Surprise! Sony Alpha A6000 video mode huge improvement

[noone]

My extremely amateur attempt at showing the LiveView grading App.     Just a few of the preset selections

 

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[Blarzor]

Hello guys,
I am very close to buying an used DSLM for up to 450€. I was thinking about buying Panasonic GH2 all the time for cheap and get extra lenses. Should I rather try to get Sony A6000 which is more costly? I am all about the video, I don't care about photography. Is Sony A6000 really that much better? I wanted to hack Panasonic GH2, when I would get it and use it for filming in 1920 x 1080 25fps (PAL).

 

[andy lee]

I would get a Panasonic G6 as it produces a better image than the gh2 without having to hack it

and you can get a PAL 25p verison off ebay for £250

[dstilio]

My extremely amateur attempt at showing the LiveView grading App.     Just a few of the preset selections

 

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This is with the A7 though and not the A6000.

[dstilio]

FU SONY!

You cannot buy these Playmemories camera applications unless you are living in specific countries/regions.

This service is only available in the "big" countries like US, GBritain, Germany, etc.

 

And is really difficult to overcome this restriction (actually you have to commit fraud). And the ways I spotted in many forums, now are not available anymore (Sony is to blame for this).

 

I think this is outrageous.

[Amro Othman]

I agree, this regional crap is pretty lame. 

[Matias Mayolo]

Hi everybody. Mostly this forum convinced me to change my outdated T3i for an A6000. When I read about the this camera I didn't noticed anyone complaining about this wasn't a "world cam" and not NTSC/PAL switchable. So, I didn't worried about this... I'm from Argentina, we use PAL, and I got someone to bring me one from USA. And right now, after testing it.. can't find an option to record 25 or even 30p, only 24p and 60p 60i. If this is NTSC only, should it have at least 30p isn't? Does anyone had the same problem? Here is a picture of the options. The European model has 25p 50p? and is NTSC/PAL swichable?

 

[pablogrollan]

Go to the last tab of the menu (shaped like a toolbox). In the second screen of the tab (out of 6) you should find an option in the bottom "PAL/NTSC selector". After you switch I believe you have to restart the camera.

[Andrea Ferrentino]

can i ask you, sony a6000 users, like me, and most of all video users, to sign for this "petition"? sony already did it for rx10, and put it in 5100, so i think you could be interested in it.

 

XAVC-S firmware update (sony join the inspiration site)

 

http://community.sony.com/t5/Join-the-Inspiration/Sony-a6000-XAVC-S-firmware-update/idi-p/421478

 

(i don't know if this is spam, i don't think, but i couldn't find a rules thread to find out, if it's spam, i'll delete it)

[abds69]

Hello @Andrea, what's the idea of having XVAC-S ? It's still 8 bits !!! The point is to get 10 bits over hdmi, and Slog curves ... but Sony will never give it to us...at that price !!!

[Guest fe4a3f5e8381673ce80017d29a8375f1]

Hello @Andrea, what's the idea of having XVAC-S ? It's still 8 bits !!! The point is to get 10 bits over hdmi, and Slog curves ... but Sony will never give it to us...at that price !!!

 

A7S is 8bit over HDMI.

[abds69]

Playing with profiles

 

[tellure]

Here's a short (2 min) vacation video I shot on the A6000 in Jasper, Alberta.  Lenses used were the Sony 24mm 1.8, Sony 10-18mm f/4, and Sony 50mm 1.8 OSS.

 

I found the quality pretty decent for most 'normal' scenes with a central subject against a DOF-blurred background, but the codec showed a fair bit of compression artifacts when there was a lot of high frequency detail on screen that was moving rapidly, like forest scenes.  Looking forward to either upgrading to the A7s or a future APS-C e-mount camera with XAVC @ 50Mbps.

 

[utsira]

My first few days with the A6000, my last few days in Tokyo:

 

 

In some shots you can see a ripple effect. I don't think it's rolling shutter jello, I think it's the OSS on the SE35 1.8 (I say this because I haven't noticed this effect on similar shots with manual lenses). Anyone else had issues with Sony OSS? (I don't think I've seen this on stabilised Panasonic lenses)

[Daniel Acuña]

My first few days with the A6000, my last few days in Tokyo:

 

 

In some shots you can see a ripple effect. I don't think it's rolling shutter jello, I think it's the OSS on the SE35 1.8 (I say this because I haven't noticed this effect on similar shots with manual lenses). Anyone else had issues with Sony OSS? (I don't think I've seen this on stabilised Panasonic lenses)

 

Very nice footage and very nice grade :) Did you use some kind of LUT?

[utsira]

Very nice footage and very nice grade :) Did you use some kind of LUT?

Thanks, yes it's the ImpulZ LUTs, using the "generic Rec 709" set.

[Daniel Acuña]

Thanks, yes it's the ImpulZ LUTs, using the "generic Rec 709" set.

 

 

I saw that you also use the G6, how does it compare in terms if video quality to the A6000? Is it your main camera?

[utsira]

I haven't had the A6000 for that long, so I still haven't made up my mind about it. I'm keeping both cameras for now.

 

On the one hand, my pixel peeper eyes tell me that the G6 (in fact, I'd say all M43 cameras, including Olympus) have a more detailed image. I like the native lenses for M43 too (the Panny 20 1.7 in particular).

 

But there's just something about APSC that I'm really drawn to. I'm not really sure I can pin it down to any one characteristic, such as dynamic range or depth of field (not a very helpful comment I know). The A6000 is certainly better in low light than the G6 (although as others have pointed out the GX7/ GM1 etc generation of Lumix cameras are much improved on this front). I've not had to use Neat Video noise reduction on my A6000 shots yet, whereas it was fairly routine on the G6. The A6000 image is not quite as detailed as a G6, but it's still very good. It isn't quite a mirrorless D5200/5300 but it's not too far off. I like how full frame lenses look on APSC, and I like being able to attach them without a speedbooster (and M-mount lenses of course can't be used with a focal reducer).

 

Regarding moire, so far with the A6000, I've discarded one shot out of 180 because of moire. The shot in question had proper strobing zebras on the roof of a temple, but I could see the moire in the EVF as I was shooting it, so it wasn't exactly an unexpected shock (the situation is much better than the NEX 6). The G6 has really tiny amounts of moire here and there (according to Andrew even 1-to-1 4K on the GH4 has moire "traces"). It is something that you need to be more aware of on the A6000 but generally I don't consider it a problem.

 

The Sonys are catching up with Panasonic in terms of handling and user interface too. It's nice to see the A6000 inheriting features from the A7 series (such as being able to do a focus punch-in whilst recording, something Andrew was praising in part 2 of his A7S review), and the zebras (although as Andrew said in the A7S review, the zebras can be unpredictable at times. I haven't worked out the relation between the zebras and the Sony's tendency to record into the superwhites).

 

I would call the G6 the best "rebel cam" at the moment (ie inexpensive but very fully featured, mic port etc), particularly if you get a deal on it. Mine was 24000 yen ($240) second hand body only. (I'm definitely an advocate of "spend less on the body than on the lens". Spend less than on the focal reducer if you can!)

 

The A6000 is, for my needs, a great compromise camera. I know that doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement, but sometimes you need a compromise! (ie almost D5300 quality, but with mirrorless convenience, very good video, but excellent stills too etc). I'm very happy with it so far. Best APSC mirrorless at the moment. 

 

Not at all a side-by-side comparison, but on this G6 video there's one or two similar-ish shots to the A6000 video above:

 

[Daniel Acuña]

Thank you, this was very informative! 

[Guest]

Thank you, this was very informative! 

 

Daniel please don't make any decisions based on my negative comments about the A6000. As I said I've never used one. I simply wrote it off because it didn't offer me anything I didn't already have between the G6 and D5300.

 

However if I was choosing between the Gx7 and a6000 now, personally I would definitely choose the GX7 (but then I already own a speed booster).