Dual Purpose NEX Cameras.

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deltoidjohn

Veteran
I'm going on holidays soon and my better half has tasked me with picking up a new family/compact camera. I thought it would make sense to get a Sony mirrorless camera which can also be put to work as a b or c-cam (mainly as an un-manned camera for wedding ceremonies or for lightweight steadycam use). I think they're all going to be more than capable in terms of stills quality/usability (this will be the upgrade from our old 8mp consumer camera) so the decision will probably come down to which one will best serve dual-purposes.

So I'm wondering, of the Sony APS-C mirrorless cams, which ones currently offer the best video quality and features? And are there any which do not suffer from the overheating problems during extended recording? I've read reports that the a5100 video quality is better than it's more expensive sibling, the a6000 - is this accurate? And how much difference in quality/performance is there between the current generation (a5100, a6000) and the previous gen (NEX 5/N/R, NEX 6, NEX 7)?

And only because I know someone will suggest it: I don't want an A7s for this purpose. It's too complicated for my wife, too big (when you include full frame lenses) and too expensive for a throw-around travel cam
 
Best image quality is the a5100, but the EVF in the a6000 is very useful. No idea about overheating, but my guess is that this was solved back in the 5R and hasn't come back.
 
Will overheat, depends on how long your shots are and time in between recording clips. Used it on and off for misc B-Roll all day (short clips, 24p AVC24) and it was fine. Longer clips consecutively will start displaying the over heat warning. Have recorded a straight 29minute clip but unless you let the camera cool down when you want to record again will shut down after 5 minutes or so until it cools. Recording in XAVC S codec "mileage" is even less.
 
Thanks guys.

I can live without the EVF as this will be an un-manned stationary camera 90% of the time, or it will be on a steadycam where the EVF is not very useful.

Too bad about the overheating, but I think I can live with it for a b or c cam during wedding ceremonies.
 
I have a sony a6000 that I've paired with my Red and C100. I've never had a lick of over-heating, and I live in the south where it's muggy and hot. Maybe I've just gotten lucky, but I have used it for 7 hour straight interview sessions and still nothing.

Now one thing I always do though is to pull the LCD away from the body to allow some air to flow through. My only complaint with the a6000 is that the 5100 has the XAV-C codec where as we are stuck with AVCHD if you want full-HD.
 
It will not trigger the ninja star as it does not register timecode. However, all you have to do is press record on the ninja star itself.
 
TSDavis said:
It will not trigger the ninja star as it does not register timecode. However, all you have to do is press record on the ninja star itself.
Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know. Is there some weird settings you had to tweak either on ninja or a5100, or did it just work without any specific settings?
 
I had to set HDMI output as 1080i on the camera as I have been unsuccessful getting it to work with a Progressive frame rate. From there just choose if you want it to do the 2:3 pulldown or not (for 24p) on the ninja.

However I will say this as I just tested it the other day. I do not feel there is any real benefit in using the star with the a6000/a5100 UNLESS you are wanting to record for longer than 29mins and 59 seconds on a single clip or if you absolutely need the 4:2:2 color space.
 
Thanks, TSDavis. I will hold off on getting Ninja star for 5100. If Atomos can make Ninja Star 4K for A7S under 1K, that would be super!!!
 
You must have gotten lucky with yours. I have never been able to record the max 29min clips consecutively. My A5100 camera can be powered up and display image to monitor/recorder all day but once the camera starts recording eventually the over heating will occur even with LCD monitor tilted up. Recording to an Atomos or other recorders eliminates the problem. I use Sony's 94 Read/40read card, what cards are you using?
 
Thanks Samuel. I'm not shooting S-Log on the FS700, and for weddings/event I usually stick to the standard settings to speed up post.

I'm sure I'll do a little tweaking of the picture profile though to get it to match somewhat closely to the FS700/Sony standard look.
 
Portrait has better DR than the other options, but yes, in your case matching the cameras should be the priority.
 
I'm using an A6000 which has a different LCD design so maybe that's the reason? I'm not sure, maybe I have gotten lucky. As far as cards I use a variety; transcend, sandisk extremes, pny. What is your battery source? I remember in the old T2i days, some off brand batteries would produce more heat than others.


Deltoldjohn, I'd love to see how the image stacks next to your FS700. Personally I haven't been able to get skin tones the way I want them and don't know if it's a camera thing, or if I"m just not used to the Sony look.
 
TSDavis, I'll try and remember to check back in and let you know once I've shot a few things side by side. I'm not expecting them to match perfectly, I'd just like to get them into the same ballpark.
 
Camera arrived today... tested in out and got about an hour and five minutes worth of consecutive recordings in before it overheated.

Took me a while to go through the menu's and switch off things life Continuous AF - which was not intuitive to do at all (with the 16-50 kit lens there's no MF option) - but I think I have it set up for convenient video use now.
 
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