It's official, now the owner of an FS700....

Rick Burnett

Rick Burnett

Section Moderator
Well, I know I've been quiet lately, mainly because I've been more off the computer than on the computer. I've really enjoyed my time with the FS100 but I was ready to move to the cinegammas so I finally made the plunge, although I am waiting for it to arrive.

So, for all of you that switched from the FS100 to the FS700, any words of wisdom? I have my first shoot with it this saturday and sunday. I will be shooting outdoors in the woods.

It was a long tough decision, but all the footage I have seen shot with the cinegammas just looks fantastic to me. And being outdoors on the FS100, you really need ND if you want to shoot anything shallow and I'll be honest, I get tired of putting them on the front of my lenses.
 
Yeah Rick! Welcome to the Dark Side. I'm sure you are going to love the camera. I LOVE it, the image is great and after reading your other post, yes, I would take it over a C300 and a C100 just because those cameras are so limited.
 
It was a tough decision, but at the end of the day, I realized I do use 60p a lot on the FS100 for effect and I just couldn't give that up going to the C300 or C100. And I cannot afford to keep both cameras.

In all the tests Adam Wilt had done with the FS700, the color science was jus fantastic. All the things I struggled with on the FS100 were just not really an issue. While I realized you could tune a lot of the FS100, and I did, the problem I never really got down 100% was dealing with mixed light situations. Sure, I could make them NOT mixed, but, that's not really our shooting style.

Here's to hoping that red is tamed down on the FS700.

I'll be sure to report back here after I've shot to give my impressions.
 
Nice move Rick, I look forward to hearing your take on the 700. My buddy up the street has one and loves it, he was one of the first I know to move from the 100 to the 700. I am still enjoying my 100 and thinking about an F5 if the work will justify it and if not then maybe a 700.
 
Sounds like you'll absolutely love having the built in ND filters. 60p is nice too, and can't wait to see what you think of the 240fps as well. It's a lot of fun to use in the right situation.

Mostly the Cinegammas, i bet you'll really like them.

Let us know how the shoot goes! Enjoy!
 
A peach! Just watch those flicker frequencies when shooting 240 etc...
Don't assume it's smooth based on the buffering image. Make sure to get into the clip on the card and check....

Have fun!
 
Congrats Rick, and welcome to the team! I know you love the camera and I know you will like it even more after a while. It's a great tool that works really well for me and looks like will work even better for what you do. Enjoy it. Work with it. Find it's limitations and work around it. Last but not least play with it as much as you can ;) Even though its very similar to FS100 there are still a lot of bits and pieces to learn (at least that what I realized after the move from FS100 to 700). Can't wait to see what you come up with it!
 
Thanks for the advice on the flickering, someone I probably would have overlooked on our first shoot. The only complaints I've heard from anyone about the FS700 versus FS100 is weight and offset nature of the handle. Truth is, the handle offset on the FS100 was already more than I like so I ALWAYS shoot holding the camera with two hands, so I doubt I'll have an issue there.

Are you guys shooting with the presets or has someone created some great settings for me to start with? I've seen ablecine mentioned, but then people saying they thought they were lackluster. In truth, the other camera will be a 5Dm3 we have so I am going to try and not be too far from his settings. Mainly, the highlight handling of the FS700 seems to be FANTASTIC compared to the FS100. Given I get it tomorrow, I am hoping to do a lot of work tomorrow night with it to work out the details.
 
Congrats! I know you'll put it to good guess. One of my trickiest issues is Cinegamma 4 or someother which doesn't use the full highlight capability (109%). If stuck with cinegamma 4 and brought the highs down in AE. Worked pretty well.
 
Yeah, I am seeing I need to map things over 100% into 100% since I am on a mac. I will DEFINITELY experiment with that.
 
Interesting choice. Was it purely motivated by the slow motion? Because otherwise, with the F3 going for so cheap on the used market I wonder why 4:2:2 cinegamma instead of S-log 4:4:4?

Or are you also hanging on the 4K possibility thing?

I'm honestly just truly curious about your decision.

Now between the C100 and FS700 to me it's a non brainer. FS700 all the way.
 
Rick congratulations, I think you will love the 700. I certainly do and I moved from a AF100 as well.

Here is the PP's I use most of the time:
Screen Shot 2013-02-21 at 9.47.59 AM.jpg

I have the C100 and I love that camera as well, I think the C100 and the FS700 are actually a nice matched pair.

The AF100 was the start of this trend but it had a number of problems but could produce very nice video. The newer cameras are just have a much better pic quality.
 
Rick,

As i see it the main differences are that you'll spend less time trying to find a profile that does everything and just use the stock profiles, they just work.

Having said that the 700 *is* less sensitive than the 100 regardless of what people say. I'd spend some time with your new gammas and get a feeling for how the shadows are, because you may adjust your lighting and shooting style a bit. The image from the 100 is softer (not necessarily in a bad way) and i've hit some aliasing with fine coloured detail.

All in all it's a solid performer and it's not red. Your colour issues with bright LEDs are better too, but not perfect.

I'd love to know how you think when you get it.

I'm very keen to see what the RAW out of this looks like compared to an F5 and whether the sensors share parentage.

cheers
paul
 
I did not buy it for the 4K future really, although I thought I would consider it but the 4K solution looks HUGE to me and I feel would get in the way of my shooting style. I looked at the possibility of an F3 as well but I am really just not a fan of the body style. I actually really like the FS100 and FS700 body style. It's not to say the F3 doesn't produce some great images, but even there, I'd need an external recorder to get the benefits from the F3 and that's just not something I was interested in. With the FS700 it's a logical step up from the FS100 for me. And let me just say, whoever put the zoom assist on the hand grip is my hero!

I will say, even if the FS700 is not as sensitive that is okay by me. The FS100 was pushing the line of a little too sensitive for me. :) It could literally see better than I could in the dark.

If someone is comparing between an F3 and FS700 I think it's just a matter of what's important to you and what other equipment you are using with it. I already have a plethora of metabones adapters, batteries, chargers, and most of my gear I've setup for the brick footprint.

Thanks for your presets, I am going to try them out. I really wish we could name the presets in the camera.
 
Rick Burnett said:
I did not buy it for the 4K future really, although I thought I would consider it but the 4K solution looks HUGE to me and I feel would get in the way of my shooting style. I looked at the possibility of an F3 as well but I am really just not a fan of the body style. I actually really like the FS100 and FS700 body style. It's not to say the F3 doesn't produce some great images, but even there, I'd need an external recorder to get the benefits from the F3 and that's just not something I was interested in. With the FS700 it's a logical step up from the FS100 for me. And let me just say, whoever put the zoom assist on the hand grip is my hero!
Click to expand...

4K doesn't interest me much either but full dynamic range and post scaled to 2k is of *great* interest - i'd like the choice to choose the type of debayer myself. The sensors in these cameras are like wolves in sheeps clothing, i really want to see what they're capable of when they're able to output everything.

I've come very close to buying an F3 several times but what held me back was the fact i have so many lenses and adapters etc,. for e mount - completely understand your viewpoint

So when do you get it?

cheers
Paul
 
Rick Burnett said:
I did not buy it for the 4K future really, although I thought I would consider it but the 4K solution looks HUGE to me and I feel would get in the way of my shooting style. I looked at the possibility of an F3 as well but I am really just not a fan of the body style. I actually really like the FS100 and FS700 body style. It's not to say the F3 doesn't produce some great images, but even there, I'd need an external recorder to get the benefits from the F3 and that's just not something I was interested in. With the FS700 it's a logical step up from the FS100 for me. And let me just say, whoever put the zoom assist on the hand grip is my hero!

I will say, even if the FS700 is not as sensitive that is okay by me. The FS100 was pushing the line of a little too sensitive for me. :) It could literally see better than I could in the dark.

If someone is comparing between an F3 and FS700 I think it's just a matter of what's important to you and what other equipment you are using with it. I already have a plethora of metabones adapters, batteries, chargers, and most of my gear I've setup for the brick footprint.

Thanks for your presets, I am going to try them out. I really wish we could name the presets in the camera.
Click to expand...

I guess for you the FS700 made more sense after all. This is what's great about having so many options. You can choose something that fits your needs. I myself much prefer the body of the F3 over the FS100 or FS700. But if you are not going to use S-log, then the FS700 and F3 are not that different in image quality. And the super slomo is a nice little feature to have for those occasions it really fits.
 
I got it a few days ago when I was preparing for our shoot this weekend looking for profiles to work with outside I finally decided I *really* wanted cinegamma and ND filters.

The reason I had waited so long as I was really hopeful that Canon was going to finally make something that handled higher frame rates and I just really cannot wait anymore. I *really* love the concept of the C300 body (and C100) but when I looked at all we do, I couldn't justify the price difference based on performance. And, having all accessories for my FS100, it was that hidden cost thing. I'd need a new multi-charger, new batteries, etc. With all that in mind, it really became a no-brainer.

The other thing I did was really think about how I felt about my FS100. In the end, I really liked it. I think when you become comfortable with a camera after a lot of shooting, the thought of staying within that same paradigm of concept makes it very easy to switch. When I went from the 7D to the AF100 it was really tough at first just switching how I worked. It was a little easier from the AF100 to the FS100. That said, the hardest thing to deal with is the LCD differences. I started on the FS100 with an external display ALWAYS. But now, I am really good with the built in LCD and that just makes it much faster for me. I love my smallHD DP6, but use it mostly for crane work.

I think the other thing that really worked for me was Metabones. I've been a beta tester for them now on some of their mounts and I really feel their products have DEFINITELY stepped up in quality from when they started. And their price points are just awesome. All the other lens mount developers aren't even close to hitting what they did and DEFINITELY not for that price point. Like their speedbooster which I do have, it's amazing. I do need to upgrade my regular I mount to a II thought to get rid of the square hole in the center. Round is MUCH better.

And if you want to know what tipped my hand into purchasing the camera? It was these shots:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?302548-Filmic-Look-Yay-or-Nay

These just blew me a way with how amazing they looked. Of course, it's not the camera that made this happen for the most part, but the person behind it and who graded these. It started me on a path of looking at other peoples material that wasn't tweaked much and given how well I know the FS100, it was easy to see where the highlight handling was just fantastic on the FS700 using the cine gammas.

For the last few days I've been collecting picture profiles from people. What I find is most are very similar :) So I've saved about 4 of them I am going to try this weekend during the choreography part of our shoot where camera work isn't needed but I can test the camera on a bunch of subjects.

As for 4K, don't get me wrong, I like the option, I just think what I am seeing from Sony as their 4K recording solution is going to require a backback or something to carry around! I VERY MUCH look forward into seeing what people do with it. For me, I'd want to shoot 4K 4:4:4 or 4:2:2 for when I am doing 3D work composited into my shots. The chroma contamination of 4:2:0 makes it tough as I have to add that same chroma contamination into my renders which can be tricky. So yeah, the idea we can get raw might be amazing. It also will remove the issue where extremely high contrast edges can generate some unwanted colors at the boundaries as well.

Of course, which many people will probably forget, the footage WILL be noisier. If it's raw, it's not going to go through Sony's REALLY GOOD noise reduction algorithms. In addition, AVCHD also removes the noise in how the compression works. (which is why people who don't know all this see RAW red footage and freak out not realizing, you have to do all the work in post to clean it up that a camera would do).

What I hope is a 3rd party makes a better recording solution!
 
Rick Burnett said:
....I did not buy it for the 4K future really, although I thought I would consider it but the 4K solution looks HUGE to me ....
Click to expand...

But you are able to get RAW-recorder , memory cards and card reader from B&H !!! -->

898429.jpg
906632.jpg
898433.jpg

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/898429-REG/Sony_AXS_R5_Recorder_Module.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/906632-REG/Sony_AXS_512S24_512GB_MEMORY_CARD_f_AXS.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/898433-REG/Sony_AXS_CR1_USB_3_0_Card.html

They available at the end of February! :D
 
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