Sony to officially reveal 4K XDCAM 'FS700-successor' on 12th September

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Well I personally do rave about the C300 ergonomics. I guess it's personal prefernces but the C300 is the most well-designed camera I've used, ever.

When it comes to camera ergonomics, what do I want?
First I pick up the camera, I want to find an ergonomic handgrip to take my hand, then I want the camera to be balanced and light.
Then I turn on the camera, I want to set exposure, I look at the screen waveform, and make the iris, gain changes without taking my hand off the grip. Then I want to focus, I look at the screen peaking or press mag. on the grip and focus without taking my hand off the grip. Then I frame and press rec., again under my index finger on the grip.

It's the perfect design, you look at the screen (which is bright and can be positioned anywhere at any angle), make the changes with your fingers on the grip, and press record. I never find myself searching for something and looking around the camera like when using Sony's.

The ND filters are in the perfect place and feel exactly right. And when I want to address audio, it's all there perfectly laid-out on the top of the camera in an isolated chambre, where the microphone, xlr inputs, controls and cables are up there away from interferring with my shooting.

Perhaps it's because I never used it on my shoulder, maybe it is a bad shoulder camera, but as far as non-shoulder cameras go, this is the perfect design. It's being adverstised and mostly used as a handheld camcorder not as an ENG-shoulder camera. If it were designed for that it would have to be much longer, have the viewfinder on the left side of the camera closer to the mount, have a shoulder pad and more controls on the right side, like say an Amira.

The magic of the C300 is that you pick it up, turn on, shoot. No rigs, no external evfs, recorders, battery solutions, monitors, matteboxes, nothing, just the camera and lens and you can go all day. That's why the broadcast people love it.

I hope the new Sony inherets any of the C300 ergonomics.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

By the way, about Sony, I've only encountered the FS100 once, but I remember I was saying "hey this is not as bad as the internet people make it seem!"

I mean as a camera, there is nothing hediously wrong about it, it's actually very nice in weight, size, balance, build-feel, and has all the buttons/inputs one needs and a pretty decent grip. Feels like a nice medium firmat stills camera.

Sony is not as far off a good design as the internet people would make you think. The FS100 with an articulating screen on the left or top and a couple more buttons on the grip would actually be a very ergonomic, modular design.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

From Nino Leitner (in the Sony video) who actually saw the camera: 

Let me just say this: The wait will be worth it. And if the camera fulfills what it promises, it will become a*VERY popular workhorse for filmmakers. And it will have a different name than what’s been rumored :-)

I am totally agnostic when it comes to manufacturer preference and I just go with the camera that works best for me, just like the rest of the team at cinema5D. I have been a “C300
*guy†for almost three years now and I still love that camera and use it all the time. But when the*Sony A7s
*was introduced, I fell in love again, and so did the rest of our team. We bought two of them and I have been shooting commercial projects with it from day 1.

The upcoming new Sony camera has the potential to become another camera that “just works†due to its design, features and extremely competitive pricing.

_______________________________

So it's not an FS700 successor, therefore the FS700 will need to keep a few points which I bet are raw, 240p, 4K over SDI and the all metal construction. This one will have compressed 4K lower frame rates, limited outputs, and cheaper (yet more ergonomic) construction.

and Sony is marketing the camera for "youtubers", so it can't be expensive or large. Probably less than an FS700.

[wolf33d]

Andrew, 180fps in 4K you think ? Does this mean that we will have 480fps in 2k (as we had 240fps on the Mk1)? 

That would be awesome ...

[Andrew Reid]

Andrew, 180fps in 4K you think ? Does this mean that we will have 480fps in 2k (as we had 240fps on the Mk1)? 

That would be awesome ...

 

I doubt it very much! 1080p will be slow-mo for sure.

[Oliver Daniel]

I'm very curious about this camera announcement - just wondering if the design looks to be a 'sort -of' more professional version of the Sony EA50? (which has the EVF to the side and a sliding shoulder plate). 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I'm very curious about this camera announcement - just wondering if the design looks to be a 'sort -of' more professional version of the Sony EA50? (which has the EVF to the side and a sliding shoulder plate).

How come I've never heard of that EA50 before? And I follow that market very closely. And why isn't it the most successful prosumer camera, It looks bloody perfect! Almost the ultimate video camera design.

[pablogrollan]

How come I've never heard of that EA50 before? And I follow that market very closely. And why isn't it the most successful prosumer camera, It looks bloody perfect! Almost the ultimate video camera design.

 

Well, it didn't succeed because it was a very poorly executed brilliant idea. Image quality sucked like the worst early NEX cameras (moire and aliasing), had no built-in ND filters and the ergonomics were wrong: looks like an ENG camera but is actually too small and there's no way to comfortably mount it on your shoulder (like the Sony EX3), not even sliding the shoulder pad.

 

Just like the VG900, it could have been great but had absurd shortcomings.

 

There was also the price tag: 3200$. I would love to have an a6000/a5100 sensor in a proper ENG body with a proper video EVF and a couple XLR imputs. But how much markup would you pay for that (the a5100 is 550$)? Maybe for 1200$-1500$ it would stand a chance (and put the FS100 to rest) but I personally wouldn't pay much more for a bigger plastic housing, 2 XLRs and an EVF. For 3200$, Wouldn't you prefer an A7s + DSLR rig?

[Tim Naylor]

Perhaps it's because I never used it on my shoulder, maybe it is a bad shoulder camera, but as far as non-shoulder cameras go, this is the perfect design. It's being adverstised and mostly used as a handheld camcorder not as an ENG-shoulder camera. If it were designed for that it would have to be much longer, have the viewfinder on the left side of the camera closer to the mount, have a shoulder pad and more controls on the right side, like say an Amira.

 

The magic of the C300 is that you pick it up, turn on, shoot. No rigs, no external evfs, recorders, battery solutions, monitors, matteboxes, nothing, just the camera and lens and you can go all day. That's why the broadcast people love it.

I hope the new Sony inherets any of the C300 ergonomics.

Ebrahiim, yes it would be nice to use a C300 like you say, but the reality is when shooting doc or reality (things that pay bills), you have to do takes any where from 15 minutes to sometimes an hour or more. Cradling it like Canon intended won't do. Now add in the sound hops that every production makes you attach to your camera, you have a complete mess. So you end up having to rig the camera on a baseplate with 15mm rods, handgrips, monitor or EVF, AB battery or counterweight. Some people flip the Canon monitor upside and pretend it's a monitor, but it blows for outdoor work and eventually your neck cramps up from having to look up. BTW, at least in NYC, it is indeed much to the bitching of many a cameraman being used constantly as an ENG camera. It's a great look and the sensitivity is amazing. After that, I want to kick it across the room. And why does the iris notch?  Can't tell you how many times I've blown an indoor to out shot because you can't smoothly adjust the iris on EF.