Sony PXW-FS5 - Initial User Impressions

[Andy Wilkinson]

Originally Posted by Dave Mercer

Fir those who have the FS5, what cards are you all using?

Dave, I bought a large bundle of these 64GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC cards. They are rated at 95MB/s and are very reasonably priced. Sure, you can buy even faster SDXC cards - at much higher cost - but these work just fine for 4K. I always buy Sandisk cards and from a reputable source and (touch wood) I've never, ever had an issue with any of them.

SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC UHS-I Memory Card: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[Dave Mercer]

Thanks all for advice on cards.

Now to figure out whether to look at the kit lens or whether to buy the metabones booster and use with my canon 24-105L ...

And whether the Wasabi batteries work ...

[Andy Wilkinson]

I think if you already have the Canon 24-105 L IS F4 I'd go with the Metabones Speedbooster to turn it into a pretty decent F2.8 with great range.

I bought the Sony Kit lens. I also bought the normal Metabones MkIV adapter as I already have a Canon 17-55mm IS F2.8 (which is a great lens image wise, just not ruggedly built)...plus various other Canon lenses in my kit (Canon 10-22mm, Canon 100mm L HIS F2.8 Macro, Canon 70-200mm L IS F4 and a Canon 1.4x Extender). The IS on the 17-55mm is superb (and quiet) for hand-held work, it's just that it's sometimes not long enough for run-n-gun...but the superb Clear Image Zoom on the FS5 solves that!!! And there is the 2x centre crop mode option too for any quick "punch ins" (but I might just do that in post if needed). I can also see me doing 2-cam shoots with both my Canon C100 and the FS5 so wanted more than one lens in the "critical FOV range".

The Sony kit lens is decent if not spectacular and is even more difficult to focus manually (because of the nature of its design) than the Canon 17-55mm. But it's quite nice having it zoomable by the FS5 grip's rocker, or the lens side control (not that I ever zoom when rolling... apart from maybe a very slow/creep zoom). The Sony kit lens image stabilisation and overall "balance" on the camera seems pretty good.

There is a thread already running on here just about lenses for the FS5 so have a look at that too Dave, link below:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdc...enses-fs5.html

[Dave Mercer]

Andy - I can see advantages for both lenses.

Canon better built, better focus feel, faster (with speedbooster), a bit shorter (with speedbooster .07x) and a tad wider.

Sony has full auto functions such as push zoom, and has slightly better range.

Cost of Sony lens about the same as the Speedbooster.

What do you think of difference of image quality?

I suppose Speedbooster leaves one open to using other Canon EF lenses ... more selection than Sony.

PS - like you i love my 17-55 ... aside from sucking in dust, and being a bit short on the tele side of things.

[Mike Watson]

For those who haven't ordered yet, the FS-5 is in-stock at B&H right now.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Dave, been so busy since my FS5 arrived I could not say with confidence. Some very quick/rushed stuff I have done suggests the Sony lens is worth the money....

But if you really want the FS5 to "sing" it looks like it will sure be capable of it with some nice, fast glass. I just don't have personal evidence yet to prove that statement.

Big decision for me, right now, is do sell my beloved PMW-300 workhorse to buy some of that lovely glass?

I would sure like other opinions on this aspect from those that might have the FS5 and some great glass. Great thing about the cam is the mount makes so many lens options possible.

[Jody Arnott]

Andy, how are you finding the Metabones adapter? No issues with the electronic communication? I'm thinking of buying the same one, although there's also a Commlite adapter for around $100 that is reviewed very well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Commlite-Foc.../dp/B00DW0EV2I

[Andy Wilkinson]

Not even had time to take it out of the box and put it on the cam yet!

If editing goes well tomorrow and I meet a critical film delivery deadline I am hoping to try it this weekend...Sunday maybe...definitely not Saturday - as me and a dozen mates, and no doubt a lot of alcohol, are going on a steam train to Lincoln :-)

[Andy Wilkinson]

Definitely worth a read...

The Sony FS5: A C100 shooter’s verdict

[Andy Wilkinson]

Found this interesting information in the X70 firmware thread! Just in case any new FS5 owners might miss it thought it worth posting here too!

Originally Posted by Christopher Young

Spent a day with the FS5 today and would go as far as to say it's like a big X70 but with colorimetry almost identical to the FS700, far more so than the A7S models we have worked on. In fact side by side the FS700 and FS5 were very hard to tell apart.

After running the FS5 up on the charts and scopes we ended up getting the best "in camera look" out of PP4 with the knee set to 85 and the slope to -3. This gave us the best looking highlight roll off. If you don't push peak white exposures above 90IRE it will look quite natural on the way up to just over 102IRE. Much prefer the manual knee adjustment because if you watch the behaviour of the auto knee in rapidly changing lighting conditions such as stage strobe or rapid pulse lighting you can actually observe the auto knee pumping trying to compensate and keep up.

Also dropped the color depth on red to +3 (the adjustment is counter intuitive.) Then finally adjusted color phase to -3. These last two adjustments are totally subjective but for my eyes tone down the rather reddish magenta hues in skin tones that some of the Sony cameras tend to exhibit.

One observation a couple of us made was that the center crop mode is a definitely a little noisier and softer. Overall though quite impressed with the package so far.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Link to the source thread here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-pxw...ml#post1904469

[Jody Arnott]

My FS5 arrived this morning! So I've spent the day playing with it. Very impressed in general, with a few minor concerns. Manual focus on the kit lens is very difficult to get used to, but I think I will be able to work with it.

The next step for me is to find a workable picture profile. The standard profiles all seem to roll off the highlights extremely harshly (except for the log profiles that require grading). It's something I've noticed with other Sony cameras too. So I'm going to do a bit of reading - ideally I want a profile like the Wide DR profile on the Canon C100. Something that is usable straight out of camera, with good dynamic range, nice highlight roll off, flat enough to grade, etc.

On another note, I wish the camera had a waveform monitor. I find them much easier to read at a glance compared to the histogram.

I'll be using the camera a lot over the next few days - so if anyone has any questions, ask away.

[Dave Mercer]

Mike Watson - did you receive the Wasabi batteries? If so, how do they work?

Thanks!

[Mike Watson]

Took the words out of my mouth, Dave. They arrived an hour ago, I charged them up, they work fine.

Amazon.com : Wasabi Power Battery for Sony BP-U60 and Sony PMW-100, PMW-150, PMW-160, PMW-200, PMW-300, PMW-EX1, PMW-EX1R, PMW-EX3, PMW-EX160, PMW-EX260, PMW-EX280, PMW-F3 : Camcorder Batteries : Camera & Photo

[Andy Wilkinson]

Some very impressive run-n-gun, low light footage of the demonstrations in London this week.

Sony FS5 tested at anti-war protests: real world, low light, broadcast quality results

[Jeroen Wolf]

Definite barrel distortion and softening with Center Scan on, albeit at high ISO's.

Does anyone hear fan-noise like I do? And not because it's running hot. You won't hear it under most (busy) shooting conditions but I have taken this baby to bed a few times to read the manual and push some buttons and I could hear a very distinct fanning noise. Something that would be picked up by an on-camera mic...