Sony FX3 camcorder registered - 8K?

Well - with my Movi gimbal Ive shot some 'cinema jobs' - not the DP but car rigging, rickshaw and jib. This is the stuff I love beyond the more corporate that keeps me alive. Yep low budget cinema.. but properly paid jobs that will be on the big streaming channels or in a small cinema release.

Either my FS7 or the productions Alexa mini or BM camera.. or Pocket

Ive been eyeing a C200 to replace my FS7, because I think the raw is good enough.. well if you want better hire a your camera, but these little cameras and thier size/mass a very on my radar.. I take them seriously both image and specifically AF performance as being able to play on any pitch.

Which is actually flattering to Sony that I appear to bash.

I bash them because they have this amazing tech and then no 5mm notch in the bottom to hold them stable to a tripod plate like the sony ex1, or $500 handycam.

On the gimbal I use a FIZ motor and can guarentee a spin on a single mount camera. Guarentee it.

One can actually buy alexa classics for the same money as a little Sony now.. but that and the Mini hold no interest to me - too big, no AF. I just bought an arri plate though so I can rig the one belonging to the production.
 
JPNola said:
It isn’t marketing as silly as calling a tripod “HD”, imo.
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One of my tripods is a Sachtler ‘Speed lock CF HD’. HD is short for ‘Heavy Duty’(they are much larger, more robust and have a much higher payload[200+lbs] than my regular non-HD versions), not an implication that they are somehow ‘High-Def’.

Second line in Sachtlers description material:
The Sachtler SpeedLock Heavy-Duty Carbon Fibre Tripod
Click to expand...
 
Run&Gun said:
One of my tripods is a Sachtler ‘Speed lock CF HD’. HD is short for ‘Heavy Duty’(they are much larger, more robust and have a much higher payload[200+lbs] than my regular non-HD versions), not an implication that they are somehow ‘High-Def’.

Second line in Sachtlers description material:
Click to expand...

Fair enough. And stupid me for not realizing it stood for “heavy duty” in some uses.

But how about this?:

“ BARSKA AF12440 Digital Tripod”

What is “digital” about it?
 
JPNola said:
Fair enough. And stupid me for not realizing it stood for “heavy duty” in some uses.

But how about this?:

“ BARSKA AF12440 Digital Tripod”

What is “digital” about it?
Click to expand...

Maybe because you can buy it digitally (on-line)? Lol...

Yeah, that one is just silly, because there appears to be no electronics, sensors or anything else “digital” integrated into it.

But along the same lines as HD and “digital” tripods, I remember when, maybe Sachtler or someone else came out with a DV line when small, lightweight ‘digital video’ camcorders started hitting the market. I always interpreted that as the heads/legs were not high-payload models and designed/intended for the small, lightweight ‘DV’ cameras. And by extension, if I heard/saw ‘digital’ attached to most tripods, I would probably interpret it the same way and presume they are designed for very light-weight payloads, like cellphones and maybe small mirrorless or dslr cameras.

So, I can see where some may think that some manufacturers(and some may have purposefully tried) were trying to tie in and associate the products with high-def equipment/cameras, when high-def(HD) was new and considered ultra high-end.
 
JPNola said:
Fair enough. And stupid me for not realizing it stood for “heavy duty” in some uses.

But how about this?:

“ BARSKA AF12440 Digital Tripod”

What is “digital” about it?
Click to expand...

Product of the Chinese to English Brand and Term random word generator app?
 
We’re supposed to get back to the FX3.

So, verdict? Show of hands if you would considering purchasing it.

I would.

I see the FX3 becoming requested where the a7sii once was. An a7sii that doesn’t shut down on you and bone your production.
 
JPNola said:
I see the FX3 becoming requested where the a7sii once was. An a7sii that doesn’t shut down on you and bone your production.
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Could be. I mean, the A7SIII is pretty good thermally and has only given me a temperature warning once (when I ran a smartphone wifi monitor from it for a few hours straight). But certainly, if the PERCEPTION is that the fx3 is more reliable than the a7siii, it's easy to see it displacing it.

But a good number of a7siii use cases are probably indifferent because they were willing to use a mirrorless camera in the first place (weddings, for example). But I think you mean for drone/gimbal on TV production, and I can believe that.

Personally, I'll hold on to the a7siii because it has an EVF and the fx3 didn't get ND. Overheating has not been a problem for me.
 
I personally won’t be getting one. I absolutely love my A7SIII and there’s no way I’d give up the viewfinder on it for a mirrorless camera without it. Honestly I don’t think the fan is going to make that much of a difference as I’ve really put my A7SIII through it’s paces without any overheating issues and overheating issues with it in general aren’t common across the board.

As such I believe the only real draw to this camera is the body that has 1/4 20” holes and the fact that it comes with a handle that has audio inputs on it. But those aren’t enough for me to give up an EVF. Plus, I actually really like the button layout and body of the A7SIII. It just feels right and can be operated so dang fast.

So to me, the A7SIII remains the ultimate B-cam to my FX6 and will not be getting replaced by the FX3.
 
morgan_moore said:
On the gimbal I use a FIZ motor and can guarentee a spin on a single mount camera. Guarentee it.
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Right, but since you'll be mounting the camera to the MOVI by the top, you could avail yourself of the multiple mounting points on top, no?

And as far as mounting from the bottom goes, surely you can buy a cage with multiple mounting points on bottom that will securely attach to the bottom hole of the camera as well as one or more holes on top to provide a spin-free experience, no? Heck, you're probably handy enough to machine one yourself
 
I mount cameras to my Movi by top and bottom you may see here with my FS7 http://framedogs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/movi_1200_SMM8843.jpg with arca plates both ways. The top arca plate is waiting to recieve the Movi or a regular handle for conventional shooting.

This is somewhat inspired by the Arri Amera which has a dovetail cast into the bottom - lovely.

Of course you will be able to buy/make a cage.. but you can do that for the A7s.. Sony adding holes and failing to acheive anything is what Im laughing at (well its not so funny if you care about mass/cost/time fiddling/it fitting on a new drone without a major rebuild)

Not only would I want this camera to work on my Movi but on occasions on my new Digital 4d 4k Tripod. (https://www.instagram.com/p/B8kZdBgAAm0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link)

Edit that top pic also shows the lack of space on a Movi and why Im so p_ssd off with the FX6 for no 3.5 jack. In this sort of build the handles are massive and clearly a no go.
 
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morgan_moore said:
Of course you will be able to buy/make a cage.. but you can do that for the A7s..
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Don't you still run the risk of the a7s spinning inside the cage itself since it's only mounted to the cage at one point? Unless there's a cage that also clamps onto hot shoe?
 
I dont know the specifics of A7s3 cages.

My nikon Z small rig cage has an M2.5 bolt that attaches to the camera strap loop. Its a cludge but works.

Also nkons tend to have various indents in the bottom to locate the battery extender things.
 
morgan_moore said:
My nikon Z small rig cage has an M2.5 bolt that attaches to the camera strap loop. Its a cludge but works.
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Shame on my ignorance. Smallrig has the same m2.5 bolt on the a7siii cage and I just bought one. Doubles as a sleek L bracket for all the annoying vertical shooting I have to do on ronin. I doubt I'll ever remove the cage once it's bolted on
 
Yep the cage wont come off.. unless in the FX3 case you are putting it on some drone/gimbal from sony that is a direct fit to the camera holes.

To me that would almost slow stuff down to the extent of needing two cameras.
 
morgan_moore said:
To me that would almost slow stuff down to the extent of needing two cameras.
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That wouldn't be the end of the world with cameras this cheap. You could have 2 FX3's and an FX6 (or FX9) rigged for drone, gimbal, and HH/tripod at the ready. Or 3 matching cameras for an interview.

Not totally necessary for my use cases to have exact matching cameras, but nevertheless ideal.

The only thing you're missing is 4K S35 crop, which will probably drive users to upgrade to the FX3mk2 and makes me more likely to buy an a7iv or a6xxx instead.

One other thing about fx3 lacking evf - my a7siii evf is color-accurate but the rear screen is not (how annoying). IIRC, the rear screen is too warm and green. I wonder if the fx3 screen is the same way, not that everyone wants to judge color by eye. But I check my evf for color evaluation
 
“ One other thing about fx3 lacking evf “

I have never used the evf of my a7sii. I have literally never looked in the evf.


As to my prediction about the popularity of the FX3, you all here have caused me to re-think that. I was not aware that the a7siii had all but cured the run-time issue.

I still can see something as shallow as the FX3 being labeled a “cinema” camera resulting it some requesting it over other Sony mirrorless cameras.
 
I still think this is a very niche camera but that's what they intend that it's features are such that it doesn't compete with the FX6 or A7S3. The strategy must be to squeeze out as many higher end sales by repurposing the same tech for as many form factors as possible.
 
This is an interesting comparison video of the FX3, FX6 & FX9 side by side. Unless there was something set differently, the FX3 appears to be "sharper" than the FX6 & FX9 and displays more saturation. I would have expected the FX3 and FX6 to be closer, the FX9 is a different sensor, so that should be expected. However, he was able to somewhat easily match them in post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajVKnRibAlU&feature=emb_title
 
I didn't watch the video, but these kind of comparisons always appear.

Whether they are true or business as usual for subs I do not know, but newer cameras being sharper or having better colors than their predecessors (no matter the family model or price) is becoming more and more common.
 
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