SONY A99II, A6500, RX100V Road Show

2016 Sony DI Local Road Show (Daejeon) Reviews

A99II, A6500, RX100V, FDR-X3000 and more.

(All photos are enlarged to 1400px when pressed.)

Good morning. Nowadays, I have been busy with various things personally, and I had participated local road shows for introducing and experiencing some new products such as A99II, A6500 which was recently released as a local event in Sony. Unlike Sony, where most camera manufacturers are organizing new product launches in Seoul, I think that Sony Korea prepared events for local users every year. Today, the road show was held at Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, and finally at Daedeok Hall, Chungnam University.

The overall sequence of today's posting is organized as follows:

 

1. Event organization

2. A99II

2-1. A99II seminar 

2-2. A99II simple experience

3. A6500

3-1. A6500 seminar 

3-2. A6500 simple experience

4. RX100V

4-1. RX100V seminar 

4-2. RX100V simple experience

5. Explore FDR-X3000

6. Lucky Draw and other

Overall it was a very good event. The introduction and experience of new products, and a lot of sweepstakes, was a memorable event for everyone who attended, including the Carl Zeiss Cleaner and the GM cup. I also found it useful to get information about new products released as amateur photographers who mainly live the photography life of the A7R II + FE24-70GM combination, especially the products to be released in the future.

1. Sony DI Roadshow event organization

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Chungcheonghwa International Cultural Center is a building inside Chungnam University where events such as plays and concerts are held. Among them, the Daedeok Hall in the annex building was the first to be seen.

I entered the seminar hall and took a photo of wide view. I sat in the front seat to listen to the contents. On the right side were refreshments, new products to be announced today, and several Sony digital imaging products.

I like it that the refreshments are prepared in abundance in various ways. Sony definitely used to do it well. It's not a steak like a new product launch show, but it's still very good at a road show as a local event. My favorite sausage bread, various sandwiches, breads, cookies, etc. are available. Because I'd have lunch late that day, I packed a sandwich (Staff allowed it).

A lot of people have been using various products before the start of the seminar. A7R II, A7S II, various GM lenses, and XPERIA have been exhibited as well as A99II, A6500, RX100V and FDR-X3000 which are mainly introduced today are exhibited. I also experienced the products like those, and the seminar started from 2 pm.

Sony Korea employees to explain the overall schedule.

After the overall explanation of the seminar, the introduction of the road show is done by Mr. Bae, Ji-hoon of the DI part of Sony Korea. Below is an introduction video of Mr. Bae, Ji Hoon. He explained the meaning of the local road show and the new products to be introduced today. As a local resident, it is very difficult for employees to work on weekends, but on the other hand, we are very thankful to Sony. Since the video was shot in 4K high quality, it is recommended to increase the picture quality to 2160p on the whole screen.

 

2-1. A99II seminar

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A brief introduction to the A99II is the A-mount full-frame DSLT body and the a new flagship as a successor of A99II. For more information, please refer to the following seminar contents. I would like to focus on the fact that it is important in my opinion except for the obvious and trivial contents, though it is also in later products.

It is a person from Sony Korea who made a presentation about A99II. After the introduction, please understand there is some distortion in images due to the sitting position.

Yes ... I think so too. The A99II is a DSLT body between the DSLR and the mirrorless, which was a transitional one, and the market paradigm itself is mirror-less, so it's a camera for those who used an A-mount lens. Sony's A-mount FF cameras have not been released from 2013, so to enjoy the latest sensor performance, use the LA-EA3 and 4 in the A7 series body. It was terrible experience.

It would not be easy for Sony to give a new camera to maintain the A-mount system, which can be said to be very unlikely to be marketable, but it will be applauded for the launch of the product itself.

A brief summary of the features of the A99II. Existing phase difference type AF at external module can be used at the same time. Also A7R II's latest 4,240-megapixel sensor, Front LSI for high-speed shooting and reactivity improvement, A-mount camera for 5-axis camera shake prevention and 4K shooting are also adopted.

He have explained many things, but the most exciting thing about the A99II is the hybrid phase contrast AF system. In normal mirrorless camera, hybrid AF usually means focusing the image by adding image-contrast AF and phase-difference AF on sensor. However, A99II additionally uses phase-contrast AF at external module, which uses reflected light from transparent mirror. I think a dedicated sensor will perform better than a limited area imaging surface retarder. Personally, I was hoping that the LA-EA adapter using the A99II's transparent mirror AF module would be available for the A7 series.

In addition, Sony's existing cameras showed a low-light detection power of about EV-2 except for the A7S, but the A99II was able to confirm that the AF operates without any auxiliary light up to EV-4.

Thanks to the specs, overall AF performance has improved to the point where there is no shortage compared with flagship camera from majors. Wide coverage and low-light detection are commendable.

The parts of the sensor that have been installed have already been described in the A7R II. In fact, one of the biggest features of Sony's new products is that it is equipped with a front-end LSI. In fact, I do not know the precise purpose, but the hardware that plays a role to reduce the burden of the processor, it provides remarkable performance from the conventional Sony products in continuous shooting or review of the camera.

In fact, the existing A7R II has been 16-bit processing, but it seems better to understand that faster processing is possible through the front-end LSI. Since the image itself is processed according to the performance of the ADC, there is usually no need for quantization over 16 bits.

High sensitivity is also improved by pre-processing. There is a light loss due to a translucent mirror, which is absolutely inevitable at high sensitivity, but it seems to have recovered that part to some extent.

The front-end LSI seems to be used in many ways to ease the burden on the BIONZ X image processor and speed up image processing. Even if you have 42MP like A7R II, you can do 12 fps continuous shots. In fact, the speed of continuous shotting is more than 10 times in current generation flagship cameras, but the number of pixels is usually less than 20MP. Anyway, the data per second that can be extracted from the sensor seems to be the most (about 500MP).

The data extracted from the sensor is 500MP per second, overwhelming the Canon and Nikon flagship 1DX II and D5. Of course, the storage will have to support that much, but the speed of the sensor is the fastest I can see.

Although the processing speed to the buffer has been improved, the size of buffer itself also increases, and it can last up to 5 seconds even during full burst shoot. It's a much longer duration than the A7R II. As a user of the A7R II, it is a tearful.TT I think it would have been nice if the front-end LSI and large buffer is adopted to A7 series.

As you can see above, tracking ability seems to be considerable. In fact, it is not easy to follow a bird flying like that, but A99II has improved a lot compared to existing Sony cameras.

As mentioned above, the storage speed to the memory does not support the reading speed of the sensor, which makes it difficult to maintain the continuous shooting speed. However, it is possible to record RAW at an incomparable level with ordinary high-end cameras. The Canon 5DM4 and Nikon D810 are capable to shoot about 20 RAW. Of course, A99II is doing with a higher pixel.

In addition, the 5-axis optical steady shot is also applied to the A99II. It has already been verified in the A7 series and the body size is more than the A7 series, so it seems to have been implemented by Sony not difficult. It is good to be able to shoot slow shutter with handheld like the above photographs. The second one is 1/2s (the presenter shot it himself ...), and the third one is 1/8s, which is a significant slow shutter.

The biggest difference is FHD 120fps can be taken, which is very useful when making 5 times slow motion. There is a color profile such as S-log3 / S-gamut3 added, which is convenient for later grading. Take advantage of the high-speed shooting function. The slow motion function inside the body and the 4K photo capture function are not provided in the existing A7R II.

I looked at the minor changes in the unexpected things. Once the body size has been reduced, it has been reduced to A77II size. There is also a vertical grip to share with the A77II. Once the DSLR is compact and lightweight, it's trending nowadays.

The shutter unit has a guaranteed number of cuts of 300,000 times, and it is surrounded by full magnesium including the head due to absence of GPS.

The viewfinder is the same size as the A7R II and is very spacious. The 3-way tilt display is as good as A99.

The menu configuration has been changed, and the existing body such as A7R II is waiting for it.

Highlights priority light metering, spot metering with AF points is added. Especially, it seems very useful to be able to set the offset according to the metering method. AF adjustment is not so difficult with cameras nowadays, but it is also noticeable that the AF is fine-tuned by distance and coverage.

There is additional video related functions, but I do not use it well, so the most noticeable feature to pass is that it can connect with Bluetooth. It is very useful to be able to geo-tagging with the GPS information in conjunction with the phone. In particular, smartphones can geo-tag much more precisely because they are also calibrated by A-GPS.

In addition, Phase One's Capture One program is provided as an Express version, and it is also possible to update it to the full version at a very low cost. I personally think that adobe Lightroom is enough for me, but I think there are many people who use Capture One, which is a good option.

2-2. A99II simple experience

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Some A99II bodies were exhibited, and I will write down my brief impressions. In fact, it is not enough time itself, and there are lots of people, so I can not tell you what kind of product is enough.

It is A99II equipped with Carl Zeiss Distagon 24mm. Certainly, there is something different from the old A99. I feel like there are a lot of curves in the case of A99, but it seems to be arranged somewhat neatly. The head part are quite different design to A77II.

Front-click/non-click switchable dial. I do not know how to use the A99II because time is not enough, but I think that it will be useful.

It is equipped with vertical grip and flash. It is compact (?) in its own way, but it is also acceptable for me. Vertical grip is shared with the A77II. The attached lens is 24-70 f/2.8 ZA. I am using FE24-70GM these days and it seems not so big.

12fps high-speed continuous shooting through the Profoto air remote. In fact, this is the first time I have seen the lighting system. As you can see in a rough way, you can see that it lasts about 5 to 6 seconds with 12fps. The capacity of the buffer is quite large, I can not imagine it in the A7R II.

In addition, it is possible to re-shooting or review after shooting after the buffer is full. It seems to be the biggest difference from the previous bodies that are just out of order. In addition, it is also very useful to display the number of pictures remaining in the current buffer in the review screen.

In addition, the A and E mounts have many lenses, so various experiences were possible. 500G is actually a single lens sold in Korea so far, 500G can be seen in the sample. I know that the price ... is actually over 10 million won. If there is such a lens, I think I will need the A99II for the lens as well.

3-1. A6500 seminar

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After the seminar on Sony's flagship A99II, the following was the A6500, the latest generation of the APS-C Crop Mirrorless. In fact, the A6300 was released earlier this year, so the model change was a little faster, but the A6500 is a model that has more features than I expected.

The A6500 was announced by Yi Jun-taek Product Manager. Let's look at some of the more features of A6500.

In fact, it is 6500 which is developed as a base based on A6300... It have been upgraded much more than I thought. Like the A99II, the front-end LSI was introduced to provide fluent performance and large buffer, and the touchscreen and 5-axis camera-shake device we wanted was included. In fact, the price has increased a lot compared to A6300.

In fact, the sensor is 100% identical to the 6300. Improvements through copper wiring are the main benefit, but BSI structures such as the A7R II, A99II, and NX500 are not adopted. In fact, if Samsung NX remained in the market, it would have taken up the BSI structure. However, at present, except for the sensors used in the Fuji such as X-T2, APS-C has the best performance.

The performance of the A6500 compared to the A6300 will improve the noise reduction of this front-end LSI, but actual improvement is can confirmed.

It is 4D focus which is pushed from Sony since A6000. At that time, I actually remember that it was fresh just because tracking performance is quite good with the phase difference AF points. The A6500 evolved even further.

The 425 AF-points fill the whole image. In the case of one-shot AF ... In fact, I do not know yet whether it is as fast as Panasonic or Olympus. Of course it is incredibly fast enough. More AF points are activated while tracking objects.

And finally, the touch screen gets in and we can adjust the AF point by touch. I know it's really a huge demand, but in the future, I believe that Sony would like to put a touch screen on all the cameras. Rather, the traditional DSLR manufacturer such as Canon, which was conservative these days, puts in the touch, but it feels rather slow in this part.

And large buffer ... I used to work on the old A6000 experience team and used A6300 later, but 20 raw images and 70 jpg images could be in buffer, and it was a really incomprehensible part. But, A6500 can shoot up to over 300 jpg images in continuous shooting. I really applaud this part.

In addition, the 5-axis optical steady shot that was included in the second-generation A7 series was introduced. The size is smaller and the performance is slightly raised. Surprisingly, the volume of camera is still same to A6300. In some ways, this is the biggest hardware difference with the 6300. It is now possible to use anti-shake lenses even with lenses such as SEL24F18Z.

Other improvements include various improvements in the durability of the shutter unit as shown in A99II. It may be a minor part, but it seems to be better on its own and it is seen as a positive part. The shape of the grip has changed to the shape of the A7 II.

Equipped with almost the same software as the A99II. There are several improvements as described in A99II above.

3-2. A6500 simple experience

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The A6500 had a little experience after the seminar. I will simply check the product.

The overall impression is not much different from the A6300. It is noticeable that there is a slight change of the grip part where the shutter is located and that one more custom button is added at the top.

Top part. As you can see the thickness, it is almost the same as the existing A6000 and A6300 series. The thickness that is not stretched even when the anti-shake device comes in is good. (Well, is there any room left for previous camera?)

The rear is 99% identical to the A6300, except for some lettering. By the way, the 16:9 display is still there. Personally I think the 3:2 or 4:3 display is better for the camera, but that's a pity. Of course, there may be problems such as the position of the viewfinder, but it seems like RX can be popped.

Matching with Flash. In fact, mirrorless camera does not fit the external flash, but in this case, it looks fine because the external flash is small.

This is a continuous shooting test on the A6500. The Hi+ 14fps shooting is possible, and the buffer seems to be quite large. It seems to have taken approximately 250 imgaes, but the buffer may be different depending on the situation. Like the A99II, display the remaining number of pictures in the current buffer is good part. Also re-shooting and review is also possible after buffer is full.

4-1. RX100V seminar

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The third product introduced today at the road show is the RX100V, the latest in the RX100 series, which is also the symbol of the Sony RX.

As you know, the RX line up includes the RX1 series, which is a full-frame model, and the RX10 / RX100 series, which uses a 1-inch sensor. I think maybe there will be an RX series that later adopts APS-C sensor, but there is no news yet. Anyway, it was the RX100 series that made the biggest hit among the RX line up. It is not an exaggeration to say that it led to high-end camera market. Even though it is a relatively large sensor, it attracted attention as its portability in a pocket at 2012.

The proportion of high-end cameras is also increasing. It is not necessary to explain why the RX series occupies a large proportion. It is said that it is more than three times larger than the second-ranked company in Korea. Of course, other than Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, Canon, etc. have also entered the market with a 1-inch sensor camera, but they are just minor in that market.

And finally, the RX100V appears as the latest in RX. As for the difference, the introduction of phase-difference AF and the addition of front-end LSI like A99II, A6500, etc., shows a further improvement in terms of "speed", which shows a considerable improvement from the previous work.

So, in summary of three lines of RX100V, it is like the above slide. First feature is phase difference AF with 315 points. The second is AF speed and the last one is 24fps continuous shooting with AE/AF tracking. Sadly, touch did not work, did Sony leave it for RX100VI?

The total number of phase difference points is 315, which is less than that of the A6500, but it is enough to cover the entire imaging area. There are 25 concurrent AF points, and the hybrid AF used in the A7 series is also available in the RX100 series.

When focusing on a moving object in the AF-C mode by using hybrid AF, you can also check the rectangular spot on the RX100V that was previously visible on the A7R2, A6300, and so on. It would be better if you refer to the video below.

 

In the conventional RX100IV, Lock-AF actually recognized the object, but it was not a technique that would be called smooth tracking. However, the RX100V can be found to be very easy to track. Another thing you can see in the above image is that you can use this hybrid AF to track moving objects dynamically even in 4K shooting.

Hybrid AF, like the existing A7 series, uses AF phase difference AF and makes fine tuning through contrast AF at the end. I wanted to reduce wobbling as much as possible, but when I actually touched the RX100V, it showed a much faster AF speed than the RX100IV. I think that the DoF (depth of field) is wide enough to be advantageous in terms of AF speed compared to large sensor cameras.

And thanks to the combination of the D-RAM stacked sensor + Front-end LSI, it is possible to track the object up to 24 fps. Like A99II, it delivers close to 500 million pixels per second throughput. And the buffer is also plenty enough to take about 150 shots continuously.

The silent shutter is also available for continuous shooting. Existing camera such as A7R II has also silent shooting function, but there was a shortcoming such as reduced RAW color bit number and unusable in continuous shooting.

In addition, the waterproof housing was released, and the waterproof up to 40m is guaranteed, and the price is very cheap because the official launch is about 300,000 won. When I used the RX100IV, I went on a hopping tour at Cebu, but the proper waterproof housing was over 500,000 won, so I just bought the waterproofing pack for 30,000 won.

It summarizes what Sony have gained through product changes in the fifth generation. It is constantly evolving and I am looking forward to how it will develop in the future. Once in the next generation products, it seems that touch is essential.

But the biggest value of the RX100V is its portability. Of course, It can be blamed as a non-choice, but I personally think that it is the only camera that can be compatible with both portability and image quality.

4-2. RX100V simple experience

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In fact, the difference between the appearance of the original RX100M3, M4 seems to be almost nothing except for lettering on the top.

RX100V, IV, III and other RX100 series are exhibited. The exterior looks the same.

It is the appearance of RX100V. The pop-up viewfinder is like the RX100IV. I would like the viewfinder to be automatically expanded at popup like RX1RII ... hopefully it will be improved in the future. In addition, there is a special grip for RX100 series that sells for about 20,000 won in Sony Korea. I used to use priest grips in the past, but it seems to me that it seems to fit more naturally than them.

I have also looked at the RX1R II, the big brother of the RX series. The A7R II is a combination of a sensor and a 35/2 Carl Zeiss lens that boasts a very small size. I think that this product will be almost the king if It has the anti-shake device and Front-LSI.

It is really compact. Except for the lens group, there is no difference with the RX100 series. There is a great arrangement up to the hot shoe.

5. Explore FDR-X3000

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I think it is probably the field of action cam is rapidly increasing in digital imaging side. Several companies are starting to get started with GoPro, but the companies that are driving the biggest wave in the market are probably Sony. Sony have been putting the advantages of the existing camera and camcorder business into the action cam, and Sony is gaining a unique competitive edge. I think that the FDR-X3000 seems to be the product of all the technology of Sony Action Cam to date.

Action cam market status in Korea. It sells quite a lot. This year's market growth was almost 10 times compared to 2012. I wonder how big the share of Sony is.

The lineup is gradually becoming more and more highend, and 4K action cams seem to sell a lot.

And the worst part of these action cams is the shake at the time of shooting. 

So in this small action cam, Sony introduces the BOSS camera shake correction technology used in large handycam. In contrast to cameras, moving cameras such as Handycam require a very large range of compensation.

As you can see, BOSS is adopted by 1/20 small size. Knowhow of Handycam and camera may be useful to reduce the size.

You can see various image stabilization technologies, the electronic image stabilization method (in fact, even the electronic correction was Sony's superior) are originally used. However, there are various restrictions. For example, there is a problem such that the image processing is additionally required and the angle of view is narrowed and it can not be used in 4K mode. However, since optical technology is a physical technology, it does not affect shooting at all, and it also corrects camera shake more effectively..

The above image is a comparison between Sony FDR-X3000 and Gopher Hero 5 Black by some Youtube user, but there is a big difference in the degree of trembling when viewed from a small screen. I'm sure buy the action cam with BOSS if the price difference is not big enough.

In addition, the barrel distortion is reduced, so you can shoot more natural.

Since it is an action cam, simple waterproofing is possible, and waterproofing is possible up to 60m depth with the basic housing. In general scuba diving, this level seems to be freely available.

I think that feedback from users is one of Sony's great advantages. I would like to be able to use action cams in real time soon.

It is the appearance of FDR-X3000. I think it's really a small camcorder.

6. Lucky draw and others

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The road show finally ended with lucky draw. Action cam AS300, A99II limited strap, memory card and various goods are prepared for winner.

The lottery was held by Hana Camera. I wanted to be a winner, but there was no luck to win.

The 1st prize winner was given an AS300 action cam. Congratulations ~

For everyone who attended, however, there were a variety of useful souvenirs such as the Carl Zeiss lens cleaner, the smartphone ring, the LCD screen cleaner and the G-Master cup. The Carl Zeiss lens cleaner is really good when you use it to clean something for various purposes. The ring for smartphones is also quite useful.