This is the FX30,
which is essentially an FX3 with an APS-C-sized sensor.
But what makes it interesting is
that it's less than half the price
of the full-frame FX3, without sacrificing too much
when it comes to quality and features.
Let's get undone.
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody?
I'm Gerald Undone, and I'm choppin' broccoli.
Alright, for disclosure,
Sony lent me this camera for review
as well as some of the new APS-C lenses.
I don't get to keep any of it, no money changed hands,
and Sony does not get any input on this video's production,
or get to preview it before it's posted.
This video does have an actual sponsor though,
and that's Storyblocks.
And for the bulk of this video, I'm going to assume
that you have some basic knowledge of the FX3.
And if you don't, I highly encourage you
to watch my review of that,
and perhaps some other videos on the latest 2.0 firmware,
for the FX3, because this new camera is featuring all
of the same updates that the FX3 got,
which means you've got CineEI mode, separated log shooting,
the new Main at-a-glance menu pages
for quick setting adjustments,
and the new display layout with smaller,
more pertinent details framed nicely around the 16x9 image.
For those of you that are unfamiliar with the FX3,
these cameras have a video-first design
with the buttons labeled
and mapped for useful video functions
on a body that slightly resembles a hybrid camera,
but with no viewfinder.
It does have a shutter button and can be switched
to photo mode, but there's no mechanical shutter,
and the photo features definitely come second
in design priority.
So don't buy this for photography,
but know that you can take pictures in a pinch if needed.
Just like the FX3, it features 1/4-20 mounting holes
on several locations on the body,
two of which can be used to secure the optional XLR module,
which is identical to the one that ships with the FX3.
And it also has a fan to combat overheating.
The body is seriously indistinguishable from the FX3.
Same memory card slots, ports, button layout, and battery.
And speaking of overheating the battery,
I did some rundown tests in 4K24, 4K60, and 4K120.
For 4K24, I recorded for 2 hours and 4 minutes,
in 4K60, it was 1 hour and 33 minutes,
and in 4K120 it was 1 hour and 24 minutes.
And in all three cases it was the battery that died.
The camera never overheated or even showed a warning.
And this was with the heat threshold set to high
and the fan set to auto.
And the fan stayed very quiet even after an hour
of 4K120 recording.
Now there are some differences in those recording modes.
This is a 26 megapixel APS-C sensor,
which means you're getting that default 1.5x crop
when comparing your field of view to a full frame camera.
But in the case of the 24, 30,
and 60 frames per second modes,
that 1.5x crop is oversampled from the 6K sensor,
but in the 120p mode it crops in even further
by another 1.5x to give you a 1:1 pixel readout.
I find I was actually closer to 1.55x.
Basically, the only way this camera can keep up
with 120 fps is to crop in even further,
which is going to make your shot seem drastically tighter
if switching from an FX3, for example, at 120p
to the FX30 with the same lens.
However, you are still getting a proper 4K image
on that 120p and it still looks great.
And I like that the image is oversampled
and has consistent framing between 24 and 60 fps,
which was my biggest complaint about the a7 IV.
Actually, my biggest complaint about the a7 IV,
was the rolling shutter,
and thankfully this camera has much better performance
in that regard.
It's not quite as fast as the FX3
or the stacked APS-C sensor of the Fuji X-H2S,
but it sits somewhere in between those
and the a7 IV.
This is also a huge improvement
from the previous APS-C cameras from Sony
that all had serious Jell-o problems.
While I would have liked to see this match the XH2-S,
this result is still acceptable considering
how much cheaper it is than the cameras that outperform it.
It does inherit some positives from the a7 IV though,
like the excellent USB streaming protocol,
and the focus breathing compensation,
which by the way I'm still waiting, Sony,
for it to be added to the a1, a7S III, and FX3.
Now beyond those new pages at the top of the menu,
the rest of the menu is similar to the
other recent Sony cameras
with just a couple items shifted around
or named differently.
That USB streaming for example is now down
in "Network" instead of in "Shooting,"
but it still features the 1080p30 or 60 options
we saw in the a7 IV and the simultaneous recording function,
which might just make this camera the best choice
for a top quality webcam without spending the extra money
on the a7 IV, but keeping it's convenience.
I've been using the a7 IV as my webcam and love it,
but I don't see any reason not to just get this instead
and save the money.
And you can run it nearly indefinitely on USB-C
with power delivery.
Okay, so this is just a little test
of the webcam functionality.
Here I am in my home office, which actually,
as you can see, has been converted into a bit
of a nursery.
We just had a new baby boy three weeks ago,
and so if you're not happy with the quality
of this review, you can blame him.
For anybody who's a new parent
and still making YouTube videos,
kudos to you because it is quite challenging.
I find it very different to make this review, as usual.
Anyway, on the, so right here, I've got the camera set up,
and all you need is this USB cord
that connects to a USB-C, and then it does the rest
there's a prompt that shows up on the screen.
You choose yes to USB streaming,
and then that's pretty much it.
And it looks great, and it's got the eye-tracking autofocus,
so it keeps me in focus.
The only thing I would say is that this lens,
I think, is the 10-20 f/4, and I've got it at 18 or 19mm,
is I wish that it was faster.
When I was using the a7 IV in this position,
even though the quality was the same,
because I was able to use longer lenses
I could get a shallower depth of field,
which I think would be better to blur out some
of this background for the Zoom calls
and, you know, marketing calls that I do.
It'd be nice to sort of blur that out.
So if I were to do it with this camera,
I'd probably put like a 1.4 or 1.8 lens on there
to achieve that result.
But other than that, I think that the image looks great
and I'm pretty happy with it.
Autofocus performance felt identical to the a7 IV to me.
It has the same subject detection options
for human, bird, and animal,
and the tracking is very sticky and reliable.
This is an improvement over the FX3
and brings it on par with the a1 and a7 IV
from my experience.
It's able to pick up an eye or face
when it's very small in the frame
and it can keep tracking even when pushed
to six stops over or under exposed.
The stabilization options are the same as well.
We have standard and active.
I wouldn't say that I noticed a huge difference
in the stabilization compared to the full-frame cameras,
even though the sensor is smaller,
so I'd say whatever opinion you had
of recent Sony image stabilization is
likely to remain unchanged here.
Keep in mind though,
that active stabilization requires additional crop,
which means you can't use it in the 120p mode,
as you're already shooting 1:1.
But you can still use the standard stabilization
and you can use active all the way up to 4K60.
Let's do a little vlog test here,
to examine the autofocus, rolling shutter
and that stabilization all at once.
Now for this, I've got the three new APS-C lenses
from Sony.
Figured we'd give one of those a try.
Normally when I do a vlog in full-frame,
I shoot 20mm.
I like that field of view the best,
which I think the closest that we're gonna get here is
probably this 15mm 1.4,
which would be kind of like a 22.5mm, full-frame,
field of view equivalent.
Hm, I don't know.
With active stabilization on, this is still pretty tight
and I have to hold it at full arm's length
in order to like this shot.
Let's try the 11mm instead.
Alternatively, they do have the 10 to 20,
which is great because it also, for those that don't know,
the FX3 and the FX30 in these cameras,
the lever on the shutter button is a zoom toggle,
and it's the same on the FX30,
so when you use the 10-20 power zoom or any power zoom lens,
then this will activate the lens.
And the this, obviously,
we could get pretty much match the 20mm directly,
because we have that zoom range.
This is a good option.
This is f/4.
Okay, this is the 11mm, 1.8, which is now wider
than I'm used to.
I think my ideal APS-C lens would be like a 13.5.
Again, that's why you can use a 10-20
and zoom where you want it.
But yeah, we'll use this one.
This is the 11mm 1.8.
Okay, vlog test.
What have I got to do to get a sunny day?
I've been waiting all week to try and test this thing
and it's been cloudy and rainy all week.
So, you'll have to excuse any of the muted colors.
But this actually makes
for an interesting dynamic range test with the metering.
So I've got the metering set up here for face priority.
And I'm actually shooting an S-Log3,
which, generally for S-Log3, I don't like to auto-meter,
I like to set my exposure, but we can get a good check
to see how well it can balance face and sky,
and keep the sky.
Because it's overcast, we're gonna get kind of like a
relatively uniform high exposure up here
and low exposure down, if I get in the shadow here,
this is kind of like the low.
And I'll get the face getting hit a little bit
if I step forward.
And there's no zebras here.
So this is probably like, high, high skin tone,
but there's no zebras there.
So it should be a good balancing act for this camera.
So I'm using the 11mm lens here.
Let's start off with standard stabilization,
which is what this is.
So this should be unlikely to do any warpy stuff,
but will it be stable enough?
I'm just walking heavy-footed, not trying too hard.
And I'm holding the camera at about two-thirds arm length
on the SwitchPod here.
Okay, here we go again, exact same walk,
but now with active stabilization.
Also, I've got the autofocus and it's been pinned
to my eye this entire time and doesn't seem to be losing it.
Anyway, let's put all this together.
The rolling shutter, the stabilization in active mode,
and the autofocus, and just do an overall test
while you evaluate it,
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Alright, let's talk dynamic range.
Sony claims 14 stops of dynamic range
when shooting in S-Log3, so naturally,
I busted out the Xyla 21 and tested it.
And yes, I can confirm that Imatest was able
to detect 14 stops in each of the tests I ran.
That's the top number here next to Slope-based DR.
This sensor has dual base ISOs at 800 and 2500.
And the results at both ISOs are consistent,
which is good and expected.
But I also like to use Imatest to tell us
how many clean stops we get when looking
into the noisier shadows.
So if we use the 0.5-row score,
which gives a signal noise ratio of 2,
we get a result of 11.3.
I ran this test multiple times in Flexible ISO
and CineEI mode, and all of my results were
in that low 11-stop zone, with the average being 11.2.
This result is decent, not excellent, but decent.
It puts it below the newer full-frame Sonys,
and somewhere between the GH6 with dynamic range boost on,
and the X-H2S in 14-bit mode.
But again, at a much better price point than any
of those cameras.
However, just like with the X-H2S,
the noise is handled nicely on this FX30.
It doesn't seem as reduced in camera as some
of Sonys full-frame options, giving us a more pure image
with more potential in post.
So, just like with my X-H2S review,
I ran some noise reduction on it to see
how well those 14 potential stops cleaned up.
And using just modest settings
with the built-in noise reduction tool in DaVinci Resolve,
I saw the usable dynamic range jump from 11.3 to 13.1 stops.
And while it is slightly more limited
that its full-frame counterparts,
it wasn't as different as I expected to see
when comparing high contrast scenes.
That being said, high ISO performance is
definitely gonna favor the bigger sensors,
where I can usually shoot beyond ISO 12,800
with no issues, but on the FX30, ISO 12,800 was
noticeably noisier and the image gets pretty rough
if you push beyond that.
However, color shifts are well maintained moving
through the ISO range and the 10-bit codec options
on this camera perform well.
You have all of the familiar picture profile selections,
including S-Cinetone, for a very pleasing
and accurate straight-out-of-camera look,
but you'll notice that profiles seven, eight,
and nine have been removed from the list
and moved to the Log Shooting menu,
just like the 2.0 firmware on the FX3.
However, you can still customize any profile preset
to use S-Log3, if you prefer to do it that way,
without turning on Log mode in the camera.
The camera is using the latest and greatest of Sony colors,
which do well to balance accurate color
with pleasing skin tones.
And there are plenty of LUTs and transforms available
for S-Log3 to convert your footage quickly and easily.
However, I am noticing that this camera seems
to steer a bit closer to the FX3 colors
and a bit further from the a7 IV.
So if you want to match to the photo-hybrids,
you might need to do a slight hue rotate,
but less correction will likely be required
to match the other cine cameras.
Interestingly, though, this might be Sony's best camera
to date, when it comes to rendering vivid,
but accurate, greens.
It's a minor difference, but when you stare
at vectorscopes as much as I do, it's something you notice.
I've also found the LCD screen to have punchier colors too.
The oranges in the menu are more red,
and the entire panel has less of that slight, yellow-tinted,
gray haze to it, which I actually found made
for a clearer image and nicer shooting experience.
Again, minor differences though.
And speaking of that LCD screen, it still has
that quirk that all Sony cameras have
where if you use an external monitor
and put your on-screen display info on the external display,
the camera's LCD turns off.
This is annoying as it would be nice
to have both remain enabled.
But currently, as with most of the Sony cameras,
you can only have both screens on
if you're outputting a clean feed to the external display.
Actually, the more I look at this screen,
I was just doing a comparison with the a7S III screen
to check to see what the dynamic range was like
when it comes to face metering with the sky behind,
and holding the two cameras side by side,
although I do agree that the FX30 is clearer
and the colors are a bit more red and more vibrant
in the menu, the sky's looking a little bit magenta.
So it's possible one of the trade-offs
of those other results is that
now I'm getting a bit more magenta.
Now side by side, I don't know which one is more accurate
but I feel like I'm used to the other Sony screen so much
that this one looks a bit too magenta.
Maybe it's right, maybe the other one's wrong,
but just something to keep in mind
that if you are using this camera alongside another one,
that the screens aren't gonna match perfectly
when it comes to your whites.
When it comes to actually recording video,
as I mentioned, it uses the same dual card slots
as the FX3, a1, a7S III, et cetera.
So two SD and two CFexpress Type A slots.
And card speed requirements are the same,
because the codecs and bitrates are also the same.
I did some comparisons between the FX30,
a7 IV and FX3 to see if I could notice much difference
in image detail, considering
that this new camera is oversampling
in most modes to a greater degree than the FX3.
And yes, I think it does appear a bit sharper in some cases,
but it's nothing too drastic.
I'd say the a7 IV looks a few percent better
than the FX30, which in turn looks a few percent better
than the FX3, but again, we're pixel peeping here,
and the FX3's advantages in rolling shutter
and dynamic range are much more important
than the sharpness it lacks, comparatively.
But that faster rolling shutter
and better dynamic range are also going
to cost you significantly more money than the FX30.
So again, this feels fair.
Lastly, when it comes to audio,
like I mentioned earlier,
you've got the same XLR option as the FX3,
but what's great about the FX30 is that you don't need
to buy this bundle if you don't want.
So you can save yourself $400 by getting just the camera,
which is a great choice for people who plan
to record externally or just want
to mount a shotgun mic in the shoe.
And because the top port is Sony's multi-interface shoe,
you can use the K3M module or the other digital mics
that Sony offers as well.
And if you already own an FX3, you can swap
your XLR module between the cameras without issue.
And the body itself has 3.5mm ports
for microphone in and headphone out,
so you can manage audio that way too.
But here, let's set up a little audio test,
using the XLR handle.
(dials click)
(finger snaps)
Okay, so, we are now recording from our regular mic,
which is the Sennheiser MKH50 via XLR,
just unplugged it from my Zoom F6
and plugged it in here, and I'm recording
in the FX30 to the card.
And this is what it sounds like.
I'm not gonna do any processing,
so it might sound a little bit different
than my regular Zoom F6 recordings
because I'm not putting my EQ and noise reduction on it,
this is just straight, into the recorder,
what it sounds like.
This mic sounds pretty good generally though,
it just might have a little bit more noise,
which is important to not remove any noise
so we can talk about the fan noise.
This is what it sounds like
when you're just recording normally.
I can hear it if I put it right to my ear,
but otherwise I can't even hear it this far away.
This is what it sounds like.
(air noise fades)
See how quickly it kind of just dissipated?
Like said earlier, when I was rolling
with 4K120 for an hour,
it probably didn't sound much louder than this.
So I really don't think that fan noise is anything
you have to worry about.
Alright, to wrap up, I think this is a great option
for video shooters.
There are very few trade-offs between this
and the much more expensive full-frame options,
or even the more expensive APS-C offerings,
like the Fuji X-H2S.
And in some aspects, like versus the a7 IV,
this camera actually outpaces it
with faster frame rates
and better rolling shutter performance.
The Fuji pulls ahead with its stacked sensor
and more robust photo features,
but if you're only shooting video,
this camera offers a more compelling value.
And in a landscape where every new camera seems
to be well over $2000, it's nice to see such a useful,
and non-artificially-limited body,
come to the market at a reasonable price.
Alright... I'm done.