Andrew Reid

So first proper shoot with the A6300 this weekend. I had terrible overheating problems after an hour, not even recording continuously but rather 2-5 mins at a time with brief pauses in-between. Also the manual focus assist zoom is a joke... how the heck do Sony think this is even usable to check focus in video mode... How do you tell if a shot is sharp by looking a blurry mess!!? Basic logic fail. However the 4K image is just... SO GOOD. Nice form factor and EVF too. Also the quality of the rear screen (when not zoomed) - very very good indeed.

I'm considering moving all of my videos to YouTube. That's coming from someone who actually loves Vimeo. I still pay for my account to provide the download option so people can download the ProRes file to get a better idea of quality, and the community there is better quality too which tends to lead to a more constructive thread under the video in terms of comments... although sometimes a little TOO polite! Sadly I don't think Vimeo have had their eye on the ball recently in terms of growing the site in an interesting way. Facebook groups have sucked the life out of the Vimeo groups and YouTube is sucking away the traffic. I know that if I upload something to YouTube it's going to get double or triple the attention. So yeah, challenges ahead for Vimeo and they need a more interesting direction... but let's not knock what they've created. Vimeo On Demand was interesting too... good to be able to make money from our work this way.

Some great work here Thread is now a sticky topic.

Yes all the film simulations work in video mode. It is only the other controls like grain simulation / shadow / highlight / sharpness that don't seem to work in video mode. But it doesn't bother me as the film simulations are so nice anyway and as I said before, you can bring up a lot of shadow detail in post. Dynamic range is good. Not quite as good as SLOG or Nikon flat profile but you're trading a bit to get the nicer tonality and colour. That's doing a great job of showing why I like it so much for video. Great detail, superb film simulation / colour out of the box. I see he used Film Convert in post on it. The codec does hold up well. Very similar codec performance to a Nikon D750... but more detailed and 'alive'.

Ah but you can in post and the Pro Neg Standard gives you a softer, flat picture profile for video. The shadows have a lot of detail and they are clean when brought up, very little macro blocking, noise or compression weirdness. So in other words the individual JPEG controls for shadow tone, saturation, etc. are not needed as the same effect is provided by selecting a certain film simulation mode and the way you grade the image. The quality of the 1080p in terms of sharpness is definitely way past the mushy 5D Mark III's H.264, but it doesn't have the moire filter. In terms of detail it is at the GH4 or C300 1080p mark so not bad at all for a Fuji.

Metabones EF to E-mount.

Some thoughts on the X Pro2 as stills camera before I get the main review finished which covers video... This thing is sensational. It's like a Leica M with the weight brought down and an EVF added, with superb autofocus. I'll say that again... a not so heavy Leica M with an EVF and AF and better live view display quality. The Leica M is of course the king of stills cameras... do ya get it yet...? Yep - this thing betters it. The 35mm F2.0 WR is nothing short of a bargain, best AF of the Fujifilm primes yet cost me 350 euros. AF is up there with the best Micro Four Thirds lenses, but it is a Super 35mm lens and weather sealed. Camera is nice and saturated at ISO 6400 and pretty clean, can't say that about a Micro Four Thirds cam. The AF is totally silent and nothing moves, or grinds back and forth like on Fuji's older lenses. Feel of the aperture ring is glorious. Every time I use this camera I get a nice feeling about it, it is perhaps the first ever "perfect" ergonomic camera.

For those disappointed with lack of video AF with Canon mount lenses via Metabones adapter, it would be interesting to get the upcoming Sigma adapter and try a set of Sigmas... 20mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.4 and of course the 18-35mm F1.8 and 50-100mm F1.8 APS-C lenses are all superb.

It's simple. Get a tripod, shoot wide, or just be careful with longer lenses 50mm+

I wouldn't call it that smooth, his camera is all a bit all over the place. And the vertical lines of the building are a worst case scenario especially if you're look for the problem and know how to spot it. I still think the A6300 has a lot... But I also think RS is one of the more 'overrated' problems with these cameras. The NX1 has 90% as much, yet not so many complainants about it over the last year really. I've heard more people mention the banding. Yes small improvement.

No looks like a typo in the manual or something. XAVC S 4K 25p has a "Super 35mm" badge next to it in the menus and I see no change in the FOV when using it vs 4K 24p mode. Yeah it does unfortunately. Weird innit?!

Still my favourite is the 5D Mark II especially as it is now so affordable used (£650) Even without the Mosaic AA filter it's a beauty of an image and every bit as good as the 5D Mark III, if not actually even a bit more 'characterful' and less 'clean'! There's no need to even consider anything newer, they're all far worse... although the 70D with dual pixel AF is quite a lot of fun with raw. Problem is, the image isn't nearly as good as the 5D Mark II from all those years ago. 80D won't be getting raw any time soon I don't think. ML probably have moved on a bit to be honest. Canon had their chance to nurture something great... didn't...

Good stuff, let me know how it goes.

But the Panasonic's don't go past ISO 800 without suffering massive colour de-saturation and heavy noise. The A6300 has a lovely fine noise grain and can go to 6400 easy. Tis true! Yes but nothing a little post can't sort out I am enjoying Cine 4 to avoid LOG It seems different this time out... the image processing is new. I like it better. No more limited than any other. I think it's pretty good in Cine4 for both colour and DR so far. Early days though. Not that bad considering the size of the body, just carry some spares. Really? Sigma 18-35mm and 50-100mm F1.8 pretty good no? Ok not native but AF should track and be fast through the official Sigma adapter, so as good as maybe... The Sony Zeiss 24mm F1.8 is my favourite of the native APS-C lenses, it's very good and the FE 55mm F1.8 is nice and it doesn't matter that it is full frame, it works fine on Super 35mm. But if it is APS-C lenses you want there's a crazy amount of EF-S ones and others which will go on the A6300 via the Metabones adapter. Also Sigma do some nice APS-C lenses... and now some notable ones for e-mount with good AF. Using full frame lenses is there it's at though, and Speed Booster. The lovely Sigma 20mm F1.4... it's still beautifully wide on it with or without Speed Booster in fact. Not exactly charming like a Fuji X Pro2, but it feels functional and as long as you don't need to dive into the menus too much, it's fine. Still does the annoying "shooting on NTSC mode" dialogue box when turning it on though, if shooting 24p and 120fps on a PAL camera. Ridiculous. That's mainly an S-Gamut issue actually. In Cine 4 and for stills it might be improved, we'll see.

Don't forget to factor in the price of a monitor though... And a cage... And... And... And...

Sony's quality control recently has been the stuff of toilets.

No but you can pass audio out via HDMI to a monitor with a headphone jack, or go off the on screen audio levels instead. Yeah I see, makes sense!

Yes And it is continuous, not a cache record like on the FS5 PS - why do you want sound for slow-mo?

The rolling shutter is a bit less in it but the idea of 30p and a crop doesn't really appeal to me artistically I think this is a great camera for wide angle Super 35mm. Telephoto not so much because of the rolling shutter. Handholding an 85mm or 135mm, forget it. Sigma 20mm F1.4 on the Speed Booster, now we're talking! It's stunning with this and barely any hint of distortion.

Hitfabryk - Friendly forum etiquette tip... Please don't quote long posts unnecessarily, just reply straight under them, as all this quoting doubles up on itself and makes the page extremely long to scroll through. Yes worth the upgrade from the A6000 definitely, unless you have a compelling reason to go for a different model entirely like the A7S II or NX1. Most people won't, I don't think.

S-LOG 2 with Stills colour mode seems to avoid the worst of the white balance problems S-Gamut introduces. Weird reds in sunlight, that sort of stuff. S-LOG 2 is of course good for LUTs, better than any other profile, so if you want to make use of your custom looks in post shoot S-LOG 2. S-LOG 3 is a joke and to be avoided due to the banding in skies, etc. S-LOG 2 however does sacrifice tonality and colour for more dynamic range. The Creative Styles are all a bit naff and will toss your highlights onto the fire, very very bad for dynamic range. Vivid however has lovely contrast, colour and a punch to it, with no effort in post. The Picture Profiles are a weird mess of old video profiles from Sony's boffins, a lot of them hopefully fired by now because they did a terrible job. ITU 709 for example looks like a Canon C300 that somebody threw up on. It's so far away from Arri, Fuji or Canon that it is quite laughable. Once you realise there is only one good Picture Profile aside from S-LOG 2 and that is Cine 4, matters improve a bundle. Cine 4 preserves the most highlight detail of any of the non LOG styles or profiles on the Sony cameras. I dial up the saturation and lower the black levels to improve colour and tonality, gives it a nice saturated Canon-like feel direct off the card and it doesn't then need so much fuss in post. I really like the results and dynamic range is very close to S-LOG 2 once the latter is graded and normal contrast introduced back to the image. I would usually prefer to shoot with Cine 4 as it avoids the weird colour and compression issues that so many people seem to have with S-LOG 2 occasionally.

Absolutely, we all owe you one for the early A6300 coverage and you guys went out of your way to deliver... Yes very unfair of me to make it sound like I was lumping people together. If I had judged everyone the same I would have had to include myself in that as I have been to Sony press events for cameras organised in Berlin. I went to one for the a7R II for instance. They served us free champagne. I drank it. Went home. Wrote that the full frame 4K image looked like a dog had done a crap. I think this is really important in the industry. The PR company hasn't been in touch since. Sony however... have. I think they prefer honest feedback above the relationship bridge building bullshit any-day. Personally I think their influence is becoming pervasive and it is rare to see someone come back from one of these events and raise an issue with the camera in public. When you and Chris came back from Miami though you did a balanced video on it and the information was extremely useful for everyone thinking of buying the camera or not. In the end people can tell if we are being balanced and they can tell when a site like DPReview is going down the drain with advertorial. Hopefully also a site which still refuses to carry advertising (like mine) still means something. I'm not sure it does any more. Anyway, from the bottom of my heart be sure that I did not mean to lump your superb efforts in with the real intended target of my barbed comments, which were aimed at a minority online and not the good guys like you. I mean that. Also, it's great to see you on the forum, hope you stick around, despite my occasional rants Cine 4 is looking superb on the A6300. None of the colour issues of the Creative Styles or the vast majority of the other Picture Profiles (ITU 709 particularly horrid) I've graded it lightly with Fujiflm Velvia in Film Convert's a7s profile for Cine4. I am astounded by the image quality of this camera for $1000... Take a look at that detail close up in 100% view if you download the frame grab below... it is FLAWLESS. Whatever 6K to 4K scaling method they have on the new processor... it works. I prefer this image to my FS5.

People are saying the 1080p 120fps looks soft. Doesn't look to bad to me... Also colour in the Vivid profile is very "Fuji-like" S-LOG may give you dynamic range, but if you want the most effortless out of camera colour just set it to Vivid. In 120fps with centre-spot AF and enough light to feed the phase-detect pixels it rocks... locks on superbly to what is in the centre of the frame, no hunting. Dim the light and contrast detect AF kicks in and it's still a bit poo. Rolling shutter is the biggest issue I have had so far with the 4K 24p. It's the most I've ever had. Locked down shots no issue but this definitely isn't a tool for violent handheld camera work. However in the 1080p modes especially 120fps the rolling shutter issues almost disappear... And 30fps is a BIT better...but crops.

I used the Sony 16-105 F4 and it wasn't exactly working well with that either... recognises people, but then slips to the background occasionally if you're not in optimal lighting or the background is more detailed and brighter than the subject. It doesn't seem as bullet proof as the 1D X Mark II's dual pixel AF. I am sure it is just a case of learning to work within the limitations of it.... sometimes it's amazing and a BIG improvement on before.

AF in stills mode with Canon lenses on Metabones adapter is mindblowingly fast in good light. Can't seem to get them to track an object in video mode though. The Sony lenses track but rather unreliably in low light. So mixed bag with AF but I am loving the image so far.... seems better than expected... mainly due to NR and codec improvements? The rolling shutter is pretty severe though, like NX1.