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Sony Fx9


Robin R Probyn

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it is a pretty nice package with great image quality especially for the price. have handled some of the material from it already. 

I would just hope it had slightly better quality codec which would use the full potential of the sensor. One can still get the traditional XAVC artifacts on the material if underexposing. 

the new colour profile is nice. much easier to grade by my opinion.

One of the annoyances is that Sony messed up the standard metadata order on this model and I had to upgrade to OSX Catalina to get the latest Resolve version working on the computer (took a whole day of work to do. Very counterproductive and unnecessary). All the previous versions of Resolve crashed instantly if you tried to open the FX9 xavc files in them. Totally unnecessary douchebag move by Sony to mess up the standard XAVC files without any apparent reason just to make them incompatible with some programs ?

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11 hours ago, Michael LaVoie said:

Just wait.  They'll release a successor with an 8k imager next month for half the price and you'll be pissed you bought it.  That's Sony.

In recent history anyway they haven't been doing that anymore.. they have gone the FW update road.. my f5 had 9 FW updates over 7 years .. the camera stills works fine and alot of f5/55 are out there still shooting ..  fs7 was around for a while before the fs7II.. released to give a decent mount !.. f65 around for far too long before the Venice ? ..   I would never bother with 8K unless forced into buying it ... 6k down sample to 4K is the sweet spot .. nothing more is needed for general shooting ..

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10 hours ago, aapo lettinen said:

it is a pretty nice package with great image quality especially for the price. have handled some of the material from it already. 

I would just hope it had slightly better quality codec which would use the full potential of the sensor. One can still get the traditional XAVC artifacts on the material if underexposing. 

the new colour profile is nice. much easier to grade by my opinion.

One of the annoyances is that Sony messed up the standard metadata order on this model and I had to upgrade to OSX Catalina to get the latest Resolve version working on the computer (took a whole day of work to do. Very counterproductive and unnecessary). All the previous versions of Resolve crashed instantly if you tried to open the FX9 xavc files in them. Totally unnecessary douchebag move by Sony to mess up the standard XAVC files without any apparent reason just to make them incompatible with some programs ?

Yes the S Cinetone out of the box is very nice.. its actually not meant to be "graded" at all ..  the meditate data thing is due to the new stabilization thing .. thats all stored in the metadata .. its very impressive .. check it out on line ..

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57 minutes ago, Robin R Probyn said:

In recent history anyway they haven't been doing that anymore.. they have gone the FW update road.. my f5 had 9 FW updates over 7 years .. the camera stills works fine and alot of f5/55 are out there still shooting ..  fs7 was around for a while before the fs7II.. released to give a decent mount !.. f65 around for far too long before the Venice ? ..   I would never bother with 8K unless forced into buying it ... 6k down sample to 4K is the sweet spot .. nothing more is needed for general shooting ..

Just saying.  If I had bought a Venice, the FX9 would infuriate me. 

Have you seen the press release today for their Xperia 1 II smartphone.  It looks insane.   Put that on a DJI Osmo gimbal and you easily replace much more expensive rigs. 

What really makes it shine is the built in software.  Not having to download some crappy confusing app is what makes this work.  None of the "cinema" apps for Android work that well.  As long as Sony keeps support going for this app on future vers of Android this phone may be worth buying unlocked just as a camera.

If only it had a removeable battery it would have really put the Hydrogen to shame.

Edited by Michael LaVoie
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10 minutes ago, Michael LaVoie said:

Just saying.  If I had bought a Venice, the FX9 would infuriate me. 

Have you seen the press release today for their Xperia 1 II smartphone.  It looks insane.   Put that on a DJI Osmo gimbal and you easily replace much more expensive rigs. 

What really makes it shine is the built in software.  Not having to download some crappy confusing app is what makes this work.  None of the "cinema" apps for Android work that well.  As long as Sony keeps support going for this app on future vers of Android this phone may be worth buying unlocked just as a camera.

If only it had a removeable battery it would have really put the Hydrogen to shame.

Venice is still the flag ship feature /drama camera .. although I guess now the Fx9 is the best bet as a B/C / D  camera .. but the sensor is not the same .. in theory fx9 could shoot anamorphic but its not officially ever going to be supported and definitely not the target buyer for this  camera .. no LCD screen and nothing on the dumb side etc.. also Venice has "real" ND filters .. the variable ND is great but there is tiny color shift .. I doubt there will be too many Venice owners losing sleep ? .. but for the low budget feature world I guess why not .. if you don't need RAW could be a budget 6K sensor camera .. 

Yes same with the new iPhone camera .. I guess they will become used more on gimbals .. except as you say.. changing batteries and lens ..I wonder in 20 years will all doc,corprate ,event stuff be shot on phone like devices .. 

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1 hour ago, Robin R Probyn said:

 

Yes same with the new iPhone camera .. I guess they will become used more on gimbals .. except as you say.. changing batteries and lens ..I wonder in 20 years will all doc,corprate ,event stuff be shot on phone like devices .. 

I'm really curious if they'll add an ND feature to the phone.   That's unfortunately the main headache with all of them.  ISO never gets low enough and it's super clunky to try to attach a clip on ND filter that fits all the lenses at once.  It'd be sooo much easier if they'd just give an electronic ND filter.  And if the shutter actually locks and stays locked.  and if the fps is truly 24fps and not a constantly shifting version of it.  Can't wait to see.  

I just got a Samsung Galaxy S10+ and I use Filmic Pro with a variable ND clipped on the front and on a DJI Osmo it's a heavy rig. Overall it's decent but the U.I. on Filmic Pro is awful and it's very easy to screw up basic functions just by operating it.  This at least looks properly laid out with controls that aren't an overlay on the image.  As long as the Android camera apk doesn't mess it up. Could be awesome.

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3 hours ago, Michael LaVoie said:

I'm really curious if they'll add an ND feature to the phone.   That's unfortunately the main headache with all of them.  ISO never gets low enough and it's super clunky to try to attach a clip on ND filter that fits all the lenses at once.  It'd be sooo much easier if they'd just give an electronic ND filter.  And if the shutter actually locks and stays locked.  and if the fps is truly 24fps and not a constantly shifting version of it.  Can't wait to see.  

I just got a Samsung Galaxy S10+ and I use Filmic Pro with a variable ND clipped on the front and on a DJI Osmo it's a heavy rig. Overall it's decent but the U.I. on Filmic Pro is awful and it's very easy to screw up basic functions just by operating it.  This at least looks properly laid out with controls that aren't an overlay on the image.  As long as the Android camera apk doesn't mess it up. Could be awesome.

I wonder if there is a point they wont go beyond ,before they start eating into their own video camera sales ..  have to say the variable ND is really a great Sony invention .. and dual ISO is a really nice thing to have just press a button .. 

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I've just finished that short documentary in Sierra Leone with the FX9.. and I'm truly amazed.  

We kitted it out with a Teradek, WCU4 and a 5.6" minimonitor for me (instead of the one that the camera has) and it has all gone really really well.  

We shot almost in darkness since it was a documentary about the lack of electricity in hospitals in Sierra Leone at night and how the people there perform difficult surgeries with just the light of a phone.. and shooting at 4000ASA / 8000ASA has been absolutely eye opening. 

There were moments where I couldn't see anything but the camera picked the light from the phone super well. Definitely a great companion for a Sony Venice as a B cam or even to shoot commercials or features if there is no money for a Venice / Alexa.

@Robin R Probyn we tested anamorphic lenses as well and it is not that difficult to make it work as of now ? 

I'm looking forward to working with it again. 

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13 minutes ago, Miguel Angel said:

I've just finished that short documentary in Sierra Leone with the FX9.. and I'm truly amazed.  

We kitted it out with a Teradek, WCU4 and a 5.6" minimonitor for me (instead of the one that the camera has) and it has all gone really really well.  

We shot almost in darkness since it was a documentary about the lack of electricity in hospitals in Sierra Leone at night and how the people there perform difficult surgeries with just the light of a phone.. and shooting at 4000ASA / 8000ASA has been absolutely eye opening. 

There were moments where I couldn't see anything but the camera picked the light from the phone super well. Definitely a great companion for a Sony Venice as a B cam or even to shoot commercials or features if there is no money for a Venice / Alexa.

@Robin R Probyn we tested anamorphic lenses as well and it is not that difficult to make it work as of now ? 

I'm looking forward to working with it again. 

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Glad you liked it .. yes its king of low light .. you can wind it up more than 8,000.. its like the A7s but less noise .. !..  I got the kit lens but waiting for the new Sony cine zooms.. and hoping g they are not too expensive !.. yes sensor is just about big enough but no de squeeze etc.. but 3rd party EVF / Monitor would work..  and no 17-9 till the spring with V2.. I sold my F5.. surprisingly emotional moment !.. so now this is my only camera ..just pimping it out with some Vocas parts ..  if you need V mount I recommend the Core one as I have ,with mini V mount batts ..

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8 minutes ago, Robin R Probyn said:

Glad you liked it .. yes its king of low light .. you can wind it up more than 8,000.. its like the A7s but less noise .. !..  I got the kit lens but waiting for the new Sony cine zooms.. and hoping g they are not too expensive !.. yes sensor is just about big enough but no de squeeze etc.. but 3rd party EVF / Monitor would work..  and no 17-9 till the spring with V2.. I sold my F5.. surprisingly emotional moment !.. so now this is my only camera ..just pimping it out with some Vocas parts ..  if you need V mount I recommend the Core one as I have ,with mini V mount batts ..

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We were actually looking for that accessory that you have but it wasn't available in Spain and the different vendors didn't have a delivery date available so we went to Sierra Leone with 12 sony batteries with dtap and we powered everything off just one battery. 

Surprisingly it wasn't consuming a lot of power!
We put a Sony Venice plate on top of the camera to attach all the things that we needed to attach to it. 

And the files are really lightweight! We shot around 21 hours of footage in the highest codec available in 6KFF at 25fps and we only filled 1.3Tb!!!

Ah, I'm sure that you've already forgotten about the F5.. other than when you look at the menus in the FX9 ? ? 

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Yes ! just as I got used the f5 after 6 years .. they change them again ... into "a more logical way"..  actually they are better .. but also I guess as an owner /op I take the time to set to the user menu and then shift those up and down the list as I get to know what I need .. I was lucky the Core was on the display camera in the show room the day I went in to get it .. had wait a day for it.. but wasn't expecting them to have it all and wouldn't have even asked ..but did have to wait a month for the Vocas parts.. in high demand !  yes no 480 Mbps 4K yet .. but anyway the down sample from 6K I think more than compensates .. well for doc / corporate shoots for sure ..  and I discovered the new world of min V mounts.. . these FXLion  98WH Nano 2,s are so tiny !  take up no room at all..  your doc looks great BTW..  

As an aside, if you use the camera again..I recommend dual ISO assign button 9.. its slightly recessed in the camera body, down the bottom and less likely to be bumped ..

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30 minutes ago, Phil Connolly said:

Hope they improve the codec - if its currently the same as the FS7, it's probably a bit thin for drama. I'm grading an FS7 job at the moment - you can get a bit of artifacting if your not very careful 

Ive never had any problems with XAVC I so far ..but the 480 Mbps would be an advantage .. but haven't shoot XAVC L..  alot of people don't seem to get shooting S log with the set 2000 ISO level .. and preset WB.. the fx9 you can actually change the WB in Cine EI mode now like Arri ..  the" problems "  that have ever got back to me from post, banding etc have 100% ,so far anyway, been user error their end ..banding was their monitor setting !  but under exposed Log is going to give you problems with any codec.. just not much data down there .. Slog3 is exactly the same gamma curve as Arri LogC ..  an advantage of the fx9 is you dont have to over expose Slog if your worried about noise .. its such a clean picture even at high ISO,s.. 

Drama your better off with raw of course.. which the fx9 doesn't have yet ,and will only be to external recorder as plans are now .. shame the haven't made a R7 type bolt on .. but its not really the target user for this camera .. unless it moves up the food chain ..

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It does look like the perfect camera in its sector - nice quality, cood for doc and broadcast work.

I know it's not really going to be used for professional "Drama" productions that much, but I'm working in an University and our students make short films. We don't quite have arri/red budgets, we have FS7's at the moment and the FX9 seems like a nice upgrade....but the only really issue I've encountered with the FS7(beyond the menus) is breaking the codec on grading. Although I guess if your starting with a better/cleaner image - the codec holds up better. 

Basically I'm looking for a camera we can afford, that I can borrow over the summer and shoot a movie on. 

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I shot a feature on the FS7 and it did great! The director and executive producer was happy and the film is making a profit. ? It's a parody film called Jesus, Bro!, shot in fall 2016.

I wouldn't discredit the FS7 as an honest choice for a professional narrative production if the budget can't afford anything higher than that. The FX9 has slight improvements on the FS7 and would be a perfect choice.

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7 hours ago, Phil Connolly said:

It does look like the perfect camera in its sector - nice quality, cood for doc and broadcast work.

I know it's not really going to be used for professional "Drama" productions that much, but I'm working in an University and our students make short films. We don't quite have arri/red budgets, we have FS7's at the moment and the FX9 seems like a nice upgrade....but the only really issue I've encountered with the FS7(beyond the menus) is breaking the codec on grading. Although I guess if your starting with a better/cleaner image - the codec holds up better. 

Basically I'm looking for a camera we can afford, that I can borrow over the summer and shoot a movie on. 

Those images I posted are stills from the camera, ungraded, shot at 8000ASA.

I shot some tests before going to Sierra Leone (the ones I posted in another FX9 post from Robyn :D) and in order to break the image from the camera you have to shoot at 16000ASA, 2K and underexpose at least 3 stops.  
If you do that, you don't have any bright points and you try to recover the image, you've A LOT of noise.. that I don't really like, but as long as you have a bright point you're absolutely fine.

It is an absolutely wonderful camera!

By the way, do you know that a lot of the TV Series that you watched over the years were shot in 2K Prores 444? not raw at all ?, such as Vikings, Game Of Thrones and Penny Dreadful to name a few! 

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3 minutes ago, Igor Trajkovski said:

How much is the shutter rolling?  ?

180º most of the time although I had to shoot at 360º at one stage because I had the 2x extender and I had, literally, no image in the monitor ?, hopefully they won't use that take ?

We actually shot a lot of movement with ambulances and jeeps going from a to b and everything looked superb!

 

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7 hours ago, AJ Young said:

I shot a feature on the FS7 and it did great! The director and executive producer was happy and the film is making a profit. ? It's a parody film called Jesus, Bro!, shot in fall 2016.

I wouldn't discredit the FS7 as an honest choice for a professional narrative production if the budget can't afford anything higher than that. The FX9 has slight improvements on the FS7 and would be a perfect choice.

Jesus, Bro! looks great

I like the FS7 - I directed a short on it last year and I'm grading it now. Generally very happy, but I have to odd shot that gets a bit digital and fizzy due to the codec and perfectionist that I am... 

But at the price range (it was free) I can't complain 

The FX9 looks great but it's strange that the codec is a bit light when cheaper cameras by Panasonic and Black Magic give you more. I've been grading some Blackmagic pocket 4K stuff and in Prores HQ, there's less visible compression when you pixel peep. 

I have a low budget feature idea I'm developing and if I have to borrow gear again, it would nice to upgrade from the FS7 - so just trying to decide what camera to try and convince my employer to buy this year.  But your right the FS7 is totally fine ...

 

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Curious about that viewfinder connection on both the FS7 and the FX9.  What is that connection?  I've asked Sony in Jersey if they could make an extension to that cable and they said no.  But I mean, does anyone know what the connection is and if there's a 3rd party adaptor or extension possible.  Sometimes the cable is just like 2 or 3 inches too short and I hate the idea that if it breaks, I'm screwed without a monitor.

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11 hours ago, AJ Young said:

I shot a feature on the FS7 and it did great! The director and executive producer was happy and the film is making a profit. ? It's a parody film called Jesus, Bro!, shot in fall 2016.

I wouldn't discredit the FS7 as an honest choice for a professional narrative production if the budget can't afford anything higher than that. The FX9 has slight improvements on the FS7 and would be a perfect choice.

I think this is also a mis conception .. the fx9 is alot more than a slight improvement on the fs7 .. its a massive improvement in all ways..  brand new FF 6k back lit sensor..low light performance .. dual ISO.. much improved EVF LCD. better menu and at last TC in the camera body.. and better color science .. AF .. and buttons that need a deep press and have a light to tell you whats on or not..  weather sealing ,magnesium alloy body.. audio controls on camera body.. the list goes on .. its far more a Venice lite than an fs7 heavy ..

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4 hours ago, Michael LaVoie said:

Curious about that viewfinder connection on both the FS7 and the FX9.  What is that connection?  I've asked Sony in Jersey if they could make an extension to that cable and they said no.  But I mean, does anyone know what the connection is and if there's a 3rd party adaptor or extension possible.  Sometimes the cable is just like 2 or 3 inches too short and I hate the idea that if it breaks, I'm screwed without a monitor.

Just use the SDI for an on board monitor if you want to be able to put in anywhere ..?  I have a little small HD 5 inch SDI focus.. works well .. but there are only 2 SDI puts on the fx9.. fs7 too I think but not sure..

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