My good/bad points using the Fs5 after having the Fs700

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stevenblatter

Well-known member
I had the Fs700 for about 4 years, I loved this camera! But some weeks ago it fell down from high stairs and was totally broken, so I bought an Fs5 to replace it. I used the Fs5 for several jobs and I just wanted to share with you the good and bad points for me (shooting in 1080p) even if I know a lot of people have already brought up these points...

Good points:
- the form factor (size, grip, weight,…)
- having a LCD monitor and a viewfinder is really great
- internal 1080p 10bit
- Slog-3 which looks great and very filmic once graded even if there is some noise in the picture
- Slog view assist
- stereo mic in the handle, which means no need for another mic for ambiance sounds (on some jobs...)
- the price, which is cheaper than the Fs700 when it came out

Bad points:
- can’t listen to one audio channel in both ears, which is really a problem when you are filming an interview with a boom or lavalier in channel 1 and the internal mic on channel 2 (the Fs700 had the option to listen to one channel).
- can’t go lower than 3200iso in Slog3 which means that the max 1/128 ND filter is not enough if you want to shoot lower than f4 outside on a "nice weather day”. And it very noisy but that's another issues...
- the sensor switching on/off the viewfinder is too sensitive, when you shoot with the camera close to your body it keeps switching on and off the LCD. So I just switch manually the LCD monitor on/off.
- The super slow motion has the same artifacts than on the Fs700, shame there is not the option to shoot non-buffering 100fps like on the A7sII.
- difficult to have a nice skin color using Cine 1-4 in mixed light situations. Same with finding the good white balance, the room looked good but the skin of people looked often strange. I hope AbelCine will bring out soon some nice picture profiles like they did with the Fs700, I often used the JR45Cine on my Fs700.

Steven
http://www.prog-pics.com
 
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Thanks for the info Steven ..one issue that really bothered me with the fs700 is the purple fringing in highlights when a highlight area meets a darker contrast area (I guess it's a know fs700 issue ) sometimes it was too extreme to a point that good looking shots could not be used in the final because it was clearly seen ..is this issue solved in the fs5 or fs7 as far as you know ?
 
Hi Sammy, yes as you can see on the screen grab zoomed in at 200% there is still the famous purple fringing (when shooting wide open) on the two white posts. Well maybe you could see it better on a moving shot and a more in-focus shot... but I can't release the stuff I shot for my clients...
Sequence 01_1.jpg
 
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steven-

would that example you posted from the fs5 mean you would not offer that footage to your client?

thanks in advance.

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
Hi Rob, I would offer to my client a shot that has this issue. For me, if the composition of the shot is good I don't think the viewer would see this kind of detail.
 
stevenblatter said:
Hi Rob, I would offer to my client a shot that has this issue. For me, if the composition of the shot is good I don't think the viewer would see this kind of detail.
Click to expand...

steven-

i thoroughly agree with your assessment.

and i do like your frame and frankly i found nothing offense to my eye.

good job.

be well.

rob
smalltalk.productions
 
Steven, thanks for starting this thread. Useful information!
I checked out your website, many things seemed all too familiar, then I realized you're from Switzerland! I am from Geneva (:

I wanted to ask your opinion. I'm currently preparing a project that I plan to rent the FS5 for. There will be some 24fps shots and a lot of 60+fps shots. I will be delivering the final video in 1080. In your opinion is it worth it to shoot the 24fps shots in 4k? Or do you think it will make the 60fps shots in the end look worse in the final render?

Also can you tell a big difference with the 10bit as opposed to 8bit? Is there much more flexibility with color grading?
Thanks!

Mathis
www.naughtymantis.com
 
Hi Mathis,

Yes I live in Lausanne :-). I just saw your website and loved the look of your videos!

Personally I won't shoot 4k with the Fs5 until the new firmware is out (end of February we hope...). I did some test and the macro blocking is terrible in low light situations. I would only shoot 4k for interviews which are done using a tripod. If the camera doesn't move to much it looks ok.

I also like using the same settings on the camera during a whole project, so if the output is 1080p I prefer shooting all the project in 1080p to keep the same look. I'm not a massive fan on the "zoomed in 4k to 1080p" as if you shoot wide open on the lens often I find that the picture looses sharpness quite quickly. Only good for interviews or shots that need some stabilisation.

I did some grading in 10bit with shots that I did with the Fs7 and for me it's mostly better in bringing out the blue sky, correcting skin color or bringing out the dark areas in the shot. Plus you won't see as much banding and the quality of the picture seems to stay better even with a strong grade on it. I also think you absolutely need 10bit if you want to shoot in Slog3.
 
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