(upbeat music)
- What's up guys, Saf here on SuperSaf TV
and we've got here the
brand new Sony ZV-1 or ZV-1,
depending on where you're from.
This is the brand new
compact camera from Sony,
which is made for vlogging.
This is completely
targeted towards vloggers.
I also have here the Sony shooting grip
with a wireless remote commander.
I'm not even going to, GP...
Yeah, that's too much of a long name.
But anyway, this is sold separately.
Let's get these unboxed, look
at some of the key features
and then we'll go out do lots of tests.
I'll give you my thoughts.
I'll try to leave some
timestamps down below.
So as you can see from
all of the branding,
it's all about vlogging.
Let's have a look at the camera.
Some of the key features here in the box.
So you've got 4k HDR, it's a
one-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor
which has a 20.1 megapixel resolution,
we've got a 24 to 70 focal length
with an F1.8 to 2.8 aperture.
So that is quite a wide
aperture, should give you
some nice depth of field.
Face detection autofocus
with 315AF points.
Real-time Eye AF, now this
is really good autofocus
which tracks your eyes,
I'm not sure how well it will do with me
because I'm always wearing sunglasses.
Face appeal, which prioritizes your face
over the background.
Focus which you don't really need to know
about aperture settings
and things like that.
You can just put that on if
you want a blurry background.
That's interesting.
Clear voice recording and
there is a microphone jack.
Amazing, so that way you
can plug in an external mic
if you want to.
So here's everything that
you get inside the box.
There's of course the camera itself,
we've got some people work,
there's an NP-BX1 type battery.
Now as far as I'm aware,
this is the same battery that's used
on a lot of the other RX 100 models.
So if you do have one of those,
then you're going to be able to use
those batteries along with this.
Then we've got this little Windjammer
which is going to connect
onto the hot shoe,
and it's going to actually
cover the mic that's on this
and that should heavily
reduce any sort of wind noise.
And here is the camera.
So size wise, it does look
quite similar to the RX 100 line
but this is not the
continuation of the RX100 line.
This is something completely different
because there are some big changes.
The first of which is the display.
It's a full, swivel out rotating display
and it comes out to the
side, not the top, finally.
(intense music)
Now, having the display
coming up to the side
is so much more convenient,
it just frees up that
space here on the top.
So now you know you can
have this Windjammer
without it affecting the display,
it's going to be completely
over to the side.
And also if you want to shoot vertically
which is something that a lot
of people are doing these days
with the likes of TikTok, IG stories,
so this is actually going to
make it a lot more practical
having the display pop up onto the side
rather than on the top.
Taking a quick look around,
you can see some of the buttons on here,
there is that dedicated bokeh mode
which is the C1 switch.
We've got the hot shoe here
over on the left and then we've
got the main mic area here.
So for instance, if we did want to put on
this little Windjammer accessory,
that's going to now cover that mic
and it's going to prevent
all of that wind noise
which is generally quite a
bit of problem here in the UK.
Now, we've got a few
buttons and dials here.
I'm not going to go through
every single one of these.
What I do notice is this thumb grip
as well as this grip here at the front.
So this is going to
make this easier to hold
if you're not using it with a tripod
or a gorilla pod or whatever it is.
That's really nice touch.
Now, on the right hand side,
we've got all the ports.
So as mentioned, we do have a mic in.
So you're going to be able to connect
an external mic onto here, which is great.
There's a micro HDMI port here,
as well as a micro USB port.
I was really hoping for USB
type C, I mean, still micro USB.
Yeah, that's something
that I would have liked.
I would have liked to
have seen USB type C.
There's a part here for your lanyard.
We've got the battery compartment
as well as the full size SD
card slot here at the bottom.
And there is obviously the 1/4 inch mount
if you want to put this
onto a tripod or something.
And speaking of tripod or something,
we've got the shooting grip.
So let's also check this out.
This is sold separately, but
it is supposed to be something
that goes very nicely along with the ZV-1.
So you get the actual grip itself
and a case for it as well as a battery.
So this is a CR2032 battery,
and we can easily connect
this on to the ZV-1
so it gives us a proper grip for vlogging.
Recording yourself also gives
some more distance between
the camera and yourself
if you want to get a bit
more of the background
into the shots.
Very simple and self explanatory.
It also has some legs.
So if you did want to
mount this somewhere,
and then you know maybe
you get a time lapse
or something, Casey Neistat style,
then you can just go ahead
and drop this somewhere,
and that's going to be
quite useful as well.
Then once you've paired
the grip with the camera,
you can use some of these buttons.
It's just going to make
it a little bit easier.
So you've got a Photo button,
you got a Movie button.
There's the zoom buttons
here as well as a C1
and a lock switch.
So, you know, if you are vlogging
and you want to start recording,
you're not going to have
to reach over each time,
you can just press the
Record Movie button.
Right now that this is all set up,
let's go ahead and take it outside
and give it a proper test.
Right, so now we're outdoors,
and it's so so windy.
Currently using the standard mic
that's on the camera,
nothing, no attachments.
And this is what the sound quality is like
when there's a lot of wind.
But of course we do have
this little windshield
that we can connect on to the hot shoe.
And now let's see what the,
let's hear what the audio
is going to be like.
There's still a lot of wind.
Wow, that's a lot of wind.
(wind whirling)
But let me know what you
think of the difference
with the windshield.
I'm going to leave this on
for the most part of this video.
(wind whirling)
Now, one of the things I want
to try is the bokeh mode.
So I want to just tap that button and now
should get more of a blurry background.
Of course distance also has a part to play
when you want more of a
shallow depth of field
so we do have a decent amount of distance
here in the background.
(wind whirling)
I don't know what's going on there,
seems to be some beef.
(birds chirping)
(wind whirling)
Right, what I've done now
is I've got the boke mode on
but I've actually switched
on the built in ND filter
because it is a very, very bright day.
There's a lot of sunlight.
So in order to be able to
get that open wide aperture,
you'd have to increase the shutter speed
quite significantly, but right now,
the shutter speed is not too high.
This way we should be getting
a nice blurry background.
Now, we do have steady shot,
so right now it is not switched on.
It's going to walk down this pathway.
Now we do have steady shot on.
This is standard steady shot.
And now we are on active steady shot.
I mean I can already see that the footage
looks very, very stable.
Right back in the car now,
it's so so windy today.
Probably a good time to test the audio,
but a bad time to test anything else
because like, oh, my eyes are watering,
my ears are hurting, it's crazy.
But anyway, I thought
we'd talk a little bit
about the autofocus.
So we do have the all eye autofocus.
Now obviously I've been
wearing sunglasses,
but from what I can see,
it's actually been doing a
pretty good job regardless.
However, if I do take my sunglasses off,
then I can see a square that's on my eye.
So if I do move around, it's
actually tracking the eye.
Now this works with humans and animals.
Now I tend to wear sunglasses.
The reason being is because the
screen is off onto the side,
even if it was above,
then I'd be looking at
the screen when talking.
And this is one of the very
classic Casey Neistat hacks
where if you've got sunglasses
on and you're vlogging,
then that way, you don't
necessarily, you know, kind of lose
that connection with your audience
and you're not kind of
off looking to the side.
But as mentioned, the autofocus
does seem to be pretty good
because it's still got
a square around my face
is still recognizing
that this is the face.
So although it might not be
the precise or layout of focus
that you've got when you know,
actually it's still picking up.
It is picking up my eye
even through my sunglasses.
So that's pretty impressive.
So, yeah, the autofocus,
as far as I can see,
it looks really really good.
You can film in S-Log2 so
you can record like this
and then you can grade the
footage after the fact.
So that's a really nice option to have.
Although it was pretty
buried within the settings,
I think it's picture profile seven,
which I had to follow YouTube's
tool to actually find.
So I wish it was a little
bit easier to access.
But nevertheless, it is here.
Right, so now we are indoors
in controlled lighting,
there's a few things
that I wanted to test.
So right now I am in manual,
I am controlling the shutter speed
because the lighting is not
going to be changing here.
We don't have any stabilization
on so we do have a bit
of a wider angle of view.
And the first thing I wanted to test
was the external mic capability.
So right now we are recording
with the standard mic.
There is no windshield on
and I'm going to now plug in
the rode, wireless rode mic
sets up that I do have here
with a smartLav+ I think it's called.
Right, so now what you're listening to
is the Rode Wireless GO setup.
So this is now connected to the smartlav+,
and that's connected into the camera.
So that way you can hear what
the sound difference is like
if you were to use an external mic.
And we also have the product
showcase mode enabled.
This is something that
Sony has implemented
and it's targeted towards
those type of video creators.
You know, I see a lot
of beauty video creators
doing this as well,
or, you know, maybe for
an unboxing a product,
they hold up products to the camera.
And a lot of the times
what they need to do
to be able to have it to focus
is kind of put that there
and then put their hand behind something
to be able to catch that.
But this mode is supposed
to quickly lock on to focus
as soon as you bring objects.
So I've got a bunch of objects here,
and I'm going to just
put them close and away,
so should be back on me now.
And then back to whatever I'm putting
in front of the camera.
So let's see.
Here you go.
Back and to me, we'll say
I'm talking about this chip.
And then I put it close to the camera
and then I can put it back.
Say I'm talking about this smartphone.
I can just put that forward.
You can see that smartphone,
I can be talking about the cameras,
and then I can pull it back.
Seems to be working pretty well.
Here's a box.
There we go, back again to me.
Right guys, so after using
this for about a week or so,
what are my thoughts?
Well, I have to say this is
an amazing vlogging camera.
I can definitely recommend it.
Having that flip out
display on the side makes
a massive, massive difference.
I'm so glad Sony have
finally gone with this
instead of the flip up display.
And I don't know if it
was a case of patents
or licensing fees or whatever.
But regardless, it's
here, I really hope Sony
will now get these side
flip out swivel displays.
For some of their other lines,
I use the a7 III right now a lot.
And that's something I
really do miss having.
Now you saw some of the sample
footage, and in my opinion,
it's really really good,
great quality video
that you're getting out of this camera.
I really liked the shallow depth of field
that you're getting on
something the size of this,
it is F1.8 and having that
bokeh button right here,
the C1 button just makes it
so much easy to activate that,
you don't really need to be
too technical or anything,
you can just switch that on,
and it's going to give you
that nice blurry background.
I actually didn't know that
this has an ND filter built in as well.
The best way to describe it
is sunglasses for your camera.
So if you are out and
it's very, very bright,
you still want that
shallow depth of field,
you want that blurry background,
then putting on the ND filter.
Again really, really good,
and I'm so glad that it's here.
Autofocus is absolutely amazing,
how quick it was to focus in,
it was tracking my eye pretty well, too.
But regardless, it's
tracking my face really well.
So focus is so, so good.
And that product showcase mode.
I mean, I'm not sure why nobody else
has thought of this before
or if it wasn't achievable,
but if you're somebody
who does lots of product
showcase shots, you know,
where you need to put things up
to the camera, then, you know,
I've seen it so many times,
I'm sure everybody's seen it,
where people have to kind
of put their hand behind.
That is the thing of the past,
I was so impressed with
how well this focused
in to the objects that I was
holding close to the camera,
and then focusing back to me
as soon as I moved those away.
Very, very good.
Stabilization really, really good.
Of course, stabilization
is very important.
If you're going to be vlogging,
you're going to be moving around a lot.
And active steady shot
does a really good job.
One thing to bear in mind however,
is that when you do have
active steady shots enabled,
then it does crop in to the frame.
Now it's completely
understandable why this does this
because this uses hardware
as well as software
to provide that stabilization.
But the thing is, if you
are holding this handheld,
then it is going to be
pretty tight on your face.
And generally when you
want to be vlogging,
you do want a wider angle of view
so you get bit more of
the background in too.
And for that reason, I would
definitely recommend picking up
a gorilla pod or a grip,
maybe this Sony grip as well.
The Sony grip, however,
is around 170 pounds.
So that is pretty expensive.
Now this is a really good grip,
you do have these controls,
which are really useful and handy,
does give you that separation as well.
I really like that.
And although I did find myself
accidentally pressing a lot
these buttons on this grip,
you do have a lock switch.
So that is quite handy and useful.
But you don't necessarily
have to buy this,
you could get a cheap
gorilla pod or something,
something that's basically
going to give you
a little bit more separation
from the camera lens
to your face.
So I would definitely recommend that.
Now touching on audio,
I have to say that the audio
quality was really good,
very usable, especially
using this windshield.
So if you do have windy conditions,
then this is going to be really useful.
As you heard from the examples earlier on,
you could hear me clearly even though
there was a lot of wind in the background.
Now of course you are going
to get better audio quality
if you do use an external mic.
And as we saw from the example of me
using the Rode wireless kit,
it just made the audio that much better.
So if you are serious about your audio,
then I would advise getting
a separate mic or something,
maybe something that you can mount on
to the hot shoe as well will be an option.
Now let's not forget that
this is also a stills camera
and not just the video camera
so you can get some really
excellent stills on here too.
Once again, that's wide
open aperture gives you
a really nice depth of field
and that's very impressive considering
the small size of this camera.
So that was a lot of the positives.
But of course there are
some negatives as well.
Speaking of the button
layout and controls,
I do like that we now have a record button
for video separate to the stills button.
That is here at the top,
so it's easier to access
rather than being
somewhere here at the back,
so that's quite nice.
However, I did find that
switching modes was not as easy
as I'm used to, there is an extra step.
You do have to press this Mode button
and then you have this digital dial
that you can scroll through to
select your different modes.
I'm used to having a physical dial
which I can just switch
on other Sony cameras,
not a deal breaker by any
means but just something
that I think that I should mention.
And the battery life,
the battery life I found was not great.
It is using a pretty small battery.
I'm assuming Sony have done this
because it's the same
battery on other models.
And if you're coming from one of those,
you're still going to be
able to use your batteries
which is great, but I do wish
this had a bigger battery.
Now in terms of my use, I
do film in 4K, and you know,
I did have Bluetooth enabled
so it could connect to the grid
and I was starting and
stopping quite a bit,
I wasn't reviewing every
single shot that I took.
And with that kind of usage,
I got around 20 to 30 minutes
of recorded footage before
the battery flatted out
over a couple of days.
So to me that's not great battery life.
And if you're thinking of getting this,
I would definitely recommend picking up
a couple of spare batteries,
having those charged to hand
so you can easily just
pop them in when needed.
The other thing that I
don't like is the fact
that we still have micro USB.
So when it does come to
charging the batteries, yes,
if you've got a separate
charger, that's fine.
But if you are charging
via the camera directly
then you're going to have
to have a micro USB cable.
I mean it's 2020, all my devices right now
have a USB Type C.
So I would have liked USB Type C,
micro USB really should
be extinct in 2020.
Another thing is that if
you do have this mounted
on a tripod or even the grip,
then you no longer have access
to the battery and SD card compartment.
So what that does mean is
that even if you have a plate
on here and you need to
quickly change your battery,
you're going to have to remove that plate
that will be going into tripod
before you can get access to the battery.
And as mentioned, you
will be doing this a lot,
maybe not to change the memory card
but to change the batteries.
So if this 1/4 inch pin
was in the middle or more
towards this side, then that
would make life a lot easier.
Now having said that, I still
really liked this camera.
And if you're after a
vlogging camera in particular,
I think this is probably one
of the best options out there.
For pricing, it is coming
in at around 700 pounds,
it's going to be available from June.
And that pricing is roughly
about what you'd be expecting
for a premium compact vlogging camera.
It's cheaper than some of
the larger higher end models,
the mirrorless but it's a
little bit more expensive
compared to other compacts.
However, based on everything
that it offers as a package,
I do think it's worth it
and I would have no
problems recommending this.
What do you guys think of the Sony ZV-1?
Definitely drop me a comment below
and let me know your thoughts.
I hope you enjoyed this
video and found it useful
It was fun to actually do
a camera review for change
rather than just smartphones.
So if you do want to see
more of that as well,
then do let me know.
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like this here on the channel
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Thanks for watching, this
is Saf on SuperSaf Tv,
and I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)
