FX6: The Sony ILME-FX6V Owners Club

Grug said:
On the FX3 you can send the display info through to an external monitor. But it sends it in a 4:3 wrapper (as all their mirrorless cameras seem to), so you end up with a tiny monitoring image anyway. So not really usable.
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I did not know that. And Sony has the nerve to call the FX3 and FX30 "cinema" cameras??

This basically makes the FX3 and FX30 completely useless to me. I can’t shoot with any camera that doesn't have an EVF. Period. So if I can’t output a display from the FX3 or FX30 that has the superimposed data that I need to see while operating, that is a deal breaker.

At least the mirrorless cameras (A1, A7, etc.) have a built-in OLED EVF that looks very good. The problem though, is you can’t rotate the EVF to a more comfortable shooting position when the camera isn’t positioned right at eyeball height.

Every time I compare the FX6 to Sony’s other cameras, it always comes out ahead.
 
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I am just buying a sony fx6 and am curious whether it is really true that in qhd or dci 4k you cant record 10bit long gop??!!!!??? So odd!
Remembers me on my old fs5 which could only record 10bit in fhd....
I need 4k long gop 10bit. This is really strange
 
Doug Jensen said:
Why do you need 4K 10-bit Long-GOP? That would be right near the very bottom of the list of things I need.
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It's actually something I would quite value for a particular tranche of my shooting work. Iregularly shoot premieres for the English National Ballet, with 4/5 camera setups. I often use an FX6 as a necessarily unmanned static wide cam magic-armed onto the balcony, as some of the shows have too much dynamic range in their lighting states to shoot safely without the auto-ND set to slow transition. The amount of data generated from 5 cameras over a 2hr show means that we're often waiting long after midnight for the cams to all download, hence 50% lighter rushes are valuable.

From my understanding of the strengths of long-GOP compression, it deals very well with scenes with large areas without significant motion detail (e.g. a big wide of a stage, often with a small group of dancers in the middle), and certainly visually/empirically the XAVC-L looks great in this context. The processing load on the edits is no longer a problem in the age of M1 and M2 Macs and Resolve, so XAVC-L would is very appealing, but only if it is 10bit.

As a side note - are you sure the FX6 DOESN'T shoot 10-bit XAVC-L in UHD? I thought it did.

Hmmmmmmm, J
 
jasonbrooks said:
As a side note - are you sure the FX6 DOESN'T shoot 10-bit XAVC-L in UHD? I thought it did.
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The only Sony cinema/ENG camera that has a 10-bit 4K Long-GOP codec is the PXW-Z750. That codec is called XAVC-L200 and it also 4:2:2.

Are you shooting with S-LOG or doing other heavy grading in post? Because if you aren't, I would wager that you cannot see any visual difference between 4K XAVC-I and XAVC-L. The advantages of 10-bit 4:2:2 are only going to play a role if you heavily grade in post. Straight out of the camera, you will not see any visual difference 99.9% of the time.

Don't believe me? Do your own blind test and see if you can tell the difference. I'll bet you can't.
 
Thanks for the technical clarification Doug. In this context it's pretty vital that we shoot Slog, as the D/R of the scenes is often pushing things a lot between low-key scene lighting and bright follow spots etc, and the amount of shadow tonality in the scene worries me with 8-bit.

I completely agree with you re: I vs. L compression, I've done blind tests myself in the past and can never tell which is wihch. Hence the appeal, given it doubles the capacity of all my media!

Cheers,

jason
 
jasonbrooks said:
the amount of shadow tonality in the scene worries me with 8-bit./QUOTE]

Yeah, you don't want to be using S-LOG with an 8-bit codec.
Too bad the XAVC-L200 codec has not found it's way to other cameras yet. I've only used it a few times, but it performed great.
The development of that codec was designed to meet the needs of reality (Survivor) and sports shows that have a lot of cameras and shoot a ton of footage, but still want to use S-LOG.
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Hi,
I have a compatibility issue with a Samyang lens (24 F/1.8) and the FX6 regarding the autofocus operation.
I had the chance to discuss with Forest Finbow this issue at the SATIS fair in Paris. We tested this lens with different cameras.
The autofocus works perfectly with the A7 series, the FX3, the FX30, and the FX9.
It does not work at all with the FX6 FW V3.0 !!
I think (but I'm not sure) that it was OK with the firmware versions prior to V2.0

I'm looking for a way to roll back the firmware to V2.0 or V1.x to check this. But I cannot find it anymore. I'm even not sure if it's possible. Does someone know ?
 
I'm off to India/Bhutan shortly and was looking at what I need to pack. Is there any way of charging BP-U Batteries using USB-C (I'd like to cut down the # of chargers I'm brining). I know I could get the Swit LB-SU90C BP-U batteries as they have inbuilt USB ports for charging... but I already of plenty of Sony BP-U batts. I can't seem to find anyone that makes a USB charging plate for BP-Us
 
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jmone said:
I'm off to India/Bhutan shortly and was looking at what I need to pack. Is there any way of charging BP-U Batteries using USB-C (I'd like to cut down the # of chargers I'm brining). I know I could get the Swit LB-SU90C BP-U batteries as they have inbuilt USB ports for charging... but I already of plenty of Sony BP-U batts. I can't seem to find anyone that makes a USB charging plate for BP-Us
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Electricity in India is often very unstable, even in built-up areas. We'd have the power go out multiple times a day, every day in New Delhi. So I wouldn't trust to USB charging, it's significantly slower than dedicated chargers are. You want the fastest charging option available (for safety). You also want multiple chargers with you (for redundancy, in case of brown-outs), and you want surge protectors on every powerboard you use.

Don't plug anything important directly into a mains socket. Plug it into a surge-protected power board first.
 
Thanks for the warning!

FWIW - I've ordered 2 of the SWIT batteries. Can be charged "normally" + USB + DTAP. Can also power DTAP and USB devices.
 
FYI - Was chatting (well email) with SWIT in China as I could not see my shipping info for the batteries that were due by the end of the month. Looks like all shipping is dead in the water for them with the COVID surge and they don't expect to get going till later in January at this stage. They refunded / cancelled the order asking that I re-order later if needed once shipping is back. They seemed pretty rattled about COVID. If you have stuff coming from China then it sounds like your stuff will be delayed for some time.
 
FWIW. Interesting reaction to the FX6 / 28-135 / Shotgun Mic in India. No issues in commercial areas and in public places around temples. People are keen to be in shots as they go about their business. Even areas I thought would be inappropriate like behind the scenes prep area and public dinning in a soup kitchen was not only fine but I was encouraged to take shots. It was pretty humbling seeing the scale of such a volunteer enterprise.

It was areas such as parks / gardens around historic monuments where there is formal security (not police or military) is a bit more challenging. Our guide is getting a lot of "no video" or "too big" complaints in these areas. One area wanted me to remove the shotgun mic as then I was only taking Photos?!?! OK. Looking around these tourist areas there is plenty of mirrorless and phones on gimbals etc clearly taking video.

Something like a FX3 and smaller lens would not be questioned.

The other thing I need to learn is how to edit and post on the fly for some quick picks. Should have brought the laptop!
 
If you don't have a laptop this is a scenario where shooting proxies and doing a quick edit on your phone is perfect! For quick sharing the quality is more than adequate.
 
Doug Jensen said:
That's interesting. Sony must have beefed up the mount on the newer cameras because my first LCD mount was so floppy a fly landing on it would make it droop. They replaced it with one that is only marginally better. Now tt can support the weight of two flies before it droops.
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Just tested my friends new Fx6 and the LCD holds in place much more than my "old" Fx6 ever has!
Sony must have changed something in the mount without telling us.
I wonder if they can change our old mounts with the new one… I’ll ask my vendor.
 
Sorry for double posting, but Ill try here too:
I just got a new Samyang 24-70 2.8 AF lens (the first one broke straight off the camera, turned out it was from a bad batch). Put it on my FX6, and the autofocus dosent seem to work. I can focus manually, but when try to use the touch screen to set focus it looks like its focused on near. Everything is out of focus. I can hear the motor working inside the lens though.
I then tried the lens on my FX9 and it works perfectly.
I'm wondering if there are some setting I have that prevents the lens from working on the FX6? Any ideas?

EDIT: Firmware update on lens solved the problem
 
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interested buying a fx6. Recently I bought a A7IV and I like it.

2 questions: for handheld shooting without ibis? Is this acceptable because my tamron 28-75mm F2.8 doesn't have stabilisation either. Mostly I will shoot on tripod or with my A7IV on a gimbal
but sometimes handheld with fx6 will be needed. I guess the fx6 on my glidecam (with vest and arm) doesn't need stabilization from a lens.

and second: which viewfinder to choose? I see 2 options I would like: zacuto z-finder of the fx9 viewfinder modulated for the fx6. Always liked the sony viewfinder loupe in the past.
 
You want to get a Zacuto Gratical Eye or Kameleon EVF so you don't have anything covering the LCD panel, which you will want to use for touch-tracking auto-focus. A loupe isn't a good idea, and that is the reason the FX6 does not come with one. You need both the LCD and an EVF if you really want to take advantage of the FX6.
 
Doug Jensen said:
You want to get a Zacuto Gratical Eye or Kameleon EVF so you don't have anything covering the LCD panel, which you will want to use for touch-tracking auto-focus. A loupe isn't a good idea, and that is the reason the FX6 does not come with one. You need both the LCD and an EVF if you really want to take advantage of the FX6.
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I get your point Doug but the gratical eye and kameleon needs external power which I don't want to. Just a loupe covering the lcd will be more than enough for me.
When filmed carnival with the A7IV on a gimbal the autofocus was great so no need (and time) for touch tracking.

But what about handheld shooting without ibis in a attached lens?
 
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