FS7: New FS7 little brother?

I know they're leagues apart but somebody has to mention it. On the one hand you have the Alexa mini which, when all is said and done is a helluva a camera that'll set you back somewhere in the ballpark of $60K, then you have the Red Weapon, awesome specs, not cheap either. Then you'll have the C300 MKII soon, starting around $16K before you add CFast media and those expensive looking accessories. You'll probably land in the $20K ballpark with that one (at current suggested retail prices).

That leaves the new FS5 in a pretty good position. Some might say it will eat some DVX200 market. Again different camera, but similar price range. (I'm NOT suggesting you'll walk on set and shoot anything with the FS5 on an Alexa/Weapon shoot, well maybe the BTS), but this camera can be an indie darling for the single shooter. I'd prefer the back of the FS7 with time-cade sync and ProRes for multi-cam.

Having traveled most of the last two years on various shows, this camera looks inviting. I always work with my Odyssey so hopefully there will be something gained by recording externally, especially if they bring Raw output to it. Other than that, it looks extremely well thought out with a few drawbacks.
 
Don't forget the FS5 is still 8bit only.

4:2:2 in HD, 4:2:0 in 4k. This is nice for in camera looks and maybe good enough for some slog stuff.
But I'm happy to have the FS7 which delivers 10bit HD+4k which is a different horse in my eyes.

The FS5 is clearly aimed for different clients. I'd love this one, but can't go back to 8bit and longGOP
again. The size and weight is just perfect, the clear image zoom and center scan very welcome for
R+G shooting.
 
For me this thing is great. Was planning on picking up a Shogun for my A7s, and now this thing gets released. For what I do, this could easily be my main camera. I'm happy with the specs, don't care for that viewfinder though.
 
Nirv said:
Sony are very clever, the A7sII only records 8 bit internally which is useless for SLog3 which means an external recorder is a cumbersome extra expense. So if you're shooting HD and want 10 bit you'd be better off with the FS5. But if you want to shoot 10 bit 4K you'll need an external recorder so you might be better off with an FS7... and so it goes on.
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Not sure about clever, the HDMI output appears to still be 8 bit too - so no >8 bit recording.

On the other hand this is 8 bit YUV which is a different beast to 8 bit RGB, i did some testing on our blog about banding issues and it's not too bad on a practical basis.

Not ideal though

cheers
Paul
 
paulcurtis said:
Not sure about clever, the HDMI output appears to still be 8 bit too - so no >8 bit recording.
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If you're talking about the A7sII, Oh dear! The FS5 is going to get a paid RAW update for those that want to shoot 10bit via external recorder. No idea what limitations may be arbitrarily placed on that.

I can't see SLog3 in 8 bit working but the sgamut3.cine is an improvement in the A7s, so you can have noisy nicely coloured images at least...
 
Nirv said:
The variable NDs sound interesting but if it produces dead flesh tones like all VNDs that went before it then it's not a great idea.
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It was quoted as an electronic ND in some text somewhere, so until we actually know how it works - who knows...

cheers
Paul
 
Ben Scott said:
Hmm, I think if it was smaller it would be great for gimbals. As it stands it appears to just be for people who really want but can't stretch to an FS7. A7s II for me :)
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Agreed, I think the A7SII looks more of a useful B-cam for my FS7.

That being said, I think the FS5 looks pretty sweet though I'm not sure the price is competitive enough.
 
I don't know. When it's stripped down, it's only 0.8kg. That might even work on the new, soon-to-be-released Film Power gimbal.
 
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Nirv said:
If you're talking about the A7sII, Oh dear! The FS5 is going to get a paid RAW update for those that want to shoot 10bit via external recorder. No idea what limitations may be arbitrarily placed on that. I can't see SLog3 in 8 bit working but the sgamut3.cine is an improvement in the A7s, so you can have noisy nicely coloured images at least...
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It's not ideal. UHD HDMI appears be 8 bit for everyone, a hardware limitation at the moment.

The RAW update should allow 12 bit RAW, perhaps it will be different to the FS7, maybe that RAW will eventually be a log format.

The noise of the A7s is not to do with it being 8 bit though, just having a massively elevated shadows and some dodgy camera processing. If the MkII addresses the purple sponges like the A7rII has done that would be great. There's a hint on some of the A7s sample videos that base ISO is 1600, which would be better.

With the retailer of the MkII being twice that of the original, i would hope that is a new sensor version in there.

Nirv said:
Electronic rotation of polariser or electronic reactolite rapids?
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I don't think anyone knows yet. I really don't think Sony would go down the polariser route though, far too many compromises that you can't fix. I'm wondering if it's more like the reactolite rapids idea...

cheers
Paul
 
paulcurtis said:
I don't think anyone knows yet. I really don't think Sony would go down the polariser route though, far too many compromises that you can't fix. I'm wondering if it's more like the reactolite rapids idea...

cheers
Paul
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The reason why I suspected a polariser was looking at the launch video there were some very strange colour casts towards the end from blue to green etc the WB seems to be all over the place. It reminded me exactly of the heliopan that I used with the FS100, you could dial any colour cast you didn't want with it.
 
As fs7 owner I'm not excited with fs5 at all. Lot more with A7SII - with IBS it will be almost perfect doco small cam!! (and a nice, compact B cam for FS7).

I'm amazed how Sony managed to release another camera yet not to upset any previous cameras owners. XAVC-L is pretty poor in 4K, so FS7 with CineEI is still far superior camera.
 
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morgan_moore said:
I tried to start a non speculation thread. http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?340224-PMW-FS5-Announced

Anyway - sounds like ok 1080 camera - actually awesome - cheap 10bit - blows the C300/C100/FS700/Any DSLR 4k or not.

Small light box - nice
Ergos.. probbly a bit of a mess
HFR burst - probably soft

Slog 3200 - hmm - something strange going on there - probably not good strange.

If I had loads of money Id get one for going to the park. With a tight wallet nothing is really drawing me in.
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Looks like a PXW-X70 record spec with e-mount lens but with the 100Mbps record the X70 does not have ( but the AX100 does !!! ) I really hoped for QFHD 60P to replace my FDR-AX1 but will have to wait. Doesn't hit the buttons for me. DVX200 looks to be a better choice for me at the moment.
 
Looks like I will still be shelling out for the FS7, I think this cam should have been less than 6K. I guess if you want smaller and lighter you are all for this.
 
I'm really happy about the FS5 announcement!
looks like a sweet little thing, but at $6699 with only 8bit 4K it's too little for too much to make me want to sell my FS700. Which is nice! Now I can concentrate on trying to afford an O7Q (or if that fails get a Shogun).

Same for the A7SII, too expensive so I'm keeping my A7S, thanks!
 
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