FX6: The Sony ILME-FX6V Owners Club

Andy9 said:
The only problem for me is that it's not possible to change the Eye AF setting when in MF mode. Apologies if you deal with this in the linked video - I'm out on a job today and can't check.
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I'm not sure what you mean by "changing the the Eye AF setting while in MF mode". You should set it for "Face/Eye Detect Priority" and leave it there all the time. There's no reason to turn it off or change it during 99% of normal shooting. The camera will only start tracking a face if you tap on the screen to tell it to start tracking an object, and then the camera will automatically switch to Face/Eye if it senses the object is a face, which is exactly what you would want the camera to do. To end tracking, you just have to nudge the focus ring or touch the gray box up in the upper left corner to return to full MF. Watch the video.
 
Doug Jensen said:
I'm not sure what you mean by "changing the the Eye AF setting while in MF mode". You should set it for "Face/Eye Detect Priority" and leave it there all the time. There's no reason to turn it off or change it during 99% of normal shooting. The camera will only start tracking a face if you tap on the screen to tell it to start tracking an object, and then the camera will automatically switch to Face/Eye if it senses the object is a face, which is exactly what you would want the camera to do. To end tracking, you just have to nudge the focus ring or touch the gray box up in the upper left corner to return to full MF. Watch the video.
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I don't want to only activate AF by touching the screen and I don't always want tracking AF. With your settings, if I switch into AF by using the AF / MF hold button then it will track the most prominent face within the specified focus zone, if there is one there to track. Sometimes this is desired behaviour, sometimes it isn't. Sometimes I want the camera to track an object or person, sometimes I want it to maintain focus on a section of the image. Even if I do want tracking AF, it's not always a face I want to track so Face/Eye detect OFF would be the better setting.

With the a7Siii, I can choose the focus settings I actually want without having to change my hand position. This is great for handheld shooting. Of course as soon as I want to touch the LCD for tracking AF, I need to change my grip on the camera but this is true for the FX6 as well.

My initial comment was that I expected the FX6 to be "way ahead in this regard" - specifically about controlling the AF compared to what's possible with the a7Siii. You claimed that it IS way ahead and then proceeded to explain why the FX6's limitations actually don't matter. That doesn't sound like way ahead to me.

I agree with Joshua Milligan:

"Personally, I much prefer the AF in the Alpha line over the Cinema line. Once you get used to it, for me at least, it’s way faster to setup and use, not to mention how many more options it has."
 
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Andy9 said:
My initial comment was that I expected the FX6 to be "way ahead in this regard" - specifically about controlling the AF compared to what's possible with the a7Siii. You claimed that it IS way ahead and then proceeded to explain why the FX6's limitations actually don't matter. That doesn't sound like way ahead to me.
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On the contrary, configuring the camera so that a certain switch or function is no longer even needed (for me at least) is the very definition of being way ahead. :-)
 
Doug Jensen said:
On the contrary, configuring the camera so that a certain switch or function is no longer even needed (for me at least) is the very definition of being way ahead. :-)
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Haha well I agree, but you could also limit yourself to just those controls with the a7Siii and have some customisable buttons left over for... I dunno, changing the peaking colour! :)

When the FX6 launched, I wasn't surprised that it borrowed so much from the alpha series and relatively little from the FX9 (it's basically a cinema camera on the streets, an a7Siii between the sheets). I was surprised that this turned out to be generally good news.

And still, I'd like the FX6 mark ii* to go a bit further down that road and have;

- IBIS (as well as internal ND - yes, I know)
- 14+ assignable buttons
- H.265 codecs
- Small, moveable white balance target

*The FX6 mark ii will be released in 2025, it will be identical to the original apart from the colour of the ND dial.
 
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Andy9 said:
Used the a7Siii as the A-cam on a doc shoot recently instead of the FX6. We did a lot of handheld tracking shots and the Sony GM 16-35 f2.8 was perfect for the look we wanted. No OSS on the lens though, so a combination of the a7Siii having IBIS and it being possible to hold it closer to the body made it the better choice.

I missed all the expected things about the FX6 (ND, side handle, viewfinder - I use the FX9 loupe). Surprisingly though, a few days into the shoot I realised I preferred plenty of things about the ergonomics of the smaller camera....

In other news - the external monitor / EVF situation with the a7Siii is an absolute ****%##w.

No touch tracking through an external monitor? ok, no surprise there. Send camera info to external monitor so I can at least monitor what's being tracked? Image shrinks to the size of a stamp and the camera's LCD turns off so now I can't use touch tracking at all. I wish this was because Sony were ripping us off with some proprietary solution, I really do. Sell me something that works, Sony.
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I know I'm not supposed to admit this, but I rather prefer using mirrorless cameras over FX/FS line. I'm rarely running sound to camera and I can get exposure tools through external monitors. Give me internal ND and I would be set.

Touch tracking through an external monitor -- for this I had been using Imaging Edge Mobile via wifi connection on my smartphone.

BUT I had a game-changing discovery last week. The app Monitor+ can do everything Imagine Edge Mobile can do (except store a list of cameras for quick reconnection - it only stores one). Monitor+ can give you touch tracking. But it can also give you false color, which Imaging Edge Mobile can't do. Which means that I can kick my 5" monitors off my gimbals and solely rely on my phone from now on.

But it gets better. A couple days ago I found out Monitor+ will connect to the camera via USB-C with the camera in "PC Remote" mode. So now you have a wired connection (with the attendant benefits of lower latency and higher reliability) that can do touch tracking, etc. And the connection is very robust in that if you disconnect or power the camera off and then reconnect to the phone, your picture comes back as quickly as it does with an HDMI connection. Obviously, when shooting on gimbal there are benefits to using a wireless connection rather than having a tether tugging on the side of the camera, but with the right cables rigged the right way I think it's going to be a non-issue. I'm debuting the wired solution on my shoot tomorrow
 
Andy9 said:
*The FX6 mark ii will be released in 2025, it will be identical to the original apart from the colour of the ND dial.
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Nah, it's gonna have more than that. Don't you want RGB color controls for peaking so you can dial in the exact color that you want? Why limit ourselves to red, yellow, green, etc. that is the kind of innovation we'll expect in 2025.
 
More codec options would be huge on the FX6, and should be addressed via firmware. There needs to be a decent LongGOP option in UHD for doing things like interviews.
 
Probably not, Doug. I mean, almost certainly not. I think I have residual concerns over using the relatively thin LongGOP codec with slog3 (even though I did it with my Fs5 with great results for years).

Doesn't the Z280 have a nice, relatively lean (compared to XAVC-I) LongGOP UHD codec?
 
Isn't it also just nice to have options? 10-bit 4:2:2 long-gop codecs are available on their mirrorless cameras
 
drboffa said:
Doesn't the Z280 have a nice, relatively lean (compared to XAVC-I) LongGOP UHD codec?
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No, not on the Z280. You might be thinking of the XAVC-L200 codec on the Z750, which is the only camera to have that codec. It is a 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 Long-GOP codec at only 200 Mbps. However, the catch is that is is only available in 59.94p and 50p frame rates. It is a great codec for reality, documentaries, news, sports, etc. that want a lightweight codec that will standup to S-LOG3 grading and can be easity be converted to 23.98p or 29.97p in post. XAVC-L200 is almost 6 times more efficient than ProRes 422 and almost 9 times more efficient than ProRes 422 HQ with virtually no visual difference.
 
Speaking of codecs, I did some shooting this week with a Canon XF705 and it's best 4K H.265 HEVC codec (160 Mbps) was a nightmare to work with that my Mac can't even manage to playback smoothly in Premiere. I'd say it It has to be the worst codec I've ever come across. I didn't care for the camera itself, either. My Z280 can run circles around it.
 
Doug Jensen said:
Speaking of codecs, I did some shooting this week with a Canon XF705 and it's best 4K H.265 HEVC codec (160 Mbps) was a nightmare to work with that my Mac can't even manage to playback smoothly in Premiere. I'd say it It has to be the worst codec I've ever come across. I didn't care for the camera itself, either. My Z280 can run circles around it.
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Is that an Apple Silicon computer?
 
2018 MacBook Pro with a fast Thunderbolt SSD. It handles all other codecs in real-time effortlessly.
The thought has crossed my mind several times to upgrade to a fully loaded M1 Max, but then I wonder why should I? I'd gain almost nothing. However, If I worked with Canon codec all the time maybe that would give me the excuse I'd need for a new Mac.
 
Thanks for the codec insights, Doug. The Z750 codec sounds great (even if the limitations of 50/59.94p are a bit odd). I'd love something like that on the FX6. I don't need all the options of the a7s3, but a few more flavors would be nice.

As for your experience with the Canon codec, I found that nearly all H.265 codecs brought my 2019 iMac (with pretty good specs) to its knees—even in FCPX, which is, of course, optimized for Macs. Ultimately I upgraded to an M1 Max MBP (for a variety of reasons) and it's been fantastic with all sorts of footage.
 
I've got a $6K fully loaded MacBook Pro sitting in my B&H shopping cart. Talk like that makes my mouse start going towards the checkout button.
 
Should have gone towards the checkout button months ago...these computers are extremely powerful and will surprise you in ways you're not considering right now (like I wasn't almost 2 years ago when I bought my first generation M1 MBP).

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As far as the Canon stuff, old Intels before November 2020 weren't built to work with H.265; completely useless with it, even if they were $50K Mac Pros.

A $500 Mac Mini M1's silicon does a better job with it (playback, rendering, exporting, grading, effects; everything).
 
I probably should take that advice, but I'm traveling until next fall and I don't like the idea of doing a migration to a new machine while I'm on the road unless it really becomes a pressing need. IEverytime I upgrade my phone, computer, etc. I kind of wish I'd done it sooner . . . the hand moves closer to the checkout button.
 
I hear that...takes forever.

On the one/other hand though, I would really only upgrade if I truly needed to.

I waited 5 years to upgrade from a 2015 MBP because I truly, really needed to.

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Apple software/hardware users are going to - naturally - gain the most improvements, but other software benefits from M1, too.
 
It's a massive upgrade. In my final week with the i9 Macbook Pro I had two exports-against-the-clock from Premiere Pro. Air con on maximum, occasionally fanning the silver hairdryer with a circular reflector. The new M1 Max Macbook Pro will do the same thing in a quarter of the time on battery power, outside in a sub-tropical climate and you could edit photos in Lightroom while its doing it. And it won't make a sound!

That said, Premiere (and XAVC) might be the most extreme example in terms of performance gains and if you're happy with how everything is working now then maybe better to wait. My old laptop couldn't even play back 4K XAVC smoothly (In PPro, no problem in Resolve) so maybe there was something wrong with it.
 
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