A recent project I was hired for presented me and my team the opportunity to work with a more cinematic camera: the Sony FX6. (I rented one just for this shoot.)

I was blown away by its capabilities and by how easily the camera revealed its strengths during the shoot days.

The “we” in this case was Oh Shoot Productions (me), Laura Black from Black House Creative as my production coordinator, assistant cameraman and producer; and Sean White for Sean White Photography and Video as my second camera.

Sean shot on a gimbal using a Sony a7SIII, which has the same sensor as the FX6. The film matched very well.

The Sony FX6 performs brilliantly in bright sunlight.

We shot on a beach for an ad agency (Trone) and their client Nutramax Laboratories and were prepared to take advantage of the sunlight in the early morning and late afternoon to capture interesting shadows and color temperatures.

But the weather isn’t always cooperative and working with dogs, trainers, schedules and the like complicated issues even further. We found ourselves shooting closer to the middle of the day more than we would have preferred. This is where the camera excelled.

My favorite feature of the Sony FX6 is the internal ND filter system.

Wow. No more changing a glass filter on the end of a lens. I thought I would need to keep an eye on the exposure and constantly select the amount of ND filter to be used during every shot, sort of like I do when using a variable ND filter with my Sony a7III. But a little pre-shoot practicing with the camera showed me that Sony has designed their FX6 ND filter system so that it makes incremental adjustments automatically. I was leery at first, but quickly discovered it was completely trustworthy. I couldn’t see any signs of auto adjustments in the scenes we shot.

I could go on and on about the camera, listing several features I will miss when I turn in the rental like S Cinetone picture profile or the flawless autofocus, but let’s leave it at this – it’s a beautiful camera and a joy to shoot with.

This behind-the-scenes video shows you a little of our shooting experience, and how the commercial turned out. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.