Welcome back to bbtv viewers it is Chris Nichols here and we are out on a balmy Winter day it's really quite Pleasant uh The cold weather is disappearing much Like our show for DP Review TV but the Show does have to go on and so today we Are looking at a preview of the brand New Sony zve E1 this is Sony's first Attempt at a full frame Vlog style Camera so where is the camera while Jordan is filming me on it right now so You can have lots of footage to watch Lots of samples we haven't had a ton of Time with this camera so we're just Gonna preview the main features the new Stuff which we find really interesting And I think it's also important to start Off with just saying that Sony is not Marketing this camera as a hybrid photo Video camera they're really pushing it Towards the video aspect so let's talk About the limited photographic Capabilities first so you can notice the Camera's tracking me really nicely right Now because this has the same Auto Focusing algorithms that we have in the Advanced Sony a7r5 and that's very Positive I mean this camera for Photography focuses just fine but it is The Sony Ace 7s3 sensor 12 megapixels For series photographers that might not Be enough but for vloggers and Instagram Social media use it's perfect no wait I Know I just said 12 megapixels and
You're really screaming right now like Oh Chris it's actually a 48 megapixel Quad Bayer sensor which outputs an Effective 12 megapixel through pixel Bidding or we could just get to 12 Megapixels now as far as capabilities go The first thing I found jarring no Mechanical shutter just electronic Shutter only now thankfully this sensor Reads out fairly quickly but you'll Still see rolling shutter rear its ugly Head in some of your photos the other Thing of course no evf I'm just shooting Off the LCD back panel and although that Is doable it is far from ideal when you Want a strict photographic experience Now Sony do say this camera is their Lightest and most compact full-frame Camera with an Ibis system in it and it Does indeed have Ibis which is nice not Their most advanced unit five stop Stabilization but still absolutely Welcome to have here and it is light 483 Grams I mean that's less than a quarter Of a knock it feels very much like a Sony a6000 in fact it handles very much Like a Sony a6000 dual control structure But it's the Dual dials where you've got One on the top one on the back but they Both have to be operated with your thumb It's not the most ideal setup but Frankly Sony's marketing this more Towards people using the touch screen Anyways we are going to talk about how
They've changed that because I just is Quite interesting overall though we have A camera which handles well has a Slightly larger grip than an a6000 that Lets you fit a Z-Type battery and that Is a big benefit to battery life now the Sony zv cameras have always had features To make it a little bit easier for People just starting out in photography To get a handle on more advanced control So for example background defocus has Been a feature we've seen on other zv Cameras rather than understand how Aperture works you can simply use the Background defocus to either have your Subject in Focus everything else a soft Blur or everything in focus for example But now they've improved that to go to a My image style function where you get Four features that you can customize Without knowing all the photographic Terms so you've got background defocus You've also got brightness which would Take over instead of exposure Compensation you've got color which will Cover things like white balance and then You've got creative style where you can Get creative and just kind of change the Overall look you know change different Filters and things like that I do feel Though a lot of people buying this Camera are going to probably either Graduate from that quickly or already be Well past that point we do like that on
This camera you've got full control of Your exposure settings right off the Touch screen really handy because it's Silent it's also nice when you're Vlogging you can simply touch the screen Another interesting feature that they've Just added is a new cinematic Vlog mode And actually Jordan's using that right Now you may have noticed the actual Frame has changed on me we're now in a Two three five to one very old-school Cinematic kind of scope look and it's Also locking your frame rate at 24 Frames per second which is very Interesting you know that doesn't bother Us because we shoot our show at 24 but If you'd like to shoot 30 or 60 just Keep in mind this is 24 and I think it's All meant to make things look very Classic Cinema but we have some Additional features here that are Interesting so the first category I Would say is the overall contrast of Your image you've got classic cinetone Which we really like I mean that's our Favorite profile that Sony makes for General work but you also have a clean a Chic and a fresh look and you can see How that changes the overall just you Know feeling of the video beyond that Then you've got another setting which is For more of your color you've got Auto Which looks like it just balances the Color appropriately but then you've got
Ocean you've got Forest you've got gold I mean these are things which actually Imply an overall color balance shift in Your video to really change the mood and Feel you also have an autofocus Transition speed adjustment which is Nice because if I want to pull from one Subject up close to Something in the Background I can change to a very slow Dramatic push or a very quick Snappy Push and that can actually have a very Strong impact on the feeling of your Overall video these are all ways of Getting that cinematic look so this Camera has these interesting features Which should be really fun for you know Somebody wants to take a more simplistic Approach to videos start to get Interesting color interesting looks and I think that's great but for more Advanced use you might start to find That what this camera actually does a Lot is crop this camera likes to crop We're gonna talk it just it's cropping Everywhere so even this is a good Example going to the Cinematic Vlog mode You know we're already at 16×9 barely at 4K with this sensor but all we're doing Here to get that scope look is just let Box in the top and bottom we're just Filling it with black chopping it off And so that's the first part of our crop But it gets worse Okay Vlog time I'm in full auto here I'm
Using the built-in microphones because Why not even we've got a perfectly good Lab on I'm using the 28 to 60 kit lens At 28 mil but most importantly I want to Also show you how the stabilizer is Working so right now I'm using the Standard stabilizer at arm's length you Can see a little bit of balancing there But now I'm going to cut it's a little Bit jarring but I want to show you the Next stage which is active stabilization Now this is going to be a little bit More stable but you may notice that our Crop is just a little bit tighter active Stabilizer crops in slightly to give you A little bit of extra Edge as far as Stability goes unfortunately it means That we're not getting true 4K the Camera is going to interpolate that back Up but it's a pretty minor hit I think It's also important to point out that in This mode the camera does store the Gyroscope movement data here so if you Use software like Catalyst afterwards You can get even better stabilization Post if you want to do it that way okay You're good I don't need you to hit the Record button anyway okay okay so he's Running off clearly so now we're in the Dynamic active stabilizer you can see The crop is very heavy is is my hair Even still in the shot I doubt it Honestly at 28 millimeter lens like this I think this is basically unusable yes
It's stable but again remember we're Cropping heavily into the file it's Upresing it back to 4K we're gonna hurt That image quality at least if we had a Higher megapixel sensor to start with We'd still get the same annoying too Tight crop factor but we wouldn't Necessarily have to interpolate to 4K And lose that image quality all right It's Jordan Drake here behind the camera Recording this lovely video of a park Bench talk about the microphones it's The same three capsule system that we've Seen previously on other zv cameras but Now you can manually select you want it To prioritize in front of the camera Behind the camera or everything around It but now we've got the new automatic Mode this is actually mode it's great Because if I sit here in front of the Camera to text me the more important Presenter and then very intelligently Prioritizes that we should really be Listening to me talking so yeah that's How it works Jordan so now it's probably Honing in on my voice because it's a Smart smart camera I guess so now I want To talk about a really interesting Feature called the auto framing feature Now this is really handy if you don't Have anybody to help you out and you Want the camera to track you as a frame So right now Jordan's going to tap on me And it will actually go down to the
Tightest crop right on my face and as I Move around it should follow me really Handy and Jordan's not zooming or Anything like that I can go further away I can walk towards the camera and it Just keeps me in the frame and this is Really interesting is you've got a small Frame like we're using right now more of A medium sized frame or than a really Large frame and also Jordan can cancel The tracking and it's actually then Automatically return to our standard Original frame now this is really cool Because it lets you set up some very Interesting shots on a tripod and you Can also do things like have the crop Show up on the video that's recorded to The SD card but if you have an external Recorder that could stay uncropped so You could always have multi-cam shots or Decide how much of a crop you want after The fact it is a really interesting Feature regardless though let's remember That this is Cropping quite heavily into the frame And as we've talked about already it's Already 4K at the largest view if we do Any cropping we're immediately losing Resolution Uprising in a huge way and Our video is going to look terrible Anyways it's cropping again but it is a Really handy little feature all right It's Jordan here in front of the camera Now to talk about the sensor on the zve
E1 and Chris has already banged into Your head yes it is a low resolution Sensor and this can be a real problem if You're using any of those new modes that Require a heavy crop but let's remember One of the big advantages of this sensor In the a7s III the fx3 fx6 it reads out Very very quickly and one of my biggest Problems with the zv1f the zve E10 is They had terrible rolling shutter that Looks awful when you're vlogging when You're carrying the camera and walking Around the Jello effect was just Atrocious on those where here it is Actually quite well controlled the other Benefit to this sensor is it's getting You full width readout at 4K up to 60 Frames per second now I don't want to be A conspiracy accuracy nut or anything Like that but I do have my suspicions About one thing here this camera is Going to be able to advertise no crop 4k On the box but eventually through Firmware it is going to get 4k 120 this Is using the same sensor as the A7 S3 so That means there will be a crop when we Use that same deal with the 1080 240 Recording that is also going to come Later in a firmware update just be aware Those there are going to be a bit of a Crop on it now I'm a professional I'm Not going to do an overheating test on a Pre-production camera but I'm a little Concerned that Sony's materials say that
We're going to get 30 minutes of Recording in 4k 60 and doesn't specify For any of the lower frame rate 4K modes I mean if you need to record very long Clips or in a hot environment then it's Probably going to be worth spending the Extra money on an fx3 but this is Definitely something we're going to test When we get a production model just on a Different Channel Okay so let's conclude our little Preview here and you know what I have to Admit I think I've been way too harsh on This Sony zve1 here because yes it does Crop a lot into these 4K modes and I Stand by the fact that the quality is Going to go down but we also have to Look at it uh with a different Perspective and put into context for how We're going to actually use this content You know be able to set up the camera on A tripod and have it frame you and Follow you automatically uh you know Doing things like active Dynamic Stabilization when you're vlogging with An appropriately wide enough lens now Not to go back over the cropping again But really the fact of the matter is Sony is bundling this camera as a kit With the 28 to 60 kit lens which came With the Sony a7c perfectly fine lens But I just feel that 28 mils just not Wide enough especially if you want to Vlog so I do wish Sony actually made a
Bundle with the 20 to 70 F4 I think that Lens would be fantastic on this body and Maybe they will in the future if not Maybe it is worth just getting the body And get in that lens separately you know Having the capability to do cinematic Vlogging and give your video you know Instant grades and just different feels And moods I think that's all positive Stuff and when used for the social media Applications that these are largely Going to be used for I feel like the 4K Resolution isn't really necessary this Is where we're going to probably be Shooting a lot in 1080 or even if we Shoot in 4k we're not really going to See the problems with upresing the 4K in Social media and so I think largely You're going to get away with it and Then if you do want to focus more on Commercial applications or maybe you're Not going to use things like the dynamic Stabilizer very often the auto framing Well then you're getting a relatively Affordable camera that still gives you 4K 60 with minimal rolling shutter a Fairly fast reading sensor and that's a Really good thing and I think you know For where this target audience this Camera's aimed at they've done a really Good job because if you're the kind of Person that says okay I know I'm going To need longer record times before it Overheats or I know that I'm going to
Want to be able to record raw video out Of the HDMI port you know stuff like That well then you already probably know That you're looking at something like Maybe a Sony fx3 instead or an fx6 even So really I think where this camera is Aimed it's very smart art I think it's Actually do very well so hopefully you Guys enjoyed this little preview Remember we are going to look at this Camera again very likely when we go to Our new channel at petapixel so if you Haven't already subscribe to that Channel follow us there and the show Will continue going forward otherwise if You have any comments below definitely Do leave those thank you so much uh We'll see you guys soon for uh one more Episode Oh no wait there's more than one episode There's still a bunch coming don't worry The show's still gonna there's more stay Tuned okay we'll see [Music]
