Sony Z200 Slow-Motion Demo

Doug Jensen

Doug Jensen

Veteran
I finally found time to post some footage from the Z200. I shot this motocross practice yesterday afternoon with a combination of 4K @ 120 fps and HD @ 240 and 180 fps. But if I had to to it over again, I'd just stick with 4K. I don't think the HD footage holds up as well.

 
It looks like you have a feel for the sport too. What I was liking was the very subtle zoom in on many sections; and not afraid to target the lower half of the bikes to show what's going on down there.
I shoot a sport called Watercross which is also loud and messy. I like the challenge of following sleds and dirt bikes racing compared to my "day Job" shooting of stone sculptures in progress and completed. The latter is legacy work and definitely the most rewarding though. (Sony AX-700 and A7III user)
 
Bassman2003 said:
Thanks Doug. Looks nice. Did you manual focus or use AF? Can you tell us what color gamut/choice you used as well?
Click to expand...
Thanks. I would say I used auto-focus about 75% of the time, but mostly used manual when I wanted to pre-focus at some distance and then let the subject come through. I don't think there are any shots where I was physically racking the focus to follow action. Peaking is much cruder than what I'm used to with my Z280 and Z750, so it's not that easy to track focus manually on such fast moving subjects. This was shot with S-Cinetone and graded in Resolve, but I don't know if I will stick with S-Cinetone in the long run. I haven't had time to do my due diligence on the paint settings yet.
 
Yes, AF is amazing and I haven't even had time to explore all the customization options yet. I changed a couple of things and then basically let it take over. I'll be posting a couple of other videos soon and they were shot 99% with auto-focus. I was kind of disappointed with with the quality of peaking and the OLED EVF, but after awhile I realized I don't need to rely on peaking as much because I can just let the camera do the focusing for me while I monitor it. I kind of now just use peaking as a focus-confirmation to ensure the camera is focused on what I want it to be focused on. And usually it knows. That is the power of AI making my job easier. If the camera does happen to focus on the wrong part of the frame, I just have to turn the focus ring to change the focus and then it's like the camera says "Oh, that's what you wanted to focus on, okay, I'll take over now". And I let it.
 
Cool footage. Thanks for making me homesick for Boston!

I may have an opportunity to get into the kind of ultra-low budg feature filmmaking that is super short schedules and low budgets, for overseas markets. I think people are shooting these kinds of things on phones now (sigh) but I feel like a notch better would just be easier. While I know this camera isn't aimed at narrative, it feels like it checks off a lot of boxes. I'm not deterred by a 1" sensor (I mean, I shot an F900 feature and that was 2/3" chips), it feels like the vast zoom range and strong autofocus would allow for a lot of flexibility and working speed, but delivering quite good results. Seems like Cinetone would be the fastest way to go for speedy post, maybe switching to Slog3 for high contrast situations like day exteriors mixing sun and shade? What are your thoughts?
 
I find this footage to be very 'watchable'. As usual, great job Doug. I am sure there is even more image quality to get out this camera too.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Cool footage. Thanks for making me homesick for Boston!

I may have an opportunity to get into the kind of ultra-low budg feature filmmaking that is super short schedules and low budgets, for overseas markets. I think people are shooting these kinds of things on phones now (sigh) but I feel like a notch better would just be easier. While I know this camera isn't aimed at narrative, it feels like it checks off a lot of boxes. I'm not deterred by a 1" sensor (I mean, I shot an F900 feature and that was 2/3" chips), it feels like the vast zoom range and strong autofocus would allow for a lot of flexibility and working speed, but delivering quite good results. Seems like Cinetone would be the fastest way to go for speedy post, maybe switching to Slog3 for high contrast situations like day exteriors mixing sun and shade? What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comments and I'm glad I could remind you of what you left behind when you moved to LA. :)
Actually however, only about 1/4 of the video is Boston, mostly I shot it in Worcester. I had to pick some people up at Logan last week so I left a couple of hours early and grabbed a few shots around town before I had to go meet the plane. Damn if I didn't pick up a $90 ticket for parking in a loading zone for 10 minutes while I shot Quincy Market!! And then the rain came down and brought the shoot to a close.

Sorry, I don't have any thoughts yet about S-LOG3 on the Z200 yet because I haven't experimented with it. Ask again in a month and then I'll have some opinions. I'll be running S-LOG through it's paces later, but so far I haven't used anything but S-Cinetone on the camera. I have already learned from my FX6 that I can get better results with S-Cinetone (after grading) than I can with S-LOG3. So, until I have a chance to prove otherwise, I'm going to assume I will prefer S-Cinetone (after grading) than LOG. But that remains to be seen, so don't hold me to that. I always test and never assume one camera will behave like another.

I could certainly see the Z200 being good enough for narrative, especially if you wanted to move fast and be lightweight. And it will be a perfect camera for run & gun documentaries. But for a narrative video . . . I'd still rather use a FX6 for the FF sensor.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I saw the Worcester (sorry, "Wustah") sign in the first shot.

So, why does the S-Cinetone deliver better results after grading that S-LOG3? In theory, shouldn't you be able to deliver the same results if you wanted to, but with more dynamic range? Is there not a color space transform you can do to S-LOG3 in the grade to replicate S-Cinetone but leave you with room to grade deeper and/or hold more values in highlights and shadows if you wanted to dig them out?
 
Charles, there is some truth to what you are saying, and I have no problems grading S-LOG or RAW from my F55, FS7, etc.
But there is something different about the smaller cameras, like the FX6, Z280, Z150, and Z90. No matter what I do and how hard I work at it, I have to struggle way too hard on a shot-by-shot basis to match the the look of what I can easily get with S-Cinetone (in the case of the FX6) or a custom Scene File (on the Z280, Z150, Z90, etc.). Of course, I don't consider S-Cinteone to be the WYSIWYG profile that Sony touts it as. S-Cinetone doesn't look that good right out of the camera and definitely needs to be graded in post. But I feel that starting from S-Cinetone rather than LOG gets be to a better image with a lot less work.

I know it doesn't make sense on paper, but I'm just telling you what I have discovered after a lot of trial and error.

As I said before, it remains to be seen whether I'll prefer LOG or S-Cinetone or some other REC709 profile on the Z200. I will test it eventually, but right now I have other things to experiment with on the camera that matter more to me. All in good time.

BTW, if you feel you're handy with Resolve, I could provide you with a couple of sample clips and let you come to your own conclusions. I'd be very interested in hearing what you think.
 
Doug Jensen said:
BTW, if you feel you're handy with Resolve, I could provide you with a couple of sample clips and let you come to your own conclusions. I'd be very interested in hearing what you think.
Click to expand...
"handy" in Resolve is such a relative term! I have a certain amount of workable proficiency, but having a deep respect for great colorists I am guarded in how I would describe that depth. I sat in a session yesterday watching a very good colorist do his thing blindingly fast and well and it made me feel like a beginner.

But that said--would love a couple of clips to play with, especially same scene shot with S-CInetone and SLOG-3 that have some meaty contrast to play with at either end of the exposure curve.
 
Okay, I'll put something together in the next day or two. Also, if you had the opportunity to let a real colorist play with it, that would be fine by me.
 
Thanks for posting Doug. Looks really nice. I like how the highlights are very restrained! Also enjoyed the skin tone of the gentleman paddling towards the camera in the kayak.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top