Hi Friends. I just shot a wedding with the a6500. It's the first time I've really tried to use it for a major shoot. I thought maybe my perspective as a Canon shooter would be interesting. Lemme know where I'm totally off-base please
:laugh:
So a little background on me: After being swept up in the DSLR revolution years ago, I've used Canon C100s and C300s on a daily basis for the last 4 or 5 years. I run the video team for a corporation by day, and I shoot a lot of weddings too.
My good friends got married two days ago. When I was invited to their wedding, Kelly and Pete were adamant that I was not to attempt a full-blown wedding film shoot. They wanted me to enjoy the night as a guest, something I'm not really used to anymore. When there's a wedding going on, I'm usually hustling and hauling gear, trying to catch the next magical moment. But for their wedding, I agreed I would keep it simple.
"Simple" in this case meant I would only use a Sony a6500, a camera I was not very familiar with at all, but I knew it was small. Actually, I don't have much experience using any Sony mirrorless cameras. I used four lenses: the Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS, the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM, the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II, and the Tokina 11-16 II. I also limited my support gear to one light tripod and a monopod. I also did not stress much if I couldn't get great audio. The only decent external source I got was the officiant (who was also the groom's dasd). The rest was just captured by the on-camera mic.
I captured a bit before the ceremony, the brief exchange of vows and rings, three speeches, and a bit of dancing. I shot in 24p for sound sync segments, and 60p and 120p fr dancing and b-roll. With all the footage playing at regular speed, I ended up with about 90 minutes of footage, which is very minimalist for the way I normally shoot a wedding.
I made a very quick edit just to give the bride and groom a little something. Here's the final video followed by my rambling thoughts: https://vimeo.com/219309759
-The size is a curse and a blessing. It' a joy to use something that weighs almost nothing. The problem was mounting tripod plates. I use all manfrotto long style plates on all my cameras. They will work with my fsb8 head, my lighter manfrotto tripods, and monopods. With the a6500's tripod mounting screw almost parallel with the bottom of the lens mount, it was often impossible to quickly move from tripod to monopod etc, and it was often impossible to change lenses without taking off the QR plate. I imagine a cage or some other kind of base plate would help, but that would interfere with quickly mounting to my crane gimbal, and it's going to start adding weight. It was also impossible given the gear I had to properly balance the camera on the tripod and monopod.
-The stabilized sensor is great. I was easily able to get usable subtle pans, tils and subtle slides by just using my body. Considering this normally takes a C100 on Sachtler fsb8 on carbon stick, this was a nice change of pace and easier on my muscles and my back. I love subtle pans and tilts in my tripod shots, and it would still be better and more repeatable on a good head like the fsb8, but I think this was pretty close to being "good enough."
-Image quality is nice. I shot on PP5 with detail all the way down. I do seem to be seeing some type of smearing at higher ISOs. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
-Having to push DOWN to raise ISO and UP to lower it is counterintuitive to me.
-It seems dust on the sensor is a big problem. I've never noticed specks on Canon sensors ever showing up in footage. On the a6500, I noticed dust on the sensor the day before the wedding when I was testing it out. I cleaned it somehow and it went away. Then on the very first shot of the wedding day it was back ruining shots (first shot in the final video too--spot on the cloud in the middle right of the frame). What's the deal? Does the sensor attract more dust than other sensors? Does the short flange distance factor in? The lack of built-in ND means I was more often having to shoot at closed down apertures, but even closed down I don't ever recall stuff on the sensor being an issue with Canon cameras.
-Continuous autofocus is ok, though not as reliable as Canon's dual pixel AF. Both face detect and focus points worked pretty well on the native 35mm 1.8 crop e mount lens. It was very hit or miss on the 85mm g master, leaning very heavily on "miss." I couldn't get autofocus to work at all with the Canon lenses attached using the metabones non speedbooster adapter. Not sure which one as it was a rental (mark iv maybe?).
-the built-in mic was a great surprise! Since I didn't try too hard to get good external sources (DJ was not helpful, and I didn't bring my bag of adapters and cables), I relied on the built in mic for the speeches. It's not going to win any awards for sound, but the results were the most useful audio from a built-in mic I've ever heard.
-I had trouble with exposure. Most of my 60p dancing shots were underexposed. I had zebras set to appear at 100+, and that worked some of the time, but I still tended to underexpose when I was simply exposing on the fly by instinct and looking at the LCD. I missed having a waveform scope. How do you all achieve more consistent exposure?
-The lack of dual card slots is playing with fire, and a disaster waiting to happen. I don't see how a professional could rely on one card slot.
Overall, I loved the little a6500, though I don't think I would ever professionally shoot an event with it as my A-camera. But it's nice to have in my bag to grab some cool b-roll when my back starts aching after using heavier cameras.
:laugh:
So a little background on me: After being swept up in the DSLR revolution years ago, I've used Canon C100s and C300s on a daily basis for the last 4 or 5 years. I run the video team for a corporation by day, and I shoot a lot of weddings too.
My good friends got married two days ago. When I was invited to their wedding, Kelly and Pete were adamant that I was not to attempt a full-blown wedding film shoot. They wanted me to enjoy the night as a guest, something I'm not really used to anymore. When there's a wedding going on, I'm usually hustling and hauling gear, trying to catch the next magical moment. But for their wedding, I agreed I would keep it simple.
"Simple" in this case meant I would only use a Sony a6500, a camera I was not very familiar with at all, but I knew it was small. Actually, I don't have much experience using any Sony mirrorless cameras. I used four lenses: the Sony E 35mm f/1.8 OSS, the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM, the Canon 70-200 2.8 IS II, and the Tokina 11-16 II. I also limited my support gear to one light tripod and a monopod. I also did not stress much if I couldn't get great audio. The only decent external source I got was the officiant (who was also the groom's dasd). The rest was just captured by the on-camera mic.
I captured a bit before the ceremony, the brief exchange of vows and rings, three speeches, and a bit of dancing. I shot in 24p for sound sync segments, and 60p and 120p fr dancing and b-roll. With all the footage playing at regular speed, I ended up with about 90 minutes of footage, which is very minimalist for the way I normally shoot a wedding.
I made a very quick edit just to give the bride and groom a little something. Here's the final video followed by my rambling thoughts: https://vimeo.com/219309759
-The size is a curse and a blessing. It' a joy to use something that weighs almost nothing. The problem was mounting tripod plates. I use all manfrotto long style plates on all my cameras. They will work with my fsb8 head, my lighter manfrotto tripods, and monopods. With the a6500's tripod mounting screw almost parallel with the bottom of the lens mount, it was often impossible to quickly move from tripod to monopod etc, and it was often impossible to change lenses without taking off the QR plate. I imagine a cage or some other kind of base plate would help, but that would interfere with quickly mounting to my crane gimbal, and it's going to start adding weight. It was also impossible given the gear I had to properly balance the camera on the tripod and monopod.
-The stabilized sensor is great. I was easily able to get usable subtle pans, tils and subtle slides by just using my body. Considering this normally takes a C100 on Sachtler fsb8 on carbon stick, this was a nice change of pace and easier on my muscles and my back. I love subtle pans and tilts in my tripod shots, and it would still be better and more repeatable on a good head like the fsb8, but I think this was pretty close to being "good enough."
-Image quality is nice. I shot on PP5 with detail all the way down. I do seem to be seeing some type of smearing at higher ISOs. Anyone know what I'm talking about?
-Having to push DOWN to raise ISO and UP to lower it is counterintuitive to me.
-It seems dust on the sensor is a big problem. I've never noticed specks on Canon sensors ever showing up in footage. On the a6500, I noticed dust on the sensor the day before the wedding when I was testing it out. I cleaned it somehow and it went away. Then on the very first shot of the wedding day it was back ruining shots (first shot in the final video too--spot on the cloud in the middle right of the frame). What's the deal? Does the sensor attract more dust than other sensors? Does the short flange distance factor in? The lack of built-in ND means I was more often having to shoot at closed down apertures, but even closed down I don't ever recall stuff on the sensor being an issue with Canon cameras.
-Continuous autofocus is ok, though not as reliable as Canon's dual pixel AF. Both face detect and focus points worked pretty well on the native 35mm 1.8 crop e mount lens. It was very hit or miss on the 85mm g master, leaning very heavily on "miss." I couldn't get autofocus to work at all with the Canon lenses attached using the metabones non speedbooster adapter. Not sure which one as it was a rental (mark iv maybe?).
-the built-in mic was a great surprise! Since I didn't try too hard to get good external sources (DJ was not helpful, and I didn't bring my bag of adapters and cables), I relied on the built in mic for the speeches. It's not going to win any awards for sound, but the results were the most useful audio from a built-in mic I've ever heard.
-I had trouble with exposure. Most of my 60p dancing shots were underexposed. I had zebras set to appear at 100+, and that worked some of the time, but I still tended to underexpose when I was simply exposing on the fly by instinct and looking at the LCD. I missed having a waveform scope. How do you all achieve more consistent exposure?
-The lack of dual card slots is playing with fire, and a disaster waiting to happen. I don't see how a professional could rely on one card slot.
Overall, I loved the little a6500, though I don't think I would ever professionally shoot an event with it as my A-camera. But it's nice to have in my bag to grab some cool b-roll when my back starts aching after using heavier cameras.
