You never know if Sony reads any forum and if they do, this might be a good opportunity to tell them what we think could be improved by a firmware update.

My nr 1 firmware request would be to be able to select the ISO or GAIN values the same way as you can do with the shutter now. Just by pressing the gain/iso button on the side and then scrolling through the ISO values by turning the sel/push exec wheel on the side, then if you would push the wheel at the selected ISO value that would be set.

The reason for this is that only having 3 fixed ISO values is way too limiting and it takes too much time to re-assign them each time depending on the available light. With a large sensor camera you basically set your iris first as that determines the depth of field you want (and you don't want that to change during a shot) and then you choose a ISO value to set your exposure. Since there are many small increments in ISO it's much easier if you could scroll through them to get as close as possible to the desired exposure and then fine tune the f-stop to get it exactly right, or even use a variable ND filter if you don't want to change the f-stop.

1) Exposure Lock
2) DETAIL setting in Picture Profiles to go softer than it currently does (e.g. -14)
3) A way of transferring the current auto settings to manual without having to enter ISO/aperture/SHUTTER SPEED manually each time

If you get your Prime Support membership, you should get contact details with it - this gives you Real Humans (TM) at Sony who will respond to you.

Whether it will do any good or not, I don't know, but they should at least acknowledge you!

My Panasonics have a focus trim that operates in auto mode ..I'd love that on the Sony as sometimes if I'm working in auto at a wedding where everything is happening at once, the auto focus might not quite get it right and to be able to just trim it a tad without having to have to switch to manual focus first would be so much easier. That way you could also be able to actually focus shift too between people in low DOF situations.

Chris

Chris, got a question about that "focus trim", do you mean that while the camera is in auto mode for focusing and if it would not focus right that you would have the possibility to turn the focus ring (while the camera was still in auto) to adjust the focus?
If that would be the case, would the camera not try to refocus after that to what it thinks the focus should be on?

Hi Noa

I have no idea about the theory, but it does work and in autofocus once the camera has locked onto a subject (say a bride and groom at the altar) the moment you turn the focus ring it allows the focus to be adjusted within limits. Now, as the focus is now in a preset locked condition you do have to switch the manual auto switch to manual and then back to auto to cancel the setting. This request was before I had sampled the delights of spot focus and so this request really pales in comparison now so I probably wouldn't use it as spot is deadly accurate and focuses exactly where you want it to be.

The Panny's also have iris trim in auto which work the same way so if you have a slighly backlit scenario you can turn the iris wheel in auto and it will then allow you to open or close the iris up to about 2 stops ..sorta like an adjustable backlight switch...again that EV value stays until you do a manual/auto/manual switch sequence.

It would actually be great to be able to adjust EV value on the EA-50 after it has been enabled ..I wasn't sure if you could go into the menu while recording and quickly change EV from say +1.75 down to +1 when you realise that the backlighting wasn't as bad as you thought it was!!!

Chris

Yes, I"ve noticed the spotfocus seems to be very good, it's not so good on my sony cx730 that seems to have a mind of it's own and is not that reliable, which is weird because my sony xr520 does have a spotfocus feature that is accurate and fast. In terms of focus options the ea50 is really excellent.

My NX5U has AF assist which works when the camera is in auto focus and the focus is manually changed to a new position it then assumes that is the point that you want to auto focus on. Does not go back but I expect identifies the thing that is in focus and stays on that object. Function has to be set in the menus and of course only works in auto focus. You can use peaking and expanded focus to help .

The VG30 has the gain control you want Noa so I am sure underneath the EA50 is the same as I am sure the form factor is the major difference between the VG30 and the EA50.

Another useful feature on the NX5U missing from the EA50 is smooth gain , set in the menu, that smooths the gain changes when switched. Allows the operator the time to balance off with iris while the gain slowly changes to remove the sharp image change if the gain switch is just changed. I often use this while shooting in the theatre when I have to switch gain during a scene. I have mine set to "slow" to give me time to change iris or allow it to reset to the new gain level if that looks OK !!!

Ron Evans

Would be great to be able to program in a function (peaking/zebra/whatever) to the Photo button, which otherwise doeas nothing in video mode. And it's conveniently placed so you could use it even if your left hand was busy doing manual focus or whatever.