Sony NEX-FS100 with Super 35mm CMOS image sensor

Reading about this camera just makes my head hurt now. I can't make heads or tails out of it and nothing seems to be what one would expect. I'm going to wait until the real thing comes out.

Best advice yet.
Time will tell, people. And for those who are going to NAB, can you check out an FS and maybe slip in your own SD card and roll on some stuff?
 
Ahh - I can see the aliasing. Must say that puts a dampener on things for me and curbs my excitement somewhat. I thought this was the cam for me as I felt it was a baby F3 because it has the same sensor. Just goes to show that it's the whole pipeline that matters. I sure hope that the final production version is not that bad with aliasing. If the aliasing remains then how different is this camera to the NEXVG10? I mean it also has uncompressed HDMI. Okay admittedly 8 bit. It has no ND filters and less control with manual settings but the FS100 for £ 3000 more doesn't add that much more value does it? Nicer sensor sure but the image does not seem to be a slightly dumbed down F3. It appears to be a slightly souped up NEXVG10. I dunno if that makes any sense to anyone. When I first saw the F3 I was just wowed by the image - still am. The clarity and especially the colour science has won me over. I hoped the FS100 would give me maybe 80 % of that. All the samples I have seen do not convince me that it is the same family as an F3. Makes sense - NEX is prosumer. Don't get me wrong - it isn't a bad image - but it doesn't smash my GH2 out the park either. Be damned Sony - you keep pushing me toward the F3..or the wait continues for THAT cam that lets me stop chasing moores law.....hopefully soon.


Basically uncompressed 1080p 10 bit output, no alisaing or moire, low contrast setting for grading, good dynamic range, interchangebale lenses and manual everything. Don't really care about much else. As it is still early days ,if the final version or this camera provides all that ( because it is oh so close to what I hope for ) then I am back in. But if this is production quality.......I better start saving for the big boy. Peace

I think you summed it all up with your last statement. If you want all of the goods you need to spend more. Period. These companies are not going to give their products away. They have marketing wings that want you to believe there cameras are more alike that different, but in the end there is no free lunch. Sure this camera might have the same sensor 'design' but the sensors are probably the binned 1st or 2nd tier rejects slated for the F3. Not an issue but reality. I will agree that this camera is coming out with a wide array of opinions. A $6,000 video camera without ND filters is just too much for me. What about the 20+ years of ND filters in video cameras leading up to this camera? Does that not count for anything? The size of the camera imho is not important enough to take the NDs away imho.
 
Just a simple test.


Thanks for uploading that.

Interesting. Looking at the scenes where you have lots of cars (interesting to me as thats what I shoot most of the time) the high contrast lines on them look awful and alias a lot. But the odd thing is when you look at those lines it almost seems like the camera lacks resolution ? It looks as if the image was maybe 1200 pixels across and then has been upscaled to make 1080p.
 
Just a simple test.

Image quality
---------------

However, the aliasing is quite noticeable and somewhat disappointing. I wonder why?

...Yes, I am surprised at how much aliasing is going on with your quick test. I downloaded your WMV footage just to see if it was a Vimeo thing, and the aliasing is still very present. The shot of the scooter really demos how bad the aliasing can be. ( see screen shot link below )

Screen-grab from 1080 HD WMV file : Double-click image to view full size
 
Yeah, that aliasing took me by surprise. It's that bad to me. Hopefully this is a pre-production model issue. I have to laugh because the range of user experience at this point is REALLY high.

I thought that resolution was great, and the low light handling, and the noise. If they could just nail the aliasing.
 
I need to check my footage, but I don't remember seeing aliasing that was this bad.

Will report back
 
Shesh, calm down! It's one test. There are several others online to review. This is the first time aliasing has been noticeable. The tester himself admitted he wasn't certain of the camera's settings, as he had no manual.
Believe me, as a VG10 owner, I hate the moire and aliasing. If this camera is no improvement over the VG10, then I sure won't buy it. But I am not going to draw any conclusions yet.
 
I shot most of the day on the Tokina 11-16/2.8 two days ago... lots of wide stuff, interior car, buildings, etc...

Aliasing didn't jump out at me like the bike and such, so again I'll check footage.

And, I don't see any indication that the rolling shutter is any worse than any other camera sub RED and Alexa.
 
The rolling shutter wobble is pretty bad on that footage. I know my rolling shutter.

I guess we'll just have to disagree then, because I though it performed great. And I know rolling shutter as well. To the point where I know how to measure it very accurately to compare across cameras. The AF100 performs just under the Red One, which is twice as fast as the 5D.
 
Shesh, calm down! It's one test. There are several others online to review. This is the first time aliasing has been noticeable. The tester himself admitted he wasn't certain of the camera's settings, as he had no manual.
Believe me, as a VG10 owner, I hate the moire and aliasing. If this camera is no improvement over the VG10, then I sure won't buy it. But I am not going to draw any conclusions yet.

Shesh, you have to realize that the reason people are bringing it up is so others can test it if they get their hands on the camera. :)
 
I shot most of the day on the Tokina 11-16/2.8 two days ago... lots of wide stuff, interior car, buildings, etc...

Aliasing didn't jump out at me like the bike and such, so again I'll check footage.

And, I don't see any indication that the rolling shutter is any worse than any other camera sub RED and Alexa.

Thanks Kholi...look forward to your conclusion, and also the settings you used. Hopefully, this won't be a problem with this camera - I suspect the target market is made up of a good deal of DLSR users looking to move up, and aliasing to be one of the issues they wish to finally avoid. At least there's another camera that will fit the bill IF this one is problematic (The AF100). I agree with vanvideo though and will remain optimistic, as I'm really impressed by the low light footage and basic image characteristics I've seen thus far.

Also, to the OP...thank you for taking time out of your shedule to shoot this test.
 
And I will repeat, the rest of the sensor performance looked great to me. Especially even the 30dB gain video near the end. It had WAY less noise than was expecting. And with a little Neat Video on it, I could probably push it even further. I also was impressed with the sharpness. The roll off didn't seem bad and posterization seemed a lot less for how clean it was.
 
And I will repeat, the rest of the sensor performance looked great to me. Especially even the 30dB gain video near the end. It had WAY less noise than was expecting. And with a little Neat Video on it, I could probably push it even further. I also was impressed with the sharpness. The roll off didn't seem bad and posterization seemed a lot less for how clean it was.

Agreed.
 
The rolling shutter wobble is pretty bad on that footage. I know my rolling shutter.

Can you share with us exactly where in the footage is all this rolling shutter wobble, if you will? Nobody else have noticed much of it but it's always interesting to know what some see and others don't.
 
Indeed I did say Sub RED. Thanks Van.

And I must say that reviewing footage now I do not see the aliasing present that the Op has. Not gonna be surprised that whoever had that prerelease camera will be getting an unhappy letter from
Sony for allowing the footage to be published without approval.

I think the cam I was using is one of he closest ones to being finished and aliasing slash Moire was not one of my minor gripes.

I will say Op is right about the noise. This thing is incredible in low light. And this is REd MX user here.

And I don't know what rolling shutter is being discussed here, this cam is no worse than any other offering out there.
 
Indeed I did say Sub RED.

No. You did say Sub RED and Alexa. And I just wanted to point out there is a difference between the 2 if your specifically talking about rolling shutter performance. I shoot pretty often with RED and I love it as I love the company vision. But from what you said one can think RED and Alexa skew behaves similarly. Sorry for my english. Hope it makes sense
 
Last edited:
Back
Top