FX3: SONY’s GREAT “PRETEND” Cinema Camera

the fx3 is a great camera but you know what else is great the a7s iii since the release of the fx3 and i was struggling to understand why they called it a cinema camera it's an a7s3 wrapped in a new body the small differences between them could barely qualify it as an update to the a7s3 i was expecting the launch event to drop a bombshell set of specs that would earn it the cinema line title maybe a built-in nd bigger screen or at least shutter angle control i was thinking of the canon and how their c70 with a huge set of signature cinema camera features rightfully earned it its cinema camera title standing out from their top of the line mirrorless r5 for example the fx3 did introduce a couple of exciting features but the real question is how much of a cinema camera is it looking at the whole fx cinema line did the fx3 meet our expectations to qualify as a miniature version of the fx6 or is it just a pretend cinema camera in this episode we'll find the answers to all those questions from a dp point of view as usual i'm not here for the hype or to read you the specs you already know i'm here to offer you my honest unfiltered and unbiased opinion about this camera [Music] so where does the fx3 really stand in the sony camera range some people were saying it stands between the fx6 and the a7s3 but to be more specific i felt it sits tangent to the a7s3 further away from the fx6 rather the intersection between cinema and video mirrorless i mean if it wasn't for using the same signature gray finish you find in the fx series i would have just said it's another video mirrorless wearing a different color doesn't make it different at its core but the lack of so many features that are unique to cinema cameras is what made it more of a mirrorless camera to me so what's the cinema camera anyway well that's a topic for another episode but for any experienced dp who's shooting with true cinema cameras the word cinema will trigger a set of expectations typically found in those cinema cameras and they'll only get confused when the most basic cinema features are not there in the fx3 while very few others made it so let's start with those ones first first adding the sna to one picture profile while that profile has really nothing to do with cinema cameras in general it's a profile that's present in the sony cinema line all the way up in the sony venice down to the fx9 the fx6 and now to the fx3 and guess what the a7s iii just got it as well with the latest 2.0 firmware which doesn't make the fx3 so special anymore in case you don't know s senator is a creative monitoring picture profile it has a pleasing cinemas look to it that barely needs any fixing pretty useful when you don't have time to grade in post ideal for youtubers and vloggers for example think of it as a better rec709 look but let's be honest for a bit as much as a cinetoon is a nice color profile to have when buying a cinema camera in general for serious work 99 percent of the times you would be shooting in log or s-log in this case not in a semi-tone if not even shooting in raw where color profiles won't even matter so again it's good to have a cinetone but it's far from being a true cinema feature second comes the cageless design making it much easier to rig without the need for a cage in other words cameras in general have hot shoe mounts for mounting lightweight accessories such as mics or strobes you can also rig them with top handles to carry the camera for low angle shots but you gotta be careful here ideally use small or lightweight lenses to avoid adding stress to the mount so if you want to mount sony's new cinema lenses on the a7s3 and use the top handle i can guarantee you the hot shoe mount will eventually break that's why we use cages to give cameras the sturdiness we need for rigging them with heavy lenses and accessories but cages add weight to the camera and make them even bigger provided you're aiming for a compact four factor of course and that's the great advantage in the fx3 you don't really need a cage for it it combined the best of both worlds it has the hot shoe mount from the a7s3 with data contact points for connecting compatible accessories and just like cinema cameras it has multiple mounting points to properly distribute the load and prevent the stress on a single point potentially not needing to add any cages if you need to stay lighter and compact now sony raised the bar for every other camera brand i really hope others adopt this design feature in their future releases sony proved it's possible in such a small form factor which makes me wonder why the new pocket 6k pro with its massive size still kept one single screw mount on top not even a hot shoe mount to keep it company third feature is the fan making it the second hybrid mirrorless to have active cooling after the s1h while many might not favor fans and cameras they are in fact a signature cinema camera feature for two very good reasons first having continuous and uninterrupted recording without any concerns about overheating or auto shutdowns second if you keep the sensor cool you minimize the digital noise that picks up when the sensor heats up from overuse and apparently the fan is virtually silent so you shouldn't worry about any audible noise you can also turn it off if you need absolute silence and the camera will switch to passive cooling instead but still works reasonably well in the a7s3 for example also the fan doesn't compromise on the weather ceiling just like the s1h the fx3's fan is running outside the weather sealed area so no leaks will seep into the inner compartments of the camera next comes the tally lights which are completely absent from the a7s3 the fx3 has a small light that can barely be seen from the front one large horizontal tally right above the screen pretty obvious and can't be missed and one on top built right around the record button the last cine feature is the left side record button which also cannot be found in the a7 s3 as you can see this button is very useful when your right hand can't reach the standard shutter release record button on the right side like when holding the camera from a top handle or from a gimbal again having multiple record buttons is a feature you usually find in cinema cameras and it's making its way slowly into mirrorless cameras now like how we saw it on the s1h and now the fx3 now let's check everything that's wrong with the fx3 despite the fact it's an official member of the sony cinema line club and probably displaying its membership badge here on its left side the fx3 is missing some of the most basic cinema camera features those are the technical features or settings that literally all true cinema cameras have with no exceptions and when i say cinema cameras i mean the ones that are designed for professional use in film productions the ones that establish the standards of what a cinema camera is starting with shutter angle the fx3 only has shutter speed control which is a photography camera setting not cinema not sure what was sony thinking honestly i mean we can live without it but it's a pretty easy software fix just like what panasonic did with their s5 second comes time code another very basic feature in cinema cameras that's missing here also missing is 4k dci aka cinema 4k i mean dci literally stands for digital cinema initiatives which is a cinema standard organization that in 2005 standardized the 4k digital cinema productions to be 4096 by 2160 now the ultra hd standard of 3840x2160 which is reserved more for broadcast and found here in the fx3 you know what else they standardized the distribution of cinema and film content must be in true 24p not 2398 like in the fx3 24 frames is synonymous with cinema and finn productions and it's been the standard for almost 100 years now but it seems the fx3 cinema camera is not living by those standards all these are easy fixes with a firmware update except for the time code though but why not have them from the start so let's hope sony comes back to its senses and fixes all that soon now the last part of the cinema awkwardness is all about the other missed opportunities that would have made the fx3 an awesome compact cinema camera those cannot be fixed with the software update unfortunately so i hope sony is watching this and takes notes on how to improve their next fx3 model let's start with a better screen i mean after sony decided to kill the evf from the s3 we were left with the lowest resolution screen possible lower than the one from the s5 which didn't even pretend to be a cinema camera the screen resolution is also way lower than the one from the s1h which is panasonic's unofficial cinema mirrorless version a camera that's worthy of the cinema title honestly also with the evf removed you have more space in the back so why keep the screen at 3 inches why not 3.2 like in the s1h or even bigger so yeah with such a low resolution small screen it becomes hard to use it for anything other than touch controls and surely not for monitoring pretty much forcing you to attach an external monitor which would take up the space of the top handed that sony seems to be very proud of i mean we all saw the video and they stacked so much accessories and even a monitor on the top handle but did you notice how they didn't show us the guy's expression after he's done probably thinking how on earth am i gonna hold this mess now i mean proper rigging is not about sacrificing the handle to stack as many things as you can on it but rather to add the accessories you need without compromising the ergonomics and handling of the camera i prefer they just invested a little bit more in a better usable screen another idea about the evf i understand they removed it from the s3 to make room for the top handle and mounting points in the fx3 i personally didn't find the evf and the s3 practical since it doesn't tilt like how any video evf should and i never ended up using it despite being by far the best in its class a huge waste so what i feel sony should have done is instead of removing it altogether why not turn it into a detachable evf that fits on the hot shoe mount and also add a tilt option to it just like what the new pocket 6k pro did with their new detachable evf i personally found it to be a smart solution from their side since evfs are not crucial for all kinds of shoots another very important missed opportunity is not adding two base plate mounting points they only give us one i mean we already saw how sony managed to fit five screw mounts all over this tiny body but oddly enough it didn't finish the job and missed out on the second locking screw at the bottom which is pretty standard in cinema cameras something the pocket 6k also fixed in their new 6k pro camera i would have gladly traded the screw mount next to the hdmi port with the second one at the base i like sony's initiative to create the most compact cinema railers out there but did they achieve that no they didn't they created what the a7s3 was supposed to be and with all those missing cinema features calling it a cinema camera doesn't make it so so maybe if you're a filmmaker who's considering the a7s 3 purely for shooting video with no use for its evf then i would say the fx3 would probably make more sense to you but if you already have an a7s3 then the fx3 is for sure not worth it let me know what you think in the comments below don't forget to follow my instagram where i'm planning to host monthly live q a to answer all your questions and to get to know you better in a live setup hope you enjoyed this episode stay safe and i'll see you next time

Channel: The DP Journey

Views: 46,490

Keywords: fx3 sony, fx3 vs a7s iii, camera review, FX3, cinema camera, a7iii, camera review 2021, fx3 cinema line, fx3 cinema camera, sony fx3 cinema, s-cinetone sony, s-cinetone fx6, s-cinetone a7iii, s-cinetone a7siii, sony cinema line fx3, The DP Journey, bmpcc6kPro, 6k pro, blackmagic 6k pro, s1h panasonic, Panasonic S5, film photography, cinema camera 2021, bmpcc 6k pro, sony a7s3

Id: x52zrhmeXws

Length: 10min 30sec (630 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 27 2021