Sony A65 first impressions review - documentary shooting evolves

[Andrew Reid]

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[img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/a65-bolex-660x438.jpg[/img]

[url="http://www.eoshd.com/content/3701/recommended-affordable-sony-a77-lenses"]EOSHD recommended lenses for the Sony A65 / A77[/url] 

Amazingly Sony have got their flooded production going again and Sony A65s have found their way to England in time for Christmas. I’ve come to the UK to spend some time with family and in Manchester I picked up the Sony A65 with kit lens for £699… Considering how similar it is to the A77 that is a pretty competitive price by Sony and I am sure this is going to give the 600D / Rebel T3i something to think about over the next few months. But is it any good for video?

[url="http://www.eoshd.com/content/6545/sony-a65-first-impressions-review-documentary-shooting-evolves/"]Read full article[/url]

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[hanklepstein]

interesting stuff, i've been curious about this camera. i would like to see how it cuts with gh2 footage..

i've been recording events with 3 Gh2s- while in daylight the 14-140 handheld works great... lowlight i've had to manage with a clunky monopod to stabilize my shots. it's not too bad- but having focus assist and image stabilization would be veryyyy helpful.

too bad there isn't a whole lot of videos showing off what this camera can do

[wanderer63]

Hi Andrew
I was looking a buying one of these when they first came out but the guy in the Sony shop ( in Australia) said they had an over heating problem after about 15 minutes continuous use. He said he thought it was due to the way that the stabilisation is done, so maybe on a tripod with stabilisation switched off it may be ok?
Have you run your's for longer than 15 minutes yet?
Cheers
Paul

[DiverMark]

Andrew,

Thank you very much for the review.  I've been looking at both the GH2 and the A65 as my next camera.  My situation is a little different than most people in that I use my camera underwater while scuba diving.  I shoot both video and stills, and really need to get a camera that does well at both (right now, I have one video camera and one still camera, and I no longer want to deal with the hassles of two setups).

I also have the problem that it is sometimes hard to find underwater housings for cameras (because of the joystick controller on the a77, it doesn't look like there will be any housings for it).  Finally, because of the cost of the housing being 2X or more than the camera itself, I need to stick with the camera I choose far longer than most people.

One thing I am curious about is how the 1080p60@24Mb on the a65 compares to the 1080p30@100+Mb on a hacked GH2.  Does the extra temporal resolution of 60FPS have a noticeable effect, or does the far higher spatial resolution of a hacked GH2 at 100+Mb trump any advantage of 1080p60?

Finally, underwater is a very low-light situation, so low-light performance is important to me.  A particular problem is that at depth, the color temperature is 19,000K or above.  So, I need a camera that has extreme flexibility to white balance before the 8-bit compression.

I look forward to any insight you can give me about either camera.

--Mark

[ntblowz]

Yeah with full time AF and IBIS it add a lot more heat than NEX camera in Video, I think A35 is better in this regard since it can shoot much longer without overheating problem, but then the EVF is conventional one and fixed screen.

[toxotis70]

i have A65 (GH2 and nex 5n too) and it doesn't overheat.
When you are shooting video, it uses electronic stabilizer (very effective) and not mechanical like A55 (i also had it, and it overheats ).
A65 is way more useful  on video than canon 's , it has PDAF in video, focus peaking for manual lenses and manual focus, better image than canon's  and IBIS for all my fast primes ....and for that price ,its a bargain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkJ0j0Nno4U

[Andrew Reid]

The NEX 5N and A65 sensors are more energy efficient, no over heating problems unless you are shooting constantly in a very hot climate... 32c +

[Andrew Reid]

[quote author=DiverMark link=topic=78.msg761#msg761 date=1324143967]
Andrew,

Thank you very much for the review.  I've been looking at both the GH2 and the A65 as my next camera.  My situation is a little different than most people in that I use my camera underwater while scuba diving.  I shoot both video and stills, and really need to get a camera that does well at both (right now, I have one video camera and one still camera, and I no longer want to deal with the hassles of two setups).

I also have the problem that it is sometimes hard to find underwater housings for cameras (because of the joystick controller on the a77, it doesn't look like there will be any housings for it).  Finally, because of the cost of the housing being 2X or more than the camera itself, I need to stick with the camera I choose far longer than most people.

One thing I am curious about is how the 1080p60@24Mb on the a65 compares to the 1080p30@100+Mb on a hacked GH2.  Does the extra temporal resolution of 60FPS have a noticeable effect, or does the far higher spatial resolution of a hacked GH2 at 100+Mb trump any advantage of 1080p60?

Finally, underwater is a very low-light situation, so low-light performance is important to me.  A particular problem is that at depth, the color temperature is 19,000K or above.  So, I need a camera that has extreme flexibility to white balance before the 8-bit compression.

I look forward to any insight you can give me about either camera.

--Mark
[/quote]

I feel the GH2 would be better under water because of the higher bitrates. 1080/60p is only 28Mbit on the A65 and since it has more than double the frames per second than 24p, that bitrate is spread more thinly than 24Mbit is in 24p mode.

Water has a lot of subtle and constantly changing tones and shades which is taxing on the codec. GH2 would handle it better.

It is also smaller and lighter, and better in low light.

Not sure about water proof casing for it though... I have enough issues finding a replacement Panasonic charger!!

[abortabort]

Hi Andrew, thanks for your information on video with the A65, I was quite put off by the 'electronic stabalisation' that Sony used over the 'sensor shift' stabalisation used in the A55, even though the A55 overheats very easily it did mean there was no change in crop factor and was also very effective.

In the A65 do yopu know what the actual crop factor is during video? Is it 2x like the 4/3's or is it closer to something like 1.7x? Also I have read that the camera has no way of showing you the crop until you hit record, unless in video mode, making it difficult to compose shots before hitting record?

One other thing, in regards to old lenses on the A65 I know that you can pretty much only adapt M42 to A-Mount and still retain focus to infinity, but if I understand correctly you can use glassless adapters for a lot of other mounts without infinite focus (but presumably closer minimum focus distance). I was wondering if you have ever tried this and if so what kind of focasable distances you could manage to get out of different mounts? As you mentioned this camera would work quite well when focusing on actors or interviews so the lack of infinite focus may become less of an issue for such uses, combined with focus aids and stablisation would actually be very useful? If you could get somewhere in the order of about 5m that is...

[abortabort]

Also one other thing that might be worth checking out for your new A65 for video are the extremely cheap minolta power zoom lenses from the 80's. I have the 100-300 and that stabilized at 300mm handheld on A55 gives surprising results. They go for next to nothing because nobody wants them but could be quit useful for video (except they are noisy) :)

[Andrew Reid]

Thanks will check those 100-300mm Minoltas out... Internal IS is such a bargain