So I've had my a74 for about a year now And when I first got this camera I was So hyped it has everything that I Possibly wanted a 33 megapixel sensor 4K Video and slow motion pretty much Exactly what I'm looking for but pretty Soon afterwards I started to realize This camera did have some pretty major Deal breakers but I did realize that one Of these deal breakers was actually a Huge Advantage for someone that's mainly A video shooter or a cinematographer and With newer and better cameras coming out I wasn't quite sure if the a74 was Actually worth getting so in this video Let's break down the good and the bad of The a74 and see if it's actually worth The hype also if you want to get the Best possible pricing on your a74 make Sure to check out the links in the Description down below alright guys Let's get right into it the a74 has that Sensor it's a 33 megapixel full frame Back illuminated sensor which has really Interesting properties in low lights Situation this is actually the highest Resolution sensor available in a Mid-range camera without jumping into Something ridiculously expensive like The Canon R5 or the Sony a7r5 and the Sensor itself is gorgeous it has a Fairly fast readout speed there is a Little bit of rolling shutter but not Enough for me to complain about and the
Autofocus itself is perfection autofocus Isn't always related to sensor quality But in this case I have to mention like The autofocus is just blah and I'm going To show you guys some samples in a Second in photo mode it shoots 10 frames Per second in 14 bit raw which looks Absolutely amazing and I actually do two Separate portrait shoots with this Camera to really put it through its Paces and the a74 looks amazing in jpeg Mode and I really recommend shooting on S cinetone to get the most cinematic Colors but when shooting in raw mode Which is 14 bit raw the colors look good But they're drastically different than What you get in the jpeg form I did Struggle to get the right skin tone in Some of my photos but I'm willing to Admit that I may not be the best photo Editor I really consider myself more of A video guy but the 14-bit Raw photos Have a ton of latitude a ton of light Information and whatever kind of photos You like to edit you can definitely get There with the robust power of that 14-bit raw and I was really impressed With the autofocus in photo mode one Thing that I love is that the a74 Actually has face and eye tracking Usually when you're doing close-up Portraits cameras usually mess up and Track to the nose or the ears or maybe The cheekbone and your eyes are never
Quite in Focus but with the a74 it's Really nice to know that it's always Going to find the face track to the eyes And every picture is tack sharp but this Was during the daytime because in low Light the a74 has a pretty different Story to tell now I purposely picked Really tricky low light conditions and Shot anywhere between 3200 ISO 12 1800 ISO in 20 000 ISO at twenty thousand ISO The Shadows are pretty noisy but that's To be expected and it's a really easy Fix just using the basic noise reduction In Lightroom and it's gone I personally Recommend shooting somewhere around 3200 ISO for the cleanest image and they're Just boosting your exposure in Lightroom And you'll get pretty decent results but The biggest thing that surprised me About the a74 was the autofocus in low Light every camera and I mean every Camera struggles with autofocus and low Light but the a74 Rock Solid did not Struggle at all like I was so impressed But when it comes to video It's a whole different story it's Honestly like not even the same camera And there's some Goods there's some bads So let's talk about the video when it Comes to video the a74 obviously shoots 4K but it actually has two separate 4K Modes that are very very different one It shoots 4K at 24 and 30 frames per Second which is Real Time video with no
Crops so you get that full full-frame Wide look which everybody likes and it's Actually down samples from the entire 33 Megapixel 7K image area so your 4K Really has the detail and Clarity of 7K And you might as well treat it like 7K Because when you zoom into these files Like even at 250 300 the detail doesn't Go away it stays sharp it stays crisp Because really it has 7K detail but the Best part about down sampling your image From 7K to 4K is that when it comes to Low light video shooting you actually Get a much cleaner image and there's Almost no noise the reason for that is When you take 7K worth of data put it Into 4K all of the noise and all the Signal conspiracy that you see gets Smaller and the 7K image overall is just So clean there's no noise there's no Grain just get a very crisp image and The autofocus is perfect even in low Light mode I can go from a far away wide Shot go all the way into a close-up on The face and the autofocus holds up Perfectly the only time I really see it Struggle is if I take my camera on Subject and off subject then on subject You see there's like a little bit of a Delay or if I move an object close to The camera while it's focusing on a face There's a little bit of a struggle there But overall it's honestly amazing and it Also shoots both 4K modes at 422 10 bit
Color with very high bit rate so if you Wanted to you could easily use this for Professional and Commercial work now You're probably wondering what is the The second 4K mode well when it comes to 4K at 60 frames per second the a74 Actually crops into its sensor so Instead of getting a full frame sensor Size you actually get super 35 which is About the size of 35 millimeter motion Film so in this 4K corrupt mode you can Shoot 24 30 and 60 frames per second now When you crop into your sensor a 99 of The cameras out there it completely Destroys your image because you're Throwing away half your sensor or you're Losing all your megapixels megapixels You're throwing away like more than half The megapixels half your sensor and it Just doesn't look good but because this Is a 33 megapixel sensor going into Super 35 crop mode you still get a Native 4K image and in my opinion there Is no quality loss at all and if you've Ever seen me talk about the a74 before On this channel I've always hated the 4K Crop mode because I hate the idea of Having a full frame look then cropping Into your sensor and then having to Reframe all your shots I still hate that But there's one thing that I did not Realize before I recently have been Shooting a lot more cinematic stuff I've Been using manual Cinema glass and I
Realized it would be really easy to put A PL mount on the a74 and use the 4K 60 Crop mode in this camera get a native 4K Image at 60 frames per second and Because this image looks so good it's Actually a benefit because with most Cameras that have a smaller sensor it's Not always possible to get the right Lenses with the Cinematic look but Because it's Sony camera I can put a PL Mount on there I can put an anamorphic Lens on there I have Tamron lenses I Have Sigma lenses you get way more Options with the Sony ecosystem so I Actually really like the 4K crop mode Now because it gives me such a wide Variety of lenses that only fit the Super 35 crop mode also before I forget You can also shoot the a74 at full HD at 24 30 or 60 frames per second 120 frames Per second for Ultra smooth slow motion And you can either do this at 422 10 bit Color using the dedicated slow motion Option or 422 8-bit using the regular Video mode and honestly 10-bit color Just looks better so use slow motion but On top of that you also have Cinema Profiles built in and usually log Profiles or Cinema profiles are kind of Hard to work with but Sony has actually Put several Cinema profiles so you can Choose the one that works best for you Depending on your experience with color Grading if you're a pro go with log log
Is the best I personally don't like to Use log I like to get I use cameras a Lot so for me I like to get most of my Colors in camera and then just do slight Color correction in post so I actually Really like s cinetone it's actually the Most cinematic color profile in my Opinion and you lose maybe like half a Stop or stop dynamic range but overall You get these really nice rich cinematic Colors right in camera and with that you Can simply throw a lot of on and get Great colors alright now I know we've Talked a lot about the sensor in the a74 But one feature that I usually find goes Unnoticed or just gets forgotten about Nda74 is the insane in body Stabilization but not only does it have Really good body stabilization because I Can hold this camera it's fairly Light Walk around with it and I don't get Jittery or like shaky footage and my Lens also does not have any kind of Stabilization in it but on top of the Ibis you also have a gyroscope built Right into the camera and using Sony's Dedicated Catalyst browse software you Can actually further stabilize the Footage to get near not perfect but near Gimbal like results and knowing that I Have this feature I never bring out my Gimbal with this camera anymore I just Shoot everything handheld get those Smooth shots and I know I'm just going
To be able to stabilize it later on the One downside to using the gyroscope Stabilization is that there is a slight Crop on your image depending on how how Much needs to be stabilized but overall I don't see a huge loss in quality and I Think it's a really good mode to use we Haven't talked about the actual camera Body itself because generally for this Kind of camera I feel like design is Like the last thing on people's mind They want to know what the photos and Videos look like when it comes to this Camera and has the nice deep grip robust Feel in your hands but that's kind of Like expected from such an expensive Camera what I do like about the a74 is The fact that it has four separate Custom buttons so I can simply use one Button to flip between different Cinema Profiles flip between different crop Modes whatever fits your workflow and on Top of that it also has two custom Buttons on the mode itself so you can go Between two custom profiles on your mode Dial one thing that I actually hate About the a74 is that right underneath The mode dial there's a toggle to go Between photo video and slow motion in Theory this is a great idea but the Button itself has like a lock on it so You have to push into the button and Then turn it around making the button Just kind of awkward and stiff to use
And usually I kind of scrape my finger I Don't like the way this button set up it Would have been much better on the other Side of the camera without a lock on it Where you can just switch between photo Video slow motion and just like a simple Click would have been way faster and It's kind of an annoying feature on this Camera I I have to say though my Favorite thing about the a74 and really Every Sony camera is the lens mount the Lens mount is so flexible you can use Third-party lenses from Sigma and Tamron Sony makes every kind of lens you could Want they're making like a new lens Every two weeks you can use anamorphica Lenses sorry makes really good ones and Just overall I feel like you get a way Better variety of lenses in the Sony Ecosystem because honestly they could Give you like a hundred megapixel camera But if I don't have the right lenses It's not really much good and I usually Find when it comes to most companies Like Canon Hasselblad Leica you can only Use their lenses with their camera Giving you less options giving you less Flexibility with the amount of money you Want to spend on your system and I love The fact that Sony's pushing the Hardware both in terms of the sensors But also the lenses I love you Sony I give the a74 like a 9.8 out of 10. it's only real flaw is
The fact that it crops in at 4K 60 and The Really stiff Photo Video in slow Motion toggle other than that it's an Amazing camera and I really recommend Picking one up and if you want to make Sure you get the best possible price on Your a74 make sure to check out the Links in the description down below and I will see you in the next video Peace is about too much
