Pro Moviemaker Summer 2020 Web

GEAR SONY FX9 TEST

EXTENDED TEST

INDIECHART-TOPPER Sony’s new full-frame FX9 is set to be the camera most independent production companies will be buying or renting

WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH

W hen Sony unveiled its all-new FX9 cinema camera, it’s fair to say the specs made for impressive reading. In theory, it featured the best of Sony’s mirrorless cameras in terms of a latest-spec, full-frame sensor ideal for high ISO performance and gloriously shallow depth-of-field. Not to mention the super-advanced hybrid autofocus system using new- school phase detection.

colour science. All for a body-only price of £12,039/$10,998, around a third the price of Sony’s Venice full- frame cinema camera. Not exactly cheap, but a bargain in comparison. We were excited to see the camera up close and get a hands-on with it when it was unveiled to a select group of journalists in London before its official unveiling at the IBC Show in Amsterdam last September. We got to have a short test with a prototype FX9, look at some

Then Sony put all that tech in a real cinema camera body with high bit rates for much-improved quality, plus all the usual benefits of a real video camera, like built-in ND filters, long battery life, professional connections such as SDI and XLR audioinputs,andgreatergonomics.A full-frame, super-advanced version of the incredibly popular FS7, you could say, with added Dual Base ISO 800/4000 from the upmarket Venice cinema camera and its S-Cinetone

ABOVE The Sony FX9 does not replace the popular FS7 series, but sits above it in the pro cinema cam line

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PRO MOVIEMAKER SUMMER 2020

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