In this article I will show you some amazing HD Video footage from the Maritime Aquarium last Thursday using the Sony A6000 and E-Mount 18-105mm f/4 OSS PZ G Lens. The family and I went and not only was it a great time, but the facility was clean, friendly, and very affordable! Lots of hands-on stuff for the kids and they had super friendly volunteers sharing their knowledge in several areas as you will see in the video. Layla is the perfect age I guess, because the was having the best time ever at this place 😉 I also took some photos which you will see at the end of the video and I also posted them below so you can get a closer look if you wish 😉
The video on the A6000 is much better than my Sony Nex-6 and the SELP18105g lens performed awesome! The A6000 is night and day better in low light video and I was using the 1080/24p setting which is what I mostly use on my Nex-6 for reference.
So why is the A6000 so much better? Well it’s the way it samples the video from the sensor, and the new BionzX processor has so much more processing power. The camera has to analyze, color correct, sharpen, noise reduce, and whatever else it does on every single frame of video which is a lot of work! It’s impressive to say the least and worth upgrading for that feature alone if you want much better low light video footage. The focus is also significantly faster as you have seen by now I’m sure.
So I had the A6000 set to Aperture Priority Mode (A) and Auto ISO, which tops out at 3200 by default. You can change the high and low end of the Auto ISO though in the settings! So, I raised the upper limit to ISO 12800 to make sure I had fast enough shutter speeds for the video and photos I was taking. I did not have the time to use manual mode and a tri-pod with the family and Layla, so it’s really just basic low light footage, and a lot of it 😉
The focus during video was excellent about 90% of the time I would say. The Sony A6000 just knew what to focus on, just like the Nex-6 in that regard. Every once and a while it would switch to the background, but usually that was because of a minimum focus distance issue caused by the user, me 🙂
Without further ado, here is the family trip aquarium video…
The Maritime Aquarium – A6000 @ 1080/24p
Please be sure to select the 1080 HD option once the video starts, so you can go full screen with a nice sharp result! It make take a second to load if you have a slower Internet connection, but quality wise it’s totally worth it!
Closing Remarks
That is about it for this article, but I have much more to come with the Sony A6000 including a head to head test vs the Nex-6, Lab Testing, and many more real world photos and video footage. So far the A6000 is performing well, but the super fast AF is not as good as a DLSR with a mirror if you were wondering. I know it would be awesome if it was, but it is not capable of tracking as fast as the A57, A58, A77 II, or A99 for that matter. It’s mirrorless don’t forget and pretty awesome for sure, but not that amazing 😉
The Sony E PZ 18-105mm f/4 G OSS Lens is awesome I must say so far. The constant f/4 aperture, build quality, optical quality, focal range, low weight, OSS, and variable powerzoom make it a killer deal at the current price point of ~$598 US in my opinion. The 16-70mm f/4 OSS Zeiss lens,(SEL1670Z Review Click Here), is a better option for photography, because it’s sharper, but for video the SELP18105g is fantastic in my opinion. The size is small enough that it’s easily manageable in comparison to the 18-200mm powerzoom (selp18200 review Click Here)), which is also really good, but very large physically in comparison.
Thanks again for checking in everybody, and please feel free to comment or ask questions below as always 😉 I really enjoy chatting with you all, so please don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you are on the fence…
Jay
Support Links: