Hey, everybody Ted Forbes welcome back to the art of photography today
We're talking about [sony], and I want to share with you guys the sony A 5100
[this] is an amazing little camera
this is in the sony alpha Line which includes the
A6000 which has got a lot of hype recently
and it's a very popular camera model this one is slightly newer it has a few things that the
A6000 doesn't even have yet which I'm sure will be replaced in the coming months as sony likes to pop out a camera every week
I think these days, but anyway, I really like this lineup
And this is an evolution from the sony nex line
And so the nex line was kind of this first generation
And included several models at different price ranges there was the nex three the nex [5] the 6 and the 7 and
I had several of these and the nex 5 was always one of my favorites
And I had one for about two years
Wore it out and recently was going to replace it
and
I couldn't believe the price point on these it really hadn't gone up much since it was the same kind of deal that the nex
5 was and the cool thing about these cameras is they sit somewhere design-wise between a compact Point-And-shoot and
The larger full-frame mirrorless cameras or maybe a dSLr sized and I think that's really cool. I mean you
They're not going to be a compact in the sense like the RX100 where you could throw in your pocket and go
But it's a little bit bigger. It still takes up very little space
You can travel light then take up a lot of room [in] your camera bag
And it has interchangeable lenses so as long as I can find an adapter that sony E-Mount and I have several other email cameras
So I can use my adapters with all of them that this works just fine, and I really like that they
excel very much in
Doing video doing still photography and being able to flip back and forth and do kind of hybrid stuff
And so they're not perfect
but I do think they're
Incredible when you consider the price point and let's go up and close on this because I want to show you kind of some of
The features and why I think the the sony A5100 [is] so cool. So come on over let's have a look okay
So we're gonna have a look at the sony a 5100 and just as a point of reference for comparison
This is my older nex 5 which, I absolutely loved
I did a lot of B-roll for video on this
I [loved] the fact that it was a small camera could throw on the bag it easily does still photos and it was great for
The time you can see that. They're very similar in design
I do have a lens on the 5100 here, so it's going to look a little bigger
But this one does not have a lens
Lenses are interchangeable on both they've redesigned the body very slightly
It's got a different texture on it now [big] deal
[and] there's a couple other differences that I'll show you in a second the a
5100 actually has a pop-up flash in it
Which is very cool the nex five you had to get an external flash and plug it into this proprietary adapter when that great?
Other big differences, they're both aps-C sized sensors
but it's been upgraded in megapixel count so the nex 5 was 16 megapixels the a
5100 is 24 megapixels so you do have a bit of an image upgrade there?
The bigger upgrade that I think is absolutely fantastic as the autofocus system has been completely overhauled you have a lot more versatility with it
[autofocus] was okay
[too] kind of frustrating at [times] with the nex
And the whole reason I got into the nex 5 is that I could use manual focus lenses so Auto focus wasn't even a concern
of mine, but now if you've ever used the sony
A6000 the autofocus is very similar in there. It's got a very wide range. It does a lot of wonderful things with continuous Autofocus
That you can't do on [a] dSLr even and these cameras are real small very inexpensive affordable
And I really recommend these over dsLrs depending on what your price point is and what your budget is and all that stuff
So that's that's one thing that is considerably different the knob placements a little bit different on these two cameras
There are several kit lens as well. This is the kit [lens]. They sell with it
I have another kit lens that came with the nex six
I think back in [the] day
And I have that which I normally [use] and this one is designed more like a video lens which [is] weird
But the on/off switch has changed on the top. It's very easy to get to
And let me pull the Viewfinder up so you can see this other switch does the zooming for you?
And it's a little strange to do on a still camera
[that] works pretty well for video
I don't [do] a lot right to dial it in if you're doing street photography or event photography or something like this
it's not going to be more the most versatile thing in the world so what I would [recommend] actually is you use if you need
a zoom lens is
Use something else that sony makes that has a collar where you can just adjust that
Because I think this is just a little bit cumbersome when you get into that not a big deal though because I can take this
lens off and put whatever
I want on it
But you do have McKenna digital zoom on there if you do that
Other upgrades that this has I think one of the biggest ones that I'm really excited about
Open the menu here. So you can see is that the video capabilities on here the file format?
We've talked about this a little bit with the RX100
But Sony has new format in these cameras which is this A... excuse me the XAVCS format which is an MP4 container,
but it allows you to getting much higher bitrate than the older MP4 standard or the
AVCHD, and so you can get up to 50 megabits a second
I think is what I think it shoots at, which is pretty amazing you do need to have a high capacity card and
Speaking of the card has been moved
away from the battery slot and on to the side it was under the battery slot [now] [and] so you just pop it in and
out from the side
[you] know not a huge difference just different
I'm always reaching for it in the battery slot because it's what I'm used to
But anyway when you get in the menu system
You can select that the other cool thing about this too is for your record settings
I can get all the way up to 60 p on this so depending on what you'd like to shoot with
[I] don't like 60 p for standard shooting
I shoot all these videos in 24 P because a
Cinematic look and when you get up to the higher ones that tend to look like cheap TV?
but what's really useful about those is if you're shooting at 60 p if you want to do what they call over cranking when you're
Shooting video is that then you can slow that back down to 24 p and you have slow motion so it's pretty nice to
Be able to do that
The other cool thing in this camera is you can do something called dual video?
Recording and you can do this in a lot of the the higher-end sony cameras now where it will basically record two videos it does
A smaller one so if you want to move that over to your [smartphone] and upload to instagram or something crazy like that
Or just use it as a proof you can do that. So it'll record both formats at the same time
I don't typically use that but it is there
The other cool thing is in the manual focus mode you do have focus peaking and you will set magnification
Which is really nice
and I did a separate video on that where we use the a7 s so if you're interested in using
Manual focus lenses with mirrorless cameras I would recommend you go check that out
I'll link it up at the end of this, but anyway it did cover some of that anyway
It's a great little camera the image quality is fantastic. I noticed the most upgrade
when I was doing video work
stills look looked really good on the anti X5, but the video is noticeably better on the outside the a
5100 in a major way it really looks outstanding as I mentioned also it has a pop-up flash
Which you know it's not the greatest thing in the world
But what is cool is just like some of the other sony cameras you can angle this with your finger and bounce the flash
So it does give you a little bit of versatility if you're in a situation where you need [some] kind of flash
And [you] don't have one it is a flash that you can control and hold up and bounce if you want
So I thought that was a really nice design feature the other interesting thing about this
They don't want to talk about is they have added now touch capabilities, so this is actually a touchscreen now
It's a little bit limited [in] what you can do
but what you can do is very useful and you can see this little box already and hope you can pick that up on the
Video [I] can touch the screen anywhere
And it will select that [as] what I want to be in focus
And so for instance if I have something extreme in the foreground like this other nex camera
I can just touch the focus and it will make sure that stays in focus
And it will track it as well and the tracking is good it's smooth when you watch the video playback
If that's what you're using it for it works great looks awesome
You don't see it hunting and seeking trying to find the focus
Which is really nice, and it works great for stills too. If you're in a [situation] where you're shooting something
That's moving like kids or sports or something like that
And you want to be able to use the touch screen?
Now the touch screen really only does that it will not work in the menu system
[you] know a lot of people that's kind of a deal [breaker] for but I can't for instance
Flipping the menus and scroll or anything doing the touch screen just doesn't work for that. It's [ok] for me
It's not a deal [breaker]
I'm glad that it does have a touch screen to do focus with because my RX100 my compact doesn't even do that
It's a handy feature to have when you're out and about
Also, the other thing I want to mention is the screen it's a it's a nice looking screen
but it is just that a screen, so if you're going to be shooting outdoors
for video or still work it gets a little hard to see depending on how bright the sunlight is and
Just depends on what time of day you're shooting and all that and there is no room on here to put an oled Viewfinder
so if you want an eye level Viewfinder
You're just kind of out of luck if you're doing video. You can use something like I've got one of the Saku toe
focus finders so you can use something like that if that helps
other than that that is the one major drawback to this over something like the [Innie] or sorry a
6,000 is that you don't have a [high-level] finder on it, and so that's just kind of part of the deal
And it's just the design of these cameras, but however you can flip this up
And you know in every whatever they call selfie mode here
I actually find this very useful particularly if I'm doing video
and I don't want to bring a lot of stuff and I'm out in the field and
so or if I'm even
Filming this show a lot [of] times I use [a] little flip up Viewfinder so I can see if I'm in frame or not
So it's very useful for that
It's also very useful if you're filming someone else
And they need a monitor and want to be able to kind of see themselves, or what they're doing it. You've got it
you don't [have] to bring an external monitor to do that with if that's a big deal for me because I do the
The show and the way I film it that that's enormous
Ly useful to have the other bizarre function on here when you actually flip the screen up like this
And you'll love this if I just touch the screen [it] goes into this weird selfie mode so you can see [it] counting down [three]
[two] [one] and then takes a picture [I]
Guess that's useful for people who really like selfies sure you get a little timer
there's another bizarre function in here that you can go into and you can [actually] set it so a smile will trip the shutter and
I've seen other cameras that dumb have done this and this one does seem to work you have to have teeth in your smile
So you have to open your mouth a little bit
But it's weird
[and] I keep waiting for a contemporary artist to come along and do some bizarre project of
Something where people are tripping the shutter with teeth or something. I don't know anyway, but it is there
It's not a huge deal
[and] it's kind of activated when you have the screen flipped up in the selfie mode like that when you're down here you use the
touch it functions as that autofocus, so
Anyway, very nice camera, though
And I think the biggest deals for me on here are the x ABc s video Codec the redesign sensor?
Which is noticeably better than what we had before on the nex [5]. It's really really good guys. [it's]
Actually a hair better than my really expensive video camera, and I just think it's beautiful video looks wonderful
You have [a] lot of versatility with it
I love the light weight the compact size the fact I can detach the lens and put a manual focus lens on there
You know some of the minuses. I like the flash [too] when you're in a jam
Need to use that the biggest minus is the screen and just the way that [this] camera is designed
I mean, it's hard to see when you're [in] bright sunlight
[I] don't shoot in that situation a lot
but when you do
It's kind of hard
See things you kind of have to squint and cover it and shade it and do weird things to make that work
But you know the control layout is good. [I] can get to things pretty easily and I think for a [500] [dollar] camera
You're getting so much bang for your buck on this. It's just ridiculous
the one last thing I want to talk about is [low-light] capabilities on this you know does it compare to something like the A7 s
well, no the a7 s is one of the
most interesting
Sensors in a camera you can find in the low-light is just I mean you can shoot in the dark on that thing with very
Little noise. This is [going] to start to get noisy. You can shoot 1600 iso
Fine when you get up to 3200 start getting a little noisy
That's usable and especially if you're using manual focus lenses that have really wide apertures like a 1.8 or 1.4
Or something like that you can get around that sorry just shut itself off
But you know I think
Considering that may not you know the low-light capabilities are not why you buy this camera
it's got a lot [of] other reasons for why you would want to buy this camera [and]
As I mentioned I had the nex 5 and I used this just into the ground
I mean, I spent two years with this camera. It went on every trip
I went on it was the camera that just thrown in my bag when I needed to film video or whatever I've used it on
the show before
extensively, [I] just absolutely [loved] this camera for stills and video and mine starting to wear out [a] little bit and
it was kind of time to put it out to pasture and get something I could rely on a little more just because I really
Did use the use the bejesus out of this so anyway? I think the a
51,000 I wish they'd come up more confusing names [release] a
[5100] is an Excellent buy for five hundred dollars and I'll link up in the show notes the store
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So that my friends is the sony a 5100 and [I] think this is such an excellent camera for the money
You're going to spend on something like this if you're in the market [to] get something you don't have a lot of money and you
Want something that's going to get really good image quality really good video quality
Have the ability to be able to put manual focus lenses on here, and it's got some versatility to it
[I] really recommend this series particularly the a 5100 the A6000 is a great camera [too] in my humble opinion
I think the video is [just] slightly better on here
And I mean splitting hairs really because they're both wonderful cameras this one is also considerably cheaper
So I will link up to where you can find these in the show notes
and I strongly recommend that you check these out as
Always if you enjoyed this episode remember to like it and share it with your friends and as always subscribe
So you'll be up to date all [the] latest and greatest videos as they come [out]
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Anyways always folks that's been another episode of the art of photography. [I'll] see you guys in the next video [later]
you
