Companion camera for the FS100?

[John Vincent]

This new batch of Sony DSLRs might also be a good bet (although I think they all would need the alpha mount adapter):
sonyalpharumors | Home

[Bill Bruner]

Originally Posted by Bruce S. Yarock

...The main thing that I'm missing...is the [a]bility to do speed controlable zooms.

John and Jon - not to speak for Bruce, but he was pretty clear. He needs a speed controllable power zoom. Sadly, Sony A-mount DSLRs, E-mount NEXs, and Panasonic GH2s are limited to still-camera manual zooms.

I *wish* there was a speed controllable power zoom for my GH2 - but power zooms (and headphone jacks) are two big reasons why camcorders still make sense for certain jobs.

Cheers,

Bill
Hybrid Camera Revolution

[David J. Buchanan]

Do you guys think a T2i would be a good fit with the FS100? Or should I sell mine and get a NEX5 dSLR?

[Monty Wentzel]

I know this goes beyond the normal zoom on a lens, but I do zooms in FCP all the time. I don't do real long zooms, just slow limited moody ones for effect, nothing like you may need in a wedding etc...

Other than that I never do zooms. I don't do the type of work that calls for zooms.

[Mark Kenfield]

I'm quite intrigued by the possibility of using the upcoming NEX-7 as a backup/b-cam for the FS-100, your lenses would be the same, as would image characteristics (and possibly quality?). As a small, light-weight b-cam for close-ups/coverage to intercut with a master from the FS-100, I'd think it might make a pretty solid match.

[John Vincent]

Maybe the VG20?

[Shawn Lam]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

I have not used one myself, so I can't speak from personal experience, but I think the NX5 would make the perfect camera for the situation you describe.
.

I just did a 2 camera live switch in HD using the BlackMagic Design ATEM 1 M/E with both the FS100 and NX5U and can tell you that they don't match nicely.

The problem is that the NX5U is too noisy next to the clean image from the FS100. We even pushed the FS100 to 15db and the NX5U to -6db for one test and the FS100 still has less noise.

At the end of the shoot I called my Sony dealer and bought a 2nd FS100 - I picked it up on the way home.

[Bruce S. Yarock]

I got a last minute 2 camera concert shoot this Sunday, and it helped make my decision...I bought the nx5 and it will be here this am. That gives me a day to teach my girlfriend how to use it( she's used o my former Canon xha1).
Bruce Yarock

[Bruce S. Yarock]

We used the NX 5 for the wide safety shot, and I'm very happy with the way it looks. Used the same picture profile and Kelvin temp on the NX5 and the FS100, and the look is really close. We are jsut capturing , and will post once I've seen the ootage cut together.
I used the fs100 for tighter shots. Unfortunately, we had to shoot both cameras from the up top control room area.
Bruce Yarock

[Bill Bruner]

Mike Kobal just did an interesting comparison of the NEX-5N(!) and the FS-100 on his blog.

Sony Nex 5N compared vs Sony FS100, which one is better, ungraded, graded 1080/60i - YouTube

Don't know why he used interlaced and not progressive for the side-by-sides, though.

Bottom line seems to be that the 5N is a capable little B-cam for the FS.

[Anthony Mozora]

NX5 is the best companion for the FS100

I have that camera and they are the perfect match together.

the second camera that i have for a combination with FS100 and the NX5 is the cheaper XF100 by CANON

[Noah Yuan-Vogel]

+1 for GH2 as b-cam for FS100.

There are a number of reasons the GH2 is probably the best camera to go along with an FS100

Sony NEX still cameras might make sense but like Canon DSLRs they all have significant aliasing and lower resolving power when used for video.

GH2
+Has great looking, natural gamma and color, better than anything you can get out of any Canon or SonyNEX still camera from what I've seen
+Very high resolving power and low aliasing, sometimes it seems to produce even higher resolution video than my FS100, and far surpasses all other still camera video options in these regards
+Short FFD like FS100 (with the right adapter you can share pretty much all your lenses if you use canon/nikon/PL/etc on you, other NEX cameras also have this benefit)
+HDMI output without without losing onboard LCD, manual mic level, sound level meters and live histogram, articulating LCD, ETC mode adds lens flexibility
+Shoots same AVCHD format as FS100 (encoders may differ, but file structure and decoder is the same as is the media)
+relatively inexpensive, I preordered mine for $680 back 10 months ago

The only downside to the GH2 is the slightly different imager size and lower noise performance at higher ISOs, but there is no camera at any price that quite keeps up with the FS100 for low light shooting, so that will be an issue to some extent with any b-camera

The next option might be an NEX-5N if you can handle soft images and aliasing.