Video Maker - USA (2019-06)

contents

full screen

print

contents

full screen

print

8 VIDEOMAKER >>> JUNE 2019

by Chris Monlux

Sony ditches record

limit and extends

battery life

Sony

a

Sony

http://www.sony.com

STRENGTHS

• No record limit time


• 120fps in HD

WEAKNESSES

• No in-body image stabilization


• No headphone jack

SUMMARY

This camera is a great entry level

camera. The a6400 shoots up to 120

fps in HD, includes a flip-up monitor

and costs just $900.

RECOMMENDED USERS

• Corporate and Event Videography


• Marketing Video Production


• Online Video Production


• Casual Video Production

T

here’s a lot to love about the new

Sony a6400. It’s got a longer bat-

tery life than previous versions, and

it includes a new autofocus system

that Sony calls Real-time Tracking

AF. Plus, you can also capture inter-

nal time-lapse. Maybe most surpris-

ingly, this camera has no record time

limit. Yeah, you heard that right —

no record limit. Finally, one of the

best things about the camera is that

the body alone costs only $900.

There are also some things, how-

ever, that you might not like about this

camera. For instance, the a6400 has a

flip out screen — great for vloggers —

but the design means you can’t attach

accessories directly to the hot shoe

and flip up the display at the same

time. The a6400 also lacks in-body

image stabilization.

Let’s dig a bit deeper into our expe-

rience with the Sony a6400.

The details

Before we go too deep into the review,

let’s do a quick overview of the Sony

a6400. It uses a 24.2-megapixel APS-C

size CMOS sensor that shoots up to

UHD 4K at 30 frames per second at

100 megabits per second. With a top

frame rate of 120 fps in HD, the a

has a single SD card slot and no head-

phone jack. It uses the Sony E mount,

which accepts full frame lenses, as

well as ones for the APS-C format.

The image quality of the a

is great for the money. Internal or

external capture will get you 8-bit

video. Shoot in Slow&Quick mode

for in-camera slow-mo playback. You

can choose to conform to 30 or 24

fps when shooting at 120fps offering

4 and 5 times slow-mo respectively.

You can also shoot time-lapse video at

down to 1 fps in this mode.

What’s different about

the a6400?

Looking at the a6400, you might won-

der how different it is from the a

or the a6500. Did Sony just fix the fail-

ures of the prior model? Simply put,

the a6400 is a replacement for the

a6300. Thus, the features are almost

identical, except that Sony also fixed

many of the a6300‘s flaws.

On one hand, the a6400 is missing

a big feature from the a6500: in-body

image stabilization. On the other

$

REVIEW

hand, the a6400 resolves two major

flaws of the a6500: short battery life

and a propensity to overheat.

Outside of that, the a6400 sports a

new image processor and some new

video features like S&Q mode and in-

terval and HLG shooting. The camera

also offers improved AF function over

the prior models with Real-time Track-

ing AF and Real-time Eye AF. Real-time

Tracking AF doesn’t do much for video

shooters, however, and Real-time Eye

AF isn’t available for video at all.

Perks and quirks

The a6400 is a mixed bag of good and

bad features. For almost every good

feature, there is a bad one. From the

top, the camera has no record limit

time. Let’s look at that feature a little

more closely.

No record limit

This is a great feature for wedding and

event videographers or anyone who

hits the 29:59 record limit of most

DSLR and mirrorless cameras. With

the Sony a6400, you can record until

either your media card fills up or the

battery dies.

No headphone jack

The quirk to that perk is that there’s

no headphone jack. The camera has

a mic input, but no way to monitor

your sound in real-time outside of

the audio meters. During playback,

you can hear the audio via a built-in

speaker, but headphones can’t be

used. This is a big problem if you

need professional audio. There are a

few solutions, like the SmallHD Focus

or an HDMI to audio converter, that

allow you to monitor off the HDMI,

giving you a headphone jack for real-

time monitoring.

High frame rate recording

The camera can shoot up to 120 fps

in HD. Any frame rate over 60 fps is

a bonus for cinematic slow motion.

Slowed down to 24 fps, 120 fps is five

times slower. The a6400 gives you two

bitrate options for 120 fps: 60 mega-

Sony a

384 R02 Sony a6400.indd 8 4/23/19 2:22 PM

VIDEOMAKER >>> JUNE 2019 9

100 megabits per second. With a top

frame rate of 120 fps in HD, the a

has a single SD card slot and no head-

phone jack. It uses the Sony E mount,

which accepts full frame lenses, as

well as ones for the APS-C format.

The image quality of the a

is great for the money. Internal or

external capture will get you 8-bit

video. Shoot in Slow&Quick mode

for in-camera slow-mo playback. You

can choose to conform to 30 or 24

fps when shooting at 120fps offering

4 and 5 times slow-mo respectively.

You can also shoot time-lapse video at

down to 1 fps in this mode.

What’s different about

the a6400?

Looking at the a6400, you might won-

der how different it is from the a

or the a6500. Did Sony just fix the fail-

ures of the prior model? Simply put,

the a6400 is a replacement for the

a6300. Thus, the features are almost

identical, except that Sony also fixed

many of the a6300‘s flaws.

On one hand, the a6400 is missing

a big feature from the a6500: in-body

image stabilization. On the other

hand, the a6400 resolves two major

flaws of the a6500: short battery life

and a propensity to overheat.

Outside of that, the a6400 sports a

new image processor and some new

video features like S&Q mode and in-

terval and HLG shooting. The camera

also offers improved AF function over

the prior models with Real-time Track-

ing AF and Real-time Eye AF. Real-time

Tracking AF doesn’t do much for video

shooters, however, and Real-time Eye

AF isn’t available for video at all.

Perks and quirks

The a6400 is a mixed bag of good and

bad features. For almost every good

feature, there is a bad one. From the

top, the camera has no record limit

time. Let’s look at that feature a little

more closely.

No record limit

This is a great feature for wedding and

event videographers or anyone who

hits the 29:59 record limit of most

DSLR and mirrorless cameras. With

the Sony a6400, you can record until

either your media card fills up or the

battery dies.

No headphone jack

The quirk to that perk is that there’s

no headphone jack. The camera has

a mic input, but no way to monitor

your sound in real-time outside of

the audio meters. During playback,

you can hear the audio via a built-in

speaker, but headphones can’t be

used. This is a big problem if you

need professional audio. There are a

few solutions, like the SmallHD Focus

or an HDMI to audio converter, that

allow you to monitor off the HDMI,

giving you a headphone jack for real-

time monitoring.

High frame rate recording

The camera can shoot up to 120 fps

in HD. Any frame rate over 60 fps is

a bonus for cinematic slow motion.

Slowed down to 24 fps, 120 fps is five

times slower. The a6400 gives you two

bitrate options for 120 fps: 60 mega-

Sony a

REVIEW

bits per second and 100 Mbps. If you

require slow-motion playback, there is

S&Q mode. This will slow the video in-

camera, forcing it to 24 or 30 fps. One

drawback when shooting at 120 fps,

however, is that there is a slight crop of

the field of view.

Improved battery life

Up next is the battery life of the

camera. It’s mostly notable because

the a6300 and a6500 both had a very

poor battery life. Plus, they were both

prone to overheating. When you go

from 20-30 minutes for the a

or 50-60 with the a6500 to 80-

minutes with the a6400 plus no over-

heating, you can get excited. That’s a

huge improvement and should be ap-

plauded. However, a good battery life

industry-wide is 120 minutes or more.

So, Sony still has some catching up to

do in this arena. Still, the longer bat-

tery life coupled with no record limit

time gives the a6400 more legs as an

ideal B-camera for events.

Autofocus misses the

mark for video shooters

The last quirk is specific to video

shooters. All of the new AF functions

are geared toward photographers. It’s

great that there are more AF functions.

It expands the capabilities of the cam-

era as a whole.

That said, video shooters simply

don’t get to enjoy the benefits. Real-

time Tracking performance is lacking,

and Real-time Eye AF isn’t an option

when shooting video.

Camera ergonomics

The a6400 is compact and weighs just

14.22 ounces. The lightweight design

means this camera is great for taking

out into the field. Its size won’t be a

burden when you carry it along on

hikes or trips. The a6400 also has the

deeper grip that was first introduced

in the a6500. It hangs from your

fingers well, and the record button is

easy to reach with the right thumb.

The smaller size means that you

have less real estate for all the but-

Join the

Videomaker

team at

our next

Videomaker

IRL

networking

event

in

Chicago

on

August 15.

Learn more and RSVP at

VideomakerEvents.com.

384 R02 Sony a6400.indd 9 4/23/19 3:14 PM