Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Turning the Sony Xperia 5 IV into a CINEMA CAMERA!”.
When we first got our hands on the Sony Xperia 5 mark IV, we thought it was a pretty good phone. In fact, my colleague Robert Triggs did a review on the device a while back, which you can check out on our website. But while I was using the phone, one thing really stood out to me, which is this app called Cinema Pro and after fiddling around with it, it turns out that the app gives you access to tools that you typically expect with more expensive cameras. So that made me wonder: can I turn this near thousand dollar phone into a cinema camera let’s find out so before we try to turn this phone into a camera six times its price. We need to First understand what we’re working with the Sony.
Xperia 5 mark IV comes equipped with three rear cameras: a 24 millimeter main shooter, 16 millimeter Ultra wide camera and a 60 millimeter telephoto camera. All the cameras feature a 12 megapixel sensor and vary in size. The camera system also features eye autofocus and real-time tracking autofocus, and you can shoot 4K up to 120 frames per second on all three cameras in terms of software, you can take videos with the phone using the Photo Pro app and video Pro app. However, today we will be focusing on the cinema Pro app at launch. You are immediately greeted with a set of controls to start customizing. Your image, of course, you’ve got the standard resolution and frame rate settings, but you’ve also got some more advanced controls that are typically reserved for high-end cameras. For example, Cinema Pro indicates your shutter settings through angle instead of shutter speed, which means that you don’t have to change your shutter settings every time time. You change your frame rate also when switching lenses, the app, indicates the focal distance rather than the zoom magnification, which I honestly prefer.
You also have controls for ISO and manual focus control, with a B markers for easy Focus. Pulling the cinema Pro app also comes with a variety of looks to shoot with, but I was particularly excited to test the Venice color science profile, which is inspired by Sony’s Flagship Cinema Camera. In theory, the low contrast image should help us retain details in the highlights and shadows similar to shooting in a log or flat color profile, but we’ll see how effective the profile actually is during post-production. In order to push the video capabilities of the Sony. Xperia 5. Mark IV, we set up three different shooting scenarios.
Our Hope with these setups is to gauge how easy it is to work with the Xperia 5 mark IV find out what situations would allow us to get a clean image, but also discover what scenes may cause the image from the phone to look subpar. We also decided to shoot the same scene with two other cameras for comparison. This includes the Google pixel 7 Pro using its standard camera, app, no cinematic mode and our Sony fx6 Cinema line camera, coupled with the Sony Fe 24 to 70 millimeter lens shooting in the s-log 3 color profile.
After all, the footage was shot. We had a professional colorist, take a crack at color grading, all our Clips in order to best match our reference frames now without further Ado. Here’S what we shot with all three cameras: mm- foreign foreign.
Let us know in the comments down below which device you thought was camera a b and c, and allow me to tell you about today’s sponsor curiosity stream. Curiosity stream is a streaming and on-demand service, where viewers of all ages can feel their passions and explore new ones, get access to thousands of top quality documentaries, TV shows and other non-fiction titles. All for the low price of 19.99 per year watch anywhere anytime, with instant access to award-wing, exclusives and original series with curiositystream.
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Now, let’s break all this down scene by scene with the first scene, we decided to test the 60 millimeter telephoto lens on the Xperia 5 mark IV and an interview scenario. So we set up the camera on a tripod and lit the scene using a soft key light from the side and used natural light coming from the back windows as a backlight. As bonus, we also added some Christmas lights in the background to gauge the quality of the bokeh.
Looking at the footage, you can see that the colors on the Xperia 5 mark IV are quite washed out and desaturated and the image just looks really soft. Overall, the footage also has a very deep focus, so there’s no blurry background or Christmas tree bokeh for us. Unfortunately, moving on to the pixel 7 Pro, the colors are much more saturated, especially on the skin tones, and you can even get a bit of background blur Edge. Detail also appears to be sharper throughout the frame. Although elements like the back wall, texture and skin seem overly processed and unnaturally smooth, meanwhile, the fx6 looks great colors. Look true to life. Sharpness is as good as it gets for six grand and when you factor in that F 2.8 lens with a full frame sensor, you get incredible shallow depth of field and nice uniform bokeh for the second scene.
We wanted to see how the Xperia 5 mark IV before environment, with a lot of soft Lighting on and around the subject to do this. We settled on a shot from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as a reference, and we created the shot by making a soft key light using a book light and then adding negative, fill to the opposite side of our subject. To add some contrast. After shooting the scene, we were all quite shocked to see how close we could get all the cameras to one another. In fact, I sent this comparison photo to some of my colleagues and several of them weren’t sure what camera took which shot the lower color saturation seems to serve the Xperia 5 mark IV very well in the shot, as it already matched our desaturated reference frame quite Closely and the Highlight roll off from light to dark on Ryan’s face is nice and smooth? Also, the softer image quality from the Xperia 5 mark IV helps the footage seem less processed, which can’t be said the same for the pixel 7 Pro as some of my team members put it, the pixel footage seems overly processed and sharpened, as if you were filming A vlog, then, of course we have the fx6 which to me blows every camera phone out of the water. However, some team members actually did prefer the image coming from the Sony phone over the Sony camera.
So really Sony wins this round either way, then for our last scene, I wanted to really push the image processing of the Xperia 5 mark IV by seeing how the camera system deals with harsh lighting. With that in mind, we decided to recreate this shot from The Godfather using a strong key light right above our subject’s face. So how did the Xperia phone fare in this test? Well, as you already saw not so well, the Highlight roll-off is way too harsh on his face and the colors are quite off from the reference and the other two cameras. There is still detail on the highlights, but his whole forehead kind of looks like it’s just glowing and there isn’t much detail to be found in the shadows.
So in terms of dynamic range, the Xperia 5 mark IV isn’t exactly the best choice. Looking at the pixel 7 Pro footage, it seems that Google’s image processing is actually helping a ton in this shot. Unlike with the Xperia 5 mark IV, the highlights do roll off much more smoothly down Ryan’s face. However, red tones in the frame seem to be a little over saturated as seen on Ryan’s shirt and ear.
And, lastly, the best looking out of the punch is, of course, the Sony. Fx6 nice highlight roll off good sharpness and the full frame sensor, plus the F 2.8 lens, allows for a bit of shallow depth of field to keep the focus on the face while slightly blurring out the shirt. So is the Sony Xperia a 5 mark IV, a cinema camera? Well, no, and a lot of you probably saw that answer from a mile away, but the point of this video isn’t to see if a phone could produce better images than a camera six times its price and after using the Xperia 5 mark IV. It goes to show that it is possible to get good footage out of a phone with apps, like Cinema Pro Sony is giving people access to settings that really allow you to get the most out of your shot.
However, the experience isn’t perfect. For starters, when changing white balance, Cinema Pro doesn’t indicate the setting in degrees Kelvin, which you’d find on any professional camera. You also don’t have any control over the aperture, so you’re not going to have the same level of creative control as something as like the fx6. You are also stuck shooting in the 2.39 to 1 aspect ratio, and you also can’t switch frame rates without having to create a new project, also like with most smartphones you’re gon na need to pump in as much light as you can into this camera.
In order to get the best image quality and before you think you can just fix that in post. No, you can’t, after speaking to my colorist, the Venice color science profile, doesn’t really preserve much detail. In fact, my colors Patrick, called it fake log as the color profile, didn’t really have much latitude to manipulate the image in post. Again, if you want to achieve a certain look, shooting with the Xperia 5 mark IV be sure to do some lighting tests. The Sony Xperia 5 mark IV isn’t going to replace an actual cinema camera anytime soon, but it does offer a lot of people the opportunity to learn how to get started with filmmaking.
It’S not by any means a Sony, fx6 or a Sony Venice. But if you’re willing to put in the time and effort into learning its strengths and weaknesses, you can produce some good shots. After all, it’s not about the tool.
You have it’s about, how you use it anyway. That’S all I have for today make sure to subscribe and hit the Bell icon to be notified when we upload next and thanks again to curiositystream for sponsoring this video, I’m Harley, moranen and I’ll, see you in the next one .