a6300 news

DLD said:
This is a $1,000 consumer camera. Whatever the NAB will bring, this is not likely to be its target.
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For those of us who shoot stills and video, It really makes sense to see what the Nikon D500 looks like. I am shooting a lot of wildlife stills (and video) with the Sigma 150-600 Contemporary and the Canon 100-400 II right now. It isn't clear how well the A6300 will handle those big lenses, or the Canon/ Nikon 300 mm 2.8 and similar.

Here is one test by Hugh Brownstone where the 300 2.8 didn't auto focus too well. He tried 3 different adapters:

http://hughbrownstone.com/new-blog-1/2016/3/8/8zsz5npdn8ptjdp8yckce70d49saab

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I sold my Nikon D7100 to buy a Canon 7DII about 1.5 years ago. I have a full set of Canon glass taht I would keep to use on the A6300. I also have aSony A6000 kit- for stills only- with a few key Sony lenses. The Sony 18-55 kit lens, 16-70 4.0, 16 mm 2.8, 20 mm 2.8, 50 mm 1.8.

But I still have a Nikon D810 for low ISO, detailed images, for higher ISO at events, and similar. If I could swap from my $1,050 7DII and a $1,000 Sony A6300, plus get rid of the adapters, Canon lenses, and Sony lenses to get down to 1 camera systemm for wildlife stills and for 4K video .... that would be heaven! I have been shooting 3 systems for the past 7+ years (Nikon, Canon, Sony), and I have been shooting 5 systems this past year to get 4K video for events (added Panasonic G7 & GH4, and a Samsung NX500.)

The Nikon D500 is definitely going to be a killer camera on the stills side. A pro quality DX crop sports, wildlife, and events camera..... Let's see what kind of 4K video it can deliver. :)
 
unadog said:
... The Nikon D500 is definitely going to be a killer camera on the stills side. A pro quality DX crop sports, wildlife, and events camera..... Let's see what kind of 4K video it can deliver. :)
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No Log (at least, not for now), so it may work reasonably well in the low-to-intermediate light situations where the dynamic range is narrow. Of course, A6300 seems to have a pretty nice low light performance itself. And it has S-log 2 and 3.

And there's a grand worth of difference on price. But, when you got a bit of this and a bit of that ...

PS. However reliable or unreliable this rumor is - Sony has been preparing a "high end" A99 replacement for two years now. That camera could (hypothetically) take care of both the stills and the video. But it hasn't come out so far. Their A7R/S series are far too successful to cannibalize.
 
A little ironic story I feel like sharing if anyone is interested in hearing it...

I was super excited for this camera last month and preorders were supposed to start (and did) on February 10th.

B&H preorders opened up at 11AM and Adorama preorders opened up later in the day (around 1-2pm if I remember correctly).

I kept refreshing the B&H page around 10:55AM every few seconds and it finally went live at 11AM (as it should have) practically on the dot. My order (body-only) was placed at 11:00 and 17 seconds in (already logged in, CC was saved, all very quick process with a few clicks.). I must have been #1 on the list unless someone preordered 10 seconds or so before me. Even my B&H e-mail confirmation was at 11:00.

For a few weeks after, I was going back and forth debating if I really wanted the Sony. Well, I ended up canceling my preorder about a week ago. I kind of regretted it (always happens), and shortly afterwards wanted to order it again. I'm not sure how popular it's going to be, but I figured it would probably be back-ordered for a bit, and wasn't sure who would have it first.

As it turns out, the A6300 with the kit lens was in stock at B&H today. I bought it and it now says 'New Item - Coming Soon'.

I guess they only had a few units in stock as most people ordered the body-only probably?

This story doesn't help anyone, but just funny how things work out sometimes.
 
I ordered the body only on the pre-order initial day. Shipped today. My only regret is opting for the free shipping (at the time), facepalm. Now I gotta wait the 15th the get it. Damn
 
Well, i wrote this out for some friends. Figure i might as well post it here too. My initial thoughts on the a6300 after a day of messing around with it. No serious tests. Just my casual impressions.


- Rolling shutter is terrible. I never really shoot quick pans, but with this camera you might actually run in to some trouble with simple movements. Just have to be careful, and it should work for most cinematic style video.

- Auto Focus for video. I actually love it. I tried the a7RII and you would see these odd jitters as it hunted a bit. a6300 seems very smooth so far. There have been times where it simply refuses to focus on my cat, even though i put her in the middle of the screen. However, i plan to shoot people with faces. Haven't seen Face Tracking fail yet. I enjoy High Sensitivity, Slow Speed. Seems to begin the focus change quicker, but ease it in like a person would manually. I imagine different situations would call for different settings, like if someone is running at the camera i'd switch to fast speed. But for shooting people, i actually love this AF.

- 4k looks great, of course. But i shoot a lot of 60fps, 1080p is a bit softer than i hoped. 120fps, well it's better than the a7RII at 720p which i just returned for this camera. To me however, 1080p at 60 and 120fps are both very usable with a bit of sharpening in post.

- 120fps has two settings. A 30fps (4x slow at 16M) and a 24fps (5x slow at 12M). Still not sure what the difference is, they're both 120fps so should play at 5x slow. I shot at 16M hoping for more detail. Still played it in a 24fps timeline and it seemed smooth.

- Lowlight, to me, is better than expected. I tested some stuff at 12,800 ISO and i would totally use it. I even tried 25,600 and to my shock it looked darn near usable, maybe needs a bit of Neat Video. And i don't like noise. But i was pretty happy with the high ISO attempts i made. Shot with the SEL 35 1.8. in 4K at shutter speed 50. This noise seemed more like a bit of grain. I saw no blockiness, really. I was kind of blown away, because again, i had just tried the a7RII. I did no side by side comparison. But i might guess the a6300 is about as good in lowlight as the a7RII. Not in the same league as the a7s though!

- I got the a6300, tiny as it is, to balance on the DJI Ronin. Not the M, but the huge ass Ronin! Works great, actually.

- Watch out, because mine was set to Auto exposure in Movie Mode. Had to find change it in some obscure menu setting.

- The little Movie Record Button seems better than the a7RII and my old NEX5R. Sticks out a little more, easier to press. I'm glad because i'll skip reprogramming it, i guess. Need all the buttons i can get.

- I like the Histogram up on the display. Except when i change ISO, it and the ev display disappear. So, i'm just guessing in the process of changing the ISO sometimes. Maybe there's a better way?

- So glad it has a built in flash. For some reason, the a7Rii does not have one. I do take photos with it, and it's nice to have a little fill.

- Love the little door on the side. You kind of pull it back, and pop it open. Seems sturdy. Nothing hanging from a little rubber weird thing like you often see.

- To me, battery life is fine. 1h10m or so? I shot quick tests all day never changed the battery. And they're so small you can keep a few in your pocket.

- Screen dims in 120fps mode. Very hard to see. Other than that, i've had no troubles with the screen.

- EVF is very nice, bright, decent detail, imo.

- I actually think the buttons, especially the shutter, feel much nicer than the a7RII. You get a nice, satisfying click. Feels good to press. The a7RII felt kinda mushy to me.

- I don't mind the menus much. Most of what i need is on a couple of pages i'll remember. I think i have more things in the Fn menu than i need.

- I had a Sony rmt dslr2 Remote. Didn't have to do anything to get it to work with the a6300, just pointed at the camera and it worked. Could record (i like to use the remote with a gimbal), go through menus, etc.

- I'd actually take a slightly larger body. I had the a6300 on a quick release plate. With the SEL10-18 f4 i couldn't put the plate forward much. The lens extended beyond the bottom of the camera. So, i stuck the plate out the back more. But then i couldn't use the tilt screen in the down position. I could flip it up, just not down. Because the screen literally goes right to the bottom of the camera.

Well, that's about all i can think of right now. I didn't test any audio. Couldn't get the QR Code to work, so didn't get in to the app or anything.

Overall i'm pretty happy with it. For $1000, it's hard to ask for more. Hope you all enjoy your cameras!
 
Thanks for the write up Chad. I was getting kind of excited about this camera but I have cooled a bit given the jello I have seen in a lot of samples. This along with the soft 1080p. 4k is great and all but it is still on the edge for me. 1080p is just as important and if it is an afterthought or purposefully weak then I don't think I want to be a part of that camera.
 
Thanks Chad! Hope it serves you well. I'll probably get one later.
Great job on your videos, especially the FNAF music video. I love that one.
 
I'm very curious how well (or how bad) autofocus works with adapted canon lenses using speedbooster. Any tests yet?
 
I just noticed that Slog 2 and 3, by deault, have their Detail level set at -7. A lot of people do this when they get the camera, but other cameras i've tried all have it at 0. So, i can't help but wonder how many 1080p tests everyone says are soft were just shot with the default settings down in Miami. Heck, i shot all day with it at -7. Great for 4K, but yeah the 1080p seemed soft. So, looking forward to going out tomorrow and trying maybe -2 or so. Just something i noticed with my camera tonight.
 
Yes thanks. I would really appreciate a resolution test where you started the detail settings in 1080p at -7 and gradually increased the number to fringing levels shooting a static scene. That might clear up a big reservation about this camera for me. Thanks!
 
If anyone runs a rolling shutter test following the instructions here, I'll add it to the table. I guess 4K 24fps is the most interesting case, but 1080p60 would be nice too.
 
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