trade up to fs700 from fs100?

[Rob Katz]

trade up to fs700 from fs100?

i've been pretty pleased with the sony fs100.

i use it mostly indoors as my main interview camera.

the results have pleased me and certainly my clients.

i use the sony kit lens, several e-mounts primes from sigma, and a dozen pentax, canon and minolta lenses from the 70s and 80s via e-mount adapters.

a situation has arisen where the fs100 plus cash could be traded for a very low hours fs700 body only.

worth the trade?

if so, how much cash do i add?

i'm just asking...

thanks in advance to those who care to play along.

pm are also accepted!

be well.

rob
smalltalk productions
nyc

[Chris Medico]

I bought the FS700 over the FS100. I consider it worth the difference in price for the ND filters and the high frame rates. Plus the 4k upgrade for future use is nice as well.

If you can trade up to a FS700 for a cost within your budget I would certainly give a thumbs up.

How much cash to add is more a personal one. Just body for body I would say about $3k in cash on top of the swap.

[Gabe Strong]

Rob,

This is essentially what I did. I too loved the FS100. Board sponsor Omega (which is
who I bought my FS100 from) had a great deal on a demo unit FS700. I listed my
FS100 for sale and had a buyer within a day or so. I had the deal on the FS700
but even after selling the FS100, I still had to come up with about $3000. The FS700
still read 0 hours in the hours meter and came with full warranty. I will give some thoughts
on the exchange.

On board ND. Probably my biggest reason for upgrade. It IS nice having them back.
I love that! However it's not as convenient as a variable ND in one way. You can't set
your Fstop and dial in ND exactly where you want it. You have 2 stops, 4 stops and
6 stops so it has some gaps. You can always use a .3 one stop ND and get anywhere
from 0-7 stops, getting all the in between stops but now you are again using screw in
filters or a matte box. My workaround was to use ND to get close and then tweak
shutter speed. Usually you stay so close to 1/48 that you can't tell the difference.
Something like 1/60 or 1/96. The built in NDs are color neutral and no loss of
sharpness, better than even high end variable NDs by a little. Still, something
to think about.

High speed shooting. Just sweet! When there is a good subject for it, it is amazing.
You have to be aware of lighting, you need a fast lens or lots of lights.....and fluorescent
lights flicker. Outdoors works great for wildlife and so forth, I missed a couple shots until
I wrapped my head around the 'end buffer' shooting. 60P is my 'sweet spot' for high
speed shooting. Slow enough to be dramatic without being 'cheesy dramatic'. I use
60P the most. However the higher speed stuff is great when you want it. Even 480
looks decent.

4K. Don't really care about it too much. I do like the idea of 10 bit 422 HD with the 7Q.

Build qualify seems better. Top handle is great, no need for aftermarket one. Side handle is much
better. Also nice having a zoom rocker that work with some lenses. Focus transition is nice for lenses
like the kit lens that are hard to manually hit 'points' when racking focus. Face detection is kind of
a neat feature as well.

FS700 is bigger and heavier than FS100. Video has more grain at high gain/iso. I know
everyone said it looks the same as FS100, but I can tell a significant difference. FS700 is
not as good in low light and you can't use the higher gain settings without grain. With the FS100
it was pretty clean at high gain. This is the price of the FS700 having more, smaller pixels to make
it 4K capable. It's a reasonable compromise if you want 4K...you don't lose a ton of low light and
gain 4K ability. But it is noticeable.

Latest firmware update gives you Slog2 with 4K capability. Downside you have to pay $400
(not a huge deal) and ship it off to Sony (very big deal in my world). I have not done this yet.
Once the 7Q comes out, I probably will so that I can use Slog2 with 10bit HD.

Summary, nice upgrade, what the FS100 should have been in the first place. When I say that
I mean the built in NDs and build quality. High frame rates and 4K capability are just extras.
Is it worth the money? That's a tough one. I'm not sure. I did it and one wedding I shot
some highlights with super slow motion got me some attention and clients. But that
FS100 is still good for the money. Both would be nice. I can't swing that yet.

[Bill Pryor]

For me I have no plans to switch. The only serious advantage, in my opinion, is the slomo capability.