I ended up getting a smokin' deal on an XA10, so that'll end up being my primary camera for self filming for now. I know the 10x zoom is limiting and I'll likely end up upgrading, but with the price and my familiarity with the camera it was tough to beat. Anyways, since I did end up saving quite a bit of what I planned on spending, I'm looking at adding a second camera for b-roll. My wife wants something for stills so it'll pull double duty. Not real familiar with the mirrorless stuff. The video they produce seems phenomenal. I'll be looking more entry level, but I'm sure there are some options that fit the bill. Recommendations as far as decent entry level mirrorless stuff and lenses? Pros and Cons vs a DSLR? I did have a Nikon DSLR a few years ago so I'm familar with DSLRs, but I wasn't a huge fan of it so I ended up selling it. Would likely go the Canon route in a DSLR this time around. The older manual lenses back when I was looking a few years ago seemed like a nice way to go for filming. I appreciate the responses. Definitely learning a lot from this forum as I venture back in to filming.
I'm a big fan of the mirrorless cameras. I traded out of my DSLR's to go mirrorless. There's advantages to both, but the quality of photos and video from my A6300 is phenomenal. keep in mind that DSLR lenses are made for DSLR's and will not work with the mirrorless camera without an adapter. Sony has an adapter that allows me to use my A-mount lenses with my A6300, though you lose a stop of light on the lens. Sony also makes a few power zoom lenses that let's me run the camera more live a camcorder by using a remote to zoom in and out. It's a pretty slick system.
I will echo what Skywalker has said. I sold all of my DSLR's and lenses this past summer. I went with the Sony A6500, their Power Zoom 18-105 lens and their 50 f1.8 lens and have not looked back. From an photography perspective, the images are mind blowing sharp, DOF is nice, and the camera is just flat fun to shoot photos on. From a video standpoint again image wise it is beautiful. Further though from a operating standpoint it seems to be the perfect hybrid balance between the ease of a video camera and the complexity of a DSLR. I went all in on the Sony system and do not regret it one bit. So much so that I am now considering adding a full frame Sony to the arsenal in the next year.
I've always been aware of the mirrorless stuff, but some of your video is what caused me to dig in to it a little further. Incredible quality. I was sort of leaning towards something in the Sony A5000 series. I realize it won't be near the quality of the 6300 or 6500, but seems like good bang my buck while I'm figuring out what I like. I envision this season being more of a test run while I get back in the swing of things and figure out what I like/don't like. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking a DSLR if it was a better fit for my needs.
We have an a6000 and I cant even figure out if it will take video. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
There are as always much to consider. I shoot entirely with a Canon 70d and the Sony a6300. I love them both and wish I could combine the best attributes of each into a single camera. Mirrorless Pros (a6300): small, easily thrown into a bag (depending on the lenses you're using) 4k Image quality is stellar lowlight quality top notch Completely silent Mirrorless Cons: Batterylife Autofocus (though decent for these types of cameras, it's nothing compared to Canon's dual pixel AF) menu system, button placement and overall functionality leave much to be desired. Colors, especially skin tones seem off and usually need correcting Screen doesn't flip out for framing interviews DSLR Pros (Canon 70D): batterylife Autofocus color science lens options Form factor and button layout seem much better to me Flippy screen DSLR Cons: mirror click when turning on (I use an external battery and leave it powered on at all times because of this) lack of 4k (nice to have some latitude for cropping and extra sharpness in post) lack of high frame rates. Bottom line to me is: if your wife wants something that will take great photos, but she can just toss in a bag quick, go mirrorless. If you want a better all around body for both stills and video without having to build out a rig with an external monitor and power, go DSLR.
I can honestly say that I was concerned about battery life. But after one entire fall in the deer woods, never once has battery consumption been an issue on any hunt. Now, I don't shoot continuous video for 30+ minutes at any time, like one would for a wedding. My video is often in short 30 second clips, possibly 4 or 5 minutes at most if a deer is in front of me for a while. I had a buck that I ended up killing a couple weeks later spend 90 minutes in front of me from 60-100 yards and bred a doe, I had the camera "ON" so he was on the LCD screen most of the time, but only probably recorded 10 minutes total of footage in that 90 minutes, and my tiny battery never died. Most hunts I would start at 100% and end at 80% or so. I think only one time did I ever dip below 50% on a battery this year and I never once had to go to my bag to grab a spare battery. So I would say that the battery life thing is all in how you choose to use your camera. My camera is turned "ON" at all times during a hunt. But using the Sony remote attached to my fluid head control arm, I simply push the slider to the "OFF" position which puts the camera to sleep. When a deer comes into view, I push the slider to "ON" and the camera wakes up ... about a 2 second process. I cannot speak for the new Canons, but I know that when the A6500 AF system blows my old Canon 7D and SL1 AF systems out of the water in both speed and precision. I color grade EVERYTHING. I always have. Even in my old Canon days, I never let a video or still photo image out that wasn't adjusted in Premiere Pro or Lightroom. Heck, I color grade photos that I take with my cell phone in Lightroom or SnapSeed on my phone. I love shooting photos and video in very flat color profiles and then tweaking the colors to what I want in post processing. So I don't really see the colors in a Sony vs Canon as an issue, unless you are a user that simply wants to grab content and push it straight out to social media in the fastest and simplest way possible. Color grading is huge in the creative process ... at least for me personally. Yea the screen flip out is a major bummer. However, if someone is going with an A5000 or A5100, the one feature that they ave over the A6xxx, A7x, and A9x series is that the screen flips up and over top for vlog type of viewing. For an A6xxx though, yea the only option is an external monitor of some sort (my first choice) or wifi to your smart phone (works very well, but not as fast or efficient at crunch time as a monitor). The A5xxx series have various short comings though to be used as a main video camera in my mind. But an A5100 with a relatively wide lens would be an excellent choice for a 2nd angle camera shooting back at the hunter. There isn't a perfect camera yet. So the user has figure out what suits him/her best. 4 months of living and breathing most every day with my A6500 and I can say that if it didn't hit 99% of my needs/wants then I would have ditched it and gone to another camera system. If I could add one thing to the A6500 it would be a jump to 4K at 60 fps and possibly a screen that tilts/turns (but honestly, I have grown to love my external monitor setup). DSLR's are awesome no doubt, but the inability to control the camera in a LanC type of manner from the fluid head arm is a huge deal killer, especially if one is trying to self video a hunt.
I recently sold all of my DSLR equipment and picked up a Panasonic G85. I wanted something a bit smaller and more compact that I could carry in addition to my AX100 and use in the field for interviews, b-roll, etc. I'm in the process of rebuilding my lens collection and a few other accessories. Already picked up a 20mm prime pancake lens which is what I plan on using for most of my interviews, and I have my eyes on a 14-140 to replace the kit lens that came with the camera. This will probably be my walking around lens most of the time. Although I thought about the 35-100 f2.8 for that as well. If I can find a good deal on a used one I may opt to go that route instead. I'm not totally sure yet. To Fitz's point about no rotating screen - that depends on the mirrorless camera. Mine flips out and rotates which is a big part of the reason I opted for the Panasonic over the Sony.
I figured this out. May be worth picking up an entry level camera arm to see if filming would be something I enjoy. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
No doubt the screen option on the Sony's is a draw back. I personally use the A6300 as a second angle camera so I can't use the screen for framing the shot. However, I use the Play Memories remote app on an old cell phone that lets me frame the camera, start/stop recording, zoom my PZ lenses and a couple of other functions. It works great for my needs. I mount the cell phone on my main camera, that way I just have to reach up and press the record button and I'm good to go. The A6300 is on for the entire hunt. I just use an external battery. No problems at all. I have also ran the A6300 as my main camera with the 18-105PZ lens. It would be my go to rig if I were running and gunning because it's a really light weight and compact setup. You really do need an external monitor with it though.
I'm keeping my eye on Sony, but they're not there yet for me in lens selection (and pricing), battery life, and of course, the functionality that I'm used to with Canon DSLRs. In the end, they're all tools. I see lots of footage posted on high end cameras that isn't shot well, the flow doesn't help tell any story, composition is poor, lighting is poor, etc. I follow a few pro's on Vimeo and YouTube and they all have their preferred system, but I guarantee their content would be great using any setup.
I dumped my Nikon D7100 this year (sort of... still have the body if anyone wants it :D) and picked up a Panasonic G7. So far, I love it. The battery life hasn't been an issue. Video quality is phenomenal and the still photos are excellent, not quite as good as the DSLR but 4k photo is still excellent. No regrets as of yet.
We’ve done a lot of work with our Sony NEX. The batteries are smoked though, need to replace them before spring. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
