Sony FX30 First Wildlife Shoot

FX30 first time capturing wildlife with SEL200600G

[@carstenkopp]

Beautiful footage taken with a fantastic new camera. I'm thinking about buying one :)

[@dabwildlife4423]

Nice birding video using fx30👍

[@peterpreisdinslaken1510]

Klasse gemacht gefällt mir außerordentlich gut LG.Pidi

[@schoeferfilm]

Very good shots 👍🏻 sub from germany 😉 this lense is awesome 👌 I only have the Sony 70-200 🎥 the Fx 30 would be a great b-cam for my Fx6 😀 best cinematic greetings from germany

[@capturingnaturewithsandip]

Nice and beautiful video. Thanks for sharing so wonderful film. Big Like 20

[@happy1wandering]

Great video!! Thanks for sharing (-: How did the bird's eye autofocus perform with birds in flight ?

[@HeathMcKinley]

With birds in flight it depends on the species and how big they are in the frame. If it can't find an eye it will still focus on the main part of the bird.

[@happy1wandering]

@@HeathMcKinley thank you! Does it allow you to use the zoom focus area with tracking like for stills in the A1 for example ? Thanks again!

[@HeathMcKinley]

There's no APS-C crop mode if that's what you mean? You can use Clear Image Zoom but you don't get tracking in that mode.

[@happy1wandering]

@@HeathMcKinley I meant the focus area. You know how there is wide, zoom, spot focus areas ? For stills it allows you to use the same focus area but add tracking on top. For example most ppl use zone tracking to capture birds in flight for stills. I wonder if they’ll ever do this in video.

[@HeathMcKinley]

@@happy1wandering Oh right, yeah at the moment it's not possible but would be great to see it one day!

[@martincapul92]

Great Combo for wildlife.. maybe the best ? I am new user of A7IV. But I am photographer 70% and 30% camera guy. How good is the FX30 for stills? I use only electronic shutter on my body. APSC for wildlife with this lens is 900mm and that is +300mm. And that is amazing.

[@HeathMcKinley]

The A7IV is better than FX30 for stills. FX30 is single shot only, no continuous shooting (burst mode). If you shoot the A7IV in APSC (S35) you will get the same field of view as FX30.

[@waynerm002]

Sounds like someone has GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).Your camera has a crop mode (APSC), switch to it when you want to increase the range of your lens. You don’t need the FX30, the A7IV will get the job done.

[@beltsazardaniel5590]

Great video. Thanks. Was the swamphen chick close-up shot using TC1.4x or CIZ? That shot looks a bit different than other shots...

[@HeathMcKinley]

The swamphen chick close up is about a 200% crop from the original clip.

[@beltsazardaniel5590]

Thanks for your answer👍

[@beltsazardaniel5590]

Sorry to ask you again...Does the bird eye af really works at 120fps?

[@HeathMcKinley]

@@beltsazardaniel5590 hey yeah, Bird Eye AF will work in 100/120p

[@beltsazardaniel5590]

Txs so much@@HeathMcKinley

[@garfieldirwin]

Thanks for posting. Is there a 4k version by chance? Did you notice much of an IQ loss going from 4k30/60 to 4k100 with the 1.6 crop? (Obviously there's no oversampling with the latter).

[@HeathMcKinley]

You should be able to select 4K in the quality settings on YT. There's no real IQ loss going up to the higher frame rate. The 4K 25, 50 (30, 60) is probably a little sharper but you will only notice when pixel peeping. The average viewer won't be able to tell.

[@garfieldirwin]

@@HeathMcKinley Thanks! I'm currently shooting the A1 but am considering the FX30 for the superior video-centric functions and bird eye-AF. (Sorry for the 4k question...I was watching on my iPad which is limited to HD).

[@garfieldirwin]

@BlowoutJoe Good question...and the answer lies is in the details. I'm a wildlife guy so reach and acuity is everything. To get the "reach" with my A1 I need to use the 2xTC on the 200-600G (=1200mm) but the image is soft because of the 2xTC and @f13 results in more noise because of the higher ISO, and the AF is sluggish at such a small aperture. The FX30 gives me a 4k oversampled 1.5x cropped image (=900mm) right off the bat which is superior to the A1 that bins everything in 4k. The FX30 also lets extends an additional 1.5x using clear image zoom for a 1:1 pixel readout (=1350mm) @f6.3 with superior image due to the lack if TC and cleaner (lower) ISO. On paper, the FX30 is the better camera when it comes to reach, but it needs to be tested.

[@garfieldirwin]

@BlowoutJoe The a7IV can't do 4k120 nor any 240, which I use 80% of the time. I know it sounds crazy, but the FX30 appears to fit my use case perfectly...*IF* the IQ stands up, and being an APS-C sensor, that's a big IF.

[@garfieldirwin]

@BlowoutJoe Yes, 120p (and sometimes 240p) is essential to slow down wildlife behaviour to really see what they are doing. It's not something that would be used much by mainstream videographers.

[@kapilesh14]

Was this all shot in continuous autofocus or manual? And what was the aperture I thought it looked like everything was in focus mostly.

[@HeathMcKinley]

It was all shot with AF-C and Subject Tracking with Bird Eye AF selected. I just touched the screen to switch subjects like with the 2 ducks. Aperture varied between f9 & f13 at 800 ISO

[@kapilesh14]

@@HeathMcKinley Thanks! I was thinking the same if you shoot on 200-600 the F6.3 aperture will anyways become F9 at 900mm. Does that also mean thaen that you really have to bump up the iso very high in s log.

[@HeathMcKinley]

@@kapilesh14 if it's a bright sunny day like it was for me, even f9 wasn't that dark with 1/200 shutter speed at 800 ISO. If it's overcast or low light you could shoot at 2500 ISO quite easily as the noise profile is the same as at 800 ISO in SLog3

[@bornufree]

For an unsophisticated enthusiast like me, would this camera be ok for shooting video on safaris-morning and evening game drives typically involve low light conditions??

[@HeathMcKinley]

I guess it depends what lenses you're using with it. In low light it's not as good as the FX3 but if it's just to use as a hobby then it's fine for most situations.

[@prabakrankathirvel6768]

Life is

[@alanmoore9920]

Did you shoot in Log. Which one?

[@HeathMcKinley]

It's a combination of SLog3 & S.Cinetone

[@BrettKosmider]

Which lens and which codec were used?

[@HeathMcKinley]

This was shot with the Sony 200-600G, some clips had the 1.4 Teleconverter as well. It was shot in XAVCS-I 4K at either 50p or 100p then slowed down to 25p

[@markwalker8374]

@@HeathMcKinley interesting that you did not shoot in 120p which has a crop applied. I also have a 200-600mm and not clear on what that actual crop would be - is it 1.5x plus an additional 1.62 crop when using 4K 120p as suggested by Camera Conspiracies or is it only 1.62x in total

[@HeathMcKinley]

@@markwalker8374 I'm in Australia so the camera was set to PAL therefore 100p. There is an approx 1.6x crop into the S35 sensor at 100/120p. Equivalent FF focal length on the 200-600 at 600 in 100/120p is around 1560mm

[@markwalker8374]

@@HeathMcKinley Thanks for that Heath, I am also Australian, though currently travelling on a long trip in SE Asia. The 200-600mm might be too much zoom for low light bird video. Perhaps the 70-200mm MkII might be better with F2.8 or the 135mm F.18. What tripod and head do you use?

[@HeathMcKinley]

@@markwalker8374 I use a Manfrotto 535 MPRO Carbon tripod with 608 Fluid Video Head

[@icemelt7ful]

why is the quality so bad?

[@HeathMcKinley]

KZbin compression? Are you watching on your phone?

[@alanmoore9920]

Looks great on my iMac.