The Camera That Removes Every Excuse You've Been Using: 3 Reasons I Pre-Ordered the Sony FX5

I have a little secret to tell you: I just put money down on a $7,000 camera.

That's not a small confession for me. I haven't spent money on cameras or camera gear in a long time — mostly because I've been directing rather than DPing, and as a director, whether you're working on commercials or films, you rent everything. Nothing is really owned by you anymore. After I bought my FX3 about four years ago, I genuinely didn't feel like I needed anything else. It did everything I asked of it.

But this camera is different. So I want to walk through why I spent the money pre-ordering the Sony FX5 — and especially why, given how people are telling stories right now, with vertical content, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, this feels like a genuinely unique moment for creatives. For reluctant storytellers like myself, this is a chance to strip away the friction and the barriers that normally stop us from telling our stories, and just have a tool or two that lets us create with full, unabashed creativity.

The most powerful moment in the film isn't a line of dialogue. It's a pause. Here's why I chose to let the silence do the work — and what that decision cost me in the edit.