Sony Xperia 5 – a Smaller & Cheaper Xperia
If you’re just buying a smartphone for general use, the Sony Xperia 5 might not make your shortlist. But if you’re looking for a smartphone that can shoot great video top of your check list, then read on.
Why is the Sony Xperia 5 so special for video shooters? Because, like the Xperia 1, it comes with it’s own camera app for manual control, essential for polished looking video.
Camera apps like FiLMiC Pro have become a key first purchase when starting out as a smartphone filmmaker. But 3rd party camera apps often have stability issues or missing features, especially with Android smartphones.
Sony make cinema cameras
Sony are the only maker of professional level cinema cameras to have successfully turned their hand to smartphones. Of course, RED has had a go in the last couple of years, but their Hydrogen One was an epic RED failure.
Well, Sony make a huge range of electronic devices, including game consoles and TVs and have done for decades. And they’ve been making smartphones since before the iPhone arrived. So, no surprise they’re well ahead of RED.
Cinema Pro App
Cinema Pro is an application powered by Sony’s digital motion picture camera technology. This is the same app which was introduced with the Xperia 1 earlier this year. The app comes with the Xperia 1 & Xperia 5 as an additional app to the regular photo app (both have complete manual control).
Co-developed by CineAlta (behind cameras for Hollywood) and Alpha (behind top mirrorless cameras), the app comes with some serious backing. Video shot with the Xperia has natural looking colours, and this sets it apart from leading smartphone makers Apple, Samsung, Google and others.
More natural colours, more professional
While producing highly saturated, highly colourful video gets the attention of regular phone buyers, serious photographers and cinematographers want a natural base. Because if you start with more natural looking video, there’s more room to get creative later.
While 3rd party camera apps can often be unreliable in filming situations, using a native app will be much more reliable. The problem is, most smartphone’s native camera apps do not provide any (or little ) manual control.
I’ve shot 5 short films FiLMiC Pro with Samsung S8 and S9, now. And while it works well mostly, there are moments when apps crash mid-shot, settings get lost, or files are corrupted.
Check out this video testing the Xperia 1 camera and the Cinema Pro app by GSMArena. I’m not saying you can’t produce this kind of video with another smartphone, but most “cinematic” video tests are pushing the saturated look because that grabs the untrained eye more easily.
Sony Xperia 1 Compact
There’s actually very little difference between the Xperia 1 and the Xperia 5 barring the size. And at £699 it’s around £150 cheaper than the Xperia 1. If the size of the previous model (no idea why they went from 1 to 5) put you off, then a more compact version might be more appealing.
Screen
Sony have downsized the OLED screen from 6.5 to 6.1 inches in diagonal, in the same cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio as the Xperia 1. Sony have been aiming to produce a cinematic viewing experience as well as a filmmaking one.
While the Xperia 1 gets a (sort of) 4K screen, the smaller Xperia 5 makes do with 1080p.
Cameras
Rear
- Primary: 12MP (1/2.6″ Exmor RS), f/1.6 aperture (ISO 3200), 26mm lens, Dual Photo Diode.
- Telephoto: 12MP (1/3.4″), f/2.4, 52mm lens. Ultra wide: 12MP (1/3.4″), f/2.4, 16mm.
Front
- 8MP (1/4″ sensor), f/2.0, 24mm lens, fixed-focus.
Cinema Pro app
Sony’s Cinema Pro app gives you manual control, but you don’t get as much as apps like FiLMiC Pro.
- There’s a choice of 2K or 4K video, while FiLMiC has 1080p, 2K, 3K and 4K
- Frame rates can be set to 24 or 30 fps, while FiLMiC Pro has other choices (depending on the device).
- Full ISO control, up to a realistic 800. 64 is native.
- 5 white balance settings (no custom setting) plus auto WB. While FiLMiC allows full custom WB control.
- Shutter speed set using angle values mimicking film cameras. eg: 180 degrees for a film traditional look.
- Full manual and auto focus are available.
- Pre-set looks for different colour set ups, with VENICE giving you the most natural grade.
10-bit HDR Video
The Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 record 10-bit HDR video encoded in H.265 codecs. Only a few smartphones can record 10 bit video, such as the LG V range of phones. Whether the extra bits of colour info make much or any difference with a phone’s small sensor is up for discussion.
I’ve hunted through YouTube test videos of the LG V40 shooting HDR10 (10 bit) at 4K and, while it’s difficult to find serious tests, I found them to be less impressive than Xperia 1 footage (for this sample below, you might want to turn the sound down due to wind noise).
In this video, David has used a gimbal, so you’re not seeing inbuilt OIS. However, the colour and the sharpness are pretty impressive. Of course, this is in bright sunlight so we expect the camera to be at its sharpest.
I hunted some more and found this night comparison between the Sony Xperia 1 and the Samsung S10. There’s not much between them, however this screengrab below reveals the Xperia 1 seems to cope with the light contrast. See how the interior of the building has much more detail in the Xperia 1, while the Samsung S10 is more washed out.
BIONZ X
The triple camera system of the Sony Xperia 1 and Sony Xperia 5 come with Sony’s Bionz image processing. It is currently used in many of Sony α DSLRs and mirrorless cameras.
“BIONZ X for mobile is an image-processing engine based on Sony’s digital imaging technologies used in Alpha and Cyber-shot cameras. BIONZ X includes RAW noise reduction, a technology which offers a better than ever low light shooting performance. It reduces the noise of the image before the compression, so that the final picture is smoother and clearer.” Sony
24 or 30 fps Problem?
With the Cinema Pro app limited to 24 or 30 frames per second, while these are standard settings, there can be a problem shooting under artificial light in countries with 50hz power supply. For example, I always shoot at 25 fps because in Europe we have 50hz power – at 24fps, I get a strobing effect.
Having said that, you can install and use FiLMiC Pro which does work with this phone and set to 25fps (I believe) but then that removes one of the biggest assets of the phone. Perhaps adjusting the shutter angle setting might remove the issue.
Filmmaker Lenses
While Apple have gone for the ultra wide lense and no telephoto with the new iPhone 11, Sony have stuck with the telephoto option. Well, no smartphones carry anything like a traditional telephoto lens. Rather, as standard smartphones lenses are very wide, they simply give you what we would have considered a regular frame in the past.
And neither do Moment or other telephoto conversion lens makers. To get true telephoto you need a depth of field adapter. But they have to call it something, I guess.
Anyway, I feel that the ultra wide lens is aimed more at vloggers, while the “tele” is more useful for filmmakers. If you are shooting actors and you want that standard filmmaking shot the Close Up, using a wide lens you will have to get VERY close to the actor.
Having a smartphone 10 centimeters from you face can be quite distracting for the actor. So anything that allows you to frame closer without moving so close is very useful. Meanwhile, vloggers need the wider lens because their usually filming themselves at arm’s length.
It’s not perfect
So, although the Sony Xperia 1 and Sony Xperia 5 have been designed with filmmakers in mind, the Cinema Pro app still has some limitations. That said, the Xperia 1 and Xperia 5 do provide a slightly different look to other leading smartphones. So it’s nice to have an alternative.
Most smartphones are designed with the general consumer in mind. Therefore, many of the features such as fake bokeh, high saturation, high image sharpness, extreme wide angle lenses, 10x or 20x “telephoto” (not true) lenses and so on, are more gimmicks than real useful filmmaking features.
These features are designed to give you results that might look instantly pleasing, but cause you problems if you want to apply a post production process like colour grading.
See you in Venice
When the Sony Xperia 1 was launched earlier in 2019, the event was held in Venice, Italy. A beautiful setting, no? The perfect place to let reviewers test out the new phone’s cameras and camera apps. But there’s more to it than that…
The Sony Cinema Pro app allows you to choose different colour settings, with VENICE CS being the flat (allegedly log profile) setting. This setting was named after their full frame sensor motion picture camera system.
Did Sony launch their smartphone in Venice because it has the same name as a setting in their camera app? Apparently so. But it tells us that the Venice setting (in Italy and in Cinema Pro), is considered to be the most important feature of the phone.
Are these smartphones one big marketing ploy to sell their professional level cameras? Sony often gets criticism for it’s poor marketing skills, but maybe they’re a bit smarter than we realise. Maybe they’re playing some ultra sophisticated long game…
Sony Xperia 5 on Amazon Sony Xperia 1 on AmazonEager to learn more?
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