^ Sounds like a plan. I just doubt another A99 would be better - my A900 has been the most perfectly tuned camera I've ever had. Everything about it has worked flawlessly from the first shot.
@mortyb - that's what sucks the most, I love pretty much everything about the A99 and the two lenses I bought. The functional shortcomings (no focus magnify in video mode among others) can easily be addressed in firmware. I just need good video and that's a deal breaker.
How does the D800(E) video compare? I have not shot any video yet with mine.
Since the D800 does the ever other line interpreting in LV mode, wonder if Sony sensor thing?
Thought I'd chime in on this one since I spent some brief time with the a99. The D800's video capabilities easily best the ones of the a99. The ability to zoom in to check critical focus in live view is one of the main advantages of the D800. And like one poster here mentioned, the a99's video was definitely soft in comparison to footage I captured on the D800. The D800 was sharper with better color reproduction for video in my experience. Another annoyances is not being able to press the record button and enter right into video mode that allows you to change your exposure settings. Instead you have to switch the dial to movie mode and then you can change your settings. It also works the same way with manual and autofocus, but even more quirky. To switch to manual focus, you need to be in a still shooting mode, change to manual/auto focus, then switch back to movie mode. It's the most ridiculous implementation of video I've seen in a DSLR. The D800 and 5D Mark III are much much better options for shooting video.
I ended up not liking the a99 as a camera at all, although I had high hopes for it. I love the look and feel of it and I figured it would be the perfect blend for photos and stills. However, I must admit the 5D Mark III takes the crown there. It's the most balanced camera out of the a99 and D800. Shooting stills is smooth as butter and focusing is wonderful (compared to the D800) and switching to shooting video is seamless (compared to the a99). And the image quality is great as well, but that's a given. Again, all my opinion, but I thought this may help you make a decision.
Thrice - I plugged it straight into my TV, pointed the camera out a third floor window at buildings and trees and got similar results, the TV showed a 1080p signal coming in, but it still looked soft. I did get better detail when I had the 70-400 zoomed all the way out, but it was a far less detailed scene. I don't think it would be any different with an external recorder, but I may be wrong. I *almost* pulled the trigger on an recorder when I bought the A99 because its my intention to use it as my FS100 replacement, thankfully I didn't cough up the cash just yet since I don't know how this is going to play out.
jamiya - you can just flip the AF/MF switch on the side of the lens to toggle from AF to MF. There are some hoops to jump through to switch some modes, its no worse than the Nex so it wasn't something I noticed. Good to note though. If Nikon or Canon did 60p, I would have just returned the A99 and jumped ship again. That's a big reason why I'm holding out hope the camera I got was just crappy QC. I'm not optimistic though.
Thanks Chris and Benjamin for the links!
That Utah video is excellent. Was nice to re-live the walk up/through the "Subway"!
Could see the difference between the two cameras.
Hope your 2nd copy works better.
@Jamiya, just recently added the D800E, before that was only Canon shooter (1ds3,5D,7D,1d2N). The extra DR and clean shadows and the extra resolution are what I like over the Canon sensors right now. Canon has been using the same old 50nm process for sensors since 1ds3 and also have the inferior read noise compared to Sony. Hoping Canon can get there act together soon in the sensor dept. Glad the 5d3 has good AF, but my 1ds3 already had good AF and I always liked the 1ds3's colors better than the 5d2 but then no video. Still have a lot of Canon mount alt glass so I will wait for Canon's future hi end camera but enjoy the IQ of the D800E and Zeiss glass now.
I am not sure that either D800 variant really takes full advantage of the resolution reserves for video, i.e. they might both be soft due to the downsizing choices made in the algorithm. I haven't tried the D800E though, so I could also be wrong.
carstenw wrote:
Chris, I am not sure I didn't miss anything, but have you tried a better lens than the 70-400?
I have the 24-70z as well. Its far worse. Wide = soft video. I only mentioned the big zoom because when the scene isn't very detailed it can render sharp video. Shallow DOF shots look good. Its just deep DOF shot that look horrible.
Wat the heck, how did Sony screw up the video on this that badly? Don't they have d800s and 5d's in their engineering office to compare performance to?
FlyPenFly wrote:
Wat the heck, how did Sony screw up the video on this that badly? Don't they have d800s and 5d's in their engineering office to compare performance to?
They were probably fearful of cannibalizing their video cameras.
I did try one A99 at sony store last weekend! it surprisingly easy to do focus through its EVF. The lens I was used is 24-70 Zeiss f2.8. I am surprised to see that I can even focus at f2.8 without peaking.
Don't have time to fully figure out the setting, but during AF, inside the EVF, the focus illumination is very cool, blue, red, green LED color inside, like something from Sci-Fi. Cool but very disturbing. I am sure it should be able to turn off.
Wayne, how do you find the D800E's colour compares to the various Canon cameras you have recently used?
Well both Nikon and Canon have their different color footprint. Canon has the well known nuclear red problem in certain situations and the Nikon`s greens sometimes are not as good as Nikon`s.
Sunsets seem to be less vivid with D800e I think due to the larger DRe Nikon.
wayne seltzer wrote:
Well both Nikon and Canon have their different color footprint. Canon has the well known nuclear red problem in certain situations and the Nikon`s greens sometimes are not as good as Nikon`s.
Sunsets seem to be less vivid with D800e I think due to the larger DRe Nikon.
The nuclear reds play a large role in sunsets of course. When I switch from the camera standard to the neutral profile, my 5Dc's sunsets look much more realistic, but not as impressive anymore. Difficult to strike a nice balance between contrast/saturation and realism.
