New Sony NEX-EA50EH Announcement

[Steven Digges]

Hey Guys,
My EA50 is supposed to be here Tuesday, it IS enroot. I also wanted a new on camera light for it. I still use a ton of Lowell lights and a Coolux Tri-Light. Yes, I here you all giggle and squint as the hot spot hits you squarely between the eyes! But really, I do light interviews very well with my Lowell kits :)

My fly-away kits must get lighter so for my first LED experience I chose a VL312. I bought from Taky at L.A. Color, a DVINFO sponsor and I hear they have great customer service.

“VL312LED is a high power bi-color (3200K to 5600K) LED light in a 60 degree beam spread. With its variable color temperature and dimmable brightness output, VL312LED is a flexible and portable LED light either for on-camera or off-camera use. It is also suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. Two rotary knobs control the variable color temperature between 3200K to 5600K, and 10%-100% brightness”.

It is big for on camera, but that is will be OK, IF it does not vignette the corners (don’t know yet). And bright enough to mount on a stand, I hope. Picking a light to sit on the EA50 was tough. There are so many to choose from and many different feature sets.

But anyway, I am going to babble again. Since I was researching a new camera purchase the first thing I did was return to DVINFO after a hiatus in posting for several years. This site is where and how I decided on the EA50 because of all the great information here. To be quite honest, I have been in this business for so many years (since 1987, stills then video) I do not share the same level of excitement some of you guys have over new gear. They are tools to me, and first and foremost they must have a ROI. I love my work, the industry has been good to me. But coming here again and reading about everyone’s enthusiasm is also good for me, it is infectious and I need to be infected again. I am hoping the new EA50 will get me out to shoot something “just for fun again”. I am the guy that takes 50 pounds of gear on vacation and never opens the bag. Or when I did, my footage from last year’s 10 day RV vacation has never been looked at or touched.

I am explaining this to say thank you to Chris, Don, Noa, and a bunch of you other guys that have informed me and shared your enthusiasm with me. Maybe when the EA50 gets here I can shoot something fun and difficult for you, so that I can make a worthwhile post and you can see some footage from the camera. That fun and difficult shoot…..my chocolate Labrador Retriever, Maggie. It won’t pay well but it will beat shooting another famous physician talking about dissecting livers!

I hope I am not out of line by varying from the specifics of the topic with my wordy posts.

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

The more we share the more we find and and get to grips with. Glad yours is in transit and hopefully it won't be in transit as long as mine has!!

Noa, of course I'm insanely jealous as you get to play and I don't! On the other hand we have magnificent weather today!! Nothing but blue skies. I'll be shooting my wedding today using the Panasonics only.

Nice to know that the image at 30db still looks acceptable too!! Once your weather clears up a bit go out and shoot and let's see some footage? I'll comment on the zoom etc etc once I have a camera to comment with!

Chris

[Noa Put]

the 30db test wasn't anything scientific, it did look good enough to me but I"d like to compare it with my cx730 and 550d to see how it holds up, I need to film in a situation I have to work in, like a darker venue but that's not possible the following months.

I only plan to post some more "serious" stuff and not just some handheld shots chasing my cats and dogs at home, we have a abandoned casino nearby my place of which I did a video in 2009 with my xh-a1, I might go there tomorrow if it continues to rain. It actually is not allowed to enter and it's kinda spooky, and not to mention dangerous, but it's a great location to shoot and good place to test dynamic range, low light, moire issues and so on and it's walking distance from my place.

Here's a low quality sample, it seems the original owner of the buidling ripped it from my blog a few years ago and posted it on youtube as I just found it by googling about the casino :)

Casino Mol-Gompel, Owenslei 6, BELGIUM - YouTube

[Steven Digges]

I loved the video! Not allowed, dangerous, and spooky.....I am there.... I would have a blast shooting in there with you. We could test both cameras and my new 312 light. That is the kind of fun I was talking about putting back into my shooting!

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Good place for a horror movie or a crime movie..I was already expecting a dead body to appear.

Now I'm assuming that was the Canon footage..It will be nice to see what the Sony does especially with the red brick walls. I have plenty of Churches here that have patterned brick walls so that will test the moire quite well.

If your rain stops of course??

Chris

[Ron Evans]

I will be interested to see how it compares with your CX730 as my CX700 is better in really low light than my NX5U. Something like the performance of the CX700 with the controls of the NX5U as well as spot focus would be great.

Ron Evans

[Don Bloom]

Steven, not to go OT here but I have one of the 312 lights (not from Taky but Amazon) and I agree it is a big light but I really really like it alot. It can run either 2 Sony type (I use off brand 770s and it runs for hours) or a Bescor 50w NiMH that I have never been able to run down with this light. The only thing I did to the light was to tape a piece of ToughSpun over the diffusion lens to help soften it up a bit. I felt it was a bit harsh without it but thats me. Big light, nice spread and even throw with it though. A good investment IMO.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Now I'm assuming that was the Canon footage..It will be nice to see what the Sony does especially with the red brick walls.

It was the xh-a1 but the low quality on youtube doesn't do the footage any justice, the brick walls are indeed a great test for moire and aliasing, I"m not sure if I can get in because a lot has changed, there are gates now surrounding the building and there is a lot of wild plants making it difficult to pass but there is always a way in. It has been raining almost constantly here for a while and the roof in that casino is full of holes so I expect a lot of water inside. Currently is heavily clouded, a bit misty but no rain so far.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

That is the kind of fun I was talking about putting back into my shooting!

It's been a busy year last year for me and then I don't have time for personal projects, at the end of the wedding season I"m kinda fed up with editing weddings because that's almost all I see and do for 9 months per year, at the end of the wedding season I just want to do something for fun with no obligations or deadlines whatsoever. It's something I need as well to enjoy shooting and when the wedding season starts again my batteries have been charged. :)

[Joris Rens]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

ps. I"m often in Heusden-Zolder which is just a 20 min drive for you, if you want to check out the camera just give me a sign if you want to drop by.

That would be great! I'm ready to order the ea50 next week, but it would be fantastic if I could see it first. And as a beginner videographer, meeting a pro is always a good idea :-). Let's see how the pm works in here...

[Jody Arnott]

I had a quick play with the EA50 today, just a few things I noticed that may/may not be of interest:

- I found it pretty difficult to get an accurate focus using the viewfinder. The LCD is good without the viewfinder attachment on, but once it is attached and the LCD is magnified, it's extremely pixilated and I found it quite distracting.

- Servo zoom is quite loud. I think this has been mentioned before.

- It's heavier than I thought. But I'm coming from an XA10 so I have no muscles to speak of :P

Anything else anyone wants to know?

[Noa Put]

I found it pretty difficult to get an accurate focus using the viewfinder. The LCD is good without the viewfinder attachment on, but once it is attached and the LCD is magnified, it's extremely pixilated and I found it quite distracting.

Do you mean that it gets pixelated if you attach the loupe and use the focus aid and magnify the screen 4 or 8 times?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Jody

I have no issues with my LCD but unless you are using 8X expanded the LCD is over 1 million dots so you shouldn't have any issues at all. With the loupe on (I think it's around 3X ) the screen should still be super sharp. (My Pannys have 230,00 dots so they appear pixellated a bit) Why not try focus peaking ..that's very accurate too.

Shucks you certainly are looking for a lightweight...My Panasonics are 3.2kg each try carrying those around!! The Ea-50 is light as a feather to me...anything lighter and you lose stability .... we are looking at adding weight at the back to balance the camera better. I certainly wouldn't want a camera under 1.5kg anyway ..if you need that then the tiny XA10 is worth going for but it's not my idea of a decent feel camera.

I have no issue with noise even using the shotgun mic..it is a bit noisy but only if you use the internal mics which you never should anyway!

Chris