Sony A55/Nex-5 Vs Canon 550D

Banjaxed82

OK, I'll give you my dilemma. I'm looking to shoot a short film in a couple of months. Originally I had VERY LIMITED access (time wise) to a Canon 550D with two MAYBE three lenses and one them is a decent enough zoom lens, but fairly crap in low-light conditions, which this film would be mostly shot in.

Then recently I got indefinite access to the Sony A55 & Nex-5 cameras with about 6-8 different lenses that will fit both. They have great HD quality but ZERO manual control in video mode. Shutter Speed and ISO does whatever if feels like.

Now I know the score from scouring the internet: "It's a stills camera not a video camera!"

Regardless, has anyone experience trying to creatively shoot video with these Sony cameras? Is it even worth contemplating their usage?

And finally, what's the chances of Sony delivering a firmware update to give the user control over shutter and ISO? I know it potentially means eating into their video camera market, but it's not much of an excuse since Canon have given their DSLR video full manual control.

Cheers.

Thanks in advance,

a148pro

I'll preface what I say by pointing out that I have no experience of filming anything and limited experience of using SLRs, but I recently bought a 550D. I have to say I was disappointed with the filming - its very difficult to change focus. If you use auto focus (and the auto focus on my lenses and / or the camera is really poor, far worse than my old Pentax MZR 55) the motor will obviously heard in the recording as the shot pans in and out. Presumably if you know what you're at you'll be able to use the manual focus competently. Now maybe that criticism reflects my in experience - I would have thought there would be some option where everything was always in focus or something like that.

I have yet to watch the footage on anything other than a laptop, where it looked pretty good. I think I'd have to play it on a HD ready TV to really see. My brother has an unknown Sony but its one of the compact cameras, and he showed me footage on his telly that looked great.

That said a recent Canon blurb claimed that some popstars recent vidoes was shot on one of their SLRs, I think the 5D or one of the very hi-spec ones, so presumably there is capability there if you know what you're at.

Zillah

From research I did a while back there is a way to gain some control over the video exposure on the A55. Something to do with raising or lowering the exposure compensation. The specifics escape me at the moment.

The low light is a problem though. Even on my D7000 the auto exposure is way too happy to bump the ISO upwards, even when there are a few aperture stops left to go. Maybe it's trying to keep it sharp or keep the depth of field from getting too narrow or something.

Is there no semi-automatic on those cameras, such as aperture priority mode (whack it wide open so it'll bump the iso as little as possible)?

Where are you based/shooting?

a148pro wrote: »

I'll preface what I say by pointing out that I have no experience of filming anything and limited experience of using SLRs, but I recently bought a 550D. I have to say I was disappointed with the filming - its very difficult to change focus. If you use auto focus (and the auto focus on my lenses and / or the camera is really poor, far worse than my old Pentax MZR 55) the motor will obviously heard in the recording as the shot pans in and out. Presumably if you know what you're at you'll be able to use the manual focus competently. Now maybe that criticism reflects my in experience - I would have thought there would be some option where everything was always in focus or something like that.

These cameras are not the kind of camera you want to use for holidays or days out with the friends. They have large sensors and wide apertures which means they have narrow depths of field, which means you need to be very careful with your focus (it's perfect for nice shots but they have to be carefully controlled). Their ideal use is for short films and low buget productions. You really need to know what you're doing or it'll come out pretty disappointing. To keep everything in focus at once you need to close your aperture down quite a lot, which can only be done if it is very bright, like outside during the day or dedicated lighting for the shoot.

Banjaxed82

a148pro wrote: »

If you use auto focus (and the auto focus on my lenses and / or the camera is really poor, far worse than my old Pentax MZR 55) the motor will obviously heard in the recording as the shot pans in and out.

I'll be recording sound separately, so this isn't an issue.

Zillah wrote: »

From research I did a while back there is a way to gain some control over the video exposure on the A55. Something to do with raising or lowering the exposure compensation. The specifics escape me at the moment.

I've seen some things about this too, but I'm trying to avoid mickeying about with various controls for every lighting set up, hoping that the ISO or shutter is behaving.

That said, a big draw towards the Sony A55 is its auto focus. Due to the translucent lens it has really fast auto focus, which works a treat when shooting video.

I might guinea pig the camera on a up coming music video before the short film. Will be easier to iron over the cracks in that if it goes badly. I'll update on how it performed.

Dublin based shoot, incidentally.

Zillah

The A55 really does have some fantastically clever technology in it allowing for a very good auto-focus. However, surely you'll be planning your shots ahead of time and manually focussing for a short, right? Don't you have specific requirements for what's in focus? One of the big advantages of using a DSLR is that they have very shallow depth of field compared to many other cameras, so you can lovely out of focus backgrounds, focus-throw/pull for key moments etc. Last thing you want is to have your subject walking towards you and the A55 decides it wants to focus on a tree or post box.

Autofocus can be really useful if you're, say, doing a documentary where you're following people around and recording live events that can't be controlled or replayed

Banjaxed82

Preparation! Preparation! Definitely planning ahead. Goes without saying. That said, the auto focus is a GREAT function but I'd only use it sparingly. Handy for scenes where there's too much spontaneous movement to manually pull focus accurately.

boardsy

An amateur first-timer's video with the NEX (not me!):

http://vimeo.com/18506633

Pretty good quality - no auto-focus used I'd guess. Haven't played with my new NEX's video yet. Put some fast manual focus lenses on it if you can for shallow DOF/bokeh & low-light noise control.