Sony DSLR

[Ian Thomas]

would be nice to hear of people using these cameras for video put there thoughts on here becaues at the price point they take some beating i have the A77

[Colin Rowe]

I dont use them myself, but I have seen a lot of reports on overheating issues, I'm sure some of the guys with hands on experience will chime in.
If you were thinking of an A99, this is worth checking out. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-avc...pointment.html

[Ryan Douthit]

I use an A77 as a B camera to my FS100. I also shot this documentary with it, before I picked up the FS100:

Livin' the Dream: Olympus 2012 on Vimeo

I would like to upgrade it to the A99, but I have some other stuff that is more critical and it's doing a good job as it is.

Oh, here's another. Shot hand-held.

Global Rallycross in Slow-Motion: 2012 Final on Vimeo

[Ian Thomas]

This is good stuff Ryan, could you please tell me what lens you are using and what settings on the A77

Thankyou
Ian

[Ryan Douthit]

For the A77 I use the kit DT 16-50mm 2.8 (excellent) plus a Tamron 70-200 2.8 which has a nice look, though the manual focus is really touchy. (The gearing is too quick.)

Picture color is neutral - I don't recall what setup exactly, but a slight variation on saturation and sharpness. I always shoot 1080/60 and record sound separately. (That kind of sucked, actually, when doing run-and-gun on the documentary.)

[Matt Sharp]

Ryan I remember seeing you at that GRC event outside SEMA, well I only saw one person with an A77 so I'm just assuming. What was the shoulder brace you had the camera on?

[Ryan Douthit]

Hi Matt,
Yup, the lone A77 shooter. i think the mount I was using that day was a set of Photography & Cinema rails (with a cage maybe?) and a Jag35 shoulder pad. Since then i've pretty much ditched all rigs on he A77 with the exception of when I need to run extra hardware. I also like to shoot with the FS100 mostly naked. (The camera, that is.)

[Ian Thomas]

Ryan
is there a massive jump in video quality from the 77 and the FS100, and on your vids there no moire or aliazing i seem to get a bit but i just wonder if its my tv,

[Ryan Douthit]

The FS100 is much better than the A77. Aliasing is a problem with the A77, moire less so (not nearly as bad as the 5D mkII). Both are practically non-existent on the FS100. The base ISO is also much higher on the FS, making it a master of low-light.

If you look at the last shot of Ken Block's rally car in the documentary trailer you can see some extreme aliasing. But the shot was important so I kept it. I did toss out others due to aliasing, however.

Key thing with the A77 (and the A99 for that matter) is to understand it has some great features, it's just not great at every shot. You have to shoot with the limitations in mind (stay away from horizontal details).

[Ian Thomas]

Ryan

What would be best way way of setting the focus mode when filming a football match, did 1 yesterday and most came out ok but some was soft had the camera on movie mode and all the rest on auto it looked ok on the screen but as i said some was soft

[Ryan Douthit]

Originally Posted by Ian Thomas

Ryan

What would be best way way of setting the focus mode when filming a football match, did 1 yesterday and most came out ok but some was soft had the camera on movie mode and all the rest on auto it looked ok on the screen but as i said some was soft

I only ever use manual focus so I can't help you there.