Sony F3 In 2023 FOR FILM LOVERS

Have you seen the state of cinema lately? I have, and its just so different from the old look. However, I happen to know that the film look was a very intentional outcome for cinema and without it things do change in major ways. the body without blood certainly has an affect.
The F3 still holds strong, very strong especially now when the new generation is desperate to know about the past. Anything vintage amazes these kids. They actually complain about the quality of major motion pictures these days and to that I am very proud. Every time I show 13-20 year old's the proper way film looked for movies they are always in awe begging me to teach them the difference and how to achieve the old look. I promote this camera because its simple , small, and ready to be a major stepping stone in restoring the look of cinema. No new camera system on the market today looks anything remotely close to film. My observation is beyond personal taste and "some people see things differently" This is fact.
So if you still have your Sony f3 bless you deeply. You have it because you see for yourself something isn't right, somethings missing, something in my feelings are deprived. This camera fills that void and will always do so. Don't abandon your F3's. Keep them.
Lastly, here is a gift for those warriors who want to restore cinema digitally in perfect replication:
Sony F35
Sony F23
Sony SRW 9000
boring WARNING! When you see the window shot KZbin did something very odd with compression and caused what looks like moire highlighted by a white outline. don't believe it, it doesn't exists in the footage.

[@TAGMedia7]

I currently own two F3s, with a third coming soon. I love your footage, it looks very filmic! Do you haven any suggestions on how to avoid the occasional motion that gives it away that it's digital?

[@kevosi]

great stuff! makes me miss my f3 lol

[@xavierdegreeves]

Appreciate it mate. Ahhh you have it no more? Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back lol. Can I ask what happened? Always love your content man.

[@kevosi]

@@xavierdegreeves just was looking for something newer and higher quality so I sold it and got a sigma fp - really like the looks Im getting out of it but skin tones take a bit more noodling

[@xavierdegreeves]

@@kevosi yeah I recently purchased and played with the Sigma FP’s myself. Wish you well on your journey and F3’s aren’t going anywhere soon, always time to circle back if need be.

[@thomasjackson5155]

Always a good day when I see that you’ve uploaded something. You are one of the main reasons I purchased one myself. It took me awhile to get it rigged up but I can’t wait to get shooting with it. Thanks for the inspiration! I’m looking forward to more uploads

[@xavierdegreeves]

Feels good to know man… I’m glad you got one and can see the beauty that lies inside this sensor. Once you start shooting it’ll be hard to stop lol. I’ll never give up on mine. Lots more coming soon.

[@Aroita90]

Xavier this is so amazing! As usual you’ve proven the f3

[@xavierdegreeves]

Thanks man, much appreciated. Love the f3 it’s still going strong.

[@baloup571]

@@xavierdegreeves i love your channel since i discovered it! Love the look of this camera, always finding boring nowadays outcome in filmmaking field expecially in the choose of affordable cameras… what do you think is a reasonable price for this camera? Cause i wanna buy if i can find it online to a good price :3 Thanks you so much again for this simple videos which without it i wouldn’t discover this wounderful camera, cheers from italy :))))

[@xavierdegreeves]

@@baloup571 wow much love and appreciation on my end. To me its a priceless camera so I'll personally pay anything for it lol. but the prices for this system has went down to the very bottom, when i bought one of mine i paid only 600 dollars for it, now i see them for 1k-2000 and still they are being sold. I would grab one as soon as I can. its a marvelous machine and you can do much much with it to pay back for it. Happy filmmaking and good luck.

[@baloup571]

Woa you paid it nothing! You’ve been so lucky! I’ve to told you, the only camera i own is a shitty mirrorless and i can’t feel it, it’s a sony a7iii and nah is been a mistake i never use it… i prefer shoot with super8, minidv and my old phone lol Well in Rome there’s a guy who sell a PMW F3L with the upgrade CBK-RGB01 444 S-Log Gamma Option. 600h of use, firmware 1.45 different adapter (but i’ve mostly sony lenses) 2 batteries, Sonnet SCE-SDHC adaptor, Genus Top Cheeseplate GCP-F3 and a Chrosziel LWS 15 HD plate. The price is 1750€… is quite in perfect condition… what do you think? I’m not a geek but i love experimental cinema, home movies and would like to have a versatle camera with great colors and taste, infact always in a very naive way i wanna move on 16mm solo filmaking like Joshua Bonetta :3 Oh and you’re very kind, you answer me very quickly, thank you very much

[@baloup571]

@@xavierdegreeves obviously i don’t mind autofocus, as you said i want a camera that without too much work on post Production (which i don’t mind/like spend much time) you can have a great result, i wanna go everywhere with this camera and be able to shoot and live with her… i wanna live this dream, cause i know i a pure joy live these moments when you’re capturing such beautiful moments… i’m so happy only to talk about it :D

[@crs2crs2]

Hey Xavier, I'm glad to see you're posting again. Great video as usual, this camera is great! Have you shot anything on the F35 lately?

[@xavierdegreeves]

Hey there good to see you again. yes it was some time I didn't post and truly felt the urge to do so again. No I haven't used the F35 in a bit, but that is about to change this weekend lol Can't wait actually. Thanks for always showing support.

[@Obil1l]

4:00 love this shot, what did you use for the movement in this? Thanks for uploading again

[@xavierdegreeves]

Thanks mate, for this I used a Dana dolly a very simple pull back. Glad you enjoyed.

[@jeremynogue]

Such good looking footage! What are your preferred lenses for this camera?

[@xavierdegreeves]

Appreciate that Jeremy. The F3 is just a gem of a camera system. So underrated and organic. So I use all kind of lenses but the old Nikon AI lenses made for still cameras are beautiful. Not the AIS version or the Non-AI version but the AI is stellar, very good glass and renders colors very beautiful. Check it out. If you want cinema glass go for the sigma 18-35 lenses I love this glass and it’s what I shot this piece with.

[@francisagyapong915]

hey man, i have one (unfortunately the evf doesnt work though and ill be shooting in the sun quite a bit) and im wondering how it is that u get 4k out of it? do you have a recommended external recorder? also, what lenses do u use? thanks, fran

[@NormSpupsEntertainment]

Inspiring footage! Love all your videos on this camera. It's a great pity this look is not present in modern tech. Most video and photo cameras made since the OG bmpcc stink! I have gotten good texture and cadence from my old Canon 7d using magic lantern, however I would not rely on it for professional work.

[@xavierdegreeves]

Thanks for your appreciation. Yes you are correct it’s truly as if no one notices how the images look these days. We are locked into a higher resolution game and it’s making our images life-less. Keep experimenting by any means.

[@yellow_tone]

Do you most often shoot internally or prores externally? Have worked very extensively with the f3 for tha past 12 years and it is really capable. Used Pix E5 recorder mostly and was really afraid of shooting internally in the beginning. Now when I know what I'm doing and have experience with tons of other cameras from arri or red I've started to really cherish the convenience of internal recording on the F3. So simple and you can run for hours. It really works in most situations even though it is only 8bit heavily compressed.

[@xavierdegreeves]

Hey there, so I mainly shoot prores 422 but internal recording looks great too. Especially if you don’t do to much grading in post. The f3 is an awesome machine and I’m glad you still use yours. The internal recording looks much higher than 8bit.

[@FABIOLAKOCHENBORGER]

which lens did you use how many millimeters which model exactly?

[@xavierdegreeves]

Sigma 18-35 cine version anything within the range of 18-35 was used in this piece.

[@snowkombat263]

hey, which camera would you recommend for a 4k$ budget to get as close as the old film look ?

[@xavierdegreeves]

The only cameras i personally recommend for this thing is the ones I labeled in my description. Other cameras can do it as well, but I find it takes an incredible amount of work to get to the true film look. Your budget is more than enough to get any of those cameras I mentioned. Good luck.

[@lofifilm25]

Grading tutorial plsssssss

[@xavierdegreeves]

Haha you probably can tell that tutorials isn’t my specialty hence why there is so much resistance towards it and why it hasn’t been done yet. Every time I think of an angle to explain my very simple process it doesn’t work out ever. For me things are always about timing, I think on you personally every time The thought comes in about a tutorial lol. Maybe you can let me know what exactly you find in the footage you would like to achieve?? Appreciate you always man.

[@lofifilm25]

@@xavierdegreeves Hello! Hey no worries, I guess i'm just interested in your basic process. Are you converting the SLOG to any format? Davinci? Just your basic steps really. You get such beaut colours out of the camera.

[@xavierdegreeves]

Totally understand . So I do use resolve. I don’t really use any color space transform with this camera. Nothing against it it’s just that I really like how Sony made the sensor on this system. I’ve experimented with luts using this camera and the various colorspace transforms since it’s hard to find luts in slog1. The look wasn’t bad it’s just I’m such an explorer who kept digging to find the gold In terms of color for this camera. When I appreciate a manufacture I try to keep my grading process as close to it as possible. What I do now is strictly primary grading wheels. Lift, gamma, gain to balance the image the way I like. I mainly just set the black levels and the highlights to sit where I want them. Where I set them depends on the mood I’m after. Sometimes I let my black levels sit at 0, other times much higher for creative intent. After I’ll just add some Saturation. I don’t really love the saturation slider in resolve. So I instead add saturation by utilizing the RGB mixer. I bring the red, blue, and green channels all the way up. I don’t bring all three channel colors up only the single taller color slider one on each channel. One blue, one red, and one green channel. I do this so there is no interference between the colors. After this I go to the key menu and turn the gain knob down, bringing the saturation right where I want it. Turning the gain down for any node is like playing with opacity, not sure if you know this already? You can stop there but I add In some film grain. Doesn’t matter which grain you use. I’ve experimented with all kinds of grain, and ALL of them looks great so have at it. Right now I’m Lazy and only using the built in grain in resolve. It works wonderful. I have gorilla grain, film convert grain, Ezra cohen grain pack. Impulse luts grain. Etc etc You can also add a bit halation to everything. You can purchase an halation effect online and I bet it’ll look awesome. There are many to choose from, or there are many tutorials that show you how to create halation yourself in resolve. Follow them and never stop using it on your footage. I followed a tutorial many years ago and don’t remember how it was done, or which tutorial it was, but I saved it as a gallery still in resolve and I just use that everytime I need halation. Trust me it makes a difference. Film convert (looks amazing with the f3 when I did my experiments, you can tweak and play around and see if you get some nice colors) I don’t use filmconvert anymore, not that anything was wrong, I’m just a weird guy who won’t just settle on one thing. Filmconvert nitrate also has that amazing grain ability to control where the grain is placed. The only tools I haven’t abandoned in resolve is this simple grading process for the f3. Lift, gamma, gain and rgb mixer. For total accuracy in film replication you can purchase Juan Melara’s film unlimited power grade. This man’s replication is so on point it’s not even funny. It’s a lot of nodes already dialed into taste and it doesn’t take much tweaking. Buy this and you won’t regret a thing. It comes with the halation, and rich colors that will blow your world. But if you can’t afford that then my everyday normal process will do the trick, I never gets complaints. Hope this helps even a bit.

[@lofifilm25]

@@xavierdegreeves mate this is so incredibly useful thank you for taking the time. It seems the natural colours from the camera are enough without using colourspace transform. Brilliant. Thank you

[@FABIOLAKOCHENBORGER]

which lens did you use how many millimeters which model exactly?

[@xavierdegreeves]

I used the sigma 18-35mm cine version not the still lens one