a6300 24-70 G-Master Short Documentary w/ Osmo X5

Angry Leprechaun

Angry Leprechaun

Well-known member
So I had a fundraising documentary I needed to shoot and I decided to really test out the a6300 in real world situations. Since I needed a zoom for interview setups I decided to rent the 24-70mm G-Master. This is an amazing lens. Super sharp and since I used all autoofocus my focus was always spot on. I doubt I'd spend the $2000 to buy it but it's a great lens to rent in scenarios like this.

The a6300 held up well. I love the images from the camera but overheating was definitely a problem (which I figured it would). I had the Osmo X5 for gimbal shots but also as a backup just in case, but thankfully I didn't need to use it for anything other than gimbal shots. I ended up shooting all the interviews inside without having a much of an overheating issue until towards the end of each interview. I tried one outside interview though and in the hot Florida sun it lasted about 3 minutes before it overheated.

I also took a gamble and recorded audio straight to the camera with no headphones and just gauging by the audio meters. I had a Zoom H2 as a backup but the audio I got straight from the camera wasn't too bad. My levels were good just by using the meters, but the preamps on this camera aren't great. Definitely some hiss that I had to remove in post, but still good for what the client needed it for.

Overall it's a great little camera, but I think I might return it for the a6500. If it can fix the overheating issue at least to make it as workable as an a7s II it'll be great. Plus the 5 axis stabilization is always nice and the touch screen will make autofocus much more intuitive.

https://vimeo.com/188822038
 
Nice to hear your experience with the A6300 for a doc! As a fellow documentarian, I've been looking for a great travel friendly setup and preordered the A6500. I have an Osmo but not the X5 version, due to the cost. I went ahead and bought the Zhiyun Crane so I wouldn't have to worry about matching footage all too much. My Zoom H6 with the shotgun module paired with a Gorillapod is my goto audio setup (table top) but recording sound in camera via Rode Mic Pro always gave pleasing results.

I'm excited to get my camera and glad to hear people use these cameras for documentaries. The quality is just superb and doesn't break the bank! I just sold my RED Raven package and picked up 1 A6500 and 2 A6300 as B/Backup cameras. Can't beat that!
 
Yeah I'm looking at a gimbal setup myself too (The Osmo isn't mine). Having not used one besides the Osmo I've been looking between the Crane, Pilotfly, and Came-TV Optimus. The Crane's the cheapest so I'll probably go with that one, but I like expandability and the integrated 2 handle setup of the other two.

Even if the a6500 is better with overheating I'd still try to get an Atomos Shogun or some external recorder and battery solution. Both to help with heat management and the tiny Sony batteries are definitely eaten through pretty quickly. I think it's funny how 5 years ago everyone would pay $1000 to rent a Red for a few days and now you can own a camera with similar quality for that much. Don't get me wrong, the Red is a much better camera on many levels but for most situations you can get as good if not better results for something a fraction of the price.
 
I totally agree on the RED. A great camera but the premium prices on everything are a turnoff.

As for the gimbal, the Crane has a 3/8" thread which then can utilize anything you can imagine. It's funny because I actually used my gorillapod under the Crane and it instantly turned into a two handed handle (tried it yesterday, actually). Another gimbal to consider is the Tilta G1 Gravity ($800ish) which will be released in about a week of this post.
 
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