First foray into 4K with a AX100 - tips?

[Peter Rush]

So I'm dipping my toe into the 4K world with a Sony AX100 - I'm filming at the weekend at a venue where I'll be filming from the back so will have 2 locked off cameras at the front - one of which will be my AX100. There's a lot of natural light so I'll be using auto exposure, I've already established it overexposes a little in auto, like most sony cams, so I'll be setting AE comp and minus half a stop. Also it seems to remember zoom and manual focus settings after being turned off so that's ok just to turn and and start recording, assuming the B&G don't move from where they should be.

I can then drop my 4K clip on my 1080 timeline to crop and zoom - nice :)

Any tips on this camera or 4K in general for a newbie?

[Noa Put]

The camera is pretty failsafe, you only need to watch your focus if you use the spotfocus feature by touching the screen, I have noticed more then once it doesn't always focus accurately and now I double check by zooming in onto the screen and use peaking. If the focus is off by just a bit it will notice.

[Peter Rush]

The problem I have with that, as is most often the case, is once the camera is running, if the B&G move a little I can't get to the camera to check it's still in focus - quite often with the CX730 cams auto is good enough as it will nearly always lock on to the contrast of the bride's dress which is ok for a small sensor but with this larger sensor that won't do (I have these cams set to wide)

[Nigel Barker]

The extra DOF of the 1" sensor of the AX100 compared to an APS-C or FF means it's more forgiving when focusing.

[Roger Gunkel]

Hi Pete,
I'm not a Sony man, but I believe the ax100 has wifi and smartphone control, so you may well be able to adjust focus with the wifi app.

On my pair of Panny FZ 1000s I use the app to adjust zoom from the second opposite angle cam and can also use touch screen focus control on the app to focus on any part of the frame. I just use a smart phone or pad mounted on my main tripod. I would have thought there would be a similar thing for the Sony.

Roger

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

The extra DOF of the 1" sensor of the AX100 compared to an APS-C or FF means it's more forgiving when focusing.

That's not my experience, if the focus is off it's off and it will be painfully visible, especially in 4k, the autofocus is good enough to save you from problems like this when you shoot wider but as soon as you start to zoom in you need to check, I also had the camera missing focus with that spotfocus when the lens was wide, the camera had issues getting the focus because of a mixture of light.

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Roger Gunkel

Hi Pete,
I'm not a Sony man, but I believe the ax100 has wifi and smartphone control, so you may well be able to adjust focus with the wifi app.

On my pair of Panny FZ 1000s I use the app to adjust zoom from the second opposite angle cam and can also use touch screen focus control on the app to focus on any part of the frame. I just use a smart phone or pad mounted on my main tripod. I would have thought there would be a similar thing for the Sony.

Roger

Nice - I'll try that this afternoon :) UPDATE - sadly not - can only start/stop/zoom

The camera comes with a remote but again, no focus control. It can be a problem with locked off cams as in the past I've locked focus on where the couple are going to stand, only to find the registrar decided to move around the other side of the table, making the B&G step back a few feet - result = registrar nice and sharp but the couple were soft - all I could have done was squeeze past the couple to re-adjust my camera and then squeeze past them again, and I wasn't going to do that (maybe I would these days)

[Ron Evans]

You still need to take notice of what Noa says though as if you want to crop in to the image you need to make sure the focus is correct at that zoom. Just touching in a wide angle the camera will choose the best depth of field at that zoom position not necessarily for a crop later.

Ron Evans

[Peter Rush]

As an aside how important is it to have a U3 class SD card for 4K? I'v just been filming with a 600X SDXC U1 card without any problems

Pete

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

As an aside how important is it to have a U3 class SD card for 4K? I'v just been filming with a 600X SDXC U1 card without any problems

Pete

It's a risk. How long did you record for? I find slower cards stop recording when the camera starts a new file every 4gb with high bitrate. It's random and depends on what's being recorded. Even my U3 cards can halt recording if I don't do a full format rather than in camera one once a month. You can use U1 but it's tempting fate and could well let you down when you least want it.

[Peter Rush]

Just ordered a couple of U3 cards!

[Nate Haustein]

Peter, make sure you're using proper brand-name batteries or AC because if the camera loses power during a recording, that entire recording becomes corrupt and is extremely difficult to recover. I make it a habit to hit start/stop on the cam whenever it's convinient (for example intermissions).

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Steve Burkett

It's a risk. How long did you record for? I find slower cards stop recording when the camera starts a new file every 4gb with high bitrate. It's random and depends on what's being recorded. Even my U3 cards can halt recording if I don't do a full format rather than in camera one once a month. You can use U1 but it's tempting fate and could well let you down when you least want it.

You format in a computer rather than in the camera? and Nate yes, I have branded batteries from my CX730 cams

[Steve Burkett]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

You format in a computer rather than in the camera? and Nate yes, I have branded batteries from my CX730 cams

I format in my camera for all shoots but once a month now I use some software to do a complete format. Takes about 20 mins for a 64bg card and clears the card. I'm not too knowledgeable on the techno jargon as to whats involved but with camera format you can still recover the files but with the sd formatter software on the computer its removed for good. Just clears the cobwebs and any fragments on the card.

[Dave Blackhurst]

To shoot the higher bitrates, the camera should bark (actually just give you and on screen warning) at you if you don't have a U3 card.... I think the latest firmware iterations might allow you to use a smaller SDHC card, but still needs to be U3. Somehow I think you can shoot the 50Mbps or whatever the "low" bitrate is on a U1 card.