A7 or A6000 for video?

C

crashwins

Active member
I'm not ready (or really need) the A7s, but video is about 30% of what I do and I'd love to switch to a Sony and try out this new system. Since I do mostly stills, I'd love a FF, but the a6000 is pretty cheap and I'm seeing some great footage out of it with the 50 1.8 with AF. I can't find much in the way of video sample footage with the A7 so I'm sort of at a loss for making this decision -- anyone have any immediate thoughts? I'd mostly be using this for documentary-style stuff, no run-and-gun craziness (I have the Sony AS100v for that)..I can't see myself buying an A7 or a6000 so this is a tricky decision. Thanks for reading!
 
I don't have an A7, only the A7s,, but I also own the A6000. I'd stay stick with the A6000. For APS-C DSLRs I think it has great video for the kind of stuff you are going to try to shoot and the continuous focus features of the A6000 are actually going to be better than the A7. The A7S produces superior video to the A6000 but for you needs I'm not sure it's worth four times the price. I find the 35mm F1.8 OSS is also a great lens for this camera. One challenge is that the A6000 has no audio inputs so you'll need a dual system for decent audio. The focusing system on the A6000 is superior to the A7S, I use both cameras for stills depending on the scenario.
 
Thanks a lot...I figured as much..I guess I'm pretty drawn to what I'm seeing from the A7 for stills so I WANT to believe it's good-enough for video. I saw a few blips from Philip Bloom where it looked solid. All and all, the A6K and the 50 or 35 wouldn't run me much money. I guess I may end up having to get both cameras if I want the best of both worlds, but the 50 and 35 from the A6K don't fit on the A7 without an adapter, correct? Thanks again!
 
The Sony 35mm/1.8 and 50mm/1.8 will fit on the A7 but then in APS-C crop mode. It's the same mount but the glass don't cover full frame...
 
I guess I should consider just over-spending and getting an A7s because from what I'm seeing the A7 probably won't cut it for video..Having both systems would be overkill. Ah, decisions!
 
I have the A7 & A7s, the A7s is so good stills-wise that I'm going to swap the A7 for the A6000 to have a high MP body that'll give me more reach with the 70-200 and much better AF and that crazy 11fps. If I had to go with just one, its would be the A7s. To the OP, get the one that allows you enough to get the best glass. The kit lens is really good, get that and a few fast primes including the awesome Zeiss 24/1.8 or a couple Zeiss Touit lenses for less than the A7s body. The video on the A6000 looks better than the A7 too, which is soft with some pretty bad moire and aliasing.
 
Watch Philip Bloom's A7(R) review, they suffer from serious aliasing and moire issues - not recommended for motion. Go with a6000 and later when you'll save bit more money you can always sell it and buy A7S.
 
Great...thanks. Very useful recommendations. The reality is I could probably afford the A7s body, but packing in any fancy Zeiss/Sony glass would be out of the question. But, one thing I've gleaned from reading multiple threads is how well the A7s handles legacy glass, like the Rokkors, Canon FDs, Contax Zeiss lenses, etc. So if I could grab a few primes and not break the bank with the A7s (say, total $3400), I'd be super happy. Having a hard time locking in on what's best, though..Legacy glass options is a whole other thing to chew on!
 
Go with a6000 and great glass. After few months you will be able to get a7s second hand (or new dropped in price) :)
Personally I wouldn't go with Sony glass: Canon probably. It will be more versatile and for the times when body will be replaced even more often just the best.
 
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If you're interested on video the a6000 has a much better image than the a7 and/or a7r (obviously not better than the 7s) the a6000 does full sensor readout on video allowing a much sharper and detailed image than the a7/r that do do line skipping sensor reading.
Between the a6000 and the a7 the image differences are very small, the A7 has no much better ISO performance than the a6000.
So? if you really want a FF a7 better pickup the a7S or the a7r otherwise save the money and get the a6000.
 
Thanks a lot! yeah, if I grabbed an A6000 with the possible intention of grabbing an A7s down the road when the prices come down a bit, I wouldn't want to buy too much into the crop glass. But, my understanding is the AF system is superb with these lenses. The 50 1.8 is only $145 or so -- maybe it's worth buying into.

I guess I'm a FF sucked for stills portraiture, so that's my hangup on going back to a crop. I've been using a Fuji (until recently) for stills, and a 5D2 for video, but I dumped them both completely.

Perhaps I should invest in some nicer glass to use on both the A6K and the A7s.
 
A7 vs a6000 ...vs. "Camera to be Named Later." Can you wait to see what Sony announces next month at Photokina? It's the World Cup for photo and video geeks after all : ) Presumably Sony's new APS-C cameras will be running XAVC S which has a huge data rate advantage over AVCHD (50 vs. 24 Mbps). It will be interesting to see if the a5100 gets the new codec. If so, and if you need the camera sooner rather than later, the a5100 with an accessory viewfinder [EDIT as of 2014-08-18: no EVF possible!] might be a better option for video than the a6000. If you can wait, when and if it finally arrives, the a7000 should have all the bells and whistles...EVF, XAVC S, full sensor readout, etc., etc.
 
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The a6000 is one mighty camera. Better for video than the a7 and a7r, if you ask me. You can get the FF FoV and DoF if you want it, by using a speedbooster, and the a6000 gives you a perfectly clean image (no aliasing/moire).

The a7s of course is better, but the difference basically dissappears if you don't need any of the following:
* slog2 for much improved DR
* XAVC-S instead of AVCHD
* external 4K
* usable crazy high ISO

For me, that extra DR is the killer feature of the a7s, without that I would have gone for the a6000 instead of the a7s.
 
Thanks everyone for the useful info. As usual, it helps but also makes decisions tricky. The a6k is so much cheaper than the a7s, but since I'm mostly a stills guy, I'm not crazy about the a6k.

The RX 100 mk 3 has XAVCS like my sony action cam. Anyone speak to this camera? Maybe it would fill that video need for me. Clearly, with its crop, it won't have the same DOF, but that's not critical. Thanks
 
It sounds like the a5100 is a reasonable choice - includes xavc-s with same performance otherwise to a6000.
 
I would go for the a5100 over the a6000. Cheaper and should have better video. The Sony press release makes it sound like has full sensor readout. "Additionally, with the power of the BIONZ X processor, the camera is able to read, process and output data from all of the sensor’s pixels during video recording, ensuring that it produces the highest quality video possible by eliminating aliasing, moiré and false color artifacts." Plus it has XAVCS and 720p 120fps. No mic or headphone jack and no mention of SLOG 2 though. Also, Samuel, do you have any thoughts on this vid made with the A6000? I guess dynamic range will be the weak link of the a5100 but other than that, my guess is it will be pretty nice.
 
maarek said:
According to the dpreview video image quality chart (compared to the a7s) the a6000 does alias/moire.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-alpha-a6000/8
Click to expand...

That test would put the a6000 at the aliasing/moire levels of the GH3, which I think is just not right. I may be wrong (the a7s is definitely 24p) but given dpreview has favored higher fps pretty often, I would guess it was shot at 1080p60 on the a6000. In any case, what everybody says is that the a6000 is definitely cleaner than any other NEX before it. Which means it's pretty clean.

The a5100, released today, gives you xavcs, but no evf. Choices, huh?
 
Ha, you guys - and Sony - move quickly. The a5100 released today?? Wow. I see that now. The decision is complicated!

So, the 5100 gets 50mbs - any chance we will see a firmware update to the a6000 giving that? It's a shame the 5100 has no physical dials - this sort of sucks in the stills department. Either way, sounds like this gem will get even better video and stills than the a6k and that's saying something.

i don't want to buy into sony cropped lenses so continuous AF probably wouldn't be good for me. I want to follow the advice here of grabbing a cheap aspc body and buying the a7s down the road when the used market saturates. Figured I'd grab some Canon glass (maybe FDs) to use on the Sony crop to eventually use on the a7s and then I'd have a good backup camera.

Thanks a lot for the help here and entertaining my lay questions on the gear.

btw, I don't see 120fps on the a5100 spec sheet?
 
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