Those accustomed to the FS7 will find the form factor and button layout of the FS5 very familiar and comfortable. With a 3.5" LCD monitor positioned on an adjustable mount up front and a 0.39" OLED viewfinder out back, the FS5 can be utilized in a myriad of shooting situations and positions.
With its Super35 sensor, the FS5 can record in resolutions up to UHD (3840 x 2160) in XAVC-L (Long GOP), and can utilize the powerful S-Log2 & S-Log3 gammas and S-Gamut3.Cine gamut. This makes it a great complimentary camera to the FS7 as well as the a7S or a7R Mark II. You can record UHD up to 30P in the efficient XAVC-L codec to SD cards, with a max data rate of 100Mbps; additionally the FS5 allows for XAVC Proxy and AVCHD recording. An external Sony Raw option will be added in a future update, but the FS5 is not compatible with the XDCA-FS7 extension unit so there are no external timecode, genlock or ProRes recording options. Similar to the FS700, the FS5 utilizes a burst mode for slow motion capture at 240 fps in HD, or at a reduced resolution at 480 fps and 960 fps. This is in contrast to the slow motion record on the FS7, which can roll continuously at 180 fps. The E-Mount system also uses a new electronic variable ND filter, allowing for a very precise level of exposure control.
The FS5 is expected to ship in November, but stay tuned for an in-depth look soon and in the meantime, watch my video above to learn more! You can also get more info and see some of the first footage over on Sony's dedicated site.
