Sony Xperia Pro-I

[jmone]

I wanted an "Everyday Carry" video camera that would produce reasonable footage I could match in Resolve with my FX6 and Air2s..... so, I took the plunge and forked over the kidney for the Xperia Pro-I. The following is more of a set of notes of my findings as I explore what it can and cannot do rather than a complete review.

I'm in PAL Land (Australia) and my preferred format is to shoot UHD 50fps with a 360 degree shutter (for twice the temporal resolution but same cadence of "traditional" 25fps) in Slog3 / DJI Gamut that I then match in Resolve's Colour Managed workflow to render out both a HDR10 and SDR version as required. All works well and I'm happy with the workflow and results.

So, my first job was to get some 50fps footage from the Pro-I that would match this workflow, and that is where I've hit my first set of compromises with this phone.
- There is no 50fps mode, only 23.98, 25, 29.97, 59.94, 119.88 fps. This is true for both the Sony and 3rd Party Apps (I've tried them all)
- Eye Detect AF does not work on frame rates higher than 29.97
- The Sony App (Video Pro) will not let you record to the SD Card on frame rates higher than 29.97 (you have to use the Internal Memory) regardless of the SD Card spec or speed (no issue with 3rd Party Apps)
- Digital Stab does not work on frame rates higher than 29.97 (but I've turned that off as it can blur out your image, and just use the OIS)
- I'm going to drop this thing. There is no easy way of getting a firm grip, as you hold it with your fingertips then use a finger(s) to tap the screen for different functions. My case has not arrived and there is also a teether point.

Most countries and humans on the face of the planet live in PAL frame rate counties, so this lack of basic frame rate support drives me nuts. I've tried all I can think of so far (including the 3rd party apps with 50fps hacks) and I think it boils down to a few options:
- Hope that Sony introduces a firmware upgrade that includes 50fps (I don't hold my breath)
- Shoot at 25fps and use Resolve's Retiming feature to get the best pseudo 50fps (looks OKish but not great, still plenty of panning judder)
- Shoot at 59.94fps and use Resolve's Retiming feature to get the best pseudo 50fps (looks Pretty Good!... the odd weird artefact but does a remarkable job and the expense of very slow rendering times in the 1-2fps on a 3090 that is pegged) - see pic
- Shoot and Delivery all in 59.94. Give up on PAL frame rates, and switch all acquisition and delivery to 59.94. I don't deliver anything for Broadcast TV and have no issue with dynamic display rate changing to match content fps. Will also work better on phone consumption.... because they are all NTSC rates anyway (rant again)!
- Get rid of the idea of using a phone and buy a crappy DJI Pocket etc

I'll post some more about what is good about the Pro-I but I'm stuck at the basic acquisition setup stage, so any thoughts about which way I should go would be great.

Thanks
Nathan

 

[jmone]

Here is 30sec of your life you will not get back! I strapped (pretty badly) the Pro-I to the FX6 for a side by side (ish) comparison.
- SDR: https://behome.dyndns.info/index.php/s/pA75dpkBXyLtTjt (this should play in a browser and is also only 20Mb/s)
- HDR: https://behome.dyndns.info/index.php/s/EFSPmyajDDr3WiQ (this one will need to be downloaded and played on an HDR compatible setup)

FX6 Settings
- SG3C/Slog3 10 Bit 4:2:2 AVC (approx 582 Mb/s)
- UHD 59.94fps / 360 degree shutter
- F4 (Sony Zeis 4/16-35) @ 24mm
- vND doing the exposure
- Auto everything else

Pro-I Settings
- HLG 10 Bit 4:2:0 HEVC (approx 120 Mb/s)
- UHD 59.94fps
- F4 (Main 1.0 Type Sensor) @ 24mm
- Auto everything else (so Shutter speed and ISO was doing the exposure)
- Digital Stabe off

Resolve Settings
- Put it all into Davinci Colour Mgt, both were correctly recognised
- No grade
- The tennis ball part was slowed down to 50%
- Rendered out a SDR and HDR version

My impressions are:
- There is no comparable depth of field on the Pro-I. I kept both at F4 (as this is as fast as I can go on the FX6). The Pro-I can go to F2 but it seems to make only a marginal difference given the small sensor size.
- Everything on the Pro-I is sharp and there is no motion blur given the high shutter speed (it is summer here in Oz and I've no ND filters for the phone).
- Colour matching will take some work. Some shots look close, but most I've taken have the Pro-I much more saturated.

That said, the results are much better than trying to use a GoPro etc. I'm happy with the results I've got so far but I'm still P!553D there is no 50fps option.

 

[jmone]

Playing more with how to get good looking 50fps footage from the Sony. When shooting in stock 25fps, playback suffers from judder with the slow frame rate on pans. I tried a bunch of different Davinci Resolve "Retime and Scaling" settings and have settled on "Optical Flow" & "Enhanced Better". The results look pretty good, with no weird artefacts (like I was getting with "Speed Warp") and a nice automatic bit of motion blur from the 25 ==> 50 fps conversion....and the judder is gone. It is pretty GPU intensive but not too bad.

 

[jmone]

FYI - I ended up returning this phone. Unfortunately as it is a "grey import" into Australia, on which, the carriers don't support 5G or VoLTE (so when we turn of 3G in a year or so this phone would have no.... phone capability).