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New Sony FX5 is the successor to the FX3 compact cinema camera

A raft of upgrades include a new sensor, processor, battery and open gate recording

Pricing starts at £4,700 and availability is from August

The industry's most popular compact cinema camera, the Sony FX3 from 2021, just got a huge upgrade. And having shot multiple productions with this very camera, I can tell you now that its successor, the new FX5, is going to be a big hit.

Last year I drafted in a pro filmmaker who I've worked with on many shoots to share the 5 upgrades he most wanted to see in a FX3 mark II , a camera that we now know is actually called the FX5, and almost every one of his wishes has been granted — and there are other improvements too.

Sony has finally included open gate video recording for the first time, meaning users can take advantage of the full height and width of the all-new 16.6MP stacked full-frame sensor's 3:2 aspect ratio, rather than being restricted to 16:9 or narrower like before.

That new sensor brings a welcome resolution increase from the FX3's 12MP, and open gate bumps up video resolution from 4K to 5K. Frame rates have been upped to 120fps in 5K and up to 240fps in 4K, too, so slow-motion recording is well catered for.

There's now internal 16-bit RAW recording, meaning no external monitor is needed for this high-quality format, plus a triple-base ISO, and A7R VI-grade in-body image stabilization.

In fact, every major feature has been upgraded from the FX3. We also get the same Bionz XR2 twin processor and AI chip as the new Sony A7R VI , which delivers enhanced subject-tracking autofocus, and what Sony says is better low-light performance.

The original FX3 (Image credit: Sony) The FX5's form factor is largely similar to the FX3, and at 750g it's only 35g heavier. There are still multiple on-body mounting points and custom buttons, but there's now a chunkier handgrip which houses Sony's latest and higher-capacity NP-SA100 battery, which was introduced in the A7R VI and increases battery life by approximately 30% for approximately 170 minutes of 5K recording.

The FX5 also inherits the same video-only UI as Sony's high-end cinema cameras, the Venice, Burano and FX6, and gets several design tweaks, including a multi-function dial as on the Venice, as well as a multi selector (joystick) and a tally lamp.

False color, waveform, vector and focus map video monitoring tools have all been added — which is a first for a Sony camera at this level — in addition to the existing histogram, zebra, and peaking tools.

Sounds amazing, so what's the catch?

It's not all good news, mind you. The FX5's dual card slots are still designed to take SD and Sony's exclusive CFexpress Type A cards, rather than Type B. A word of warning here: if you don't already own some Type A cards, they cost a bomb.

And on the note of cost, prices for the video-only FX5 start at £4,700. That's the body-only price, while the bundle with the new top handle costs £5,200 (available separately for £780). I'll update this page with US and Australia pricing once I have it.

I expect most folks ready to splash the cash on the FX5 will opt for the handle bundle, withwhich they will gain 32-bit float audio recording.

There's also a new 7.07m-dot tilt OLED viewfinder, which looks particularly neat, even if it costs £650 and can't be used at the same time as the top handle, despite having its own port alongside the hotshoe.

The camera and accessories will be available from August, with the option to (irreversibly) disable in-body image stabilization ahead of purchase.

Not all of the aforementioned FX5 features will be ready to go, either. Sony says the following will only be available after a V2 firmware update: 4K240p, 5K120p, vertical UI, screen-grab function and Open Gate in XAVC codec. The timing of this firmware update is TBC.

Still, I expect the Sony FX5 to become a mainstay across low-budget productions. It delivers all of the upgrades that FX3 users wanted and more, and I can't wait to test it out on set.

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One of the best platformers in recent years – the adorably bouncy Poinpy – is back from the dead and is now totally free. And in case the delightfully moreish game missed you the first time around, it's now unshackled from its Netflix Games cell.

For those out of the loop, Poinpy became a critically-acclaimed fan-favorite when it came out in 2022 as an exclusive in the Netflix Games catalogue. As long as you had a regular Netflix subscription, you could play as much Poinpy as you liked alongside a suite of other games.

But an entire year ago, Poinpy was removed from the service due to the expiration of a licensing deal, leaving the our blobby green hero in limbo since it wasn't available on any other platform. Publisher Devolver Digital has now revived the game and put it onto mobile storefronts for free – no purchase or Netflix account required.

Poinpy is now available to download on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store . Just don't let that 'In-App Purchases' note scare you off. "Poinpy is 100% free! There are no ads and no purchases required to play. If you love Poinpy and want to support the developer, please leave a tip," the storefront description explains.

That developer is Moppin, otherwise known as Ojiro Fumoto, who also made the equally excellent roguelike Downwell and contributed to UFO 50. Poinpy serves as somewhat of an answer to Downwell, however – instead of descending into a seemingly never-ending cavern of deadly creatures, Poinpy has you flicking the screen to send our hero flying up and up and up, bouncing on walls, off of enemies, and toward colorful fruit in the hopes of satiating the always-hungry, even bigger cat-like blob who's always licking its lips on the bottom of the screen. A true to life feline, that is.

Rationing a limited number of jumps per level, chaining together bounces to elongate your airtime, and finding oh so many secrets is an absolute blast. The whole thing feels so tactile to play and looks great, too, so now's your chance.

For more, check out the new games on the horizon and the upcoming indie games you should have on your radar.

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Who’s the better narrator for an audiobook: the author of the book or a professional voice actor?

Trick question. The answer is both, and/or, it depends.

Let’s leave nonfiction out of this discussion because I find that just about any personal writing will benefit from the author’s literal voice, whether it’s in memoir-form, personal essay, or reporting in which the author is present. That’s why I begged my publisher to let me narrate my own essay collection, and why, from celebrities to comedians (Alison Leiby’s new one is so good!) to journalists (let Patrick Radden Keefe do whatever he wants!), I tend to enjoy author-narrated performances more.

But fiction is a little thornier. Not all fiction writers are actors and that is more than okay because voice actors exist and many of them are wonderful. In fact, voice actors are very important. In order to buy into such an assertion you must believe, despite what AI companies like to say , that narrating books is an art form and should be treated as such.

More than that, you must believe that human interpretation of a text matters. This is a big reason why fiction matters. It’s not just about the words themselves; it’s about how context and reader experience can change the resonance of those words, and why readers can find different meanings in the same work. The performance of a text by a skilled narrator can tweak those meanings even more.

Dion Graham’s performance of the books in Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy is one of the all-time great narrator performances, so I’ll use it as a case study. Graham uses subtly different voices with different cadences to portray the series’s wide cast of characters, and taken cumulatively, he evokes a very particular time and place—Harlem in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Not to mention that Whitehead’s writing is so propulsive that without Graham embodying the characters and occasionally slowing down to pointedly say a particular line, I likely would have read too quickly and missed out on much of the trilogy’s humor.

There is a unique pleasure in hearing a novelist read their work aloud.

But it’s not just Graham. January LaVoy works in a variety of different genres and brings vigor to each one. So do personal favorites like Mara Wilson, Rebecca Lowman, and Julia Whelan, and so many others. I particularly love when a narrator works on enough of an author’s oeuvre that their voices become entangled in a pleasing way. I can’t think of Mona Awad’s dark fantastical novels without hearing Sophie Amoss’s voice , and Roger Clark’s accent work is intimately tied to my understanding of Tana French’s Cal Hooper series.

We can count celebrity narrators here too, with the caveat that your average audiobook narrator lacks the financial stability of your average Hollywood star. But there’s a lot to love: Jeremy Irons narrating Brideshead, Revisited or Marisa Tomei narrating the English translation of Elena Ferrante’s The Lying Life of Adults . A bonus: Did you know that Matt Bomer narrated the 10th anniversary edition of Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life ?

But there is a unique pleasure in hearing a novelist read their work aloud, their craft decisions become crystallized. Both lesser known (so far) authors and legends alike have done it well. Recently I’ve loved Mariam Rhamani’s reading of her 2025 debut, Liquid , and Jordy Rosenberg’s bravura interpretation of his latest novel, Night Night Fawn . A special mention for Ann Patchett: she had Meryl Streep narrate Tom Lake , and Tom Hanks did The Dutch House , but Patchett’s own reading of her latest novel, Whistler , is equally exquisite.

My all-time favorite is when an eccentric or singular type of author reads their work and a text you thought you knew makes so much more sense. I’m thinking of Donna Tartt’s reading of The Secret History , her Southern accent emphasizing how out of place her main character is in his New England liberal arts college. The main character’s questionable decisions in Miranda July’s All Fours make way more sense when the author is telling the story. And there is no one other than Bret Easton Ellis who should ever read The Shards : the paranoid ramblings of his narrator make the most sense coming out of his own mouth. I have no idea how the show based on the book will be, but I can say for sure that I was locked in for a 23-hour audiobook.

I also need you to know that Toni Morrison narrated all of her own audiobooks and they are as exceptional as they sound.

There are so many great choices for audiobook narrators. Unless you’re visually impaired, in which case I have absolutely no basis to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do to make the world more accessible, the only bad choice is going with an AI narrator. Reading and listening to fiction is fundamentally about accessing one’s humanity. We simply cannot outsource it to machines.

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Great news for 4K Blu-ray fans: the huge half-price sale on Criterion Collections discs is still running at Barnes & Noble, and Amazon has some of the same discounts running too. Slightly more concerning news: the sale ends on July 26, so you only have a few days left to pick up some new discs!

• View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble

• View the Criterion sale at Amazon

At Barnes & Noble, absolutely everything is a flat half-price, which makes things easy (and a stone-cold bargain). At Amazon, quite a few discs are half-price, but some have smaller discounts than B&N (or no discount at all). But I've included that sale too, because a lot of people like to start with Amazon for the convenience.

Obviously, there's a huge range of stuff to choose from, so your best bet is to browse the full sale directly, but I've picked out 12 options that I think are particularly tempting. And if you don't have a 4K Blu-ray player yet, don't forget to check our guide to the best 4K Blu-ray players , all tested by us!

Criterion 4K Blu-ray sale — quick links

View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble

View the full Criterion sale at Amazon

Criterion 4K Blu-ray sale: 12 titles I'd recommend

Save 50%

The Criterion Collection

Eyes Wide Shut

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The Criterion Collection

Wall•E

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The Criterion Collection

The Princess Bride

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The Criterion Collection

No Country for Old Men

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The Criterion Collection

The Before Trilogy (Before Sunrise / Before Sunset / Before Midnight)

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The Criterion Collection

Bruce Lee: His Greatest Hits (The Big Boss / Fist of Fury / the Way of the Dragon / Enter the Dragon / Game of Death)

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The Criterion Collection

Sentimental Value

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The Criterion Collection

Seven Samurai

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The Criterion Collection

Dazed & Confused

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The Criterion Collection

Thief

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The Criterion Collection

After Hours

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The Criterion Collection

The Secret Agent

View the full Criterion sale at Amazon

View the full Criterion sale at Barnes & Noble