We’ve recently taken delivery of a Sony FS7 camera, partnered with Canon’s lovely 18-80mm zoom lens. Now I fully admit we’re hardly early to the FS7 party – it’s in full swing, and in fact some guests are already heading out the door to the 6K camera shindig up the road. But the Sony and Canon do make a well-matched pair, and we’ve had the chance to try them out in a few different settings now, so I thought I’d share a few observations.
As soon as you pick it up, the FS7 is immediately ergonomic, reminiscent of the old broadcast cameras that you could put straight on your shoulder, rather than have to build into a complex rig. It has Sony’s reassuring functionality, quality and menu system, and is a very capable performer. From arty slo-mo (grabbed a few quick handheld shots while walking the whippets!) through lovely clean green-screen, to conference workhorse, it demonstrates great flexibility, competence and usability.
From slo-mo to green-screen the FS7 demonstrates flexibility, competence and usability.
I was delighted to work with Olympic rowing hero Ben Hunt-Davis of WIMTBGF (@WillItMake) the other week. We filmed a green screen piece in his office, with restrictions on time, space and lighting (bit of a worry at the time) but the footage was very clean and the background keyed out with just one click.
Later that week, the trusty FS7 was churning through 8 hours of conference plenary coverage with aplomb, offering up latitude, vibrant colours, and speed of use.
And really that is the beauty of the thing – I can’t think of a camera that offers such excellent performance across such a range of disciplines at this price point. You can shoot beautiful 4K documentaries and branded content with amazing skin tones, with the same setup you use to grab quick news-style vox pops.
And did I mention that the Sachtler bag we carry out in has a light in it? Literally the best thing ever. I could crush a grape.
