GEAR SONY FX9 TEST
WHENWORLDS COLLIDE FS7 REPLACEMENT
Sony’s alpha mirrorless tech mixes with a cinema camera in the flagship full-frame FX9
WORDS & IMAGES ADAM DUCKWORTH
Y oumay be a lover of Sony’s A7 series of mirrorless cameras, with their full- frame sensors for great low light performance and shallow depth of field, and an advanced autofocus that really works for video use. But the chances are that you may have also looked longingly at the advantages of a true cinema camera with Raw output and high bitrates for maximumquality, plus professional multi-channel XLR audio inputs, great ergonomics, long battery life, fast frame rates and built-in ND filters. Maybe it was the smaller Super35 sensor and clunky AF performance that had you scared tomake the big leap.
Youmay be a committed Sony cinema camera user, perhaps owner of an FS5 or FS7 Mark I or II, who just can’t manage without all the professional features of a real video camera such as four-channel audio. Maybe you would love a full-frame sensor, but the price of Sony’s full- frame Venice cine camera is well out of your price bracket, and changing systems to Canon, Red or Arri would cost evenmore. Perhaps you are yearning to have a go at using the latest autofocus systems with the fast and precise phase detection that owners of A7 cameras rave about, with fast action tracking and face detection that would give even the best focus pullers in the business a
run for their money. Well, luckily for you, Sony has taken the best from the worlds of mirrorless and cinema cameras and revealed a new, full- frame camcorder. The FX9 possesses a form factor similar to the FS7, but also has a large 6K sensor and Fast Hybrid Auto Focus systemborrowed from the A7 and A9mirrorless cameras. To this, Sony has added in Dual Base ISO 800/4000 from the Venice for even better low-light performance, and its S-Cinetone colour science tomake the matching up of footage easy between the two cameras. Hot on the heels of the full- frame Canon C500Mark II launched a week earlier, the new Sony camcorder is set to be significantly cheaper at around £12,000/$11,000 body only. That’s a fair chunk of change, but with the new Canon at £17,000/$16,000 and other cameras such as the Sony Venice, Canon C700FF, RedWeapon or Arri LF costing a considerable amount more, you could say it’s a bit of a bargain
BELOW A fully rigged- up FX9 was used to shoot a pop video. The prototype cameras were black but production versions are dark grey
50
PRO MOVIEMAKER WINTER 2019
Powered by FlippingBook