Sony Alpha A6000 sample movie: low light handheld pan 1600 ISO from Gordon Laing on Vimeo.
CameraLabs is testing the A6000 and writes and posted a couple of image samples and videos. About the video you see on top of this post he writes:
I was particularly impressed by the way the AF system smoothly adjusted between the guitars near the end of the clip. Meanwhile there’s little to no noise to speak of, just nice clean footage with lots of detail. I would however mention that very slight focus breathing when you pause for more than a couple of seconds on a subject.
EosHD just got the A6000 and got a positive suprirse when reviewing the video qulaity of the camera:
The Sony A6000 is the best Sony consumer camera yet for video. A Nikon D5300 in a mirrorless body, with far more features, the image quality is closer to the FS700 in 1080p than to a NEX 7 or A5000. The pristine sharp EVF, a magnified focus assist which can be activated whilst recording (rare!), peaking, zebra, 16:9 screen and of course the mirrorless form factor. This is arguably the best current ‘cheap’ camera for video, de-throning the GH2 and GH3. At just $650 it is an absolute bargain.
And here are some SAR readers tests:
Lachlan: “I posted up a video I shot with my new a6000 + SELP18105G lens. It’s just a simple room tour video but so far over the few days I’ve had the camera I’ve been super impressed by the autofocus system.http://youtu.be/6WARzXS20Bo”
A7r vs A6000 comparison at Wimarys.
Robert: “ich hab das heutige schöne Wetter genutzt, um den AF der neuen A6000 zu Test. Mit dem Sel50 bei offener Blende habe ich einige fantastische Downhill Bilder schießen können: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93080917@N03/sets/72157643165455194/“
Michael: “Wll, you shouldn’t miss out on this one. Now, I don’t know why this german guy used crazy low iso and not that high shutterspeeds, but at least it gives an impression on what all are waiting to see: how well does the a6000 in tracking fast moving objects. So, while test (a great deal of missed shots in my opinion) is – still – not conclusive, at least the guy is very happy – comparing with way more expensive stuff as Canon 5d mark 3 and the likes – and he’s very happy with the snappy 11 pics. shutterrate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3C-xvFluA”
Sony A6000 preorder list with US and Europe links:
Sony A6000 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore. In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT, WexUK.
Silver A6000 at Amazon US, BHphoto, WexUK.
Sony A6000 with lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore, Sony Canada, WexUK.
Silver A6000 with lens at Amazon US, BHphoto, WexUK.
Sony 70-200mm FE at Amazon, BHphoto, SonyStore. In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, AT, NL, BE, CH, FI, SE, PT
0 Responses
“This is arguably the best current ‘cheap’ camera for video, de-throning the GH2 and GH3. At just $650 it is an absolute bargain.”
WOW, that’s one heck of a praise! I keep EOSHD in high regard when it comes to video stuff. They are brand neutral and focus a lot on usability. I think I need to add the A6k to my collection!
Hopefully a77 II will follow suit
Of course it will. Duhhh! lol
Looking at the test footage, it looks like it is pixel averaging rather than line skipping, which aleviates the need to intentionally blur detail to get rid of artefacts. Hence the sharper video.
However, the GH2/3/4 still have a big advantage if you are color correcting as they have far higher bitrates, which is important if you want to expose up (for A6000 and its AVCHD 28Mbit/s, you will see macroblocking in the shadows if you expose up by anything significant).
Im guessing the big advantage of the A6000 will be better focusing, lower noise and more cinematic DOF (last two due to bigger sensor), which will give you better video if you will not be post-processing the video.
Agreed. A hacked GH2 or stock GH3 is still better for video, especially if colour correcting or grading is important.
Sharpness and detail are not the tell tale signs of “quality video”
Similar to Fuji X cameras, most cameras today for video choose to smudge details to compensate for noise. If you don’t believe me see any hacked GH2 example vs GH3.
One thing I am surprised Andrew (EOSHD) did not speak about is “motion”, where AVCHD will immediately smudge all details and macro blocking begins to show to keep the bitrate within the specified standards.
But there is clean HDMI but is the clean hdmi 10 bit or 8 bit?
I would not count on the HDMI being useful for anything other than feeding a monitor. In my experience, ‘uncompressed HDMI out’ is a marketing term that means ‘it has not gone through the final codec (AVCHD), but we’ve done all sorts of crap to it so it looks good for display, but that will make it useless for any sort of grading.
Do yourself a favour and eBay a GH2 (and get a M43 to Alpha converter) and then hack the GH2 with a Driftwood intra (I use Moon T7). About the same cost as getting a HDMI recorder, far less bother (better usability and ergonmics/size), and better quality and speed for grading (AVCHD-intra (single frame GOP) is processed about x3 faster than Sony AVCHD 28Mbit/s in Premiere, and grades far better as it keeps color in the shadows, and has far more latitude, albeit at the expense of less dynamic range than sony). HTH.
I appreciate your informstive input. Let’s see what the a7s can deliver. Hopefully sony can unveil the dark matter this time around. Clean IQ moire alias free is guaranteed because of the full sensor read out and a6000’s IQ gives us a glimpse, fingers crossed about slow mo and higher bitrate. I would take the avchd as well if it is implemented as well as fs700
This camera is looking better and better, one of my grips with the A mount cameras was the movies, to much line skipping, no way to lower the shutter to less then 60, to much noise, image was always cropped due to the digital stabilization even if you turn it off, Autofocus only if you use aperture greater then 3…. somewhat mooshy image. Hopefully the next A mount cameras follow this camera video features.
digital steadyshot with stabilizer is a must for run and gun video shoot and only A-mount SLTs can provide that benefit. the way around the crop mode is to use wider lens. My gripe about it is the battery life and weight.
I would get a lighter and compact a6000 to be used on a stabilizer if it has digital steadyshot for video but it doesnt have one. Also it wont allow me to use LED light on shoe mount because there will be no place for me to use the mic and u cant have both features at the same time 🙁 not having a standard mic input is the biggest marketing fail. it could have been a perfect compact video cam
Yes I agree with you, but theres times when you have a tripod and you don´t need stabilization, and when you turn the stabilization off, nothing happens!!! still cropped. About the a6000 I agree about the mic, but you can get 1 from sony for 99$ not that bad.
So frustrating. The A7 has (IMHO) great audio options but lackluster video quality. While the A6000 has the image quality I had hoped for (on the A7) but lacks the audio! No mic jack or headphone jack AND it won’t work with the $$$ XLR adapter?!
Sony ECM-XYST1M Stereo Microphone
The a7 and a7r also allow you to jump into focus assist zoom while recording video. My 7r also allows switching between manual and autofocus , AEL, and even changing the focus zone while recording (including moving the ‘flexible spot’ and activating it with a half shutter press..interesting!). I imagine the a6000 might be similar. The newer these cameras get, the less restricted they are. My 7r can shoot video at all ISO settings for example. My a99 and NEX-7 are capped. Having used both the 7r and the a99, I didn’t see a big difference in video quality. The controls are a bit better for video but even with the XLR adapter, the a99 feels like a big boat anchor so I got rid of it. Looking forward to trying the a6000. It might be the perfect counter part to the 7r.
Just saw an amazingly sharp test photo for the Alpha 6000 + Zeiss Touit 2.8/50: https://www.flickr.com/photos/berlinbackstage/13604350233/in/pool-alpha-nex/
I’ll wait until I see some high ISO raw comparisons before I consider swapping my NEX-7 for an A6000. I also would like to see how this sensor handles the edges on superwide/fisheye lenses. I am getting tired of trying to eliminate the purple edges.
I am curious about the results of a vIdeo stress test. I want to capture a 3 hour dance performance in a dark restaurant. FIrst, let’s assume a class 10 128 GB card was installed. How long will the A6000 internally record in movie mode, understanding you have to reset every 30 minutes because of the factory firmware limit? Does the sensor overheat at some point? Second, If the unit was attached through HDMI to, say, an Atomos Ninja, will it deliver an unbroken 3 hour movie file?
I just have a non beta version arrived. After a bit fiddling I would like to comment on a few little things I miss and couldn’t find in the reviews:
– I hate the app system for WIFI remote control. why not just selecting wifi on in the menu and the smartphone can start to control
– The wifi control app has only ultra basic control. No manual exposure or video control. Hope this can be fixed soon over software updates. I was hoping to especially use this a lot for video purposes :-/
– It makes quite a shutter noise when picture taking
– When I switch the camera from pal to ntsc mode the camera always starts up with a warning that it is set in ntsc. Huge delay :-/ – the little lanyard hooks actually rattle a bit, metal on metal is not that discreet. I will try to make a solution to this myself I think…
– the charging over usb is only at 0.5A according to the charging block. Really slow. Compare this to the 2.4A of a modern smartphone recharging over micro USB… Still have to test if it would go faster with smartphone cable/block.
– peaking goes only for vertical lines in focus, almost not for horizontal ones…
What do you chaps think of this?
What options do I need to check in the A6000 to get HDMI out into an Atomos Ninja Star? My A6000 immediately goes into playback mode whenever I attach the Ninja Star…
For me, the 2 best (hands down) cameras under $1,000 are the Sony A6000
(mirrorless) and the Nikon D5300 (DSLR). This comparative table helped
me choose between the 2
http://hzz.hubpages.com/hub/Sony-A6000-vs-Nikon-D5300-the-best-mirrorless-vs-the-best-DSLR-Under-1000
Hope it helps…