welcome back to the channel folks my name's shane in today's video we're checking out the sony
a7c last time i was at this park which was only a couple of weeks ago i was testing out the brand
new panasonic gh5 mark ii and then it died an untimely death the wind kicked up out of nowhere
tripod fell smashed the selfie screen off and i was devastated but it really got me thinking that
i finally need a camera with great auto focus and you know it's panasonic are still making strides
on getting better and better panasonic cameras are still best if you're using manual focus
or if you're behind the camera now i trust the autofocus so much more on the panasonic s5 and on
the panasonic gh5 mark ii over any of their other cameras it's not even close it's so much better
but it's not sony good and part of me died inside seeing the price of the sony a7c and how little
feature set it had but the thing that it does have is functionality for the purpose that i want it
for which is why i ended up getting this just to let you know i'm going to be shooting the entirety
of this video on the sony a7c and anytime you see the camera i'm going to be using the panasonic s5
now massive thank you to the iphonedo channel Faruk he uses this sony g master 24mm f 1.4
lens for a lot of his beat shots and i loved the visual of it so that's what i'll be using it's the
only lens that i currently have because the lenses are as expensive as the camera but this is what i
wanted a wide-angle lens that looked great gave me some nice background separation had instantaneous
autofocus i haven't done any customized settings to this camera so what you're seeing is straight
out of camera on the standard picture profile this is the big problem i had with the sony cameras it
was either you go up to something like the a7sIII for the big feature set and the bigger price
tag or the sony fx3 or you buy the entry-level cameras that have a whole lot less features but
there's two main reasons i went for this other than just great autofocus the second being
of course it's got the catalyst browse software which gives you great stabilization now i've been
a huge advocate of not having to use anything to get stable footage out of your camera but
it seemed like a really great decision especially on shoots where i might normally use a gimbal
that said though i really feel like just for web content this might be one of the best cameras
if you need that great auto focus and if you're not too fussy about not getting the higher frame
rates in 4k or those 10-bit codecs let's quickly talk about the ergonomics and first impressions
of the sony a7c in the hand you know i picked this camera up two or three times in a camera
shop before i actually pulled the trigger on it over the course of maybe the last three months
and i hate the feel of it the grip is awful you're all bunched up in there right next to the lens and
in terms of ergonomics it's by far the worst camera in my collection i'd say collection is
in like i collect cameras but the ones that i have purchased over the years this by far feels
the worst in the hand but the trade-off again is catalyst browse getting that great depth of field
and also having that great auto focus so i thought for park shots like this and for just
youtube videos i can get away with it but it's not a comfortable camera in the hand the olympus om-d
e-m1 mark ii, the panasonic gh5, or the s5 leaves this for dead in terms of straight up ergonomics
now the problem with the ergonomics just isn't the grip either right it's the button placement
and the lack of function custom buttons all things that i knew before buying this right every review
speaks about the ergonomics the button placement and the lack of custom options
if you're coming from panasonic it's a big step backwards or maybe plenty of other brands out
there that also offer more function buttons but this is built to a price it's overpriced
but again you're getting all the stuff that just seems to work if you want to do auto focus tricks
like this without anything weird happening so if that's what you need this is a really great choice
and for web content where most people don't even care i think it's going to do a good job when it
comes to the sony catalyst software this is the kind of stabilization you can get i have the in
body image stabilization off altogether so i'll be doing this in post-production
which kind of sucks you do spend more time getting the file ready for use but you get great
stabilization and it stops you having to bring a gimbal as long as you reframe your shot slightly
so you leave a little bit more room the crop isn't a huge deal because you do get to customize just
how much of a crop and just how much stabilization you want in your shot so this is how it looks
hopefully it's nice and smooth just by holding my tripod it's not a selfie stick just out like this
now much like panasonic the sony system has a lot of different autofocus modes except the autofocus
modes work so much better in the sony cameras already only after using it for a couple of days
i can tell you that this is a far better camera for autofocus performance it still requires a
learning curve but all of the modes are functional it's not like you're guessing to see which one
works the best now i've had a lot of success with the panasonic cameras when it comes to autofocus
and i've also done a lot of tutorials on them on how to get the most out of them but
one of the biggest problems is sometimes if you're not you know over the one area mode or
whatever the case may be it just loses you and i don't want that to happen one of the reasons why
i want to get this camera again when i travel i need something that i can rely on and if this
allows me to get all the shots without losing focus i'm gonna be a happy camper
not that i ever go camping now not to rip on this selfie screen too much but i think it's a
big deal but it doesn't have a lot of touchscreen functionality it's next to incapacitated when you
want to play a movie back you have to keep using the center ring button on the back of the camera
what happened to just tapping the big play icon that's on screen how can sony not put in a touch
screen that's actually really functional now it does have some touch functionality but it's
nothing like cameras that were even out in 2017 so i feel like this is a huge downgrade but again
it's got that great autofocus and the picture quality looks insane giving me great background
separation ah that's the dream right getting some sort of background blur getting great autofocus
it's functional i hate to admit it but it's really really functional except for if i want to wear
sunglasses and except for if i actually want to use the touch screen like a touch screen i find
with the panasonic stuff using a combination of the hardware keys and buttons and dials mixed
with the selfie screen you do things so quickly this is it sucks but it's good now i've taken
some product photography with this camera already and the picture quality is insane so if you're a
photographer you can get some great results out of it aperture priority mode is pretty much where
i live on this camera to give me that depth of field and it works extremely well i did a tony
northrup i took you to the best viewe in melbourne but you can't see it only if only i had an f 1.2
now another big reason why i wanted to go for the sony cameras is the lens selection now
this is that 24mm f 1.4 g master but i'm also looking at getting the 35mm fe 1.8 so a huge shout
out to gerald undone for his video comparison of all the 35 millimeter lenses it doesn't have bad
focus breathing or anything like that so that'll be the next lens probably on the list as well as
a 50 and i'm not exactly sure which 50mm i'll go for just yet so there's a couple of things
about this camera that you need to know if you're thinking about buying one first up the grip is
not very ergonomic whatsoever so if that's a huge thing for you then don't get this camera if you're
buying it for vlogging get a little tripod hook it up underneath and walk with it like that you won't
have any problems so that's not a deal breaker i really miss having a proper touch screen lcd
this is more of a reference monitor you can touch the focus but it has very limited functionality so
if you're coming from panasonic that'll kill you it's like a camera that came out in 2016
in that regard but for what it does it does it extremely well you get that full frame sensor
you get the options of you know great lenses and glass you can put on it there's a couple things
that i've noticed especially sitting here in the car while the outside is very bright it's having
a hard time compensating for my face sometimes it just goes dark i've shot this a couple times
so what i'll do i'll overlay some of that footage on this video unless it does it again but i think
the catalyst software is a winner if you want to be able to stabilize your footage in post
the stabilizer in the camera itself isn't great it's nowhere even close to panasonic or olympus so
if you're just hoping to get great straight out of camera stabilization it's not going to do the job
the catalyst software is the way to go minus the lack of function buttons and so forth as a run
and gun camera for what i want it for for getting great auto focus this is going to do the job so i
don't regret buying this but it killed me to buy it because i thought i'm really downgrading over
what i already had but at the end of the day it's not a downgrade because it works this is going to
save me time as opposed to having to come back the next day and to shoot parts of products in
the park or whatever the case may be right so as long as i don't break this one like i did on
my last camera we should be good to go now again as i mentioned earlier i have another camera that
i haven't mentioned in this video but i'm going to do a maybe a blind test comparison with this
one to see if anyone can see the difference but i think this is going to be a great addition for
what i want a great little run and gun camera that is tiny that has a great lens on the front
of it that has impeccable auto focus but doesn't have great auto exposure which you could just
probably hope maybe just see it there kicked in a little bit we're sort of trying to recover now but
overall great little camera if you want to find out about this i'll leave some affiliate links in
the description below don't forget to subscribe and i'll catch you on the next video see you!