FS100 and F3, Alister's Video

[Mike Marriage]

Originally Posted by Glen Vandermolen

And I really am looking for good, usable info on the FS100, because I am a potential customer.

Glen, apologies if my opinions came across as overly negative. I own and use cameras from Sony, Panasonic, Canon and JVC and they all have their place and their compromises.

What I would like to add to the box of tools is a lightweight, large sensor camera with top-notch image quality. I was hoping the FS100 would be it but it looks like it's outer design does not live up to it's internals. I won't know for sure until I get my hands on one in two weeks but for the reasons already mentioned, I don't think it will work for me. I hope that Sony and others will read these forums and their next cameras will benefit from the opinions expressed here. I would like to see something designed more as a ground up camcorder and less as an improvement over DSLRs when used for video.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Mike, have you checked out the comparison videos posted by Philip Bloom? Really great stuff, and he outlines the good and bad with each camera:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-avc...lip-bloom.html

He agrees with you in many ways - the FS100 does have awkward control placement. Kudos to your judgement call on that ;-) (Eh, what do I know?) And the F3 doesn't have the best form factor.
Still, it seems to make up for that in the incredible images.
After toying with my VG10, I am wanting to buy a large sensor pro camera. Pricewise, the choice is now between the FS100 and AF100. And it's a tough choice.

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

You would want the FS100 as a shoulder cam? Keep in mind that its small size to some extent will allow you to build it into whatever size or form factor you may prefer. The FS100 as it is (I have held it) is not a shoulder cam or an SLR. I prefer this because it means I can break it down and put a very small lightweight camera on the a small car mount or mount it inside of a car instead of of a car where other cameras would have to be on the outside, and that goes for shooting in any kind of small space. The F3 is not large, but the FS100 is likely about 1/3 its volume. You can always add on weight or ergonomic attachments, but you cannot usually remove them from larger camcorders.

When you think about it, the difference is quite amazing even just in terms of power requirements as well. Alexa/RED batteries are about $300 and ~1.5lbs per hour of battery life. F3 batteries are about $100 and 0.3lbs per hour, and FS100 batteries are about $16 and <0.1lbs per hour. That means for a full 10hr day of exteriors on a RED/Alexa you need about $3000 of batteries that weigh 15lbs, for F3 $1000 of batteries that weigh 3lbs, and for the FS100, you only need about $160 worth of batteries that weigh 1lb. This doesnt even account for the fact non-sony brand batteries in the same mount would allow you to run the FS100 for 10hrs straight on one $50 1lb battery.

[Glen Vandermolen]

Thanks, Noah. As I get older, I appreciate the trend to lighter cameras. I didn't think of the battery costs. That's quite a lot of money saved with the FS100.

[Alister Chapman]

I found the battery life on the FS100 quite amazing. When I picked up the camera in the morning the batter was flat. I charged it in the car for about an hour on the way to the shoot. That 40% charged battery then lasted for the rest of the day, probably 3 to 4 hours of filming.

[Mike Marriage]

Originally Posted by Noah Yuan-Vogel

You would want the FS100 as a shoulder cam? Keep in mind that its small size to some extent will allow you to build it into whatever size or form factor you may prefer.

Personally I would like a compact shoulder mount but I think a more ergonomic palmcorder design would also be possible. Sony could offer both as they do with the EX1 and EX3, although I also have issues with both those designs. Like I said before, the FS100 appears a development of a video SLR design which is the wrong approach to take IMHO. I would be interested to see what the brief was when the camera was made, I would guess it was deliberately crippled to keep it off the heels of the F3.

[Matt Davis]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

That 40% charged battery then lasted for the rest of the day, probably 3 to 4 hours of filming.

Hi Alister, sorry to pick over the crumbs of your conversation...

So, even though your test unit was pre-production, we can look forward to a reasonable battery capacity readout within the viewfinder? That may sound a bit odd and lame from an EX1 viewpoint, but from a DSLR, that's major news. Even though we won't trust the minutes, at least there's some resolution to the power readout unlike the cheaper end of DSLRs...

[Alister Chapman]

There was both a battery symbol with the usual gauge inside plus a number display. I can't remember whether it read percent or minutes (I think it was minutes) on the camera, but it did seam accurate. The charger I had gave the charge percentage.

[Doug Jensen]

I can confirm Alister's experience. The battery life was amazing when I had demo FS100 for a few days. I charged up a couple of my old Z1U batteries anticipating that I'd need them, but I never did.

I'm pretty sure the battery display in the viewfinder was shown as a percentage, but don't quote me on that.