vg20 and ea50 owners at DVinfo.net

Noa Put · February 12th, 2013, 02:51 PM

Just a quick question for any owners that have both the sony vg20 or 30 and the ea50, in another thread it appears that the vg20 is supposed to be a lot better then the ea50 in low light. Something I was hoping anyone having both camera's could compare and confirm? If that would be the case I would be thinking of getting rid of 1 dslr and getting a vg30 instead for my steadicam work.

James Manford · February 12th, 2013, 04:48 PM

I can confirm this.

Footage on the VG20 is slightly more clearer at higher gain. Only a little bit. Not worth getting rid of familiar equipment if im being honest.

Noa Put · February 13th, 2013, 01:51 AM

Can I ask which picture profile you use on the ea50? Below video on vimeo doesn't show any advantage for the vg20 so that might be up to a used profile

Chris Harding · February 13th, 2013, 02:19 AM

Hi Noa

Just going slightly off the point, you mentioned a while back that 24db gain had un-acceptable noise on the EA-50 ...Looking at that video that certainly doesn't seem to be the case at all ...In fact his +27db and even +30db still produce a really nice looking image. I have shot quite a few weddings and now and agin the gain has lifted to 24db and to me it's pretty darn good .... Were you just being super critical and examining every inch of the frame so signs of noise. Shucks my Panasonics at 24db used to look like they were filming a snow storm (of dirty snow) but in that video it seem hard to even see any bad noise in the +30db clip.

Actually yes, no-one here has mentioned any profiles (or special mods to profiles) as yet ..I thought we would have had a nice selection ...especially ones for low lighting...so far I have stuck to PP3 as it was the closest to my other cameras but now with identical cameras I can probably play a bit

Chris

Noa Put · February 13th, 2013, 02:25 AM

You can't judge low light performance when it comes to noise in the image on internet compressed video's, the noise disappeares largely after the compression. That's why I saw footage in the past from my xh-a1 that looked ok with 12db+ gain on vimeo but I knew it looked horrible in it's native format on a big HD screen.
If you have well exposed arera's the grain tends to show less but if you are shooting in darker area's, like I did in that casino, the grain just crawls all over the screen.
As I compared with my 550d and saw both camera's have comparable grain structure at the same iso's I know from experience 1600 iso is as high I like to go before I would be using neatvideo.

James Manford · February 13th, 2013, 03:36 AM

PP2 matched my VG20 from what I could see Noa.

And exactly. The grain is only visible on parts that aren't exposed as well, you can just about make out the bugs crawling on the screen!!

Robert Moran · February 16th, 2013, 04:13 PM

My 50 seems to be better in low light but not by much. Stills are better in the 50 but not by much either. :) Color matching is perfect. It's a great paring of cameras without question.

Noa Put · February 16th, 2013, 04:38 PM

It's funny to see how owners perspective can be different, in another thread there was a claim that the vg20 would smoke a 550d in low light, considering I do have a 550d and see the same low light performance (if I use the technicolour cinestyle preset) compared with my ea50 and the grain production at higher gains is also practically the same, that would mean a vg20 would also "smoke" the ea50 which now doesn't seem to be the case.
That's what I would have expected, eventhough Sony might have finetuned the ea50 for a bit better performance in the moire and aliasing area, that is at least what I hear other users say.
So no doubt both the vg20 or maybe even better the vg30 now would form a good pair with the ea50.

Once I have some pocketmoney I might get rid of one 550d and get a vg30 body only and get a wide angle lens so I can shoot light weight and in 50p on a steadicam.

February 12th, 2013, 02:51 PM	#1
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	vg20 and ea50 owners Just a quick question for any owners that have both the sony vg20 or 30 and the ea50, in another thread it appears that the vg20 is supposed to be a lot better then the ea50 in low light. Something I was hoping anyone having both camera's could compare and confirm? If that would be the case I would be thinking of getting rid of 1 dslr and getting a vg30 instead for my steadicam work.

February 12th, 2013, 04:48 PM	#2
James Manford Trustee Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,393	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners I can confirm this. Footage on the VG20 is slightly more clearer at higher gain. Only a little bit. Not worth getting rid of familiar equipment if im being honest.

February 13th, 2013, 01:51 AM	#3
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners Can I ask which picture profile you use on the ea50? Below video on vimeo doesn't show any advantage for the vg20 so that might be up to a used profile Sony - EA50 vs VG20 vs NX5 on Vimeo

February 13th, 2013, 02:19 AM	#4
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners Hi Noa Just going slightly off the point, you mentioned a while back that 24db gain had un-acceptable noise on the EA-50 ...Looking at that video that certainly doesn't seem to be the case at all ...In fact his +27db and even +30db still produce a really nice looking image. I have shot quite a few weddings and now and agin the gain has lifted to 24db and to me it's pretty darn good .... Were you just being super critical and examining every inch of the frame so signs of noise. Shucks my Panasonics at 24db used to look like they were filming a snow storm (of dirty snow) but in that video it seem hard to even see any bad noise in the +30db clip. Actually yes, no-one here has mentioned any profiles (or special mods to profiles) as yet ..I thought we would have had a nice selection ...especially ones for low lighting...so far I have stuck to PP3 as it was the closest to my other cameras but now with identical cameras I can probably play a bit Chris

February 13th, 2013, 02:25 AM	#5
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners You can't judge low light performance when it comes to noise in the image on internet compressed video's, the noise disappeares largely after the compression. That's why I saw footage in the past from my xh-a1 that looked ok with 12db+ gain on vimeo but I knew it looked horrible in it's native format on a big HD screen. If you have well exposed arera's the grain tends to show less but if you are shooting in darker area's, like I did in that casino, the grain just crawls all over the screen. As I compared with my 550d and saw both camera's have comparable grain structure at the same iso's I know from experience 1600 iso is as high I like to go before I would be using neatvideo.

February 13th, 2013, 03:36 AM	#6
James Manford Trustee Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: London, UK Posts: 1,393	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners PP2 matched my VG20 from what I could see Noa. And exactly. The grain is only visible on parts that aren't exposed as well, you can just about make out the bugs crawling on the screen!!

February 16th, 2013, 04:13 PM	#7
Robert Moran Regular Crew Join Date: May 2011 Location: Redding, CT Posts: 71	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners My 50 seems to be better in low light but not by much. Stills are better in the 50 but not by much either. :) Color matching is perfect. It's a great paring of cameras without question.

February 16th, 2013, 04:38 PM	#8
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,509	Re: vg20 and ea50 owners It's funny to see how owners perspective can be different, in another thread there was a claim that the vg20 would smoke a 550d in low light, considering I do have a 550d and see the same low light performance (if I use the technicolour cinestyle preset) compared with my ea50 and the grain production at higher gains is also practically the same, that would mean a vg20 would also "smoke" the ea50 which now doesn't seem to be the case. That's what I would have expected, eventhough Sony might have finetuned the ea50 for a bit better performance in the moire and aliasing area, that is at least what I hear other users say. So no doubt both the vg20 or maybe even better the vg30 now would form a good pair with the ea50. Once I have some pocketmoney I might get rid of one 550d and get a vg30 body only and get a wide angle lens so I can shoot light weight and in 50p on a steadicam.