A while back I bought an a5100 to use in multicam setup along with ax100 and others. Primarily to be used at university convocations as a wide shot camera with either the kit lens or a 55-20.
The issue is muddy video. It looks just fine when shooting but when viewing the mix, it is quite apparant that the video is drastically inferior to that of the ax100 or even the cx550v. At first I thought it was just soft but now I'm wondering if the very complicated focus system is screwing me around

Soft focus could also be caused by diffraction, what lens was on the sony and what was the f-stop? 2 years ago I had to edit a wedding that included some a5100 footage and I remember it being more detailed then a nex-ea50 that was used as a-cam. If it can't match a cx550 in detail then something has to be wrong.

used 2 lenses the 16-50 @50 and a 55-210 @55 (similar results)
kept the fstop at the supposid sweet spot of about 8. The focus system is so complex in the options that I'm starting to think I might stop worrying about potential diffraction and start shooting this scene at f16 or even 22 to fully engage deep dof because when shooting close ups the a5100 is as good as any, it's the wide shots where it is soft/muddy/out of focus. Could be it is picking some spot in the near ground to focus on. I need a lesson on this cam I think

Don't you have a way to check focus like peaking or screen magnification?

it looks ok during the shoot
The cam itself does not record. I use the hdmi out to a mixer with the other cameras
maybe its something to do with the hdmi out settings

Does it have picture profile adjustments, if so is sharpness turned down?

there a 22 menu items regarding focus any one of which could be amiss
Oh how I long for the simplicity of a range-finder focus system

Changing shutter speed which I'm assuming they call framerate does make a difference. Much sharper recording when the a5100 outputs thru hdmi 1080p shutter 1/60 than 1080p 1/250 although mI hink at the venue i would have used 1/30 same as the ax100

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1080i/50Hz
1080p/60 (59.94)Hz
1080p/50Hz
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