Happy

John Foundas

John Foundas

Well-known member
Just received my 700. Very Happy.
I did a quick test, no 240fps, just wanted to see the camera. Coming from the AF100, I really wanted to see the baked-in color, DR and highlight control.
With that I unboxed, put on tripod and shot nondescript, boring nonsense shots. The LCD is hideous. I didn't even know the shot at :46 had spider webs in it (smallHD on the way).
What really got me excited was the following shot on the porch. The detail in the shadow areas with the evergreens blazing in the background is awesome! LOVE IT.

What I am missing is my Voightlander .95 and my SLR 12mm. Im sure there will be really wide, fast (sub 2.8) glass made for this sucker soon (reasonable price).
Ive got a load of projects that are ready for this bugger. Just need to tame it a bit and get comfortable.

1080 30
Nikon 18-300 (going back btw)
no shutter
Cine 1
Thats it.


https://vimeo.com/46060090

Here's a color corrected shot of the spider webs.
https://vimeo.com/46074971
 
Last edited:
BTW do you see the aliasing and moire on the bricks in the first 2 shots?... NO YOU DON'T because there isn't any, lol. I love this camera. You do have to work it a bit to get into "Kodachrome" land. It's fairly flat with the standard gamma, etc. But to my mind that allows you to do what you want in post. Did I say I love this camera?
 
I just got mine a week ago and am really happy with it. Cinegamma 1 + the Cinema color setting within Cinegamma 1 makes the image really creamy, desaturated and nostalgic looking + very gradable. Coming from the Canons, the image is so refreshing. Just lacks that baked in Canon look that's in almost every clip these days.

I quickly realized that the correct settings are crucial for a more cinematic look. The default settings are just super video looking.

As for the LCD, not sure why so much hate from everyone. It's not ideal, but certainly much better than the 5D3 LCD in that at least you can move it. For me, I have no problem getting focus on it. External Monitor is nice though, but for handheld, minimal gear setups, the LCD works fine IMO.
 
Johnf said:
Just received my 700. Very Happy.
Click to expand...

Figured I'd see you over here on this forum after your, 'Thanks and goodbye'.
Still waiting for my '700 shipment after financing it with the sale of my other HD - Harley Davidson.
Keeping the former cam for backup.

Regards,
Scott
 
The only thing I hate about the EVF is that it flops left/right. They should have had some way to properly lock it so it doesn't fly away from your eye in mid shot. I currently have mine setup with my HPX170 and some stock items and a color chart to see if I can come up with a profile that mimics the scene file I created a few years back for a higher saturated crushed black look. I have some matching footage that I shot here with A 5D and I'm gonna see how close I can come to that. This camera's deep. The amount of tweaking potential is enormous. Not even close to the amount of adjustment you can do with a 5D. I don't think people have quite cracked the surface yet.
 
After some fiddling, I have a few observations.
I have NEVER shot anything "auto" in my 20 year career. That being said, I locked off the 18-200 kit lens (18) and set the cam to full auto.
Focus, iris, shutter…everything.


https://vimeo.com/46148942



I am shocked at how well this little bugger behaves. Just amazing! I can't wait to try the Phase detect with an Alpha lens. The combo of the 16mm 2.8 and the optical stabilization will be deadly for hand held use (run/gun, close-in, red carpet interview stuff etc…)
Speaking of hand held, at first I was really frustrated, but after some adjustments I have found a good set-up. I rotated the hand grip 90* so its in a north/south postion and it is fantastically balanced and easy on the wrist, even with the 18-200 lens!
More often than not (on corporate shoots) I'll pop off sticks and get some light b-roll in an office setting with a wide-angle. This will be a pleasure with the above config. Now if SLR Magic will make the 12mm 1.6 in an E mount I'd be in hog heaven!

The positioning of the bult in LCD isnt really that problematic after all for hand held use (IMO) as you can cheat the angle a bit and shoot for reasonable amounts of time hand held with little or no fatigue. With the 16mm it will be sublime.
I also rigged a small Hoodman sun screen (from my af100) on the FS and seems to work pretty well.
If I can find a way to mount a wireless receiver without being gaudy or obtrusive, I may cancel my Eldekrone order.

In full auto mode I shot in a low light area of my house, with a really slow lens 3.5-6.3. It adjusted up to 24db is some cases…yikes!. If you stayed out of the shadows it wasn't that bad. With a cleaner and grade, it would be usable.
Clearly the kit lens will be a daytime B-roll lens only. But under light, in a pinch..sure!.

One issue that is ticking me off…The camera has a great USB function where you can dump files in the field to an external drive etc…Problem is the camera won't let you access the function unless you are plugged into AC power. WTF!!!!!
Kinda defeats the purpose. With the cheap cost of media (I just picked up a butt load of class 10 Sandisk's/16GB for $20 each!) I can just hand off the card to a client in the field and walk away.

I'm going to pick up the Sony E 16mm 2.8 and the 50mm 1.8 and give them a run. Ultimately, I see a metabones adapter and some canon glass in the future, but I just want to start running with an inexpensive and highly functional lens package for now.

I'm going to run a full test tomorrow at a tennis match in DC. I'll post some clips later...
 
Last edited:
I'm also very happy with the camera! I find the auto features to be very helpful, though i wish the auto focus with the E Mount lenses was faster. Haven't been able to follow someone walking toward the camera very well at all, and i was hoping to be able to do that. So, I'm thinking of getting the LA-EA2 adapter with the SAL 16-50 2.8. Except you lose OSS with that. Sigma makes a similar lens with built in stabilization, so that might be an option. For now, i'll wait and see if they announce an E-Mount version soon. I think it'd be their most popular option. The main thing i've found is that i really love having all the features and so it's hard to order something other than an E Mount lens and have to go without certain things. Spot focus is really helpful at times. Just wish continuous AF was a bit faster.

I agree with the hand grip, tilting it 90 degrees so the buttons face the front works really well. Much more comfortable shooting that way if you don't have a shoulder mount.

I have the 50mm 1.8 and it's really nice. Actually love it, but the f.o.v. is pretty narrow and i just haven't found as much use for it as i'd like. I'm thinking 30 or 35mm would be a great prime to have. Not sure if i should try the $200 Sigma 30mm or not.
 
It's nice to see threads praising the cameras for once! I'm very happy with the 100, still waiting for my 700 though!

I do think that auto focus phase detect with LAEA2 isn't going to be ideal. There's no substitute for a nice old manual lens and a follow focus. These alpha lenses even SSM are not designed really for continuous AF for video. They make juddering focuses, ideal for stills. One shot focus might be more useful.

Also i've found that once rigged the cameras are weighty enough to not really suffer from the kind of jitters DSLRs have when hand holding, so stabilisation for smaller focus lengths isn't that important.

cheers
paul
 
Chad Nikolaus said:
I'm also very happy with the camera! I find the auto features to be very helpful, though i wish the auto focus with the E Mount lenses was faster. Haven't been able to follow someone walking toward the camera very well at all, and i was hoping to be able to do that. So, I'm thinking of getting the LA-EA2 adapter with the SAL 16-50 2.8. Except you lose OSS with that. Sigma makes a similar lens with built in stabilization, so that might be an option. For now, i'll wait and see if they announce an E-Mount version soon. I think it'd be their most popular option. The main thing i've found is that i really love having all the features and so it's hard to order something other than an E Mount lens and have to go without certain things. Spot focus is really helpful at times. Just wish continuous AF was a bit faster.

I agree with the hand grip, tilting it 90 degrees so the buttons face the front works really well. Much more comfortable shooting that way if you don't have a shoulder mount.

I have the 50mm 1.8 and it's really nice. Actually love it, but the f.o.v. is pretty narrow and i just haven't found as much use for it as i'd like. I'm thinking 30 or 35mm would be a great prime to have. Not sure if i should try the $200 Sigma 30mm or not.
Click to expand...

The Alpha's will track very nicely in 120/240fps w/ phase detect
 
I am a self proclaimed "Hand Held" junkie and yesterday we did our first test with our FS700 (all in 24p. The rule was No slow motion. LOL). In additional to turning the hand grip 90 degrees, I tried something that's DSLR inspired. I threaded a short-ish neck strap through the 2 shoulder strap ports on the sides. And guess what? My friend and I both agreed that it worked amazingly well for hand held. When you have the camera cradled and looking down with the short-ish neck strap (hanging with no tension), the camera just balanced so well and felt so good. Felt like it was on a rig, but there was no rig, just the bare bones camera. The strap also made it better for eye level hand held stuff as it feels more stable in your hands because the strap cuts off hand shaking on the Z axis, so it's a bit more stable.

A few things I didn't like as much. I wish some things like the Auto Iris buttons near the Iris wheel could be disabled along with a few other buttons. I found my self accidentally hitting that, along with the various auto ISO and shutter speed options by accident. Often times, I'd look down and see my shutter speed was totally off because I accidentally hit something. We ended up being really careful and constantly checking all the values. Eventually, I just slide the Hold lever to lock off all the settings.

Also, the ISO is such a pain. They need a firmware update to make it work like the shutter speed with the wheel, which I wish would be much harder to change since I did change the shutter speed by accident several times. I think they should make it so you can disable a some of the button functions on the side since they can get accidentally hit way too much.

But I do like how fast you can access things like Peaking, Zebras, etc.... I think I just have to get used to it, and I won't be hitting buttons accidentally as much.

Overall I LOVE this camera. I love Cinestyle 1 especially with the Cinema color mode setting. I think the ergonomics gets a bad rap. For handheld stuff, especially with the neck strap trick, it works so, so well. I also shortened the Viewfinder Toilet Roll Loupe using a Vimeo tutorial, and it works way better. It's about 1/3rd shorter now and is very functional and useful unlike the stock configuration which is almost useless since it's so long and clumsy. Coming from a DSLR, I thought I was going to hate the ergonomics, but it's so much better than the 5D.

Metabones worked great.

I am a very happy "EX" Canon user, in that I really like the FS700 and that I just got so sick and tired of giving Canon my money for overpriced, very crippled and under-spec'd cameras. Sony came out with something really good in the FS700, and it made me happy to fork over my money.
 
@gene_can_sing

I can't quite visualize your 'strap' setup. Could you possibly post a picture or two?
 
Ken, I'm surprised more people haven't commented on the lack of a left/right LCD lock, I also find it a pain when using the extender on a shoulder mount. My solution - gaffers right across the top, does the trick.
 
gene_can_sing said:
Also, the ISO is such a pain. They need a firmware update to make it work like the shutter speed with the wheel, which I wish would be much harder to change since I did change the shutter speed by accident several times. I think they should make it so you can disable a some of the button functions on the side since they can get accidentally hit way too much.
Click to expand...

That might be my number one complaint. It'd be so much nicer to just scroll ISO on the wheel. Right now, i have 3200 auto iso limit, and then 400, 800, 1600 as the three presets. Works alright, but when you want to fine tune exposure i'd rather scroll the ISO than the shutter speed or aperture. Doesn't make much sense to me. Really hope they're getting feedback on that and can implement it in a firmware update.
 
for the iso issue, I'm surprised how well auto-iso works most of the time. It's a reasonable fix for lenses that have ramping apertures and for not being able to change iso quickly on the fly. When running and gunning, auto-iso with ae shift down a few notches works very well for me and the transitions between isos is very smooth I rarely ever notice it. Between three presets and auto-iso I rarely find I need to go into the menu to change iso presets. That said, it would be nice to be able to change it on the fly quickly, but i've gotten used to changing it quickly in the menu when I really need to.
 
Ralph B said:
@gene_can_sing
I can't quite visualize your 'strap' setup. Could you possibly post a picture or two?
Click to expand...

Here's the neck strap thing that I use for more stable handheld. It works really good and makes hand held really stable, and also you can have a hand free too mess with the buttons. I used Adapt It's to connect the strap to the FS700. You have to boil the Adapt Its in hot water first to soften them, otherwise it's really hard to get through the FS700 shoulder strap ports.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ..._USA_1301322_System_Connectors_Adapt_Its.html

Also, since someone asked, here's the link to the shortened viewfinder. Works way better after the modification.

https://vimeo.com/38820982

NeckStrap.jpg
 
snp said:
Figured I'd see you over here on this forum after your, 'Thanks and goodbye'.
Still waiting for my '700 shipment after financing it with the sale of my other HD - Harley Davidson.
Keeping the former cam for backup.

Regards,
Scott
Click to expand...


Never looking back…
The FS700 just blows the AF100 away image wise. I haven't even shot with fast primes yet. You'll love it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top