's almost like that sturdiness comes as a lucky side effect of the pieces being not refined. Many of the Zacuto pieces seem to be very "egotistical" in that they then force other adjustments of the camera rig, they solve one problem but create two new ones. This in turn requires another and another Zacuto piece to be added... Grossly overpriced. If you consider what goes into creation and manufacturing of a product such as Z-Finder kit and compare it with the level of precision, complexity, material quality, manufacturing cost of, in example, a lens of an equivalent price, the craziness of the Zacuto price becomes obvious.

"Clunky" is about the best adjective I can think of to describe the Z-Finder on my Fs5. "Overpriced" would be a close second; luckily I found a good deal on eBay when I bought mine, although it still seemed like more than it was worth (especially thinking in terms of a lens, as you note).

Unfortunately it seems like a lot of companies (with some notable exceptions like SmallRig) are charging ridiculous prices for their kit.

I have no idea what costs go into these products, or what profit margins are, but I am reminded of a story from a company that made aftermarket parts for BMWs (and still does): the owner said that basically they had to find the "sweet spot" for their prices, which often was well above what they *could* sell their items at. They made excellent products and they were priced below the offerings from top tier aftermarket tuners (e.g., Hamann, AC Schnitzer, Dinan) but if they priced things too low people assumed they weren't good quality and sales suffered. I wonder how much of this is at play with some of these companies (with the caveat that maybe this owner wasn't being entirely honest about his margins or pricing—I'm just going by what I heard).

[Ben Scott]

Even Smallrig's prices have crept up but to be honest they are now genuinely innovating.

Fact is I get why a company that builds in somewhere like the US or UK has to charge more with proper labour costs and insurance and without the economy scale, but plenty of them are trading on reputation alone these days.

[J.Brown]

On my second FS7 came some Zacuto parts but I took them straight off as I prefer things as light and uncomplicated as possible.

The FS7 loupe clips on the FX6 monitor just as good as the included hood for the FX6. It does look odd as it is so oversized for the FX6.