- Today I have in front of me, another Sony camera.
Man, I feel like they really are going for the world record here
because does it, has anyone ever released this many cameras in like a single 365 days a year?
I seriously doubt it, but yet another camera the Sony FX3, which is the baby of their cinema lineup
and let's check it out, see what it's like. This is gonna be the new trend.
We actually use knives to open boxes on ShortCircuit
which is the way that it always should be.
Okay, whoa. It's actually pretty heavy. Holy, I believe this is a lens
so we'll take a look about the second, okay.
So this camera is the entry level in Sony cinema lineup.
So if you're just getting into video or are trying to operate from an older camera,
like an A7S II, this might be for you because it's essentially an A7S III
which is an already excellent camera but redesigned with a couple physical tweaks
to make it a little bit more video friendly. Okay, so we have the camera itself.
Take a look at that in a second. We have a power cable.
The battery charger, okay.
A card reader, which I actually don't think comes with the camera, but Sony sent one
so that we could actually ingest footage off this camera. Thank you, Sony.
We've got the same battery as the the A7S III. The, I think this was FZ100.
The type C cable, oops.
A memory card, again, it doesn't come with the camera
and the top handle and a shotgun mic.
Now, this top handle, I'll talk about more in a second.
Unfortunately, the shotgun mic itself
does not come with this camera, but they did send one so that we could test it,
but this is essentially the same shotgun mic that comes with the Sony K3M.
So if you're an owner, or you have ever used the Sony K3M, it's essentially the same thing
and that's what the handle is as well. And the last thing we have in this box
is Sony 24 to 105 F4
which is again, just a standard lens you'd use especially for testing on camera like this.
I've tested this lens many times and I like it a lot. Okay, let's take a look at the body itself
because that is the main thing that Sony has changed. This is mostly a physical upgrade or side grade
depending on the way you look at it. You know what, like it feels slightly heavier
than the A7S III. They are slightly different.
The A7S III grip is a little bit more rounded,
whereas the FX3's grip is a little bit more pointy
and triangular, and the A7S III horn towards
more towards the back of the head, whereas I feel like the grip of the FX3's
a stronger grip on the front of the camera which I think I like better
but I'm curious to why they would change that. I mean, I guess it's maybe because you would use this camera
without a cage a lot of the time because as you can see here,
it's got quarter 20 points all over the body. One on the left, one on the right, three on the top
and the idea is you don't necessarily need to use a cage
for this camera, even though you could very easily but unlike the A7S III
which has no quarter 20 points on the body, you have to put a cage like this on it
which adds a significant amount of weight. But with both topics handle's installed
let's see how much each weighs.
Okay, so the FX3 weighs 2.26 pounds
and this A7S with a tripod plate of course,
weighs 2.8 pounds and this actually has the audio module and this does not.
So you are saving quite a bit of weight if you don't need the amount of quarter 20 points
that you get from a cage set up like this. Let's look at the rest of the differences
between these two cameras. So on the top of the cameras they've changed the layout of the buttons.
There's no dial like on the A7S III, you just have a larger record button, which I appreciate
and a button for iris white balance in ISO which you could set as custom buttons
on the A7S but you only have one custom button here
and the dials on the top and the back.
So I think that the labeled button approach here it's actually quite nice
and a even quicker way to access things from the top of the camera,
and then instead of power, they've added a zoom rocker here,
which I really like because you can map it to clear image zoom and just get that extra punch in
really easily from the grip without having to let go of the camera at all.
So you could zoom in on the longest end of your lens and if you need a little bit more range,
you can do the clear images zoom here, or it works with Sony's servo cine lenses like that 16 to 35
that I checked out in the FX6 video a while back.
So you can control full servo on a camera this small
and the fact that they just put it in this little zoom rocker is pretty awesome.
Now the body itself has this gray styling versus the black that they typically go with
for the A7S III which is the same as the FX3 and the FX9 and the VENICE,
so they've just tried to make it look as close to those cameras as possible yet it's still in
a very very tiny form factor. For kicks, I'm just going to actually put the 24 to 78
that we have here on this camera to see how they feel.
This lens is not light but the setup is so compact.
Mount stuff here, you can mount two more things here. You can mount something here and to the right of the camera.
If you're smart about your cable management and your accessory choices
you really don't need to Mount that much more. This is probably one of the most
running gun cameras available. Now on to the rest of the changes.
The, on the right of the camera the SD card slot is exactly the same.
So you have SD and Cf express type A
data rates are exactly the same since both cameras use the same processor and sensor.
On the left of the camera, the IO, whoa.
On the left of the camera, you have different IO doors so instead of the HDMI dropping down on the FX3,
the HDMI just flips up. It's a smaller door and it's a little bit more secure.
I actually almost forgot, they've added a fan so there's two new slots on the camera.
One on the left here, and then another one on the bottom.
If you can see that right there. You get completely uninterrupted 60P recording
which I've never really had an issue on our A7S III, but I haven't used it like for three hours at a time,
but if you are the type of person who shoots 60 FPS for let's say six hours or more,
you could very easily get all of that time with no interruption or overheating issues on this camera
and still have no real noise issues, but if the fan ever does become a noise issue for you,
you can turn it off in the settings. It's fairly quiet and the really cool thing about it
is it's still weather sealed. Oh, before I forget, one of the things that they changed
about the top of the camera that I am not a hundred percent sure I like,
is they've moved the date joystick control to right here
on the right corner of the camera which some people might like shooting from the hip.
You can control the menus fairly easily without changing
and looking like this way or going like there's no EVF now. So, or looking through that,
but when you're using the LCD on the back
having the joystick on the top is actually kind of annoying.
Some people might like that change. I personally, I'm not sure I like it
but they are trying something with it. On the bottom of the FX3,
even though it's a cinema line camera, I am disappointed to not see a second quarter 20
or three eights mount on the bottom because Sony, if people put a tripod plate
on the bottom of his camera it will likely twist
because there isn't a second mounting point. Not something that any person
who uses a camera for any period of time will like, because that will be one of those annoying fixes
that you have to do mid shoot and then let's move on to the back of the camera.
On the A7S III, you see that it's ISO
the self-timer continuous shooting or display by default
and then they've actually made video settings the priority here. So on the control wheel, you've got display,
peaking, shutter and zebras, which is just, again, more for video people.
All those features would be very quick to access
right out of the box with this camera. Whereas you have to configure the control wheel
in the A7S III to be different. Next two buttons, we have the FN for all the quick settings in the menu.
You can just change your slow motion really fast or change your picture profile or your zebra rating.
You've got focus magnification. So really quick punch in which you can do while rolling.
I'm surprised more cameras still can't do that. Like RED, can you guys do that,
punch in while recording, people do long interviews. The play and then you have another macro
that you can set to something else. On the top left of this camera
they've actually changed the power button. So now it's a slider, which is more similar to the FX6
which I think I prefer because it feels more solid overall.
On the rear of the camera, there is also a tally a large tally light at the top of this LCD here
and then you get this mode dial, which is in replacement of the mode dial
that's on the top of the A7S III which I prefer this button a lot more
because as soon as you click it, you can just touch screen away
and you can, or you can just cycle this and you get the mode that you want a lot faster,
instead of having to look at the top of the camera, press this down and especially since we're using a cage
on our A7S III, it's actually sort of annoying to press this down.
And the last little change on the front here is you have a record button
on the front of the body and it's also a sixth custom key
so you can set it to something else, and I think that's pretty much it on the physical side,
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So here's a couple of clips from videos that I used the FX3 to shoot this week
and honestly, I was really impressed by the usability improvements
because when I was packing especially, I grabbed the camera, I grabbed a lens,
I grabbed my memory cards and batteries, this top handle and that's it.
Even though they're very similar cameras and I like packing both of them
because they're both really easy to pack, I will say that the FX3 was easier out of the box,
especially since we don't personally own a Sony K3M and so the fact that this top handle
is included with this camera is a huge plus. If you shoot stills with the A7S III, as well as video,
the lack of the EVF might bother you,
but personally, I didn't really miss it. The fact that you also use a small LCD on this camera
if you don't like using smallest LCDs and you want to use an external monitor,
then that makes the setup larger and you sort of don't get the benefits
of the fact that this is such a small form factor already.
Considering this is the entry level in the cinema line of Sony's cameras,
I'm a little bit disappointed that they didn't figure out a way to include shutter angle
because I was using the slow motion modes and this is a gripe I have with the A7S III as well
that neither camera has shutter angle. For those of you who don't know the benefits
of shutter angle, when you switch between a standard recording mode like 24 FPS or 30 FPS
and then you shoot at 60 FPS or 120 FPS,
if you're using shutter angle you don't have to change your shutter at all.
You just don't touch it. Whereas if you're using shutter speed, every time you change your frame rate,
you have to adjust the shutter speed to match almost every other camera we have in the office,
the REDs, the Blackmagic's have shutter angle and that could be the difference,
especially if you're trying to capture something fast between getting your shot in slow motion properly
or missing it. So Sony, I don't know if there's a way
for you guys to do it, in all of your future cameras even the mirrorless ones, please add shutter angle
because if you want this to be a cinema line camera
I think that's what would complete it. You might be asking who is this camera for?
If you bought the A7S III in July, 2020
then it is unlikely that the FX3 is for you
because you've probably figured out your setup or maybe you bought a Sony K3M
which would give you the audio features that this has built in in the box.
But if you're still looking for a camera
you want something that is amazingly light and a body that is made for the cinema professional
in terms of layout and buttons and things like the tally light,
then this camera might be for you because out of the box it is more usable than the A7S III.
It is $400 more expensive but that is a pretty solid one value
because all you need to do is add a shotgun mic, memory, batteries and you're good to shoot.
So I don't think that many people who own an A7S III already
are gonna go out and pick up this camera but as an entry level to Sony cinema lineup,
honestly I think it's a welcome addition because when I was shooting with it this week,
I quite enjoyed it. It was an easy to use camera, pretty smooth.
A couple of gripes about things like the joystick but all in all a good addition.
So thank you guys for watching. If you guys have any other cameras you want me to check out
please leave the comments down below and please subscribe.