This is the Sony FX3, and this video is gonna be
one of my easiest camera reviews ever, because I've already
reviewed this camera, just in a different outer shell.
Let's get Undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody?! I'm Gerald Undone
and I micromanage macro details.
Okay, as usual some disclosure: Sony lent me this FX3
to make this video, I do not get to keep 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 a sponsor though, and that's Storyblocks.
Now as you've probably already deduced from my intro
and the title of this video, the FX3 is essentially
the same camera as the a7S III, but I want to add some clarity
to that assertion to prevent any misunderstanding.
When I say the FX3 is the same camera as the a7S III,
I don't mean for all intents and purposes it functions the same,
I mean it literally has the exact same camera
inside of this chassis.
It's the same sensor, processor,
LCD screen, IBIS system, card slots, UI, etc.
That means you're getting exactly the same
image, recording modes, codecs,
battery, powering options, and port functionality.
From an end result standpoint, it's the same camera.
There are differences, but they are entirely based
on ergonomics and design. So, let's talk about those now.
First off, it's grey which more closely matches the rest of
the FX line, and it does have a different on/off switch.
It's now on the back and it looks like the FX6's,
instead of wrapping around the shutter button.
Because that is now a zoom control, which is
actually pretty cool, and you can even use it
for clear image zoom if you want.
But honestly, that's where the similarities
between this camera and the FX series stop.
Going back to it being an a7S III,
that means it does not have shutter angle,
DCI 4K, true 24p, ND filters,
or even face-only autofocus, all of which are features
we get on the FX6 and FX9, but not on the FX3.
Those not being here make this camera feel more
like a cosmetic-only addition to the cinema line.
It does have tally lights on the front and back though,
which is nice, and they are configurable in the menu.
And the biggest change from the a7S III
is probably the fact that this camera now has a fan.
The vents for that fan apparently will not compromise
your weather sealing, and the fan is also configurable
in the menu allowing for several modes including completely off.
What's great about this is that if you turn the fan
completely off the camera essentially operates like
an a7S III with regard to heat dissipation,
which for me was always problem-free.
But if you're someone who tends to operate their camera
in much hotter environments, or if you had problems
with the a7S III you now have the option to enable the fan,
which will help with cooling and is actually very quiet.
I forgot I even had it on during a few of my tests.
Actually, here. Have a listen. Turn the camera on...
Yeah, it's so quiet.
I'm going to put this right up to the microphone.
[low wind rushing]
[sound dissipating]
[low wind rushing]
To be honest, I can't even hear it
holding it this far away.
Now again, I had no issues with my a7S III overheating,
but it's nice to see that they went the extra mile
for reliability here, given that a cinema line product
should suggest reliability in my opinion.
There are a couple other small changes to the menu:
Just like the Alpha 1, the power save start time can now
be set to never allow the camera to go to sleep.
This is a new change to the last two Sony cameras,
whereas cameras prior to that had a 30-minute maximum
for that setting.
And other than that the menu is exactly the same
except for the fact that there's no viewfinder options,
because this camera doesn't have an electronic viewfinder.
But it does still have the same photo modes as the a7S III.
You just access them using this mode button
on the back now, instead of a top dial.
So, this camera is very capable of taking
the same 12MP stills as the Sony a7S III,
but you'll be forced to use the LCD screen, which as I mentioned
is the same fully-articulating panel from the a7S III.
And despite the rest of the menu being the same,
you cannot copy settings from an a7S III
to the FX3 if you were planning to do that.
One benefit this camera does have by not being
too much like the FX6 or FX9 though,
is that it uses the a7S III's white balance tool,
which is so much better than the cinema line alternatives.
It's very accurate with precise control,
and as expected it calculates the white balance
exactly the same as the a7S III, so you can set them
identically if you're mixing those two cameras.
And the same is true for colour in general.
The images out of this camera are identical to the a7S III's.
Same colour science, same skin tones,
and exactly the same dynamic range.
I busted out the Xyla 21 from DSC Labs to test
the dynamic range just to make sure,
and I got the same result as the a7S III.
But more on that later because I want to update you
on my dynamic range tests in general
at the end of this video.
The only difference pertaining to colour
is that the FX3 has S-Cinetone,
which I've been asking Sony to add to the a7S III
for a while now, and I feel like its inclusion on the FX3 all
but guarantees that we'll see it added to the a7S III soon,
because this proves that there are no barriers preventing it
since the cameras are fundamentally the same.
So, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an update
from Sony shortly announcing S-Cinetone for the a7S III.
And at that point, there will be no differences
between the images these two cameras can produce.
Now there are some other differences to the body.
The record button is bigger and illuminated.
The joystick is on top, which is weird if you take
a photographers grip, and only really works if
you shoot more from the hip and rotate
your wrist up to compensate. The rest of the controls
are mostly the same, but they've changed the default
assignments for the buttons to prioritize video
such as adding peaking and zebra controls to the d-pad.
And the ports are all the same, but this camera
doesn't come with that HDMI bracket thing
that the a7S III came with, so out of the box,
your HDMI port is actually less protected on the FX3.
There is a mounting hole directly above it though,
so perhaps a 3rd party accessory will address that in the future.
Actually, there's quite a few mounting points on this body.
There's five 1/4-20s spread across the top,
two of which are used to attached the included
top handle, which first slides into
the multi interface shoe and is then screwed down.
The handle then replaces those two now occupied holes with
three new ones on the grip,
and of course also includes the audio interface.
Now this module is effectively the XLR-K3M that many people,
including myself, are currently using with their a7S III.
There are three differences though.
First, there's a selector switch on the side
of the handle to enable or disable the K3M part
without needing to remove the handle, which is smart.
This basically switches between the analogue 3.5mm port built
into the body and the digital audio from the module.
You cannot use both at the same time.
But there is a 3.5mm port on the K3M
that you can use while the handle is activated.
Secondly, unlike the actual XLR-K3M
there's no selector switch on this module
for analogue and digital.
It just always appears to be in digital mode.
And lastly, the big one, the microphone
that comes with the XLR-K3M is not included
with this camera, it's just the interface.
As you might expect, the audio from this thing
sounds exactly like the K3M, but here,
have a listen to both, while I switch back and forth
between this one and the XLR-K3M on my Sony a7S III
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Now while we're talking about audio, I wanted
to provide a little update to the 24-bit
audio codec issue I raised in my a7S III follow-up video.
I mentioned that the 24-bit audio from the K3M was not
playing back in most NLEs, save for the latest beta of Premiere.
Well, since then DaVinci Resolve
has added support for that codec.
So, if you edit in Resolve,
you can safely use the 24-bit audio from either
of these cameras now without needing
to rewrap your audio file. So, that's good.
And lastly, before we conclude, I wanted
to tell you a bit more about my dynamic range update.
I was talking with Gunther from CineD
the other day about the occasional half-stop
disparity between our different dynamic range test results
and thanks to Gunther's suggestions,
I made some tweaks to the way I run my tests
in order to better match the results that CineD gets.
This should make it easier to compare our results
more usefully moving forward, but this of course means
that my results are about half a stop
more conservative now than they used to be,
placing both the a7S III and the FX3 around 12.5 stops
in S-Log3 instead of the 13 stops I originally measured.
The dynamic range of the cameras didn't change of course,
and they are both still excellent, it's just
the scoring system that's been revised.
Interestingly though, when I reran the Alpha 1 test,
it still scored very high at 13.1 stops.
This is likely due to the noise improvement that comes
from oversampling and/or binning 8K footage.
But I was impressed by this result considering I was using
the new, more challenging, CineD method.
Anyway, just wanted to throw in that update,
but now let's wrap up and talk about value on the FX3.
So, overall, I like this camera. I mean, of course I do.
I called the a7S III a technical masterpiece,
so how can I not love this camera,
it's an a7S III but more video focused.
I really like the body design.
I think it's functional and looks great.
I like the top handle, the port doors,
and the texture of the chassis.
My only complaint would be that they didn't
lean hard enough into the videocentric aspects
to make this camera serve a real purpose.
Without DCI 4K, true 24p, or shutter angle,
why should you even care about this camera
over the a7S III, which is cheaper?
Now if the FX3 was cheaper, it'd be a no brainer.
But currently it's a more expensive body
without a viewfinder, so what it really comes
down to is if you need that audio module.
If you were planning on buying the a7S III and the XLR-K3M,
and don't use the viewfinder, then the FX3
will actually save you a couple hundred bucks,
and in that case, it's the right call, but if not,
you should probably just stick to the a7S III.
Sony told me their concept for this camera was to give
people a more accessible starting point to their FX line,
perhaps before that target user had the budget or confidence
to move up to an FX6 or FX9, they could start here.
And there definitely are some design elements here
that remind me of the FX6,
but I don't think that it's quite enough to call
this part of the cinema line.
It's still definitely as good of a camera as it was when
I reviewed the a7S III back in July, but there's
just not really anything new here to get excited about.
[gentle chiming]
[beeping]
Peter! How's it going?
-Hey man! How's it go-- -[wracking cough]
All right, listen up. I'm working
on my FX3 video right now
and it's a little bit shorter than I wanted it to be
so I figured, you know, we should extend the run time
a little bit, but I didn't have anything else to talk about
so I thought I would give you a call. You've got the FX3, right?
Oh, yeah, I've been using it for about a week, so...
Are you going to post a video same day--
Are you going to post a video, I guess, today
Are my viewers going to see a video from you today?
-Absolutely. -So, I'd love to hear
your thoughts on the camera. Just need to, you know,
extend the runtime a little bit.
So, what do you think of the FX3 so far?
Well, I think it's a great camera,
but there's this one thing that no one else is talking about
and that is especially--
Okay, you know what, Peter, that's perfect!
That's all I needed from you, I think that we...
we've got all the time we needed. Really appreciate
your help and I will catch you later, buddy.
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found this video
entertaining or at least helpful. And if you did,
make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.