Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

Perfect Jody

Apart from being about the same size as Canon's DSLR's which is not my style it's seems an awesome camera. They don't have any progressive modes at all but seem to wrap the file in a interlaced package ..the only thing that seems strange is their PF mode which takes the place or other cameras progressive modes doesn't have a 50PF mode at all, only a 25PF mode ...you must let us know how that works out for you. I think if I had it I would rather just shoot in 50i and drop onto a 25P timeline.

That Super35 sensor should give you a good 2 stop advantage over the EA-50 ..I still like my EA-50's though!!! With all my Nikon lenses I would have to restock on ALL lenses if I bought a C100 or 300

Chris

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

Chris,

No. " So far I have done footage on the EA-50 at F16 with no image quality loss thanks to the big sensor ...most video cameras will need to use their ND filters so your JVC HM600 without ND's would exhibit far more degradation at F16 than the EA-50 because of the much smaller 1/3" chips!!".

I respectfully strongly disagree. I keep saying this over and over again, there is no substitute for quality glass. It is a simple garbage in garbage out thing. I don't care what sensor it is, there are high quality three chip sensors and high or low quality APS-C sensors out there too. The lens you choose is your most important first line of defense against a poor image quality, period. Putting a cheap lens on any camera will result in a poor image regardless of the sensor type or size.

Jody, the four characteristics of aperture you listed above are correct in line item form. Except, Chris is correct that when, wide open most of them will be at their softest place. Every lens has it's own characteristics. It takes a photographer that knows his own gear to make them sing.


Steve

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

Hi Steve

You like to rev up my emotions don't you!! Seriously I don't mind at all as it's purely good natured bantering.

Using the same glass, try taking a 1/3rd chip camera ..switch out all the ND filters and stop it down to F16 and then do the same with an ASPC sensor camera and look at the results! Regardless of the lens quality the small sensor camera's image will fall to pieces at F16 ...that's why they have ND filters... a 1/3rd or smaller chip will degrade very badly at tiny F-stops ..that's why most manufacturers will often build the lens with integral ND's (most camcorders, in fact) It's purely light physics but small chip cameras have systems in place so the lens is made to stay in the sweet spot. You might physically get a readout of F16 on a small chip camera but in fact it's really F5.6 with an ND 4 factor applied so it allows the same amount of light onto the sensor as F16 would allow.

As for your other comment, I can only agree 100% ...there is no substitute for good glass whatever the reason ..sadly us lesser mortals often don't have the budget to pop out and buy a $15K lens so we have to endure what we can afford.

Hope you are well otherwise!

Chris

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

That's not right, if a small chip camera says the f-stop is f5.6 then it is f5.6, if you look inside the lens you will see the iris is wider open then when you are at f16 as the iris will be almost completely closed, the biggest differences between these 2 values is that around f5.6 you"ll get the sharpest possible image and at f16 you will get diffraction and a softer image. Now it might not show as much on a large sensor compared to a small sensor one but the amount of light that has to be squeezed through a tiny hole before it reaches the sensor compared to a much bigger opening does have an impact on the image and that has nothing to do with the nd filter.

I have seen in more posts that you seem to regard the nd filter as some kind of unnecessary evil that is only there to give us videographer a hard time so that it would be better to just don't use it at all :) but it is in fact a crucial element in controlling dof, natural motion and sharpness.

The ND filter allows us to choose the dof by using the appropriate f-stop if there is too much light coming in, it will allow us to control the shutter if we want to have a natural looking motion and it allows us to choose a f-stop that will gives us the sharpest image the lens can provide us.

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

just one important thing I don't understand. When in full manual how do I compensate the gain when zooming in and out?

When zooming from wide to tele in auto the camcorder adds auto gain in the picture.
But how do you do this when filming in manual? When start zooming in and the picture gets darker... do you use the gain switch to get it brighter? how do you do this to have a "smooth" zoom like in auto mode?

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

When the camera is in manual mode, you can still set the gain to auto by pressing the gain/iso button.

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

When you set any of iris, gain or shutter speed to auto the camera is now in auto with the parameters in manual at the values choosen. You can set the iris and shutterspeed manually, gain in auto and use AE shift to get the exposure you want. The camera will then maintain this offset. Most Sony cameras work this way. In auto most Sony's over expose about 0.5 to 0.7 EV so you may need to compensate by setting AE shift to -0.5 EV or so to taste. I have AE shift set this way on my NX30U and NX5U so that when switched to auto anything the setting is used. Both the NX30U and NX5U lens also ramp so I try to keep iris on the NX5U at f3.4 or smaller so that I can zoom without the ramp if my gain switch settings are not set correct for the scene I can switch to auto and know that it will have the AE shift set.

Ron Evans

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

Sony's are brilliant like that! I leave my cameras in full auto and when the lens goes on it will automatically discover that it cannot communicate with the iris, IS and focus so it will switch those to manual for you but whatever it's able to still control in auto it will do so without you touching a thing. The firmware is very well programmed ... if you try to execute say, touch focus on a manual lens it will simply give you a message that you cannot use that function.

So Tom ..switch the camera to full auto, use your manual lens and then whatever the camera still can control it will do for you BUT you still have the option to turn each of the remaining auto functions off or leave them on.

Chris

Re: Sony nex-ea50 functionality
 

sorry for the late answer. I was sick. Yes, this worked. so easy I didn't know!
Thanks all for your help guys!