What do you all think compared to C50 housing?

Nauticam

Nauticam NA-FX5 Housing for Sony FX5 Camera

The Sony FX5 brings VENICE-class capability into a body barely larger than the FX3. A newly developed full-frame, fully-stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor paired with the BIONZ XR2 processing engine deliver

Nauticam

NA-C50 Housing for Canon C50 Camera

The Canon C50 is a compact, powerful cinema camera that blends cinematic image quality with a portable form factor, making it a versatile tool for underwater creators looking for a smaller system. It

A missed opportunity from Nauticam.

4 hours ago, Davide DB said:

A missed opportunity from Nauticam.

Is that because it does not have the Cinema focus and zoom dials, has a clam shell instead of removable back, and no external battery slot? It is nice and compact but it seems to be a lower tier housing than the camera would suggest. (the C50 looks like a cinema housing in contrast).

Yes, exactly. Sorry if I didn't explain my answer. It was too blunt.

I wish I could be a fly and listen to the motivations behind Nauticam's technical decisions. Clearly there are nuances that escape me. 😇

For the Canon C-50 which is a cinema line camera they made from scratch a really beautiful housing with all the refinements involved. Now, the FX3 already had a really basic housing. Yet the FX-3 was the most used cinema camera in the world as a B cam in so many film and broadcast productions.

Now, Nauticam has gotten us used to launching housings practically at the same time as the camera launch and I can understand that when it came out nobody imagined such success.

Now comes the FX5 which replaces it and which in the Sony video world has been expected for years. A machine totally dedicated to video. It doesn't even take photographs!

It was the opportunity to make amends and equip a pure cinema camera with a dedicated housing of the same level as the NA C-50.

Nothing!

And I'm telling you this as a Panasonic user who has witnessed this inconsistency for years on Lumix cameras which are the most complete in the video sector since always.

A mystery. 💁‍♂️

15 hours ago, Davide DB said:

A missed opportunity from Nauticam.

Exactly my sentiment.

They probably know they are going to sell them so why to put extra effort to think... Better to copy FX3 housing and be done with it... Lazy Nauticam...

Being in Sony and N100 ecosystem I was considering FX5 ... but with this? I really liked C50 housing for what it offers.

Maybe I was also hoping for some kind of levers Aquatica is using on their GH5 housing... great access to top buttons...

... lazy Nauticam...

Yes probably the most obvious explanation is that since the cameras are very similar, with minimal effort they got the housing. Then since the FX5 is thicker than the FX3, to give it a pro touch they added the cheese plate on top.

Ironically Sony keeps pushing back the delivery date, so the housing is available before the camera itself.

I wonder if some of their reasoning was feedback that:

1) the Cin focus gears are keeping people from getting the Cinema line of housings. For all lenses (as far as I know) they are... $800(!) to mesh with those lovely white zoom and focus nobs. For people using 28-60 Sony Lens, that is more than 2x the cost of the lens.

2) This camera is all about being compact so adding the external battery made it larger and (potentially) the new internal battery for the FX5 is good enough for multiple dives? or just staying compact was their ultimate design decision.

But probably it is the minimal effort thing.

5 hours ago, ColdDarkDiver said:

2) This camera is all about being compact so adding the external battery made it larger and (potentially) the new internal battery for the FX5 is good enough for multiple dives? or just staying compact was their ultimate design decision.

But probably it is the minimal effort thing.

The new internal battery must be really good then.

I ran some tests on the A7SIII, and a 90minute dive two nights ago with the camera set to 120fps (blackwater conditions), AF-C with a 2 minute auto-shut off drained a new internal battery to 23%, with only 5 minutes or so of actual shooting (no subjects that night).

I also ran continous filming tests on land, without a monitor connected:
Idle / live image ~167 min

4K60 ~95 min

4K120 ~77 min

I really hope they doubled that on the FX5, or this means swapping batteries on a multiple dive day

Edited September 27Sep 27 by bghazzal

14 hours ago, bghazzal said:

The new internal battery must be really good then.

No idea. Press says over 100 minutes of recording but real life is always different. Looking forward to people using this housing (when the camera is finally released) for real world feedback.

6 hours ago, ColdDarkDiver said:

Press says over 100 minutes of recording but real life is always different. Looking forward to people using this housing (when the camera is finally released) for real world feedback.

Yes, real life is really different. Fingers crossed, but really, a battery pack / power bank is really something I would want in a video camera housing.

Just to give you an idea, internal battery life for 4K60fps recording on the A7SIII is actually 135 minutes of continuous recording according to Sony.

This is exactly the same on the FX5's predecessor, the FX3, which uses the same NP-FZ100 battery pack (and has essentially the same video implementation as the A7SIII).

FX3/A7SIII: 135 min continuous / 95 min actual recording

So more than the FX5's quoted 100 minutes...

In real life, my land tests on the A7SIII gave me 95 minutes of continuous recording at 4K60, so 30% lower than the continuous quoted figure, but matching Sony's 95 minutes actual recording figure perfectly.

This is in ideal conditions, camera not in a housing, 27°C, no monitor connected, and while AF-C was on, it was on a still subject, and relatively newish battery.

And then in real-life UW shooting situations, in a housing with the monitor, with less than 5 minutes of actual shooting (!) at 120fps, the battery was drained to 23% remaining on a 90-minute BW dive. This was for 5 minutes of shooting, with auto-off activated.

Shooting a video camera in a housing without a battery pack means frequent battery changes, unless the internal battery is really large, which it doesn't seem to be on the FX5, if Sony is only quoting 100 minutes of battery life.

Edited September 28Sep 28 by bghazzal