GEAR SONY FS5 II TEST
NEW LOOKS FOR OLD FAVOURITE
SONY’S INDIE WINNER The FS5 II gets upgrades tomake it even more attractive as a do-all workhorse for independent filmmakers
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
S ony has enjoyed huge significantly lower price than the FS7 II yet has the same Super35 sensor and E-mount and writes to cheap SD cards. And it can be rigged up as a full-size cinema camera or stripped down for run- and-gun use. It’s the ideal model to move up to when you’re fed up faffing with DSLR or mirrorless cameras, and it can grow with you. Of course, there’s a reason the FS7 body is more expensive – it outputs higher-quality images at higher bit rates with lots more colour information. The FS5 codec may not be the ultimate in quality, but that didn’t bother many clued-up filmmakers who invested £520/$499 in Sony’s Raw firmware which enables the option to output full-size Raw footage out of the SDI port to an external recorder. You can also simultaneously record HD footage to your FS5’s memory card, for an instant backup. And record 240fps to an external recorder without buffering, and four seconds of 120fps footage in 4K which is buffered. Like the FS7 but faster. A second £568/$499 HFR firmware upgrade also allows the camera to record 120fps continuously in HD. So that’s sales with the FS5 cinema camera, and no wonder. It’s about half the bulk and a
SPECIFICATIONS Price: £4279/ $4748 body only Sensor: Exmoor Super35 CMOS Formats: XAVC, QFHD: MP4 AVC/H.264, 4:2:0 Long profile; XAVCHD: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:2 Long profile; AVCHD: MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 AVCHD format compatible, Raw Frame rates: 1-23.98/25/29.97 QFHD, 1-23.98/25/29.97/50/ 59.94/100/120/200/240/400/ 480/800/960HD Max Bitrate at 24p: 100Mbps Storage: 2x SDXC slots Mount: Sony E ND: Built-invariable NDfilters
plus 4-stage optical ND Output: HDMI, 12G SDI ISO: 500-6400 Shutter range: 1/8-1/10,000sec (60i),
w1/6-1/10,000sec (50i/ 24p) Dynamic Range: 13.5 stops Screen: 8.8cm/3.5in LCD Audio: Integrated stereo microphones, 2x XLR inputs with phantompower support Dimensions (wxhxd): 111.3x 128.8x172.4mm/4.4x5.1x6.8in Weight: 830g/1.83lb
“The most obvious is that the camera is cheaper than the FS5 was a year ago”
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PRO MOVIEMAKER WINTER 2018
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