Sony FX30: A review (and a rant)

this is an unusual camera review for me it's not my usual movie length still long uh it covers a lot of stuff though a lot of interesting things for me and that is the thing that's unusual is that I wasn't interested in this camera when it was first announced and I only do reviews on cameras products anything that is of interest to me I wasn't that taken with the Sony fx3 when it came out for me it was a nice new body nice Excel handle but where's the evf no evf for me was a deal breaker and also call it Cinema line it didn't feel like a cinema line didn't feel like the fx6 and fx9 only in that gray body so any fx30 was announced which was the same thing but with a smaller sensor I just didn't think I was going to be interested at all didn't think I was going to like it at all well I was wrong [Music] there is a lot to talk about with the fx30 it also gives me perfect chance to talk about the version 2 firmware for the fx3 which did make some substantial improvements to the camera not everything that it really should have had but a fair amount and these are all in the fx30 except the fx30 also has a lot more things in it as well so I'm not going to cover everything about this camera just the key stuff and the biggest differences between it and the fx3 the fx30 is Sony's first aps-c camera in years let's call it super 35 mil from now unless it sounds nicer and I'm not going to count the zve E10 with a price it's close to half of the fx3 that's pretty aggressive pricing and if you can do what the fx3 does will be with a smaller sensor then yeah it's competing against the Blackmagic boggy 6K Pro of a popular camera with low budget filmmakers foreign cameras though well I thought I had because I am in the middle of an epic long-term review of the Fuji xh2s which I really rather like that won't be finished for a while for reasons which will become apparent quite soon there's a lot more shooting that I need to do for it whereas the xh2s review has lovely footage from New York this review was all shot near me there's actually something quite good about that as most of my reviews do feature footage from the same areas so it gives you a nice bit of continuity so you can look at how shots compare with different cameras although to be fair most of them end up looking the same after grading part of the reason why this review is not as long as others is it's difficult for me to film with this sort of setup I've got very bad back problems still and I sciatica which is a shop very painful all the way down from um just above my well around my lower back on my hand side all the way down inside of my leg around the front of my leg into my foot and it makes just standing really painful so I'd love to run around and get loads of shots but it's very hard that's why doing reviews of things like drones and 360 cameras is a lot easier now there's a number of differences between the fx30 and fx3 the body itself is pretty much identical except one says fx3 one says fx30 but they've removed the mechanical shutter in the fx30 fx3 has it you don't need this video just for Stills but the fx3's photability was the same as the A7 S3s which is very good and now the fx30 is most definitely not the rolling shutter of the fx30 is not as good as the fx3 so only being able to use the electronic shutter is not good for moving subjects on top of that for some reason you can only take single photos there's no continuous shooting mode and I have no idea why as my other mirrorless Sonos can all do continuous using electronic shutter it's a shame as the megapixels for photos is 26.1 megapixels compared to the fx3 is 12.1 so with this High megapixels the fx30 over samples it's 4K from 6K and it does this up to 60p it can shoot 4K 100 120p but it has to crop in to do that and I'll go into that in more detail shortly the full frame fx3 like it semi-twin the alpha 7 F3 or A7 S3 however you want to call it is a low-light Beast with a dual ISO of 812 800. the fx30 is not at all in this same class the iso is at 800 and 2500. [Music] so far this video has been mostly about with the effects that he doesn't have compared to the fx3 but it actually has a lot of things that the fx3 doesn't have and some of these are very important features you can use the fx3 for streaming there's no need for a catch card or adapter just plug it straight into your computer via USBC but I haven't tried that though the next one is a big one Focus breathing control which is also in a F7 4 out of an R5 and the fx6 if you own any of the Sony GM primes you need this when you pull focus on most of them you get substantial breathing and it makes it look like zooming as you can see there is a crop when it's engaged how much depends on the lens and how much it breathes not all Sony lenses support this there is a list on their website and no third-party lenses work with this either now you can also do this in Sony's Catalyst prepare software you need to have stabilization off to get the best results and have in-camera breathing compensation off of course the advantages are you can decide how perfect the correction is sometimes it looks too clinical and too perfect and also when using this to crop will likely be less as it's just going to correct for what it needs in that Focus pool that you've got whereas in camera it covers the whole range from minimum to Infinity moving on to autofocus and if you want to learn how to fully Master this very powerful feature then you must watch my two-part video autofocus masterclass that I made for Sony it took me nine months to make this it was so complicated and so in-depth and it will make you fully understand the system and how to use it properly how to take control and get great results sensitivity at one is what I would call the very stubborn AF mode and I use it a lot especially for Talking Heads it's just that the AF loses the subject it may be too stubborn to reacquire it in these shots at one and one I start with Focus locked on to her which is instantly going to help when she Walks Behind the trees because we are set to Stubborn sensitivity it won't move on to the tree but it does lose her eye occasionally when she fully appears from behind the tree it manages to grab her again if you try and do the shot with a fast sensitivity the results are not good at all as soon as it loses her it goes straight onto the tree when using tracking remember the four S's sensitivity sensitivity and sometimes speed I wouldn't say the fx30 sort of focus is better than the fx3s with its ability to track I haven't done any side by sides but it has some really important key improvements one of the key things I didn't realize had actually been added to the fx3 with the version 2 firmware and that is AF assist and I can see no reason to ever turn this off but what it does is keep the manual focus barrel of the lens working during autofocus most other cameras turn it off with this you can override the autofocus by just tadding the lens Barrel it's helpful that struggling to grab the subject you want and it will also cancel any touch tracking that you've got sadly I can't get it to work with any of my third-party lenses just my Sony lenses fingers crossed it's just a firmware thing for those guys to update so it can work with it Focus map is an interesting feature with a bit like false color for focus when you have your subject in Focus they are clear the colder Colors Over the image mean they are further away from your focus points and the warmer ones they are closer it's not something I really use but it's there a much more important feature for me is the inclusion of eye autofocus for animals and birds in video it's a huge thing for me huge thing for obvious reasons but also when I do feel Wildlife which is fair bit having this feature is a very important thing and of course it's in here as you would expect because it's a new camera he did a pretty good job with my cats although it didn't like Jimmy the Greek that much that autofocus has never liked solid black subjects lollipops lighter fur meant it had no issues said he was fine her eyes tend to be quite open [Music] and my Siamese boys burst and Percy mostly fine foreign lovely Harriet's missing eye was recognized with humor mode it will recognize heads as well as eyes but not with animal and bird AF it just recognizes the eyes taking it out to Richmond testing it on the pigeons the swans the darks the geese was mixed results the problem is that need to see the eye the head isn't enough it needs the eye and if it loses that eye you know it's got the tracking it can actually sometimes jump onto the background which it absolutely shouldn't do because I had my as sensitivity set to one which is the locked on mode my Canon R5 and Fuji xh2s will recognize face and body too so if it loses the eye it can still track it just switches to the head and then the body in fact the new AI autofocus system in the a7r5 also does this in fact it has a much more advanced autofocus system which I will cover in my review of that camera so it's not perfect but it's still better than not having it at all I think you know what I'm hinting at here but I will lead to rounds till later on let's try and stay positive for now foreign despite the Dreadful back pain I always loved filming in Richmond it's really therapeutic mentally because it is the most beautiful part of London it's my home and also home to some of the greatest living people and lots of super Posh ones too I too now feel very Posh thanks to established titles the sponsor of this video I bought a title pack which gave me my own land in Scotland and because of the historic custom there I can now be referred to as Lord or Laird to use a Scottish term Philip Bloom I'm currently in the process of changing my name on all sorts of different things like social media my bank accounts the dozen or so dating apps that I'm on to Lord Phillip Bloom I'm allowed to not only am I now better than all my friends and family established titles works with the global Charities one tree planted and trees for the future to support Global reforestation efforts for each order they will plant a tree whilst my plotter land may not be huge I'm not worried because I've always been told Philip don't worry it's not the size that counts and so I decided to build my dream home on it and here it is it's quite nice isn't it I actually scrapped that I've just read that you can't build on your land because they want to preserve the natural habitat which is fair enough but I built my house this is a great gift for someone that you feel is worthy of such an honor with that added bonus of helping to preserve the natural Woodlands of Scotland and the first 200 people who purchase a title pack using my link will effectively become my neighbors which is going to be really helpful when I need someone to feed my cats one of the fx30's biggest weaknesses is also one of its biggest strengths waiting for the train when I film at home I've got the planes when I film here I got the trains I like the trains there super 35 more sensor apsu says hey send my camera recording it so we're gonna call it super 35 mil sensor which means it's not full frame which means everything is going to be 1.5 times field of view on our lenses now this isn't ideal obviously if we are using a full frame camera and we want them to match and stuff but if you need a tighter shot then actually this is very useful for that so yeah it can definitely be considered a weakness and I think it is a weakness but that's why you're paying a lot less for it than the fx30 but then there's the strength there's the fact that you can be closer in on subjects which is one of the biggest downsides for me about the fx3 the a7s III and the fx6 is because there is no super 35mm mode I love that ability to switch between them that's the alpha one has and you know things like the alpha 7 R4 Etc have any camera that has that ability to go into Super 35mm mode as well the fx30 has 4K 100 120p as well as having it in s and Q mode it doesn't have the processing power to oversample the sensor to get this so it does a one-to-one crop instead it's about a 1.5 times crop so that's a 1.5 times crop of a 1.5 times quite a full frame that's not really fair is it the fx3 scrub is much less it's 10 and like the fx3 you cannot use the active stabilization when in 100 and 120 frames per second there are a couple of upsides though if you do need to go Tighter and you don't have the glass for it then it's like a 1.5 times extender without the light and quality loss that the optical one will give you you know you could use this even if you don't want the shot to slow motion but if you do that just make sure your shutter speed is as low as you can go to get the better motion blur it does mean your files are bigger but if you shoot in the xavchs codec which is the h2651 then it's very efficient I don't understand why they still don't let you use this codec for normal speed frame rates another way to get an extra 1.5 times on your field of view is to use clear image Zoom but then your autofocus only works in a most basic mode no subjects or touch tracking despite the crop and it's not being oversampled I still think the image looks really nice I like the shooting the 4K 100 120p rather than the S and Q version of those because it gives me audio if you want to go to 202 240 frames per second you do need to use S and Q mode and that is in 1080P it doesn't look anywhere near as nice as even the normal HD let's learn the 4K of course it's softer noisier and line skipped but if you've been paying attention to some of the earlier shots then it can look good if you use topaz the video enhance AI which I think I mentioned in every single video because I do use it in every single video and the difference that it makes for these shots is enormous I never use the alpha 7 S3 or the FX sixes 240 frames per second because of this problem until I put it through topaz the difference is night and day it's not just cleaned up it's also upscaled the Ibis feels very much like the other Sony cameras we'd find it any worse or any better the version 2 firmware for the fx3 made the camera much better it made it feel much closer to the cinema line the fx6 and the fx9 although why it's still missing waveforms white still missing shutter angle DCI noise reduction ability to change that I don't know these for me for like obvious inclusions I don't want to complain too much I just did though and I will continue but not right now the following all apply to the fx32 we have a new screen layout in video mode which is so much cleaner and removes things we don't need to see because they are for Stills mode the A7 R5 also has this now there is one downside to it and that is the display does not show if you are in Phase priority autofocus or which type of subject you have I do think they need to address that as it is important to see on your screen and it does appear to be a bit of space on the bottom right they could put it in actually next to the type of autofocus you're in makes more sense there needs to be the ability to control what you put on the screen because there are a number of things which could be useful for people to have on there like if you have stabilization on and when you're not in cine EI telling you which picture profile you're in there's a quick tile menu the a7r5 again has this it reminds me a bit of the fx6's quick menu although that one is accessible whilst recording not on these cameras a terrific addition is the ability to use proper time code with the fx3 and fx30 using the catchlynane vmc BMC M1 adapter when I connect up to my identical sync using the BNC cable the camera receives the time code from it and locks onto it you cannot send timecode out to the camera you can only receive it it uses the multi-usb port to the camera which isn't ideal as it's probably the most fragile connection on the camera that they couldn't have used the USBC as we need that for power delivery you should leave it connected while shooting to avoid drift but because of my worry about it being damaged I personally would unplug it most of the time just keep putting it back on every now and then to make sure the time code is still locked on you could get a universal clamp for your cage of course if you want to leave it on the whole time I've made a whole video about the importance of time code which is really worth watching as it will transform your workflow for using more than one camera or using external audio the single biggest thing that the version 2 firmware added is cine EI mode and no the a7r5 does not have this even though that's a newer camera because this is very much a cinema camera feature if you are going to shoot an s-log 3 then this is the way to do it in the log shooting menu you have flexible ISO cine Quicken cine EI now this is a really complex topic and I recommend watching some dedicated videos about this which I will link in the description but I'm going to tell you a little bit about this just to confuse you you can still shoot an s-log 3 the traditional way in the picture profiles but the best way of doing it is from the log part of the menu even if you don't use the cine EI part flexible ISO in the log menu it's just like shooting s-log 3 from the picture profile except you have a big benefit you can use Luts there's some in there but you can upload your own and the key thing is when you plug in a monitor it out puts that Lut from the HDMI for using the pitch profile one then you only have The View assist which does not go out of the HDMI which has always been a big frustration in cine EI mode you can only record Another 800 or 2500 ISO the base isos which are by far the cleanest because they are the base isos you need to manually switch between the loan the higher yourself so add that to the function menu for Speed cine EI quick will do it for you you just move up with the exposure index and it will move on to the high also make sure you have your log Lut turned on otherwise what you're going to see is going to really confuse you when you've enabled the last and you start changing your exposure index it looks like you're shooting normally you aren't when you bring your clips into post you'll see everything at the base ISO that your shots at if you turn the iso dial you're just changing the exposure index but you do make changes to your aperture and indeed to compensate when you do that so when you look at it in post it's going to be either under or Overexposed so to make it look correct you're going to need to color correct it but the easiest way by far especially for beginners is to use Sony's Catalyst prepare software which annoyingly isn't free but what it does is it automatically changes the image to the metadata there is a plug-in version for premiere of this which is much more convenient than having to use a separate piece of software but I couldn't get it to work as it stopped my Premiere from loading up any media both in the latest version and the previous version of Premiere I really recommend learning about cine EI and how it works and what it does because it will give you the best results from this camera because it does avoid all of those nasty isos well actually there's not that many not compared to the fx3 but it's definitely the best way to shoot s-log 3. there is one small caveat If you're sort of person who uses Auto white balance why are you it doesn't work in Sydney EI sorry as you can hopefully see the fx30 is a powerful camera stuffed full of really impressive features if I had an evf I could be tempted but it doesn't and I don't think they can fix that with firmware firmware when I get onto that EVS are so important that you've never shot with one why the hell not it means you start shooting at proper height rather than holding it down below that's no good the LCD screens of the fx3 and fx30 are just too small and not bright enough the built-in EVS of the a7s3 ETC they're incredible you're part of the image you can tell when you're in focus and it gives you more stability with that point of contact I did ask Sony if they could make a version of the old RX1 evf for the Mi shoe in a couple of my reviews this is my port Keys Lai l e y e evf and it really works well with it for some reason there's hardly any budget EDS out there but thankfully this is a very good one it's powered either by an external Source or via a Canon LP E6 battery my mounts here which I've cobbled together from all sorts of bits and pieces isn't perfect but it works pretty well because it gives me the ability to adjust position of the evf pretty much where I want it to be which makes it way more practical than even if the fx30 had a built-in evf I do think that the XLR handle is a good accessory to get it is more robust than the Standalone XLR adapter you can buy called the XLR k3m that is attached to the Mi shoe on the top and you really must never pick it up from that although it's very tempting to do it interestingly something I didn't know I found out recently is you can get a little adapter from small rig for other cameras like the X7 S3 as long as you've got one of the right cages that it works with which lets you attach the XLR handle onto it so if you've been missing the actual handle and you really want it on your Alpha then you can the downside is it takes all of the mounting points away from the top of those cages which is a bit of a pain so this is more or less the end of the dfx30 review as you can tell it's been a pretty positive one so what is all the rest of this time here and where's the rant oh here it is the fx30 has more advanced features in it than the almost twice as expensive fx3 and these are software features I'm not about any hardware features these are things which could be put in it and if the animal I autofocus the focus breathing which is so important these are key things which are missing from it and they shouldn't be missing from it they should be in there and this brings me on to the other cameras that these should be in and let's start with the flagship camera the Alpha One the most expensive mirrorless camera that they make and I love it it's my favorite camera let me just concentrate on the animal eye autofocus part because there's something about this which is really frustrated me I've not been able to get a straight answer from Sony and answer at all about this simple question and that is why do we have the option to select animal iot focus in video if it doesn't work in these cameras like the Alpha One and the Apple 7s3 it's in there look at the icon because it shows that this is a video feature a feature that is just Stills will have just a camera icon and one is just video will just have the little film icon one that has both means it works in both but it doesn't but it's been there ever since day one of the alpha 7s3 why for me just felt like it's there in anticipation of it being added with firmware but we're talking getting on to really two and a half years since that camera came out and not a sign of it why why is it so hard to add this feature in there a precedent has already been set about updating cameras to give this feature to them because two cameras have been updated and now have it but we're not talking the alpha 703 or Alpha One we're talking the Alpha 7c and the zv E10 of all cameras they received firmware update to give it animal autofocus but not the flagship and not the F10 there's three I don't understand why there is no logic to that is that the AF assist function that was added in the version 2 firmware for the fx3 and is in all subsequent cameras is an incredibly important thing that we need to control the autofocus once you've had a camera with it you'll go or how on Earth did I cope with this before I don't know why it doesn't work with third-party lenses but most important thing is it needs to be added to the flagship camera and the alpha 7s3 I can live without the focus map I don't use it but breathing control is so key not having that on the flagship and the alpha 7s3 is bizarre we have these fantastic new GM primes but they breathe like crazy and once you've used the breathing control you'll be like yes every camera needs to have this and they really should we have Focus breathing control on right now hand look at the frame goodness and let me turn it off hand [Music] which one looks better we both know the answer to that it's this one incorrect it was the one before with Focus breathing control on we need this in the Alpha One the flagship camera and the alpha 7 S3 and the fx3 please these people say you can't put it in the fx3 you can't put it in they simply there's not enough resolution nonsense it's in the fx6 and that has the same sensor I know I'm not the only person to feel this way around a pole on one of the Facebook groups and yeah I mean obviously it was a no-brainer question and the people who actually chose the second option is very bizarre but it just shows you we want our cameras to be updated it's not just me and little old brexit land UK it's in Europe it's around the world we all want our Alpha ones our Alpha 7 S3s and fx3s to be updated they even want this in Canada why are you dragging me into this mess Philip but you're right I am also frustrated at the way that Sony's been handling or rather not handling their firmware updates yeah I'm all in on Sony system predominantly because of lenses you know you find a system that you think that you're going to be happy with and then you start stocking up on lenses and that's what I've done and I like Sony's lens collection and also third party support for lenses so I'm happy with the fact that I'm using Sony for my needs but it frustrates me that it's you know I can understand it I understand how there's more money and more development in new cameras than there is in firmware updates and I also understand that development is hard and then often there's a lag you know us as end users and also as reviewers we see things that we want and then we complain about them and other users complain about things and then a new camera comes out and we don't see those things and we think nobody's listening when in reality that camera that just came out has probably been planned in its current state for a couple years so it's already it has nothing to do with the complaints that we made since then so there is a big lag like a big lag but when it comes to Firmware that's how you can sort of fight back against that lag if you put adequate staff and resources toward developing it and I'm also okay with not getting everything in every camera you know but with Sony it almost seems like it's working the opposite way it's a great way to sell a new camera when it's cheaper and you say hey look this one's got everything and the more expensive camera does and and we've also often criticized companies for not doing that out of fear of cannibalizing their own market share so I'm torn because I appreciate when cheaper cameras can do all the things that bigger cameras can do maybe that's the loophole there the the what's frustrating about Sony is that it's not that they're making cheaper cameras that can do everything the more expensive cameras can do it's that the more expensive cameras can't do the things so that's the only thing that needs to be done and then we're happy all the way down the line you want the fx31 the fx3 you want the A1 you want the fx6 you're not I'm going to say the same thing I said in so many videos it's the flagship the A1 is the flagship so if you come up with a good idea after the A1 but you know not five years after but just months after you gotta go back and you got to put in the A1 and you have to dedicate enough resources to do that right away so that A1 users don't feel left out and people like me don't feel stupid for getting the A1 recommending the A1 making multiple videos on the A1 but then every other camera that comes out for half as much or a quarter as much have these new features that I also say are great but they're not in the A1 that I recommend it makes me look dumb it makes every it just makes everybody look yeah you're right I am frustrated so it just feels like an easy fix and [Music] I think the argument against with certain limitations a company like Sony could could figure it out so really the only it's the A1 it's what their fastest stacked best thing ever so put the damn Focus breathing compensation and whatever else you want that's in an 1800 camera stick it in that camera stick it in it do it that's all I have to say all right I'm done and it comes down to resources and I know that new cameras are going to be more of a priority than updating older ones but people have already spent the money but it comes down to customer loyalty it comes down to us knowing that investment is going to last and we know our investment's going to last when you update the firmware and give them absolutely key features which are purely software based and they can be added it should not be a side thing or something which I would get that done at some point it should be a priority as much as putting these features into new cameras I'd also love to have the new layout that we have in the fx30 the fx3 and the R5 for that video it's so clean and so nice can we have that as well I don't think I'm asking for too much because these aren't massive things I'm not asking you to add things which none of the cameras have you know I'd love to have waveform DCI all of these things I'd love for the LCD to stay on when I have the output display on the monitor I like all of these things I know these can be hardware issues so what I'm asking for are software things I know you can do put it in the alpha 74 you can put it in your Flagship can't you surely anyway that's enough ranting it's got a bit darker now camera still looks okay though it's a really nice camera right here this was my review of the fx30 I like it way more than I thought I would

Channel: Philip Bloom

Views: 156,122

Keywords: sony, fx30, fx3, review, alpha, cinema camera, full frame, s35, Philip, Phillip, bloom, rant, gerald undone

Id: lNf_YhFcSUk

Length: 34min 4sec (2044 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2022