A Wedding Filmmaker's Review of the Sony FS5

In the future, I'm planning on covering tips, tutorials, and training all about shooting and editing wedding films to help all of us become better creators. It feels good to start with the basics though, and you can't get very much more basic than the camera itself. Wedding days are notoriously difficult to shoot, with so many varied locations, lighting conditions, and an occasional crazy aunt on the dance floor. It is incredibly important to have a camera that can handle all of these scenarios well, especially when things get rough.

In this video review, I go in-depth with the pros and cons of the camera, while keeping focused on its uses for wedding cinematography. So if you are a wedding cinematographer/videographer/friend that was randomly asked to film a wedding/Uncle Bob at the back of a church with a camera/whatever, and you want to learn more about wedding cinematography and cameras, I hope that this video and my future video blogs are helpful to you.

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[barronfilm]

This is one of the most thorough reviews I've seen. The cool thing is that your not just reading a list of features but you tie it all into personal experience. Thanks for posting this!

[matrodmedia]

Matt, it's a 10-bit camera too. The 4K is nice, but that's not necissarily "why someone buys a camera like this, " as its 10-bit 4:2:2 HD footage is its most appealing feature to me, as the super slow-motion is recorded in this bit-depth too.

So for me, the appeal is (as far as specs go), in order of stoked-ness:
-10-bit 4:2:2 HD
-Variable LCD Internal ND
-High frame rates in 10-bit
-Center scan/clear image zoom
-4K

Oh and quick question, could you assign something to, say, custom button 6, for the quality settings? As a kind of work around for switching from 4K to HD-S&Q?

[jasonguidomartinez]

I love how you extended your beard with the thumbnail picture with the bride's hair lol

[TheWolfeFam]

I'm not even interested in this camera, but you did such a good job reviewing it that I stayed around to watch. :)

[chosenideahandle]

Matt, two years later I realize how awesome that thumbnail is (I mean how it makes it look like your beard is that bride's hair)! If you had ditched the blue line in just that area it would have been killer.

[thesamklick]

Such thorough reviews, so helpful. After I saw your review of the a7sii I decided it was time to make the jump to 4k so I picked one up. Love it so far. Keep up the great work!

[DaveDugdaleColorado]

Great review. Fun conclusion at the end.

[mattysumida]

Thanks for the thorough review! Even though I'm not a wedding cinematographer, your specific perspective is more informative than most "camera breakdown" videos I see on YouTube and Vimeo. Please make more videos! I would love to see more.

[jimalpin]

hey matt your reviews are gold! i'm tired of channels using equipment for a day and trying to do a "review".
thanks for your effort. love the honest and chilled presentation by the way!

[Ellebangs]

Thanks for the review. I'm debating between this and the Ursa Mini 4.6K. the slow switch to 240 FPS is a bit of a bummer, but I imagine they would fix that with a Firmware update eventually?

[rosemarydrumcompany]

I haven't read through all of these comments, so it may have been mentioned, but its worth mentioning about the center scan mode basically doubling your magnification. That is huge. Clear image zoom can be added on top of that...with minimal loss. This is a big deal...Your 70-200 essentially then tops out at around 600. Amazing

[ingaman]

Your review is excellent, albeit focuses on shooting 4k in S-Log, which is something I don't intend on using often for weddings. One thing I want to point out though is that Sony has already mentioned they plan to do a paid firmware overhaul that will allow RAW 10bit 4k out in the future *in addition to other things –essentially what they did with the FS700. When you buy the A7S MK II, you're likely going to have to buy another $3000+ camera in the future to unlock all the new functions, while on a proper cinema camcorder you can pay less for an optional upgrade. There is are many options for a camera like this, as SD cards are getting faster and faster transfer rates withe UHS-II. There's the potential for 10-Bit 422 4k at 300mbps.

[cpg-cubeprogaming]

I think what you said here nails it on be head. The tricky part about going high end is that manufacturers put so much focus into some of the cinema-based features of their cine cameras that they become impractical to use outside of controlled environments like film shoots. The A7S II strikes that perfect balance between cinema quality and ease of use.

My friend and I have started to do weddings together, and we are kinda drooling over the A7S II. Unfortunately, college is a thing, cameras aren't cheap, and it's hard to get clients that pay well in my experience.

[jpowerst]

Good walk through - pretty thorough.

Around the 9min area, you talk about codecs, and infer the FS7 can only record to the XAVC-I format. The Fs7 can be set to XAVC-I & XAVC-L (same as the FS5), and a few other formats that nobody uses.

[coryruiz]

Matt, thank you for what you do. Could you do a video about the lighting you use for reception dancing? You have mentioned it in previous videos, but I would like to know more.

[MariaFortiz]

Great tip about the SQ button. Hope that there is a hack around that in the future for super slow motion.

[techhealthandfood]

Matt I have dual XLR's on the a7s ii via the Sony XLR-K1M .

One more reason to choose the a7 series

[frostvisto]

Again an awesome review. Keep the helpfull videos coming. Looking forward to your future content!

[sittingnow]

Having fixed WB in a gammut is not weird. Red/Arri/Canon all do it. WB is gain, and log and gammut are tuned to certain parameters. So if you dial in a custom WB, you're actually risking ruining the algorithm set by the manufacturer.

[UWHealthMPA]

Wow Matt. That was probably one of the the best user reviews I think I have ever watched Thank you!