Surprise! Sony Alpha A6000 video mode huge improvement

[Andrew Reid]

awesome news.  I would like a nice aps-c camera to replace the nex5n and partner to the A7R

 

I got it to replace my NEX 5N and 7, but to be honest it could end up replacing my A7R as well.

 

Speed Booster gives me the full frame look.

 

The A6000 has much better AF and a much shorter EVF blank-out time when taking stills... like 0.2 sec compared to nearly 1 second on the A7R. Just overall feels much more responsive, smaller and quieter shutter to boot. Of course video quality is miles better too.

[andy lee]

ISO 640 I seem to remember.

 

wow that is clean !!

Im impressed with this camera.......

[john_d]

Dunno how much of a problem mic jack is for a camera of this price. I mean a lot of us are using dual audio and syncing with plural eyes anyways. 

 

To Sony, please make the video record button assignable to one of the Function button or the shutter! I hate the record button placement!

[Andrew Reid]

To Sony, please make the video record button assignable to one of the Function button or the shutter! I hate the record button placement!

 

Absolutely!!

 

The record button is in a terrible place and I just tried assigning it to C1 next to the shutter button but it isn't in the list.

Disappointing!

 

Otherwise, really enjoying the camera. Much better choice than the D5300 me thinks.

[Andrew Reid]

Oh and the shutter button - why not use that to record video? When it is pressed in movie mode it comes up with a message box saying you can't take stills. Bloody useless.

 

Sony... c'mon!

[Inazuma]

How is autofocus with Metabones Canon EF adapters?

 

Also can you change the tint of the whitebalance settings like you can with the new Panasonic cameras?

[theSUBVERSIVE]

I really wanted to know more about the AF in video, some other "NEX" would hunt a lot or focus on the background when you want it to focus on the subject that is in the eff CENTER of the frame. And more importantly if touch focus works well, with no hunting from one point to another, that would be great.

 

Maybe some tests paired up with some fast primes like the 35mm or 50mm or the zoom made for video like the 18-105mm G with power zoom.

 

As there is no IBIS it's harder to handheld it in longer focal length with legacy lenses so I think that native lens OSS will be important.

 

Unfortunately people should not expect Sony to give the consumers the extra customization of the button via firmware, so far it has not been Sony's mantra.

[theSUBVERSIVE]

If Sony wasn't so afraid that a possible A7000 would mess up with their A7's sales and market, we could have expected a a higher end one with mic and headphone inputs and that would had been great.

 

I'm also curious about the GX7 vs A6000 tests in terms of IQ, overall operation but also AF in video. How does it compare to the GM1 in terms of video quality? That should give us about where the GX7 stands against the A6000.

[IronFilm]

Well damn, keeps on making my decision even harder for what to upgrade to from my current Panasonic GH1/G3/GF3 kit.

 

First the Panasonic G6 came out, and this looked like the one to keep an eye on for when its price came down a little (like it has now, when you catch it on special for under US$500).

 

Gave you Focus Peaking and better performance than a GH2.

Then the Nikon D5200 came out with its exceptional performance (low light win!). And it would be easy for me to move over to Nikon again, as most of my lenses are Nikon F mount that I adapt to Micro Four Thirds (it helps that my first ever camera was the Nikon D50, ages ago).

 

Then the Nikon D5300 came out.... does even better! Though not enough for me to consider currently, the price is too much higher than D5200 for what is largely a fairly similar camera.

 

So here I am tossing up between:

Nikon D5200 => live HDMI out, but no focus peaking. Better low light, but is not Micro Four Thirds which is a plus and minus. Mostly minus as I greatly prefer mirrorless. But it could replace not just my GH1 for video, but also my Nikon D50 for photography. Killing two birds with one stone.

Panasonic G6 => has focus peaking, but no live HDMI. Is mirrorless! (yay, can adapt zillions of other lenses and use focal reducers)

 

Now it seems the Sony A6000 for only a little more in terms of cost, can give me the best of both the G6 and the D5200?? (focus peaking, live HDMI out, mirrorless, low light performance, etc)

 

Hmmm.... sooo tempting.

Only negatives I can see is a little higher cost, isn't an adjustable screen like the D5200/G6 (but you can at least tilt it in one way, so I'll give it half marks here), and isn't a Nikon F mount that could also be my main photography camera (though I suppose this a pretty minor issue). So a few minor issues.... plus one big one, no microphone input :-/

Of course ideally I want the Panasonic GH4!! But that is over $1k more than I'd like to spend. And I'm going to get a camera *this year*, if I went for the GH4 I'd have to wait until next year probably. Not going to do that.

[elgabogomez]

At the risk of sounding "greasey"... Tell me more, tell me more...

[Rui Soares]

another pro that the @admin seems to have missed is the option to choose the autofocus transition speed, you can make the af transitions slow like the canon 70d, or really fast and snappy for sports.  It´s a really good feature to have in video.

[Julian]

No mic zack.

 

But Sony releases new zoom mic ECM-GZ1M for Multi-Interface Shoe.

 

http://store.sony.com/gun-zoom-microphone-zid27-ECMGZ1M/cat-27-catid-All-Camcorders-Accessories?_t=pfm%3Dcategory

 

 

It supports A6000.

 

 

So you can use this mic for audio improvement~!

 

Not really a fan of buying accessoires with a proprietary connection like this. But at least it's cheap...

[Franka Mech T. Lieu]

Pretty nice to know, but I disagree about the lack of 4K as a Con. Sorry keep asking a consumer price bracket product to do something that's not feasible as the price dictate is something just being consumer noobs. 4K is not only about the sensor, the signaling, the processing, the imaging engine, pipeline, storage and not to mention the lack of a more refined 4K codec yet ... Its not just 4K ... and there's loads of issue once and performance / technical hurdles.

 

So all in all, for the price. one really cannot be too critical about it all. I Praise Sony for their achievement. And yes there will come days when 4K can be wide mass market, but its not there yet ...  

[utsira]

Of course it has an internal mic, yes :)

 

AVCHD clip uploaded https://copy.com/edilC2jd0kbi

 

Investigate what you can put in the hotshoe in terms of audio support. I am researching this for final review but it will be a week or so away yet.

The link isn't working for me. It takes me to a copy.com page with no visible files, pressing "save all" creates an error.

 

Really keen to see this. I got a cheap second-hand NEX6, fantastic for stills, but as many have pointed out (Johnnie Behiri, Brandon Li), the video is awful, almost un-useable, worst moire and aliasing I've seen. A real disappointment after the 5N (which was reasonable on the moire front IMO). Looks like I might be trading the 6 in for a 6000 tho....

[Amro Othman]

Sweet! So the only thing Sony truly messed up... is the bitrate! Why can't they just double the damn bitrate, I don't think it would cost them anything from a production point of view :/

[IronFilm]

@Julian, for a hundred bucks there is a lot of other decent microphones I can pick up (especially second hand).

Rather not use Sony's one! Probably is only to the level of quality that my SG-108 is anyway.

[Julian]

@Julian, for a hundred bucks there is a lot of other decent microphones I can pick up (especially second hand).

Rather not use Sony's one! Probably is only to the level of quality that my SG-108 is anyway.

 

True. So what would you use to record externally, for cheap?

[wolf33d]

Andrew, what about the speed booster you talk about ? EF mount ? How is the autofocus doing then ? 

[Guest]

True. So what would you use to record externally, for cheap?

I have this: http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/pcm-recorders/icd-sx1000#product_details_default

 

It's tiny and works a treat.

[quobetah]

For audio, that new Sony hotshoe is magic. You can attach this awesome accesory and you'll get dual XLR inputs. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/892383-REG/Sony_xlr_k1m_XLR_Adapter_Microphone_Kit.html