DOP Sunel Haasbroek of Cooked in Africa Films recently had the chance to test the Sony F3 camera while on location.
A few weeks ago I joined Barry Armitage and Joe Dawson to film the second season of The Ride in Mongolia.
Flying from Cape Town to Johannesburg was possibly the longest flight of my life, which is ironic, because I was actually about to get on the longest flight of my life – 16 hours to Hong Kong! The reason? The Sony F3 was waiting for me on the other side in Johannesburg.
Since I read the press release about the arrival of this camera, I knew I had to get my hands on one soon. A big part of the appeal is the Super 35mm sensor and Sony’s unique range of lenses designed for the F3.
When I saw the F3 for the first time in real life I was in love from the get go. It really is a great looking camera, designed with loads of features more like the “bigger’ more cumbersome HD cameras, but smaller. The best thing, though, is the sensor.
We have been filming with the Sony EX1 range for about three or four years now and it has been our go-to camera for any type of production that we might encounter and time and time again it has over-delivered. The Sony F3 was a logical next step up for me as this camera uses the same sxs cards and batteries and of course the codec is the same, but the quality is in a new league.
I used the F3 for the first time in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and the very first thing that struck me was the picture quality. It blew me away when I mounted a lens and could immediately see the intensity of the detail, contrast and colour. The image is so incredibly crisp, with every little detail accentuated. I couldn’t stop looking at the LCD – I don’t know if it’s possible, but it looks better than real life! And I can tell you that the depth of field is a big part of why so many cinematographers will love this camera. The look is very film-like, but comes with the ease of HD.
The F3 comes with three lenses: a 35mm, 50mm and a 85mm. This is the standard range of lenses to cover your needs, but I would advise broadening your selection to wider and longer lenses if you want the full benefit of the sensor size. The lenses supplied are quite similar in field of view and it would be great to change a lens to wider or a closer one rather than run hundreds of metres to change your field of view – especially true when you’re filming reality documentaries and can’t afford to miss a second of your subject matter.
The operability of the camera is very user friendly. Functionally, it is an upgrade from the EX series, but the picture profile menu is a bit more intelligent than the EX when you want to fully enhance and achieve your look. You can also control the way your lenses use and capture light, which, in one word, is unbelievable. You have to see it and use it yourself to truly appreciate this camera.
In a nutshell, the Sony F3 is a beast – it is a Sony EX1 on a LOT of steroids and you will thoroughly enjoy having this camera as part of your production.
