Pro video blog…Produced by Philip Johnston DoP/Editor

ea50

As usual in Scotland we are weather dependant, today was a fine day for taking the Sony EA50 out for a spin, my wife Susan used the Sony NX30 and she took this picture of me at Bell’s bridge in Glasgow’s Clydeside.

I tried both lenses the Sony 18-200mm and the Nikon 24-85mm with a 77mm GenusTech fader, the Sony lens did suffer not having the fader as I don’t have a step up ring big enough to fit, I was getting f22 at 0dB at a shutter of  50.

You really miss the lack of ND filters but this is a large sensor camera, Sony need to stop producing such cameras with no ND and the inability to go beyond 0dB, -3 and -6dBs would have helped.

I need two more days with the EA50, one for studio shots and one for low light shots, I hope to have the review up at the beginning of next week. I still can’t produce any moire patterning so far.

pull-focus

Electronic pull focus is a gimmick…or is it. Apart from the very confusing convoluted way Sony implement the pull focus it works a dream and you can pull focus between A and B with no disturbance in the picture.

This works on long shots you would never dream of doing with a conventional lens, Sony should develop this further using an iPhone or iPad as its very confusing setting it up and executing on camera.

The short flange between lens and sensor filter makes this camera prone to dirt as will be demonstrated on my video review but with a careful clean using a Giottos rocket air blower, you can get rid of 99% of dust.

Update : One of my readers Ron Evans has just pointed out “Spot Focus” this is a feature that works in manual focus mode only. You simply press your finger on any spot of the cameras LCD and the camera will focus on that spot, just tried it and it works a treat.

The difference between spot and focus transition (pull focus) is that in spot mode you only get one focusing speed but in focus transition you get a choice of transition speeds.

author

Having been working in the video business since 1988 I have amassed a great amount of knowledge of both the kit and production values over the last 30 years.

4 thoughts on “First decent day filming with the Sony EA50 (Updated)

  1. To be honest I feel a bit like a model, waiting for your review and see the pictures. Can you tell me what’s going on in the house after the release of various Canon PMW 200, PMW 150 etc. what is the answer to these Canon cameras Sony know if else out a new XF series. Thank you for the valuable work you do for us.

  2. Can you explain the pull focus ? Seems a lot more complicated than touch focus that the EA50 has. Just touch the LCD and it will focus there . Touch again and it will refocus. Just like the consumer cameras.

    Ron Evans

  3. Ron, the pull focus requires setting up two focus depths prior to shooting. One also pre-programs the speed of the transition from A to B and assigns the buttons to each. After that, start shooting, and press the appropriate button to engage the focus transition to the preset distances.

    Definitely not ENG! 😉

    Steve

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