FX6: The Sony ILME-FX6V Owners Club

I don't know that specific Sigma lens, but I can tell you from my research and the lenses that I do know that heavy lenses and telephoto lenses benefit from using multiple autofocus Motors to move the glass quickly and accurately. For example, my Tamron 70-180 F 2.8 uses 2 autofocus Motors and the autofocus is really fast. The Sony GM 135 and the Sony 50 GM both use 4 autofocus Motors , 2 for each focusing group to push and pull from opposite directions. The footage I reviewed from the Sigma 35 F 1.2 had really disappointing autofocus performance. The look was beautiful, but the autofocus move slowly and, more troubling you could see the motor stepping at discreet intervals through the range. I think that more and more lenses will be employing multiple motors, which has been the trend
 
I think the last DG DN Sigma lenses are on par with the GM Lenses.
This lens is quite "special". The design choices made by Sigma for this lens were made to get the best possible optical quality, with no compromise on size, weight, etc... The A7's with this lens look ridiculous ^^

Since the purpose is mainly portrait (=stills), they probably did not try to optimize the autofocus speed to keep a decent price.
His nickname is 'the bokeh Master', or sometimes 'Bokeh Monster'
There are good samples of what this lens can produce here
https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1626888/
 
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Doug Jensen said:
I'll admit that I wasn't that thrilled with the FX6 when I first got it last December, but it has grown on me over the last few months and I've come to really like it. I've probably posted more sample footage that anyone else, including Sony. S-LOG3, S-Cinetone, Slow-mo, wildlife, people, whatever . . . I've shot it and I think the camera can look really great once you get used to it.

Sample videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUkNTsaWTiSpyummw1RmO4w/videos
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Hopefully that's the case. I was shooting with your VRTX-LOG2 scene file on my F55 and it made great images straight out of the camera with little to no grading.
 
surebll said:
Hopefully that's the case. I was shooting with your VRTX-LOG2 scene file on my F55 and it made great images straight out of the camera with little to no grading.
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Thank you for that. Appreciated.
Unfortunately, I am sorry to say, that same simplicity does not exist on the FX6. S-Cinetone is basically the only thing that even comes close to a WYSIWYG "look" on the FX6, and it only looks good in a very narrow range of shooting circumstances. For everything else, footage from the FX6 absolutely needs to be graded no matter whether you are shooting S-LOG or a REC709 scene file, such as S-Cinetone. The FX6 just isn't capable of shooting footage that doesn't need to be graded because Sony stripped off 2/3 of the paint menus that make it possible to shoot WYSIWYG scene files with other Sony cmaeras. In fact, the FX9 has 3 times more paint menus than the FX6. My Z750 five times more paint menus than the FX6. The FX6 is a stripped camera that cannot be painted like traditional professional video cameras to provide nice WYSIWYG looks. You either accept that, or you'll hate the camera. My solution for the FX6 is to shoot S-LOG3 and grade in Resolve. The reason being that no matter what settings I choose on the camera, the footage will have to be graded anyway. So why not grade from a nice clean S-LOG picture rather than some half-assed baked in look that won't look good except in very narrow circumstances.

Like I said, I have come to appreciate the FX6, but it has a lot of shortcomings. Missing paint menus is a big one, but even bigger is the lack of a viewfinder. :)
 
Doug Jensen said:
Like I said, I have come to appreciate the FX6, but it has a lot of shortcomings. Missing paint menus is a big one, but even bigger is the lack of a viewfinder. :)
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You may have mentioned this elsewhere, but (1) do you know why Sony chose to strip the paint menus from the FX6? and (2) are you using an EVF or just the Z-Finder? If an EVF, which one?

Thanks!
 
drboffa said:
You may have mentioned this elsewhere, but (1) do you know why Sony chose to strip the paint menus from the FX6? and (2) are you using an EVF or just the Z-Finder? If an EVF, which one?
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As Sony has told me, and it should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention, there's a certain type of customer today who just wants to turn on a camera and start shooting. They don't want to change menus, customize settings, choose different settings for different shooting situations, etc. They just want to turn it on and let the camera do its thing. To make matters worse, not only do they not want to change menus, they don't want to see a lot of menus, even if those menus could be ignored. It is too confusing for them if a camera has a lot of paint menus or scene files. This has been a complaint about Sony cameras for years. So the FX6 is the stripped down camera that Sony thinks many of those people want --and they are probably right. You either turn it on and shoot with a baked-in look (S-Cinetone) or choose S-LOG3. Nothing in the middle. And that makes the camera that much harder for the rest of us, who are used to having many customizable choices onboard a camera, to force the camera out of that narrow rut and work the way WE want it to perform.

I have a Zacuto Gratical EVF mounted to my camera at all times and couldn't use the camera without it. In fact, I haven't had the FX6's LCD panel onboard my camera since last December. It is useless to me.
 
Thanks for the detailed reply! I know we've talked about it elsewhere, but it does seem like the trend is moving toward *always* grading in post, and thus not worrying about baking in a WYSIWYG look.

That said, I've started noticing more freelance jobs specifying the FX9 rather than the FX6...

Doug Jensen said:
I have a Zacuto Gratical EVF mounted to my camera at all times and couldn't use the camera without it. In fact, I haven't had the FX6's LCD panel onboard my camera since last December. It is useless to me.
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Interesting! So are you always running off a v-mount or are you also using some BP batteries with d-tap power?
 
I'm fine with S-Cinetone or S-log being the two choices one have. To me S-Cinetone works great and looks great for the corporate things I do. Some clients wants to grade and then S-log is also great. I actually like the limited amount of choices just as I only used S-log3 on my FS7.
 
With the FX6, in custom mode, if you want other specific looks than s-cinetone, it's possible to save them and use them like s-cinetone.
It's possible to use LUTs also in Cine EI, but in custom mode it does not work in the same way, all adjustments are usable
https://www.xdcam-user.com/2020/11/c...de-using-luts/
Seems specific to the FX6, Alister says
 
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did said:
With the FX6, in custom mode, if you want other specific looks than s-cinetone, it's possible to save them and use them like s-cinetone
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Obviously you can create other looks, but are those other looks any good? I say no. Am I wrong? If so, where's is the ungraded footage for us to judge? What are the particular settings of the scene file or LUT to burn in?

I'm still waiting for someone to show me a WYSIWYG scene (or even a LUT) file that looks good outdoors in daylight and that won't require (or at least benefit from) grading in post -- which then mean that it won't be WYSIWYG look anymore.

I'm not saying ti can't be done. I'm saying I haven't found the right recipe for the FX6 and I haven't see anyone else do it either. My choice is S-LOG 95% of the time and S-Cinetone only in some very specific circumstances where it actually ooks good.
 
J.Brown said:
I'm fine with S-Cinetone or S-log being the two choices one have. To me S-Cinetone works great and looks great for the corporate things I do. Some clients wants to grade and then S-log is also great. I actually like the limited amount of choices just as I only used S-log3 on my FS7.
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You are exactly the target demographic for the FX6.
 
Yes! It’s spot on for what I do just as the FS7 when it came. I had a conversation with another shooter the other day during a two camera shoot and he was in the Red camp. I then realised how much I appreciate simplicity in how I work. I just wanna do a good job and get paid.
 
Here is a 10sec clip of the moon (couple of days off full) using the Sony 100-400 + 2x extender + 1.5 Clear Image Zoom = 1200mm. It moves through the frame very fast at the focal length! It was shot using S&Q at 1fps on a 50 fps base, Low Base, No ND, 81f stop (max) which kept the moon just under clipping.

https://behome.dyndns.info/index.php/s/o2Ybbidi8q6pwBD

Damn, there are some spots from dirty glass (this is what you get for rushing a shot before the football kicked off!)
 
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Doug Jensen said:
Obviously you can create other looks, but are those other looks any good? I say no. Am I wrong? If so, where's is the ungraded footage for us to judge? What are the particular settings of the scene file or LUT to burn in?

I'm still waiting for someone to show me a WYSIWYG scene (or even a LUT) file that looks good outdoors in daylight and that won't require (or at least benefit from) grading in post -- which then mean that it won't be WYSIWYG look anymore.

I'm not saying ti can't be done. I'm saying I haven't found the right recipe for the FX6 and I haven't see anyone else do it either. My choice is S-LOG 95% of the time and S-Cinetone only in some very specific circumstances where it actually ooks good.
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Doug, I'm still at the beginning of the learning curve :)
In standard conditions (with no specific requirement regarding white balance, dynamics etc...) I'm happy with S-Cinetone. What are the very narrow circumstances you mention, and outside these circumstances what's wrong with S-Cinetone for you ?
Just asking to improve what I think good
 
did said:
Doug, I'm still at the beginning of the learning curve :)
In standard conditions (with no specific requirement regarding white balance, dynamics etc...) I'm happy with S-Cinetone. What are the very narrow circumstances you mention, and outside these circumstances what's wrong with S-Cinetone for you ?
Just asking to improve what I think good
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S-Cinetone performs best indoors, in low-key lighting, shooting human faces, with exposure that are more suited to "cinema" style shooting rather than broadcast. If you put whites up around 90% where they usually need to be for typical broadcast, sports, corpporate, etc., the highlights become easily blown out and the color saturation suffers dramatically. Very ugly. But for certain kinds of interviews with controlled lighting and contrast, drama, etc. S-Cinetone can be fine. But I would also argue that S-Cinetone can almost always be improved upon in post, thus negating its purpose of providing a very good WYSIWYG look. So if you have to grade anyway (or should if you care enough) why not shoot with S-LOG3 and capture the maximum quality image for use in post.

It all depends on what you expect from the camera. I don't shoot feature films or drama, I shoot for TV, and the best choice for me on the FX6 is S-LOG3.
 
He’s talking about ‘object tracking’
autofocus like the A7Siii and FX3
have. Sony has announced it will
be coming to the FX9 in a firmware
update in November. So a lot
of us are hoping it also comes to
the FX6. We know you don’t need it
or care as you already said a couple
times. Quite a few of us would like
it though. Especially when using
the FX6 on a gimbal it would be useful.
See post #779 in this thread for a more
detailed description of when it would
be useful.
 
Actually, I would welcome object tracking to the FX6. Why not? I just had no idea what he was talking about. Sometimes it is difficult to decipher what people mean when they don't use the correct terminology or elaborate to explain. Thanks for clarifying.
 
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