I'm finding my EA50 footage a little less sharp than my other cameras (VG20/TM900) and have been digging around the picture profiles to try and sharpen it up - here is a description of the 'crispening' control in the 'detail' section of picture profiles. This explanation is for Sony XDCAM but I'm sure the same applies for the EA50 - although with the EA50 you can only have positive crispening - I haven't messed with it yet though.

Has anyone had success sharpening their image?

Picture Profiles – Crispening _ How to clean up your image. | XDCAM-USER.COM (http://www.xdcam-user.com/camera-setup/picture-profiles-crispening-_-how-to-clean-up-your-image/)

Pete

I find it sharper than my VG20? how weird is that. I'm filming with no picture profile.

I'm very dubious about my EA50 kit lens - it seems to lose focus a little when I use the zoom - I've a wedding on Saturday and I'm going to film part of it using my VG20 kit lens and see the difference. The only time I miss my Z1 is when I'm fighting the focus of the EA50

it seems to lose focus a little when I use the zoom

Is that when the lens is in auto or manual?

Hi Noa - it seems to do it more when in manual mode - you only have to start moving the barrel to see it ever so slightly lose focus

Pete

Is this the issue you have?

Sony NEX-EA50 Horrible Lens Problem on Vimeo

I'm very dubious about my EA50 kit lens - it seems to lose focus a little when I use the zoom - I've a wedding on Saturday and I'm going to film part of it using my VG20 kit lens and see the difference. The only time I miss my Z1 is when I'm fighting the focus of the EA50

The kit lens is not parfocal. It won't hold focus when zoomed.

That's exactly what I get - I'm old school in that I zoom in, focus and then frame, i don't always use the expanded focus to assist - I'm not convinced it holds it's focus well when the zoom is used to reframe so I guess i should frame my shot and then use expanded focus more

Hey Peter,

Here is the thread where we discussed this. My kit lens is tack sharp. Try expanded focus at 4x, not 8x.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-nex-ea50-all-variants/514236-zoom-problem.html

Steve

I'm very dubious about my EA50 kit lens - it seems to lose focus a little when I use the zoom - I've a wedding on Saturday and I'm going to film part of it using my VG20 kit lens and see the difference. The only time I miss my Z1 is when I'm fighting the focus of the EA50

I think the expectations are a bit high when looking at a large imager zoom lens in this price range. Having an expectation that a lens like this will perform the same as a lens costing 30x more in my opinion is a bit unfair. Not to mention that more expensive lens has no image stabilization and not auto anything.

At least that is the opinion after reading a number of complaints about this family of lenses.

The kit lens is not parfocal. It won't hold focus when zoomed.

thats not true. i have no focus issues when i zoom... i don't know what everyone is crying about over this...

thats not true. i have no focus issues when i zoom... i don't know what everyone is crying about over this...

The lens design itself is not to be parfocal. The fact that some are better than other only speaks to the variability in the manufacturing of the lens. That is to be expected at this price point.

If you have one that does perform better than average focus wise consider yourself lucky. That is not what the lens is designed to do.

So i guess I am 3x’s lucky? Perhaps the issue doesn't lie by luck. Perhaps USA models don't suffer from this issue? Or perhaps a particular manufacture date range doesn't suffer from the problem. I am certainly not a lucky guy in fact i am unlucky....

JC

If you put the EA50 against one of the "real"cam videocameras with a dedicated videosensor, it's not very sharp. If you put it against a middleclass DSLR it's sharp.

I think the EA50 has a strong lowpass filter to avoid moiré and rolling shutter issues. Then it has a 16MPix sensor from the NEX fotocameras. It can't be tack sharp and it's not.

But it isn't unsharp either. I am just testing the output of the EA50. I tried several picture profiles and ended up using the JRE452 from Abelcine for generalfree use andit high contrast and Sony's PP3 for lowlightto and "quick'n dirty" work. Both get better with some color correction especially dealing with highlights. If you need more sharpness, the material accepts a good amount of post sharpening. Good for architecture and technical stuff.

The kit lens isn't bad at all. Together with the 2x digital zoom, it's a run'n gun option that doesn't exist in the S35 world and yet under 20.000 bucks! You have a 16xcinematic zoom lens which can be controlled via the zoom rocker. Not comparable with a ENG servo zoom lens, but it's there. You'll need enough light and the picture won't be to much cinematic, but you can use it!

As the kit lens is NOT parfocal, zooming during recording won't always work. But small zooms in the wide or mid range still work. Sometimes autofocus helps, too. It is possible to get a sharp zoom during recording, but it won't always work. Definitely not.

If you put the EA50 against one of the "real"cam videocameras with a dedicated videosensor, it's not very sharp. If you put it against a middleclass DSLR it's sharp.

I think the EA50 has a strong lowpass filter to avoid moiré and rolling shutter issues. Then it has a 16MPix sensor from the NEX fotocameras. It can't be tack sharp and it's not.

But it isn't unsharp either. I am just testing the output of the EA50. I tried several picture profiles and ended up using the JRE452 from Abelcine for generalfree use andit high contrast and Sony's PP3 for lowlightto and "quick'n dirty" work. Both get better with some color correction especially dealing with highlights. If you need more sharpness, the material accepts a good amount of post sharpening. Good for architecture and technical stuff.

The kit lens isn't bad at all. Together with the 2x digital zoom, it's a run'n gun option that doesn't exist in the S35 world yet under 20.000 bucks! You have a 16x zoom lens which can be controlled via the zoom rocker. Not comparable with a ENG servo zoom lens, but it's there. You'll need enough light and the picture won't be to much cinematic, but you can use it!

As the kit lens is NOT parfocal, zooming during recording won't always work. But small zooms in the wide or mid range still work. Sometimes autofocus helps, too. It is possible to get a sharp zoom during recording, but it won't always work. Definitely not.

The kit lens isn't bad at all. Together with the 2x digital zoom, it's a run'n gun option that doesn't exist in the S35 world and yet under 20.000 bucks!

You mention all valid points which I share as well, I only don't like the digital zoom as the image quality takes a hit when applying it.

I would always avoid the digital zoom if possible.

But there might be situations where picture quality is not the most important thing for your picture. As I do a lot of documentary work there will be a lot of these situations.

Nevertheless I will buy some "faster" zoomlens as my standard runaround glass. I think of the Canon EF-S 17-55/2,8, which I already used on the EOS60D and liked it.
But there is also the 24-105/4,0L which would be great with the speed booster - but this is not exactly a cheap combination (650€ for the Speedbooster, 850€ for the lens). Really cheap is the Sigma 17-70/2,8-4 OS HSM.

I think all the lenses aren't really parfocal. So zooming while recording isn't an option. As I don't like zoomed shots but need it for documentary work to be more flexible it's not a problem for me.

Again: If you want the best sharpness out there, don't use the EA50 - buy a used FS100 or some other camera with dedicated video sensor.
To raise sharpness, try to sharpen carefully in post. There is more room then you might think. I'm experimenting with some footage in FinalCut these days.

OK so if the The kit lens is not parfocal, and It won't hold focus when zoomed, then why did Sony include 2 servo zoom rockers with Slow/Medium/High speed settings? - seems strange

...because it uses the AF servos to emulate parfocal performance. Kinda.

The zoom rockers are some kind of remote for any zoom lenses, that might fit the sony protocol and the NEX-mount. Nowadays, it's only the SEL18-200PZ, but there might be more in future.
It's fine for me to have a servo on the EA50!