- Sony has finally done it.
They've made the perfect vlogging camera
hands down the Sony ZV-E10.
I may be one of the only human beings on earth
who is literally used
almost every single Sony mirrorless camera
made in the last five years.
And I'm not exaggerating
'cause those of you who are old school fans of the channel
might remember some of those initial camera reviews
back with the Sony a7R II, or even the Sony a6000.
I've even shot with the new Sony alpha one.
But there's very few things I've ever been impressed
with as much as I'm impressed with the Sony ZV-E10.
And I was blown away when they made the Sony ZV-1.
This camera is truly made for YouTube vloggers
who want to step their game up and it offers everything
in terms of the vlogging experience.
This is light, this is compact.
It works with Sony E-Mount lenses.
It has the coveted flip out screen.
It works in terms of slow and quick mode
very similarly to cameras like the Sony a7C
that I have here which is a full frame camera.
And the reality is that this just makes sense,
and it's in the body of a Sony a5000.
The key differences between this and the ZV-1
are the fact that the ZV-1
is something that's compact enough to fit in your pocket.
It doesn't have interchangeable lens system
and it has its lens built-in that is 24 to 70.
Now a lot of people complained about the reach with that,
and about, you know,
needing super long arms or it not being wide enough.
But the benefit is it does have a built-in ND filter.
That is one of the key differences when going to the ZV-E10,
is no built-in ND filter
because you're using your own interchangeable lenses.
So you will need to get an ND filter to go with those
if you're shooting in bright conditions.
Both of these offer the ultimate vlogging experience
with active, steady shot.
This has been really powerful
for smooth gimbal like footage,
whether you're handholding or you're using
the Sony mini tripod.
This works Bluetooth,
so you actually have full control of your camera
for the most part wirelessly just right here.
And that's great, makes it very convenient.
When you combine that with the active steady shot,
it is like shooting on a gimbal,
but without the gimbal price.
Now, speaking of price, you know,
this is the more affordable option
and has the lens built in.
This does come with a power zoom lens
if you wanna pay 899, but at 799 you can get it body only.
And then you can get the lenses of your choice for it.
Right now, I like shooting with the 10 to 18 F4.
This has been probably the best lens
that I've put on this in terms of a vlogging experience.
And still enough with the built-in defocus for background,
the background defocus on this is awesome.
And it gives you that blurry depth of field look
that you want to just feel a little bit more professional
in the YouTube space, a little bit more vlog like.
Audio on this built-in works like a charm.
Same thing with the ZV-1, built-in audio is great.
Both of course have the digital hot shoe interface
that allows you to use Sony's microphones.
Whether you're gonna use
like one of these wonderful microphones.
By the way, I know that this might sound
like I'm just giving this a glowing review.
But this is not sponsored by Sony.
No money changed hands.
They did let me have this early to borrow and send back
and to do my review and my footage.
But the reality is I was gonna buy this anyway.
Yeah, in terms of the microphones.
This works fantastically with Sony ECM microphones.
Right now on my ECMCS3 that's filming this,
I'm using Sony's latest wireless microphone system
which is around $230.
You can get this ECM microphone for about $130.
There's another shotgun microphone that they have,
that's about $230.
So we have a variety of options here.
When you look at it,
you can actually have a full and perfect vlogging system
and set up for about a thousand bucks,
but it would put you in a position
to where you might not need to upgrade
for a very long time.
And so what that would look like is buying this at 899
with the power zoom lens,
and then buying this like $130 ECM microphone
buying, you know, this mini tripod here.
And then you literally have the perfect vlogging setup.
And I love that when I do have it switched on here
that if I flip out the screen,
it just automatically turns on.
So.
This is one of the best vlogging experiences
that you could ask for.
It's light enough to allow you to use it all day.
So that's a plus.
You have a tally light to know when you're recording.
The flip out screen has a red border
to let you know when you're recording.
You have the extra battery life that comes from just having
a deeper battery grip than you have with this
and not using the smaller battery.
So you can actually do this for long periods of time.
And then with the slow and quick settings,
you can do what you need to in terms of slow-mo,
cinematics, time-lapses all of it.
In terms of things that I could say negatively about this,
it does have the clunky menu system
that Sony cameras just ultimately end up having,
unless you have the latest and greatest.
But right out of the box,
you get something that is tremendous.
Another thing I will note in terms of the audio,
the built-in audio on this is serviceable.
And if you're outdoors,
it does come for free with a built-in windscreen
that you just top off right there.
So the thing is you have everything you need
pretty much out of the box with this,
and you have great features like product showcase mode.
This is something that was a game changer on the ZV-1,
and that is continued here.
Same thing with skin smoothing.
That is a feature that showed up in this camera.
You can have that beauty filter if you want,
or need it for any reason.
And that makes its way over into the ZV-E10.
So why buy this versus something like a full frame camera?
Like any of the other options I have here.
Whether it's the, you know,
Sony a7C or any of the other cameras.
The reality is these full frame cameras are super expensive.
These are super expensive.
And they also, frankly,
are a little bit more complicated to use.
Meanwhile, right out of the box, this just works.
And the thing is it's very beginner friendly
and it was made with beginners in mind.
This was made for the everyday person
that just wants to explore with content creation.
Meanwhile, while I think the Sony a7C is a great camera
if you wanna go into full frame.
The reality is it's overkill for what most people need.
This is for people who not only have the budget,
but also want to just expand into more complex content.
That's why ultimately this may be the best camera
for majority of YouTubers and content creators as a whole.
But the best camera for beginners and vloggers
is definitely now the ZV-E10.
Hands down, it's not even close.
The ZV-E10 is a crop sensor camera so it's not full frame.
But the fact that you get a powerful
Sony crop sensor camera,
that has the tremendous autofocus,
the eye autofocus tracking and all the trimmings,
the Sony color profiles, that good, good S-Log grading,
all of it in a package that's less than a thousand dollars.
That's kind of been unprecedented when it comes to Sony.
One of the other downsides I could argue about this
is that it just made my a6600 pretty much irrelevant
at this point, which is a more expensive camera.
But I'm okay with that.
And so it looks like Sony doesn't mind if they make products
that end up cannibalizing their other product lines
and carrying over features.
Because, you know,
if you have to choose between these two cameras,
it really comes down to what you value more.
This is gonna be cheaper,
and it's gonna be more convenient.
This is gonna give you more options, flexibility,
and the power to expand over time.
So it still makes sense to step up from a ZV-1 to a ZV-E10,
just depending on how serious you wanna take things
and what level of quality you're comfortable with.
Both are more than serviceable
for the needs of the average content creator
with no real need to get anything
more than either of these or both.
If you wanna use this as your A-roll camera,
and then this is a backup or B-roll camera or vice versa,
you could be good with that.
Sony has also made this the ultimate webcam.
If you actually want to use a real camera as your webcam,
and if you wanna use this setup,
you know, just throw up your mini tripod.
You can just go ahead and you can use everything
that comes in the box and you have a webcam.
Just hook it up to your laptop.
And you're pretty much good to go
and you don't need another accessory
it can all be done through software.
It may not be the cheapest budget camera for YouTube,
but is the best value option out of all budget cameras
in the sub $1,000 range if you're gonna buy it new.
I stand by that.
And following up close to that is the ZV-1.
I don't think that it makes sense
to try to buy a camera anymore for under 500 and $600,
unless you have no other option.
Because if you save up just a little bit more,
if you can hold out,
then the value you get out of either of these two cameras
is just gonna be superior to any other budget option
in the sub $600 range.
I feel like the only way to get a good camera
for under $600 that would have any hope of beating these,
would be to buy something used.
That is probably an APS-C or a full frame camera used
if you can get one that cheap.
But in terms of buying something new out of the box
for $600 that's gonna perform better than either of these.
I don't think that that's possible anymore.
Sony has made a play for content creators
to show us that they can make something
that's about as cheap as the average smartphone
that's gonna produce better results
and is actually gonna be more practical
for a content creator use.
Because the reality is the only thing
that can really compete with this at the same price point
is buying a smartphone.
And while that might be a very convenient tool in many ways,
it's also inconvenient in a lot of other ones.
And frankly, I just don't feel like the average smartphone
can really flex with these when it comes to image quality.
They might be able to get close,
but sensor size does matter.
If you ever do decide to upgrade
in terms of camera lenses and camera bodies,
you will have entered the Sony system
at a decent price point.
You will be able to have something that retains its value
when you want to upgrade.
And since this can last you for a long time,
the next thing you upgrade to is most likely
going to be a full frame camera in the Sony system,
because you will already have glass
that you can pair with it.
And so that means you probably end up upgrading
to something like the Sony a7C
eventually in your career as a content creator.
Because maybe you're going to want
to just do more complex projects
that just require that little bit of extra oomph,
or maybe you're gonna want to be able
to have a hybrid camera
that can do really great photography.
I mean, one thing I can say
is that this is a serviceable camera,
even when it comes to photos,
but it's not its primary focus.
This is a camera for video first creators.
And again, that's the future since the platforms
are going more video than anything.
Even Instagram as a side,
it's not really a photography platform anymore.
It's all about video now.
And this is a camera for people who are all about video.
This camera has all the features
that a vlogger actually needs in one convenient package.
The image quality is superb.
There's not really much more that you could want
out of a camera as a content creator,
unless you just trying to be extra.
This would produce the same level of quality
as most of the most popular videos on YouTube pretty easily.
And if you know what you're doing,
it's fully capable of making cinematic content.
I'm gonna give the Sony ZV-E10, 4.5 out of five stars
for all the reasons that I just gave you.
I mean, this even has a microphone input jack
on top of having the digital hot shoe.
So you have the ability to use
any kind of microphone you want.
I just wanted to call that one out.
So why am I not giving a perfect five out of five,
the menu system.
At this point, that is my biggest pet peeve.
And my biggest complaint is just giving me
a better menu system.
And I'll be happy with every Sony camera.
And I'm gonna complain until I get it.
But in all seriousness,
I really do feel that they knocked this one out of the park.
If you want to get any of the camera gear that I have,
by the way.
I'll link to all of these things
in the description down below.
And as of the making of this video,
you probably will have to pre-order this camera.
It may not be available for you
to just buy it off the shelf just yet.
But that is going to be a camera
that I think a lot of you are gonna love.
And I think that this is gonna change
the game for content creators
in a way we haven't seen in a very long time.
If you enjoyed this video,
check out any of my other videos on camera gear.
And if you're a content creator,
then you probably wanna check out this video
on batch recording and how to be consistent at YouTube.
Both of those will be linked
into the description down below.
As always, thank you so much for watching and don't forget,
go out there and create something awesome today
with whatever gear you happen to have.
Take care.