FS5: anyone like/love the sony fs5?

R

robfilms

Veteran
saw some talking head footage from a fs5 mk1 and kit lens.

thought the footage looked pretty good.

even the skin tones looked okay (my background with sony skintones is from fs100/fs700 era!)

was not shot raw.

in looking over the dvxuser forum, i don't see many posts about the sony fs5.

anybody like/love the fs5?

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
Yes, love mine - had it since it first came out. Great tool for the price. Vortex Pro picture profile works pretty well for me in most fast turn around type work. FS5 is a joy to use on a gimbal (I use Letus Helix Jr - was shooting a Chiropractor with this set-up this morning - Lovely and light). Is the camera perfect, hell no. Does it get the job done, yes - and well.
 
I really like my FS5. With a custom profile the limits of 8-bit 4:2:0 in UHD goes away to a large extent. It has some other limitations but it's so small and nice to shoot with.
 
I've got no complaints about the images the FS5 can produce, but it lacks many of the features and functions that I require in a professional camera.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I've got no complaints about the images the FS5 can produce, but it lacks many of the features and functions that I require in a professional camera.
Click to expand...

doug-

thanks for the sharing.

care to list some of those features and functions that are missing from the fs5?

thanks in advance.

thumbs up.

rob
smalltalk productions/nyc
 
I use it all the time for talking heads on a docu series I work on and I like it. I use it as a profile/tight and FS7 wide and with the Fuji MK lenses they produce very nice images
 
robfilms said:
doug-

care to list some of those features and functions that are missing from the fs5?
c
Click to expand...


I cover a most of them in the first few minutes of this video I produced three years ago. A couple of things have been changed with firmware updates, but most of what i say holds true today. The main thing is that the FS5 is not part of the XDCAM family even though it has an XDCAM logo on it. It comes from the prosumer NXCAM product line and it shows in the lack of pro-level features. I'd easily take a Z280 over an FS5 if I was forced to choose between the two. In fact, I have! It's not a bad camera by any means, I just prefer others. But I have friends who love their FS5s.

 
Doug makes a good point about some of the missing XDCAM/lack of (some) pro features in the FS5 family. I also own a PMW-300 (and had an EX3 before that) which I use on jobs where that kind of cam is much easier to use. The Z280 is very high on my list to replace the 300 - when I eventually go fully 4K in my workflow/can afford it!
 
I had been looking very seriously at the FS5 when it came out - but some of the missing features proved too much for me and what I needed for my clients, particularly my need for a clearscan feature, the lack of timecode in/out and the inability to use HDMI and HD-SDI at the same time, so after a string of Sony cameras dating back to the PD-150 I ended up with an EVA1 (not needing auto-focus / in spite of its viewfinder. I needed many of the FS7 features but in a lighter/smaller package, thus my choice.) So my advice is to look at whether the camera can provide all the capabilities you need -- if it does everything you need you'll probably love it. Doug's video (a couple of posts earlier) is a great reference - but start by analyzing your needs!
 
There's a 172 degree shutter mode that can remedy certain kind of flickering but a full clear scan feature is missing.
 
J.Brown said:
There's a 172 degree shutter mode that can remedy certain kind of flickering but a full clear scan feature is missing.
Click to expand...

These days my clearscan requirement is less likely to be about shooting screens than about being in environments where dimmed LEDs are used in architectural or accent lighting -- for which full clearscan range is an absolute necessity.
 
I kind of want an fs5 for the times when my fs7 feels just a touch too big/heavy.... I love my fs7 for its professional usage don't get me wrong... but there are times when I want to just walk around with a tiny little handy cam still camera and shoot b roll... I think the ergonomics of the fs5 might be actually perfect for that. Also, filming skateboarding I think the fs5 might be a little bit perfect compared to my fs7.

By the time I'm done I'll have a million cameras!! ha
 
Before you settle on an FS5, you owe it to yourself to check out the Z280. It has much more in common with the FS7 than the FS5 does. The FS7 and Z280 are blood brothers. it's got the same XAVC-I codecs as the FS7 and most of the same bells and whistles including, variable ND. You will love having an excellent 17x servo zoom lens with fantastic face-detect AF. Plus an excellent OLED viewfinder with diopter. Plus the Z280 is great in low-light. I rate it's base sensitivity at ISO 2000 and it has an f/1.9 lens. Hard to beat with other cameras. Believe it or not, I'm shooting more with my Z280 than with my FS7 or F55 these days just because it is so damn convenient. The only reasons I'd choose an FS5 over a Z280 is for shallow D0F interviews, but you've already got the FS7 for that. Just take a look at the Z280 before you make up your mind on getting an FS5.
 
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To me at least, once I got used to S35 cameras I had a hard time going back to cameras with smaller sensors. I'd love to get the all in one package from cameras like the Z280 or like my the EX3 I once had but those days are over.
 
andykwilkinson said:
Yes, love mine - had it since it first came out. Great tool for the price. Vortex Pro picture profile works pretty well for me in most fast turn around type work. FS5 is a joy to use on a gimbal (I use Letus Helix Jr - was shooting a Chiropractor with this set-up this morning - Lovely and light). Is the camera perfect, hell no. Does it get the job done, yes - and well.
Click to expand...

Ironically the Chiropractor might not like you shooting with a FS5! ;-) He probably wished you had F5 on a gimbal instead :p
 
I have shot the Fs5 from day one and to be honest I didn't like the image at all especially internal 4K, then I did the raw out to the inferno. Now I shoot both the Fs7 and the Fs5 and the prores 422 or HQ recording out of the Fs5 is really nice to grade and that image is great, color is great, DR is great, skin tones are great. If that camera had timecode I would be 90% satisfied with it. True 4k 10bit prores 422 and slow mo, its very very versatile. But internal recording on that camera is worthless. And for shoulder work I use the Fs7, much better set up and internal 4k is great.
 
I wouldn't say I "love" it.

It's a convenient tool for fairly easy single-cam work... promos, doc, small commercial work. The raw capability makes it flexible.

It is not good for larger multicam shoots or work which might take it into dusty or splashy conditions (kind of fragile).

Since I do more of the former than the latter, I own one. If I did more of the latter, I'd own something else.
 
hepler said:
But internal recording on that camera is worthless. And for shoulder work I use the Fs7, much better set up and internal 4k is great.
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Why do you say it's worthless? The thin codec? I'm just curious because I'm thinking of moving from my C100 to an FS5...
 
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