Sony has announced the FX5, a compact, full-frame Cinema Line camera designed to sit between the FX3 and FX6. Aimed primarily at accomplished videographers, filmmakers and production houses, it is also intended for use as a compact B- or C-camera alongside models such as the Burano and Venice.
At its heart is a newly developed 16.6MP full-frame, back-illuminated, fully stacked Exmor RS sensor paired with Sony’s BIONZ XR2 processor. Like the Sony A7R VI’s processor, it incorporates an AI unit for improved subject-recognition autofocus and overall processing performance.
One of the headline additions is 5K 3:2 open-gate recording at 4992 x 3328 pixels. By using the full height and width of the sensor, this gives filmmakers greater flexibility when reframing footage, creating vertical versions and shooting with anamorphic lenses. The camera offers anamorphic de-squeeze settings of 1.3x, 1.5x, 1.6x, 1.8x and 2.0x.
The FX5 is also the smallest Sony Cinema Line camera to offer internal 16-bit X-OCN RAW recording, removing the need for an external recorder. It supports several X-OCN compression codecs, including LT, along with two newly developed, more highly compressed options called C1 and C2. These are designed to retain the grading flexibility of Raw footage while reducing storage requirements and transfer times. Sony recommends using CFexpress Type A VPG400 cards for X-OCN recording.
Sony claims the FX5’s files have more than 15 stops of latitude, and it offers three base ISO settings of ISO 800, 4000 and 12,800. A Dual Gain mode uses two sensor readouts to reduce random noise in darker areas of the image, although it is not available with every recording format and setting.
High-frame-rate recording will extend to 5K at 120p and cropped 4K at 240p, giving up to five-times and ten-times slow motion respectively. However, these modes are planned for the camera’s Version 2 firmware, which Sony says will arrive in 2027.
Although the FX5 closely resembles the FX3, it is slightly larger and around 35g heavier, weighing approximately 750g with its battery and a memory card. The grip is a little deeper, while the rear control wheel has been replaced by a multi-function dial inspired by Sony’s higher-end cinema cameras. It also adopts the Cinema Line menu system used by the FX6, Burano and Venice 2 rather than the Alpha-style interface found on the FX3.
The stabilisation system has also been updated and is said to be significantly more effective than the FX3’s. A Dynamic Active mode applies a small crop to produce steadier handheld footage. Sony will also offer a paid service that permanently locks the sensor for cameras used on vehicles, drones or other rigs where the movement of the stabilisation mechanism could cause unwanted wobbling. The modification is irreversible.
Other features include a four-axis 3.5-inch 16:9 screen and monitoring tools such as false colour, waveform, vectorscope, focus map, histogram, zebra and focus peaking. The AI-based autofocus can recognise humans, animals and birds and is said to acquire subjects more quickly and perform better in low light than the FX3.
The new NP-SA100 battery, introduced with the Sony A7R VI, is said to provide up to 170 minutes of continuous 5K recording. An integrated cooling fan also enables recording sessions of up to 24 hours, provided sufficient power and storage are available. The FX5 has two CFexpress Type A/SD card slots, two USB-C ports, full-size HDMI, Ethernet and improved Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a video-only camera and does not shoot stills.
Optional accessories include a removable, tilting 3.68-million-dot OLED viewfinder, a timecode cable and a newly developed XLR handle supporting four-channel, 96kHz/32-bit float audio recording. The viewfinder and XLR handle use the same mounting position, so they cannot be attached simultaneously without a third-party solution.
The Sony FX5 was officially launched on 22 July 2026 and is due to go on sale in August. The recommended European price is €5,400 body only or €6,000 with the XLR handle. The optional viewfinder is priced at €750, the XLR handle at €900 and the timecode cable at €100.