A New Hope for A-Mount Lenses...

Also in this issue:

• A new way to stabilize video
• A new Camera Problem-Solving Guide by Mark Galer and Gary Friedman
• Wireless Flash on a camera that doesn't support it
• ZV-1 Discoveries
• In the Pipeline

A Free Sony Camera Problem-Solving Guide 

Let's start with something free.  Australian Sony Digital Imaging Ambassador Mark Galer and I have teamed up to create this free Sony Camera Problem-solving Guide, a compilation of all the email queries we get from users trying to find out why their camera is not behaving as expected.  You can download this free resource (did I mention it was free?) from Mark's website.

If you're not familiar with Mark, he's been producing free tutorials for the Sony platform for years, plus you can subscribe to his high-end tutorials on Patreon.  Spend some time on his site at MarkGaler.com; you'll be impressed.  The problem-solving guide is a work in progress and will be updated periodically with new material.  Enjoy!

A New Way to Stabilize Video

Newer Sony cameras including the RX0 II, RX100 VII, and the new ZV-1 (which I'm writing a book on) have a gyro sensor built-in which can sense and record handheld shakiness and record the information in movies.  This information can be harnessed in post-processing to smooth out the shake, ostensibly better than what the "Intelligent Active" setting used to do on Sony's older cameras.

How well does it work?  First, let me refer you to a blog post a year ago where I was trying all sorts of ways to smooth out a handheld video after-the-fact.  Go read it and watch the videos now; as it explains the problem, and the second example from Adobe Premier lets you intuitively understand why smoothing a video must always involve a degree of cropping.  (Or a gimbal. :-) )

Programs that do this kind of stabilization are expensive, but the phone app from Sony (mentioned in last year's blog post but un-tryable at the time) is FREE.  How well does it work?

Here's Sony's official page for the app, which also shows off the app's other features.  Their first video shows how well the video-stabilization-after-the-fact feature works, but in my opinion it's entirely misleading since it implies that no cropping takes place.  In fact, the more you stabilize, the more cropping happens.  The app even gives you a degree of control over this.

So here's a quick non-misleading test where I compare the in-camera choices (Movie SteadyShot = Standard and Active) and then I uploaded the video to my phone and had the Movie Edit Add-on feature give it a try.  As you would expect, the more you zoom in the more leeway there is for correcting shaky video.  But this gives a realistic example of what to expect.

How do you like the quarantine beard?

Step-by-step directions for using this software appear in my upcoming book on the ZV-1.

Other ZV-1 Revelations

If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you know two things about me: 1) I love the RX100 series of cameras, and 2) I love wireless flash.  The ZV-1 is the first point-and-shoot since the RX100 II that has a hot shoe on it.  I'm sure it was put there to hold accessories like a shotgun mic or video light (or an external EVF like the kind made for the RX1); but it also supports accessory flashes as well.  But my favorite feature, wireless flash, is not officially supported.

That is, unless you have some Godox flashes and a radio trigger, in which case it works just fine!  When used, the camera thinks that an accessory flash is attached to the hot shoe - no special menu mode need be invoked.  And while the official flash sync speed is 1/4000th, in my tests the fastest you can shoot without attenuating the light is 1/500th.  Still, a great tool for the world traveler who wants to take "Wow!" portraits without weighing him or herself down!  (Click on any image to view larger and sharper.)

Godox radio transmitter on top.  Flashpoint (Godox) Zoom Mini R2 wireless flash placed in front.  This was shot indoors with the lights on.  The ambient looks black because the camera was set to f/8, 1/500th, at ISO 100.  Only the flash was powerful enough to show through.

[Note to other RX100 owners: Godox flashes also have an "S2" optical slave mode which will allow your camera's pop-up flash to trigger them also (but in manual mode and not with TTL flash metering).  Still, it's something!]

I was also exited that the ZV-1 FINALLY had an LCD with a hinge on the left side where God meant for it to be.  This is important because it allows me to shoot vertical portraits of the kids without having to get down to their eye level.  Until now only my A-mount cameras like the A99 II allowed that.

Me in the studio shooting vertically at eye level without having to get down on the ground with my much-loved Sony A99 II.

Here I am shooting the same way with the ZV-1. 

But why couldn’t they make the screen flip out 180 degrees instead of only 176 degrees?  Sony can make anything; this seems like a ridiculous omission.

I have two theories about that: 1) They didn’t want the user to see glare on the screen, which could happen if it hinged 180 degrees.   2) They didn’t want to pay a patent licensing fee (so it wouldn’t violate patents that claim a 180 degree hinge).

Anyway, I have no idea; all I know is I got my wish.  The book on the ZV-1 will be finished in in about 1 week.  Watch the website for availability!

One last thing.  When the RX100 IV came out it could shoot 4K video for a whopping 5 minutes because of thermal problems and a tiny battery.  The ZV-1, using the same battery can shoot a whopping 42 minutes of 4K video!  It can go as long as 57 minutes with an external battery.  That is just a miracle.  More people should be talking about this.

In the Pipeline

Fujifilm X100V is out!
Fujifilm X-T4 is next.  Pre-order here at a discount!
Sony ZV-1 is a couple of weeks away!
Olympus E-M1 III has been pushed out to September.  You can pre-order this title at a discount.

Some of these books are being released later than planned because both Tony and I have had major life events happen (Tony even more than me).  So for those who have pre-ordered books, we do appreciate your patience.

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Next time in Cameracraft Magazine

I interview John Wilhelm (who refers to himself as a Photoholic) who creates the most amazing pictures of his family.

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A New Hope for older A-Mount lenses

If you're like me, you STILL have a ton of outstanding A-mount lenses which use the older screwdriver-type autofocus coupling.  I'm talking about lenses such as the Minolta 80-200 f/2.8 G; Minolta 85mm f/1.4, and Zeiss 135mm f/1.8, macro lenses, and the f/4 trilogy (including the 'beercan'), just to name a few.  When adapted to a modern E-mount body via Sony's LA-EA4 adapter many of the camera's advanced focusing features such as Eye AF, Animal Eye AF, and focus tracking are lost.

For many years people have publicly asked Sony to come out with an updated adapter to allow these older lenses to not be crippled when adapted (such as this one by Sony artisan Brian Smith), to no avail.

Then this arrived on my doorstep yesterday which promises a solution, which I'll tell you about next month after I have a chance to put it through its paces.  Are you a person who's been waiting for something like this as I have?  Then shoot me an email at Gary at Friedman Archives dot com and I'll tell you more.

[More about Sony's A-mount to E-mount adapters can be found via one of my more popular youtube videos explains it all.  (And don't forget the sequel!)]

Until next time,
Yours truly, Gary Friedman