- People are confused. They're upset. They don't know what to think.
They don't know what to do. The FX3 is almost the same
camera as the A7Siii, right? Well, yes and no. (upbeat music) What is up, people? Dunna here. And today we're gonna be taking
a look at these Sony FX3, some of the things that are different between that and the A7Siii. I was one of the fortunate ones
who got an A7Siii early on, and I've been using it for a while now, but I recently got my hands on an FX3 and have been absolutely loving it. And I'm actually going to be
buying one really soon here. So in this video, I'm
gonna talk about why. Now, a quick primer for these two cameras. They are both video centric cameras. However, only the FX3 actually got called part of the Sony Cinema Line. Now, whether it deserves
that Cinema title or not is heavily under debate
all over the internet. So leave a comment down below
and let me know if you think it should be called a
Cinema camera or not. All right, hopping into our first section, these are the things about
both the A7Siii and FX3 that I really like as compared
to other Sony cameras. First of all, we've got the flip screen and as someone who films himself
all the time, this is huge. Absolutely a game changer for
me to be able to see myself without having to bring an extra monitor or without having to have some
kind of a mirror contraption or using the app, which is hit or miss. Having that new flip screen is fantastic. It also opens up some options for different angles of shooting. And while there are certain cases where I do miss having that
tilt up and down screen that we see on things like the A7iii, most of the time I find
that I can work around that and I much rather have the
flip screen than not have it. Probably the biggest thing
that these cameras introduced to the Sony lineup is 10 bit video. This has been a massive
game changer for me. It allows me to use S-Log3 comfortably without having to worry
that I'm going to be breaking apart my footage when
I go to actually grade it. But also these cameras have
introduced 4k 60 and 4k 120 and it looks absolutely amazing. So unlike previous Sony cameras, now you don't have to
upscale your slow motion. And going along with our bit
depths and our frame rates, you've also got the new XAVC S-I Kodak, which is really awesome. It makes it really easy to edit, even though the file sizes
are quite a bit bigger. And these cameras both
also take fantastic stills. And with the exception
of a couple of times that I wished I could have cropped in just a little bit more, the mega pixel count hasn't really been an issue for me at all. Both of these cameras have
insane low-light capabilities. This is something that the A7S line has always been known for. Because they keep the low mega
pixel count on the sensor, The photo sites are larger and therefore it does better in low light. And because they share the same sensor, you're gonna see the same quality and the same low-light performance
across these two cameras. Also new to the Sony lineup in the A7Siii is the ability to have separate
photo and video settings. So when you switch between
photo and video modes, you'll actually switch settings as well. This feels like a bit of a no-brainer and I feel like they should
have done this a long time ago, but I'm glad that we have
it now on these two cameras. And finally, for this section, we've got the new menu system
on both of these cameras. This has been a long time coming for Sony, but they finally updated the menu system. Both these cameras have
it as well as the new A1. The new menu is so much
easier to get around. It's much better organized, and you can use both of the touch screens to get around in the menu too. So those are some of the new
updates that you might've seen on the A7Siii that also
carry over to the FX3. But let's take a look at some
of the new things on the FX3 that the A7Siii doesn't have. Starting off with some of the features that for me are kind of neutral but might make a bigger
difference for you. On the FX3, we've got
more video centric labels on the camera as well
as some of the settings are more video-centric as well. So for example, some of
the buttons on the FX3 are labeled with things
like zebras or iris, things that are more video-centric. This just makes it a little bit easier if you're a video shooter
to know where things are. Unless, of course, you've customized everything to something else. But beyond the buttons
in the menus themselves, there's actually some more changes that are more video-centric. For example, when you go to
set up your custom buttons, it follows the video mode rather than following the photo mode. Previously, you would go
in and you would set up all your custom buttons for photo mode and then it would default to having all the video
buttons follow those ones. So it's still basically the same thing. You can have two fully
different sets of custom buttons depending on which mode you're in. But now the default is
that the kind of main one is the video mode and same thing with your
function menu as well. Another new update for the FX3
that I'm pretty neutral about is the new color. It's gray now instead of
black. That's kind of cool. I know it has a lot to do
with different materials and stuff that's going on, but in general, I think
it mostly was to match the Cinema Line rather
than their Photo Line. Another new feature on the FX3 is the new fan system. And while this is really
cool, pun intended, it hasn't really made much
of a difference for me. I'm sure there are some cases out there with people who shoot a lot more 120 or 60 frames per second
or something like that, where we might need some
overheating protection. Like I said, I've never
run into any issues the way that I personally shoot so I threw this in the neutral category. On the FX3, the joystick
button is actually on the top and we're gonna talk a
little bit more later about the new buttons and the layout. I was really used to having that on the back on the A7Siii, but I think it's something
that I'll totally get used to and won't make much of a difference once I've had some more time with the FX3. And finally, in the neutral category, we've got a slightly different grip on the FX3 from the A7Siii. I've heard a lot of people be either really positive about it or really negative about it, but I really don't find it
to be a huge difference. Yeah, it is different. You might feel it if
you grabbed one camera and then grab the other one right after, but I don't think it's so different that it's gonna make a
big change for anyone. Actually, you know what?
I shouldn't say that. It didn't make a big change for me. You do you. All right, so next, we're gonna talk about some of the differences
on the FX3 from the A7Siii that I absolutely love. These are the reasons that
I'm going to be buying an FX3. But before we hop into that,
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my life so much easier. Okay, so here are the things about the FX3 that are making me buy one even though I already own an A7Siii. First of all, and
probably most importantly, I love the form factor of the FX3. It's a little bit thicker
than the A7Siii is, but they've chopped off
the EVF so it's shorter. I almost never use an
EVF on any of my cameras so I was really happy to
see them just chop it off and save me the space. This also means that if you're gonna fly this camera on a gimbal, you've got more clearance on the top and it makes room for the new top handle which we'll talk about in a second. The next thing that I love about the FX3 actually surprised me a little bit and that is the button layout. And the reason that it surprised me is because I was so used
to the previous layouts of the A7iii and A7Siii
which are relatively similar. And I knew that there were some big changes made to this body. Particularly, they've
gotten rid of the mode dial which I thought was gonna
be a big problem for me, but they've replaced
it with a mode button. And honestly, it's quite easy to use. In fact, I would argue
that it's easier to use than the current locking
system that they have on the mode dial for the A7Siii. You hit the mode button and
it brings it up on the screen. You go and change your mode. Good to go. The other thing that they've taken off is the exposure compensation dial which is pretty fine by me. I can find that somewhere in
a menu if I really need it, but it's not something
that I use very regularly. And finally, they've moved the
power button over to the back on the left-hand side of the camera and they've replaced it with a zoom rocker which I absolutely love. And I know a lot of people
are kind of annoyed by this, but Sony cameras have something
called clear image zoom which basically allows you to
punch in by a certain amount with very little or no quality loss. Now, the zoom rocker can also be used with lenses that have power zoom enabled. But personally, I've been
absolutely loving this for getting just a little bit extra reach out of my prime lenses or if I need a little bit of extra reach out of the end of, let's say, my 16 to 35. The one downside to using clear image zoom is that you kind of lose
what I call smart autofocus. It goes into a much more
basic auto focus mode. But as long as you're aware
that that's going to happen, I find that it's pretty workable. The next thing that kind of goes along with the smaller form factor
is the cageless design. So what they've done is they've put kind of a
chassis that's stronger and then they've mounted a bunch of quarter 20 threads to it. So you can actually
attach a bunch of stuff specifically to the quarter 20 threads so that you don't need to
put a cage on your body. This is one of the very
first things that I did when I got the A7Siii is I grabbed a cage so that I could start to mount
things all over the camera. And while that's okay and
some people are definitely still going to need a cage
depending on your setup, I find that being able to
keep it small and light by having some of those quarter 20 threads in the camera themselves
is a huge advantage. But the one place that the cageless design really shines for me, personally, is being able to attach a tripod plate to one side of the camera
and shoot vertical video without having to have a cage. This is the way that things are going. We gotta be shooting
vertical video nowadays. Now, sometimes this works
if you've got a ball head, you can just do it to the side. But on certain tripods, if
you don't have the ability to tilt it to the side like
that, it can be kind of a pain and then that's where
you need to add a cage. The next thing that we get with the FX3 that we don't get on the A7Siii is the top handle and the audio options. So with the FX3, you actually get a unit that is a top handle as well as a dual XLR
input audio interface. And it uses Sony's multi
interface shoe technology to be able to do it
without having any cables. Now, this has pros and cons. It means that you have
to eat up your hot shoe in order to get XLR
inputs into the camera. But I think that that's a fair trade off to be able to have that capability. And there's a lot that you can
do with those audio inputs, as far as different combinations
and different volumes and different settings. It's really cool to be able to expand your audio capabilities, but they've still given you a regular 3.5 millimeter mic
jack on the camera body itself. So you can use it without
that top handle as well. I've used it both ways and
it's so nice that it's modular. You can use it either way. The handle itself is
actually really light too so it doesn't add a lot of
extra weight to the body. It's not the nicest handle in the world but it definitely does the job. And it has a bunch of
other quarter 20 threads so you can attach other
things to it as well. It also allows you in certain ways to have four inputs of audio. The two XLRs and then a left and right from a 3.5 millimeter jack. So again, we're just kind of expanding our capabilities here. And finally, we've got
the new record button and tally light. So we've got a new record
button on the front of the body. So if you're someone who
films yourself like me, this is nice because you can
reach out and you can hit it as well as we've gotten new
tally lights on the front and the top of the camera so you can see whether you're recording. Again, this is geared a little bit towards people who are filming themselves, but also any talent on camera can tell whether the camera is rolling or not. And of course, you have
the option in the menu to customize that front button as well as customize the tally lights so which ones are on
and which ones aren't. Personally, I left them
all on. I really like it. I can see right now that it's
recording and that's nice. Now, of course, there is no
such thing as the perfect camera and the FX3 had a very specific thing that it was going for. So we're going to have missed
the mark on a couple of places or have things that could be improved for maybe a future generation. So let's talk about those. First of all, I think they could have done a little bit more with that top handle. The FX3 is a couple hundred dollars extra on top of what you would
pay for the A7Siii. And I think a lot of that is the fact that you're getting the top handle with the audio interface as well. But personally, I think
there are some things that they could have done with it that they kind of missed out on. For example, there is a
microphone holder on it but it is only for a
specific size of microphone. It's not adjustable to
fit different microphones. For example, my Rode NTG5, I had to wrap in a bunch of gaff tape so that it would fit in that spot. It also would have been
cool to be able to see it used as a top handle with or
without that audio interface. Maybe find a way to connect them so that you can use one
or the other or both. As it currently stands,
it's kind of all or nothing. And thirdly, I do have a little worry that it feels a little plastic-y. I haven't had any bad
experiences with it so far but the FX3 itself feels
like it's built like a tank. And then that top handle
feels a little bit plastic-y like if you dropped it or something, that could break pretty easily. Again, no bad experiences yet but it does feel like it's not
quite the same build quality as the rest of the body. The next thing that I would have loved to have seen on this camera is the ability to shoot
with shutter angles rather than shutter speeds. And even then you can't really dial it into a perfect 180 degree shutter rule. You just have to get it to the closest shutter speed you can. This is something that is
pretty common in Cinema cameras and they did call this a Cinema camera so that would be something
that I would love to see and I think is possible
in a firmware update. Something that is not possible
with a firmware update is that they missed out on adding some tripod plate options on the bottom. Even something as common and
simple as having the dual spots to mount your plate on the bottom of it so that it doesn't move side to side. One of the things that
I think a lot of people would have liked to see in the FX3 are internal ND filters. Now, I don't know what
the technology is needed to fit internal NDs in a body this small. But because it's included
in the Cinema Line, I think a lot of people would have really liked to have seen that since that is a more common
feature on Cinema cameras. Hopefully, with all the technology and how they're managing
to make everything smaller, we might see that in something
like an FX3 mark two. Who knows? And then kind of wrapping up all of the things that
I just talked about, I think they kind of missed the mark a little bit on the Cinema label. Some of those things that
I was just talking about would definitely help to kind
of categorize it in that way. But in the end, the label
doesn't really matter that much. It's how you use the camera
and what works best for you. In my personal case, the FX3 is basically the camera
that I've been wanting. It was basically the camera that I wanted when I bought the A7Siii. The timing on that was a little annoying, but that's okay. I'm really excited to be able to get this and to use it more. But as always, I want to
hear what you have to say. So make sure to leave a comment
down below and let me know, are you an FX3 person or an A7Siii? Which one would you choose? And on your way down there, make sure to hit that
like and subscribe button, hit the bell notification so you don't miss out on
future reviews and tutorials. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you to Canva for
sponsoring this video and I'll see you next time. (chill music)
