This is the Sony Alpha 6400.
And after using it for half a year,
let me give you my reasons why I
think it's the best camera on the
market right now to purchase for
video podcasting.
If you're new here. My name's Javier
Mercedes. I cover video, tech
tutorials and gear reviews on this
channel. I also have a video podcast
that I've been doing for about two
years now. That's why I'm doing a
review on this camera.
If you're into that kind of thing
and you like my videos, go ahead and
hit that subscribe button.
Let's dove right into it.
The number one reason why the Sony
Alpha 6400 trumps most
cameras on the market right now for
video podcasting is because
it does not have a recording time
limit. Most DSLRs and mirrorless
cameras, at least in the U.S.
market, have a duration cap
for how long you can record for
meaning that they will stop at
twenty nine minutes and fifty nine
seconds after you've hit the record
button. This camera that doesn't
happen, which is amazing.
And one of the most important
things I think for a video
podcaster, especially when you're
having a conversation, you don't
want to have to stop a guest in the
middle of an amazing story,
break their thought process just so
you can go over and hit the record
button again on your camera.
Sticking with the subject of
duration, if you are recording long
periods of time, I will say one of
the drawbacks of this camera is the
battery life.
Sony has recently upgraded their
lithium batteries to a much longer
life on their newer models.
Unfortunately, not on the Sony Alpha
6400.
But the great thing about this kind
of camera is that you don't need to
purchase a third party dummy
battery in order to power the
camera. You can just go straight
into the USB in power
that way. And then now you don't
even have to worry about the
batteries. What I do is grab
a USB power pack and then
a little bit longer of a USB cable
and take that with me if I'm going
anywhere. Reason number three is
really quick.
This camera has a fully articulating
screen.
Now you might say like, oh, that's
neat, but trust me, when you're on
the road or whether you're using
this camera anywhere, it's
so nice to be able to see yourself.
If you are podcasting with this
thing, because if you set it up on a
tripod, at least you'll have some
sort of reference of what your
framing looks like.
One drawback of this kind of
articulating screen is if you need
to put something on the hot shoe, it
will block the screen.
But if you're just using this to
video record, it's not problem.
One more thing I'll add on to
monitoring yourself and I'll kind of
call this reason 3.5 is the
fact that all Sony mirrorless
cameras come with an
app that you can get in the app
store where you can control your
camera from the app.
So I'm using the Sony A7iii to
record me right now and I have
actually hit record on the app
itself and there's a whole bunch of
other parameters that you can
control from the app.
But I think one of the best features
about this whole thing is hitting
the record button. So you've already
setup the camera and put your
framing how you want to.
And right before the podcast starts,
instead of going up hitting record
on the camera, you can just be
sitting right there about to start
and then just hit record on your
phone and be off to the races.
Not only that, but it allows you a
secondary way to monitor yourself
and make sure that everything's fine
with the camera straight from where
you're sitting during the podcast.
And as a one man band doing my video
podcast, having something like this
app to go with the camera is
so good. Reason number for this
camera's amazing for video
podcasting is because
you can switch out to any lens
in the Sony system or really any
lens in general.
This is as important and it's a crop
sensor in there.
But the fact that you can buy any
kind of lens, depending on whatever
your situation is, makes this camera
so well versed for
anything. Let's say if you're in a
space where you needed to use a wide
angle lens, then you could maybe
purchase a nice prime 16mm
that has a low f stop for
most video podcasters.
If you're looking to get that really
nice blurry background for the
cheapest budget, go with
the Sony 50mm
1.8.
I think this lens and everything
else that I'm talking about in the
description below.
Now you're going to have to be a
little bit further away from your
subject, but this is the cheapest
lens that will get this F stop,
which is the 1.8, the lower
this number, the blurry or the
background will be.
And also, this will perform amazing
in low light.
I think this is hands down
the best pairing with this camera
for video podcasting to get
the best looking production value
out of it. Reason number five is
this camera can record in 4K.
You have the option of 100 megabits
per second or 60 megabytes
per second. But the fact that it can
record in 4K for those longer
periods of time is amazing.
You may run into some overheating
issues, but just remember to keep
the screen away from the main body
and you'll alleviate some of those
issues to a certain extent.
And when you are recording in 4K, it
doesn't punch in a whole bunch like
some cameras may do to process
that amount of information.
Another thing to tack onto this one,
and I think there's like 5.5 or
4.5 losing track is
the fact that you can record with
proxies internally on the camera.
If you're not sure what proxy files
are. Just think of them as
substitute files that you use
during editing that are way less
in resolution than you're really
huge files.
Meaning that when you're recording
something in 4K or 10 ATP.
On this camera, you can turn proxies
on and then it's going to create
a smaller resolution.
I believe 720p file,
that's a duplicate of that really
large file. So if you load them into
your video editing software like
Premier Pro, you can tell your video
editing software.
Hey, I have these very large files
that are the raw original files,
but I also have these duplicates
that you can use as substitutes
while I'm editing.
It makes the process so much faster
and I have a whole video explaining
my proxy workflow in
Premier Pro from Sony cameras.
I'll link it here on the screen
right now. Reason number six, I love
the Sony Alpha. Sixty four hundred
for podcasting is because of the
autofocus.
This camera does have a touch
screen, so if you want to focus to a
specific spot, all you have to do is
touch the screen if you have
somebody over on the right side.
You could tell the autofocus to only
focus on things that are on the
right side of the camera or the left
side of the camera or center,
however you want to do that.
And the wide out-of-focus.
I feel like does a great job of
picking up faces.
Nothing is worse than getting into
your computer and realizing that
all of your footage was out of focus
for like an hour long interview.
And with this camera, I haven't had
that issue. Reason number 7, I love
this camera is because of the form
factor. When you pack this thing
into a camera bag, it is so small.
Here, let me get my coffee mug for
reference.
Here's a coffee mug and
then here's the camera.
This is just a normal sized
coffee mug.
That's the camera.
It fits in anywhere that you needed
to. In fact, you could put that in
your pocket. If you really wanted
to. I think that's awesome.
What about you? Do you agree with me
that this is one of the best cameras
on the market right now for video
podcasting? Because I truly
think it is.
There are other cameras out there
that can surpass the recording
limit, but those cameras
are more expensive or they might
have a smaller sensor.
They may not have the ability to
change lenses or
plug into power.
Maybe you have to buy a dummy
battery.
All of those other aspects that I
talked about. So I think for
what this body costs in
the fact that you can change out
different lenses to get whatever
kind of look that you're going for
makes this camera a great option.
Don't forget to leave me like I'll
put that video about my proxy
workflow with Sony cameras on the
screen and hit that subscribe
button.
If you're new here and you like my
kind of content until next time,
I hope you're out there living a
life of abundance.