ETHICS STATEMENT: I made this in my own time (and it took A LOT of time!) for the readers of my blog. I was not paid by any manufacturer to do this. The FS700 was supplied to me on loan as review cameras for 3 days by Sony Europe. I asked for the camera so I could review it. Sony as always have given me a free hand to be as honest as I want. No stipulations other than to say it’s a pre-production camera. I really appreciate that.

I have never and will never be paid by a manufacturer to review a product. My opinions are my own and always will be. If you think otherwise then you are wrong! 🙂

There are a few shots of my dad smoking a cigar in the video and I do not approve of smoking. It is bad for your health and my dad volunteered to do his signature shot for this video. I am trying to get him to quit. 

There are adverts for this product on this page as well as other adverts for other companies. This helps me make these reviews. I did not get paid to do this and it has taken over a week of my time to do it. If you decide to purchase this camera or other products clicking on my affiliate links help me make these happen. So thank you!

EDIT: Part 1 now up with part 2 to follow. It is at the bottom of this post.

My BAFTA/ RAINDANCE winning documentary “How to start a revolution” is available to buy on Amazon. You can purchase it below.

I own far too many cameras. Most do similar things, just some better than others. One camera I used to own but now no longer do (for previously documented reasons), the Red Epic, I miss enormously. Not for the problems associated with it but for the image and especially the slow motion. I was able to shoot 120 FPS at 5K and 300 FPS continuously at 2k cropped. I miss that. One of my favourite pieces I made in this mode was the Turin Brakes video “Chim Chim Cher Ree”.

You see we love time-lapse, we love slow motion. Why? Because it is something we cannot see with our own eyes naturally. I love to use both and am very much obsessed with ultra slow motion right now. The slowest I have ever shot, or the fastest frame rate to be correct, is 5000fps at 720p on the Phantom Flex. Mostly at 2564 at 1080p. You can see it in my piece “The Redneck Hippy”. Now I used the slow motion to give visuals to a story. Videos with slow motion just for the sake of it are very common, and I am as guilty as many. In fact, I will be posting one such video on this page. Why? Because I love the way things looks shot at ultra high speed. Should everything we watch have a story? Nope. Sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and enjoy visuals and evoke emotion that images can easily do (photography anyone?). BUT a story IS better for sure. Just don’t get your knickers in a twist if there isn’t a story! Let’s just call it “test footage,” there I just made up a phrase! 😉 But all kidding aside, the piece “Two Forty from Brighton” below for me sums up a weekend at an English beach perfectly!

We will see a lot of slow motion, ultra slow motion, soon. Why? Well the new Sony NEX FS700 is about to come out, and it shoots 1080p at up to 240FPS, or at lower resolutions at 480 fps and 960 fps. This camera will also cost around £6k+Tax. Crazy stuff. As soon as people get this camera they will use this feature to death. Why? Because it’s bloody fun, that is why and we love to over use our new toys. Of course after a short time the owners will start scaling back their slow motion shooting and just use it when they need to. I am pretty sure of that. Then of course other manufacturers will bring out their cameras with high frame rates to compete. GREAT! Competition is the best thing! Without it we would not be shooting on super 35mm sensors for a few thousand dollars right now!

My review is in video form and yes, it focuses heavily on the slow motion modes but it also focuses on the image itself, the improvements and lack of improvements in the camera, low light and a lot more. It’s very in depth and I hope it is rather educational too! I don’t cover 4k as I didn’t have the feature enabled yet.

The FS700 is not a replacement for the excellent-image-producing but a wee bit plasticky and frustrating FS100. It’s a model up. Is it worth the upgrade? Have they improved on some of the more annoying aspects of the camera? Will I buy one?!

Both parts of the review are now up. Part 1 covers the slow motion function and initial impressions. Part 2 goes into the improvements and cons of the camera and analyses the image as well as takes a look at low light performance.

I have not been paid to do this review so if you do want to buy any camera gear if you could use any of my affiliates on my site it would help me take the time off to do things like this. Over a week of work went into this so I would be very grateful! Thanks.

CVP below are my preferred European dealer and clicking below will go to my specially chosen products in their store and B&H my US preferred Dealer.

 

Additionally here are two bits of video. One a short clip which is just a shot at 480 FPS in 24p. Shot on a 50mm F1.2 and hand focus pulled by myself. The resolution is slightly more than halved vertically but maintained horizontally. This causes some image issues as you can see on Sarah’s hat. I found the 1/4 resolution 960fps too poor to use in this pre-production camera. The other clip is a montage of some shots I got down in Brighton. Much BTS was filmed of this and will be part of the review, explaining what lenses I used, how I used the features and things to be aware of.

I used the excellent METABONES EF adaptor for the Canon lenses and the MTF services adaptor for the Zeiss ZF ones.

The vast majority was shot on the Canon L Series 100-400mm lens. A couple on the Tokina 11-16 and the Canon 50mm F1.2.

Picture profile was all over the place, as the pre-production camera kept resetting to default. So half shots were shot on the cine gamma I wanted. The rest were not!

 

Music is once again from the brilliant Music Bed

Big thanks as always to Sarah Estela who shot the BTS and James Miller who came along for the ride!

 

 

MATCHES! High frame rate comparison of 240, 480 and 960FPS on SONY FS700 from Philip Bloom extras on Vimeo.

I have not been paid to do this review so if you do want to buy any camera gear if you could use any of my affiliates on my site it would help me take the time off to do things like this. Over a week of work went into this so I would be very grateful! Thanks.

CVP below are my preferred European dealer and clicking below will go to my specially chosen products in their store and B&H my US preferred Dealer and their link is below the CVP one. Thanks!