I’m Keeping the Sony a6700
Transcript:
Welcome back. Sony a6700.
It's been a couple of months, I believe maybe four or five months actually since I started using this camera. Still using it. Using it right now to record and I want to start off with the verdict. I am keeping the camera. I intend to keep on using the camera, but there are a few caveats I guess that I do want to cover. And I guess the main point to keep in mind, especially in the context of this video, is that I do not intend to use this camera professionally. I did use it for three gigs in the time that I've had it, however, so we'll cover that a little bit. But its main use will be maybe for personal capture. I'm going to touch on that as well, but mainly for YouTube stuff, talking head things, B-roll, things of that nature.
So gig use, personal use, and then a Q&A section just based off of some questions that I've seen in the comments of the last video I made about this camera.
For the three jobs that I've used it on, first was a photo only gig, second was video only, and then third was hybrid. The first one was for an Amazon product that featured the use of models. I rented out a small studio and we had a shot list of like 30. Not enough time to really do anything well, but tried to do the best that I could.
I believe this might have been the first time using off-camera flash with the Sony system, and I learned a couple of things.
For the trigger, I bought a Godox X2T. It was my first time using the T series. Usually I would use the X Pro controller with Canon. For the main light source, we were using a Godox SK400IIV. For everything else, we were using additional SK400IIs, the non-V versions. For camera, obviously a6700, and then the lens, it was a mix of the Sigma 18-50 2.8, as well as the Sony 85mm 1.8. I think in total, it was about like a three to four hour shoot. We did hit some outdoor shots as well. For what it's worth, camera never overheated, never came close to overheating. Auto focus was great, of course, and overall, I would be able to do it again. I don't have any problems with it. It's just fine.
One thing during the shoot, however, the trigger wasn't triggering the strobe sometimes, and it would disconnect. Whenever it disconnected, the camera didn't recognize that a flash unit or trigger was attached to it. So it would exit out of the flash mode. Because my settings are on manual and they're set to the strobe lighting, the preview of my image would just be complete black. It happened maybe 10 times throughout the shoot, which is actually very annoying now that I think about it. But all I had to do was turn off the trigger and turn it back on. I don't know if it's an issue of the Sony system or just the T line of triggers or the Sony Godox triggers specifically, but it is something that's very annoying. After the shoot, I actually tried out a different unit, same X2T trigger experienced the same sort of problem. So yeah, if you are going to do off camera flash, definitely wouldn't recommend the Godox X2T trigger. Maybe you'll have better luck with the X-Pro. I'm hoping that is not just a Sony issue because I've seen rumblings about that on the internet. Speaking of Sony, I did want to shoot tethered for this project, but I think you can only do that within Capture One with Sony, not Lightroom. I don't edit with Capture One, so didn't really end up doing it. Tried to do it with the imaging edge software connected to my laptop. It wasn't worth the hassle and the speed at which it updates on the laptop. So just ended up doing it more casually. I just take the shots and I show back on the screen to the client and yeah.
Moving on to the images, I wasn't entirely in love with them. It's honestly probably because I don't have much experience shooting in that setup and our shot list was probably way too long for the time that we had. But beyond the lighting and the quality, the technical qualities of the images themselves, the image quality I do notice a big difference now between crop sensor and full frame. Obviously final image quality is fine, it doesn't matter too much. But for me, there was a noticeable difference, a drop off in sharpness when I was comparing it to the Canon R6 Mark II with the Canon RF 24-70 f2.8 as well as the Leica SL2S with the Leica R 50mm f2 or Panasonic 16-35 f4. And I was actually curious, so I dug up an old, old file from like 2016, 2017, I want to say. A photo shot on the original Canon 6D DSLR and the 50mm f1.2. When I was pixel peeping on that photo, the second I zoom into the eyes, it's a lot sharper or at least more detailed, I want to say, compared to these Sony files. I think I can only really attribute that to the sensor because we were shooting in ideal conditions for sharpness: off-camera flash and a closed aperture. So yeah, something I noticed and personally it does bother me, but when we're talking pragmatically in terms of final deliverables to a client for any sort of project, I don't think it's going to matter in the grand scheme of things.
Moving on to gig number two. It was a 30 minute Indigenous performance that involved a number of different songs. On the video side, it just translated to a 30 minute stretch of continuous shooting, one camera, gimbal. So I have one of the Ronin-R something S's three. I was using it for much more heavier cameras, so I was a little bit nervous, but threw on the a6700 with again, I think the 18-50 sigma lens, and it was fine. Not great at using the gimbal though so again, not really happy with this result, but strictly looking at the camera:
Autofocus is pretty in line with what I'm used to. It reminded me of the FX3. However, it did struggle in this instance because the performers were in front of this big illuminated screen. So think like LED wall backlighting the performers. The autofocus got messed up really, really frequently, but luckily not in the most important parts. And the final deliverable actually, I should mention, was not a continuous file. It was still an edited file. So luckily with those shots where the focus was missing, I was able to just edit around them. The other thing I noticed is that this was indoors at a hotel. I had to crank the ISO up to about 2500. Being spoiled by the likes of the Leica SL2-S or the Sony FX3, obviously I felt that the ISO performance wasn't great.
There's a lot of noise at 2500. I don't feel like this is a great camera for a lot of low light things. Now that is relative to the FX3 and the SL2-S. It's probably really good in its price range. But me personally, I feel like 3200 is probably the limit. For my tastes, 6400 is a bit messy. The biggest takeaway from this performance though is that I had zero overheating problems. I shot in 4K24. I believe the codec was the 100 Mbps H.265. I shot pretty much continuously for the entire 30 to 40 minutes, including getting ready and setting up. The only reason I stopped and started recording again was because I was worried about the overheating. But the only reason I was worried about the overheating is because of what I saw on the internet, or what I heard in other videos or in the comments of the previous video that I uploaded. If I wasn't using the internet, it wouldn't have even crossed my mind to be honest. I've never had overheating issues with this camera. Does that mean everybody else is lying? Absolutely not. I think I just got really lucky with my particular camera.
—All right, we hit 30 minutes. It is warm to the touch. I want to say it's hot. Seems to be working pretty well.—
So, gig three was a hybrid shoot, but definitely more photo centric. I had to use on camera flash for this one. It was an event. It was a cooking event in a beautiful location. Three different rooms for about four or five hours. This one I wasn't worried about overheating at all because outside was very cold. And to go between the different rooms, I had to go outside. The camera would never really have a chance to get hot. Very, very low light conditions for this. And I wish I could have shot natural lighting with a higher ISO for a lot of these because there was a lot of mixed lighting because I didn't trust the ISO performance. I ended up using a Godox V860III, I think is the name of the flash. That flash works flawlessly. I really liked it. There were some times where I wanted to use the flash unit as an off-camera flash. And then again, whipped out the X2T trigger. Went horribly. It was worse than with the strobes that you plug in like the SK400II-V. When pairing it with the V860III, it just wouldn't fire half the time. I would say 30 to 40 percent of the time it would actually shoot and fire. So tons of missed shots. Horrible. I would never do that again. It was very, very frustrating.
And then the video shots in between, didn't take too many and they were all vertical shots. It was an afterthought for both the client and myself. So it didn't really matter too much for those ones. They were just handheld, very simple. And the camera worked as expected, except again, the ISO performance. It'd be nice if I could have had a better performance. But overall, pretty pleased with some of the images I was able to get. And I think through these three gigs, I learned a lot about this camera.
Key takeaways: ISO performance, not the best. Image quality, sharpness and detail captured. Not the best. But for both of these things, not a deal breaker, not horrible. It is small for my hands. I personally did not like the size of it when I was shooting. For the gimbal, obviously this is fine. Now that five hour event, though, where I was holding it the entire time, even though it was kind of off balance with the on-camera flash, surprisingly, it never really got uncomfortable. I wouldn't have any qualms doing it again.
So a quick little bit about using it for personal stuff. Personal stuff, I'm not doing any personal projects really for video. By the way my interests seem to be going, I think it's going to be a photo centric project. And for that photo project, I am not going to be using the Sony a6700. I don't like the shooting experience. I've said that before. I still maintain that.
YouTube stuff, I'm going to use this camera. It's just kind of a no-brainer camera to use. For YouTube stuff, I feel like I'm more focused on the end product, less about the experience. Or if I do care about the experience, what I care about is not enjoyment, but just seamless efficiency. This camera does that. It's very easy to work with, easy to set up. The battery life is good. The codecs are good. The recording limit, that's great. The quality that you get is even great. And I don't want to think about the camera when I'm doing stuff like this. So for me, the a6700 for that, especially at its price point, too. It just makes a lot of sense. So I'm going to keep on using it. And the cherry on top of that is that any freelance gig that comes my way, I'm confident that with my skillset now, I'll be able to deliver even if may not be the top quality that I want to produce. And the reason that I'm okay with that is because again, freelance is not one of my priorities right now. It's not a career that I want to develop into.
Now with personal stuff, yeah, taking it along again, it makes sense. It's easy to use, convenient to bring around. Battery life is not an issue. Trust it in pretty much every situation. If my goal is just documenting my daily life, and I just need to be sure that I'm going to catch the moment, this camera makes sense. It's great. But I can't bring myself to enjoy this camera. A lot of reasons I could put out there, but they're bullshit at the end of the day. And to be honest, they're probably just privileged and picky. I don't think it should dissuade anybody from using this camera.
Because from a technical standpoint, it's fantastic. And I trust its autofocus capabilities, its low light capabilities I can learn over time, and just the way that it works. It just feels very easy to use. Very simple after you get past that initial hump of setting it up. But I guess to wrap up this section of it. Yeah, for me, it's just not the camera that I enjoy using. I don't like to pick it up. I don't like the way it feels in my hand. And I feel like the files require a lot of post processing for me to get them to where I want them to be. I think that's something important to consider. Nowadays, every camera will give you the results that you want to a certain extent. But the older I get and the more limited my time becomes, I don't want to sit in front of the computer editing. So the closer that it is out of camera, the better for me. I wish I could love this camera. I just can't. I don't know. But I'm going to keep on using this camera because it just makes sense for a lot of what I do.
All right, Q and A.
Have you had any overheating issues? The overheating seems so inconsistent with reviews all across YouTube.
Again, yeah, for me, zero. But I understand there might be some trepidation. So I would personally recommend try it out extensively if you can. Try recording a long 4K 60 clip. Oh, shoot. I should have mentioned I hardly shoot 4K 60. So maybe that's a big, big factor for these longer shoots. I was mainly shooting all of them in 4K 24 if I was doing video. But yeah, if you're going to buy new, definitely buy from a place with a good return policy. And if your particular copy is overheating all the time, return that shit.
What kind of SD card do you need to record 4K 24P 4K 60 4K 120? I heard you need higher end ones or did I hear wrong?
I think it depends on the codec that you're using. If you're going to be shooting in all I probably V 90 cards, I don't know, V 60 will cut it either. I did do an All-I comparison last time and I used my V90 card for that. So if you're not familiar, SD cards, you'll see a designation written on them. They'll say V30, V60, V90. These are the ones that I know of at least. I personally use a 128gb Pro Grade V90 card as well as a 256gb Pro Grade V60 card. I picked them up for my FX3 so I could shoot 4K 120 as needed. And now that I've used them in a couple of different cameras, I do think they're a good investment.
I did have one of the 256gb V60 Pro grade cards fail on me, however, so I don't know if I completely trust the brand. Lexar as well, I've had some bad experiences with their cards in the past so I don't know if I trust their brand. SanDisk, I don't even know what is going on with their SSD controversy in this last year, but I've always had good luck with their SD cards. However, once you got into the V90 territory, their cards were massively expensive compared to Pro Grade (similar now). So I just stuck with Pro Grade. For what it's worth, the V90 Pro Grade card, I haven't had any issues with and have had it for over a year now I want to say. So if it's within your budget, or at least I would recommend carving out some of that budget and dedicating it to a solid V60 card at the very least. That'll cover most if not all of your needs. And if you know you're going to be upgrading your camera eventually, a V90 might not be a bad idea.
How long does the battery life last when comparing the original to a third party?
Right. So actually, with batteries, I'm using two K&F third party batteries, and then the original Sony battery, I do think the Sony battery lasts a little bit longer, but it's not so big a difference that I am comparing it or am conscious of it. I don't really think about which battery I'm throwing into the camera and I get sufficient performance out of each. I wish I had a better estimate of how long each of them lasted, but for me personally, and my peace of mind, if I'm going to continue freelancing, I would recommend three batteries at minimum. The K&F batteries, third party ones, I got off of Amazon in a pair. So that was nice. And if I think back to all my previous Sony's too, I think I've been more than covered with three.
Have you tried using it as a webcam through USB?
No, actually, I have a dedicated webcam and it works well enough for me. I don't really care.
What kind of lens would pair well with this camera?
I think smaller lenses. The Sigma 18-50 actually, it hasn't really grown on me in the sense that I like it, but it seems a lot more reliable. And it's just something that again, very much like the camera, it just makes sense to use. You get that standard-ish zoom range of 18-50 on APS-C. So you're covered focal lengthwise for a majority of situations that you'll face. Constant aperture of 2.8 is always amazing too. You could go for that 17-70 Tamron, I believe f2.8, and I hear the Sony 16-55 2.8 is amazing. However, those two are bigger. So I guess if you are using it for paid work, it might be worth it with that extra range on the Tamron and then apparently better image quality on the Sony. But if you're starting out or if you're just doing casual gigs here and there like me, or just personal stuff, 18-50 Sigma I think is the way to go because it's so light and compact. Just makes sense.
And then other lenses I'm not too familiar with, to be honest. My only lenses for this camera right now is the Sigma 18 -50, a cheap Chinese brand, Pergear 12mm f2 manual focus lens, and the kit lens. And I'm hesitant to buy anything else, especially APS-C lenses, because I can see myself wanting to go back to full frame eventually, if not out of Sony entirely. And for the foreseeable future, I don't need any other lenses. I think the 18-50 is so good. The close focusing too on this lens, solid. So I don't know. I don't think I need anything else.
But if I'm considering you depending on your needs, maybe a low light prime would be good, like a 50mm equivalent. So a 35 on APS-C 1.8 or 1.4, maybe that'll be good. If you're relatively sure you're going to be upgrading the full frame later down the line, then grabbing a full frame lens over an APS-C one might be better for you.
Do you think there'll be sales for this camera during Christmas?
This past Christmas? I don't think there was, but next year, yeah, I could see this going on a deal.
Actually, seeing as this is an update video, I do want to close off with maybe thinking about the FX30. Should I have gone for that instead of this, especially because I don't like the photo experience that much? Part of me says yes, because ultimately this is just going to become a YouTube camera for me. But part of me says no, because though I am going to be using it for various gigs, depending on how proficient I become with this other camera that I've purchased (it’s a rangefinder and manual focus, which I'm not great at shooting yet), maybe I'll entertain the thought of using it for paid work. But I expect most of the paid photo and video work, I'll probably want autofocus, maybe faster continuous burst as well. So as I'm probably going to be using the Sony if I'm considering it from that angle, then I'm actually happy I went with the 6700 over the FX30 because again, it's not the best EVF, but I do use it sometimes when I'm taking photos.
Anyways hopefully that provides some sort of insight in real world specific use cases for you. If you have any more questions about this camera, please feel free to let me know. I doubt that I'll make another video like this about this camera, but who knows if there's enough interest or enough questions about it, we can do an update later. Happy New Year. Hope you're well. Bye.
Affiliate links:
V60 SD card I recommend: https://amzn.to/3HaDFe1
V90 SD card I use: https://amzn.to/48Jgza7
Off-camera flash trigger I recommend: https://amzn.to/4aQwVj5
Strobe I used for gig 1: https://amzn.to/48KpQPj
Speedlight I used for gig 3: https://amzn.to/3SabIcQ
The first gig: https://amzn.to/3tAANUV
3rd party batteries I use for the a6700 (2-pack): https://amzn.to/3NVDRSp
Sigma 18-50mm: https://amzn.to/4aKxwmx
Sony a6700: https://amzn.to/4aQaY3G
Mic used for this video: https://amzn.to/3HaWApi
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