FP owner here. Thanks for the video comparison. My FP is rigged for video only. I use it specifically for challenging light situations which seems to be everywhere in run and gun type of shooting. In 12 bit the FP collects so much info that I swear it can see in the dark after working with the footage in post. 8 bit raw can be pushed hard in post too but not as flexible as 12 bit of course. FP 12 bit captures great saturation and colors when underexposed and all brought out in post without noise…-1.0 to -1.5 underexposed works well. I never worry about storage space for 12 bit raw. I work off the SSD to color grade, output to an editor friendly codec and eventually dump the 12 bit raw files. Another thing to mention is selecting the correct iso is important because middle gray moves up and down with iso so dynamic range above and below middle grey changes. It’s counterintuitive too. So the puffy clouds you filmed would be better filmed at a higher iso, say 800 - 1000 iso and use nd. I believe 1000 iso has 6 stops of dynamic range above middle grey so all the beautiful gradients of the clouds are captured. If you use iso 100, the FP has only 3 stops above middle grey so the clouds would be mushy or blocky when pushed in post. I’m working off memory so don’t quote me on the exact stops but I’m close. I own Red, Blackmagic and Fuji too and they’re all great cameras. Sigma could have added a bunch of 1/4” to attach stuff and lock down the connectors but they didn’t. I attached an SSD without a lockdown and nearly broke the camera socket. Yikes! I had to add a cage and suddenly I found my FP was fully rigged which I didn’t want to do, I wanted it to stay small and inconspicuous. Great to hear from fellow FP owners, again thanks for the great vid.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video! That is some great info to share regarding the ISO settings, I was not aware about the improved dynamic range at ISO 1000! Generally though I use false color and expose for the highlights, knowing that there is soooo much data that can be recovered in the shadows when recording in 12 bit. When I was shooting that test footage, I didn't have an ND handy but most of the time if I am shooting outdoors then I will have one. In regards to cages, I use the Niceyrig half cage along with a Smallrig SSD holder for a very very minimal setup. The only thing the cage lacks is a cold shoe mount. It has plenty of threaded holes though so adding additional accessories is fairly simple. But most of the time I keep it stripped down and as minimal as possible :)
It is really quite excellent, especially for 8bit. I do tend to find it more contrasty and of course less smooth than 12bit. I tend to use my FP for more low light shooting these days, since you can recover soooo much in the shadows. But to truly get the most out of this capability, I prefer to shoot in 12bit.
The image and color science is obvious, but what a lot of people don’t talk about is that the FP has timecode. As long as you have a deity tc-1 or a tentacle, you can sync all devices with timecode in seconds. It makes for a very quick, professional post-production workflow. I don’t know of any cinema camera with timecode selling for less than $3K. You can get plenty of FP’s used for $1.1K.
The built-in features on the FP are really quite broad and varied. My only real beef with the camera is the resolution and frame rate limits. The sensor is fantastic. Sigma needs to update the processor to get even more out of it. I hope they'll do it one day.
Are you an FP owner in 2024? If not, have you been considering picking the camera up? Tell me what you love most about it in the comments below!
FP owner here. Thanks for the video comparison. My FP is rigged for video only. I use it specifically for challenging light situations which seems to be everywhere in run and gun type of shooting. In 12 bit the FP collects so much info that I swear it can see in the dark after working with the footage in post. 8 bit raw can be pushed hard in post too but not as flexible as 12 bit of course. FP 12 bit captures great saturation and colors when underexposed and all brought out in post without noise…-1.0 to -1.5 underexposed works well. I never worry about storage space for 12 bit raw. I work off the SSD to color grade, output to an editor friendly codec and eventually dump the 12 bit raw files. Another thing to mention is selecting the correct iso is important because middle gray moves up and down with iso so dynamic range above and below middle grey changes. It’s counterintuitive too. So the puffy clouds you filmed would be better filmed at a higher iso, say 800 - 1000 iso and use nd. I believe 1000 iso has 6 stops of dynamic range above middle grey so all the beautiful gradients of the clouds are captured. If you use iso 100, the FP has only 3 stops above middle grey so the clouds would be mushy or blocky when pushed in post. I’m working off memory so don’t quote me on the exact stops but I’m close. I own Red, Blackmagic and Fuji too and they’re all great cameras. Sigma could have added a bunch of 1/4” to attach stuff and lock down the connectors but they didn’t. I attached an SSD without a lockdown and nearly broke the camera socket. Yikes! I had to add a cage and suddenly I found my FP was fully rigged which I didn’t want to do, I wanted it to stay small and inconspicuous. Great to hear from fellow FP owners, again thanks for the great vid.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video! That is some great info to share regarding the ISO settings, I was not aware about the improved dynamic range at ISO 1000! Generally though I use false color and expose for the highlights, knowing that there is soooo much data that can be recovered in the shadows when recording in 12 bit. When I was shooting that test footage, I didn't have an ND handy but most of the time if I am shooting outdoors then I will have one. In regards to cages, I use the Niceyrig half cage along with a Smallrig SSD holder for a very very minimal setup. The only thing the cage lacks is a cold shoe mount. It has plenty of threaded holes though so adding additional accessories is fairly simple. But most of the time I keep it stripped down and as minimal as possible :)
The 8bit still seems to beat out most other cameras I've shot with.
It is really quite excellent, especially for 8bit. I do tend to find it more contrasty and of course less smooth than 12bit. I tend to use my FP for more low light shooting these days, since you can recover soooo much in the shadows. But to truly get the most out of this capability, I prefer to shoot in 12bit.
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The image and color science is obvious, but what a lot of people don’t talk about is that the FP has timecode. As long as you have a deity tc-1 or a tentacle, you can sync all devices with timecode in seconds. It makes for a very quick, professional post-production workflow. I don’t know of any cinema camera with timecode selling for less than $3K. You can get plenty of FP’s used for $1.1K.
The built-in features on the FP are really quite broad and varied. My only real beef with the camera is the resolution and frame rate limits. The sensor is fantastic. Sigma needs to update the processor to get even more out of it. I hope they'll do it one day.