GEAR
SONY FX6
then they haven’t tried a full-frame, fast-aperture lens shot wide open, which can nail focus on a fast- moving car or motorbike or lock on to a subject’s eyes while they rock back and forth in a chair. The FX6 masters this with ease, once you know how to use the system. The face and eye detection is exceptionally good. There is face detection with Face Only, which only focuses when it sees a face. Face Priority focuses all the time, but gives priority to any face it detects. Up to eight faces can be detected, and you select which one to stay with via the toggle switch or touchscreen. You can set AF transition speed; fast for sports and slow for slower-moving subjects. AF subject shift sensitivity is how “sticky” the focus is – how long it locks on to a subject before finding something else to focus on. Then there’s the focus area, from a wide area to a tighter zone, and even flexible spot for the most precision. You move these areas around using a toggle switch or touch-to-focus on the touchscreen. This lets you do smooth focus pulls, too. It takes experience to know which settings work best in each different shooting situation, but if you are used to the A7 series Sony mirrorless cameras, it’s similar but not identical. The A7S III has touch tracking – where you touch the screen to identify a subject, then the AF follows it around the frame. Perhaps that will come in a firmware update or the FX6 Mark II. Even without this, the AF is superb and can be trusted in lots of different situations. It locks on to its subjects quickly and locks on. Another stunning feature on the FX6 is Sony’s Electronic Variable
any more. The only users who might want it would be for green screen or SFX, but the reality is this isn’t the target market for the FX6 anyway. The market for the camera includes larger productions who might want the FX6 as a crash cam or B camera, but the real target audience is independent filmmakers who want the cinematic, full-frame look with run-and-gun usability at a price they can afford. Many of these filmmakers have an investment in Sony E-mount glass, as fits the A7 and A9 series of mirrorless cameras, as well as Sony’s popular FS5 and FS7 range. These fit right on, and the beauty of this is the advanced AF system that uses 627 phase detection points across almost the whole frame. Along with Canon, Sony is pioneering usable autofocus for filmmakers, and the AF on the FX6 is leading the way. While many will say there is no better way than manual focusing,
ABOVE Twin card slots take either the new CFexpress Type A cards or SD cards, but these slower cards limit codec choices
HOW THE FX6 COMPARES TO THE FX9
Cinema, BT.709 and BT.2020 matrix settings. But the FX6 offers ISO up to 409,600 versus 102,400, base ISO settings of 800 and High Base of 12,800 versus the FX9’s 800/4000 Dual Base ISO, and it has zebras indicated on the waveform display. All this means the FX9
BELOW Ant officia quam erero quos si que et quas quam aut odi dolorestorum dit, ullacepudae destrunt. a radio mic slot in the XDCA adapter, ache reco ding, GPS, planning metadata, skin detail correction, adaptive recording Raw via the optional XDCA-FX9 unit. The FX6 can export 16-bit Raw straight to a recorder, but only up to 60p and it’s recorded as 12-bit. The XDCA-FX9 unit allows it to export Raw, HDMI and via two SDIs at the same time. The FX6 is Raw and HDMI only. The FX9 has QoS streaming, matrix to combat LED lighting issues, aperture correction, separate HD detail correction, adjustable white clip level, genlock, four proxy recording options and a heavy-duty locking E-mount. The FX6 has none of this. It has a single 1080p 9Mbps proxy setting and three peaking options. The FX6 has S-Cinetone, Standard, Still, ITU-709, S-Log3, HLG (live) and HLG (natural) gammas. The matrix is tied to the selected scene file/gamma curve. The FX9 adds six different Standard gammas, Hypergamma 1 to 4, 7 and 8 plus Hypergamma, S-Cinetone, Standard, FL Light,
Both full-frame Sony FX9 and FX6 cinema cameras offer 4K recording in a range of codecs, but the more expensive camera does offer certain additional features. The FX9 has a 6K sensor that’s oversampled to get the recording down to 4K and it records to XQD cards. It can also be set to a 5K crop at a maximum of 60p, and a Super 35 crop at 4K. The FX6 actually has a 4.2K sensor that records 4K up to 60p with no crop to its CFexpress Type A cards, but there is a 10% crop if you go above 60p, a 10% crop when outputting Raw and a 5% crop in C4K. There is no Super 35 mode in 4K at all. The FX9 has interlaced recording and output at up to 50/60p. There is no interlaced recording in the FX6, but it can output it to an external recorder. Where the FX6 aces the FX9 is that it can record 4K internally in 120p, and 240fps in HD – with autofocus working at all these rates. On the FX9, there is no AF in fast frame rates, it can’t shoot 4K/120p internally and can only shoot at 180fps when
still has the upper hand for productions, as well as TV broadcasters who
want interlaced footage or the ability to live stream. The FX6 is more suited to independents who value faster frame rates in-camera and easier Raw output in a lower bit rate.
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