Sony A77MII And Shooting Video

b08rsa

This may not be the proper place to ask, but here it goes...
I currently have a Sony A77 MII body, that I was using a 70-300mm lens to shoot video. Since this was my first time trying to use this feature, my clips came out so shaky that it was not worth doing.
I did not have the steady feature set on the body when I was shooting still frame shots, wondering if that may help on the video side? My goal is to get some short video clips of my high school daughter playing soccer. I have had multiple college recruiters ask for video of her.
Would it make better since to try to shoot video through my still frame camera, or just go out and buy a camcorder?
Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanls,

Ron A.

:dunno

kdog

Shooting video with a long lens requires good techniques. You definitely want your image stabilization turned on. Plus you should use a tripod and a fluid head. Manfrotto has some good inexpensive video heads in the 200-300 range that you can use with your current tripod, or you can pickup a kit of legs with a video head for not much more. Personally, I think you'd be nuts to buy a camcorder since you already have all the camera you need, plus the quality from the A77II will blow away any camcorder once you master it.

BTW, the shaky footage you already shot can likely stabilized somewhat in software. A lot of the video editor programs have that feature. Even Youtube claims to have that feature, although I'm not sure how well it works.

ziggy53

kdog wrote: »

Shooting video with a long lens requires good techniques. You definitely want your image stabilization turned on. Plus you should use a tripod and a fluid head. Manfrotto has some good inexpensive video heads in the 200-300 range that you can use with your current tripod, or you can pickup a kit of legs with a video head for not much more. Personally, I think you'd be nuts to buy a camcorder since you already have all the camera you need, plus the quality from the A77II will blow away any camcorder once you master it.

BTW, the shaky footage you already shot can likely stabilized somewhat in software. A lot of the video editor programs have that feature. Even Youtube claims to have that feature, although I'm not sure how well it works.

I agree with everything KDog said. Excellent advise and I do use a Bogen/Manfrotto 3063 fluid head with a Manfrotto 755XB MDEVE tripod, with integral 50mm half-ball*. (For still images I swap the fluid head with a Manfrotto 3047 pan head (model III).)

The Bogen/Manfrotto 3063 fluid head is no longer available new, but used copies appear fairly often.

Do turn off the in-body stabilization when using a tripod, unless you are shooting from an unstable platform, like a boat or slow-moving vehicle.

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*The 50mm half-ball makes for very quick leveling, which is extremely important for video work.

b08rsa

Thank You all for the advice. I guess it will take lot's of practice on my part.

kdog

ziggy53 wrote: »

Do turn off the in-body stabilization when using a tripod, unless you are shooting from an unstable platform, like a boat or slow-moving vehicle.

Thanks for pointing that out, Ziggy. I use stabilization on my Canon lenses when shooting on the tripod and I believe it helps stabilize the video when panning, or just touching the camera. I know that most people recommend using the Sony in-camera stabilizer for hand-held and just assumed it would improve tripod use as well.

ziggy53

kdog wrote: »

Thanks for pointing that out, Ziggy. I use stabilization on my Canon lenses when shooting on the tripod and I believe it helps stabilize the video when panning, or just touching the camera. I know that most people recommend using the Sony in-camera stabilizer for hand-held and just assumed it would improve tripod use as well.

While some Canon and Nikon optically stabilized (Optical Image Stabilization, OIS) lenses do have a mode just for panning, Mode II generally (I believe for Canon), and if you have good vertical stabilization from the tripod (semi-firm setting on the vertical control and loose on the panning control) Mode II of the IS may or may not help image sharpness. Run some tests to be sure. Unfortunately that means run tests on each lens, as OIS systems vary from lens model to lens model.

In an in-body stabilization system (Steady-Shot [SS] in the case of Sony), at longer focal lengths the stabilization tends to lose effectiveness in both vertical and horizontal axes. This because the SS stabilization takes place at the focal plane vs OIS where stabilization is in the image path inside the lens (where the stabilization system has better optical "leverage").

In other words, OIS tends to use a similar correction angle regardless of focal length, because the correcting optics can be placed further into the lens body of a longer focal length lens. Indeed, the OIS system can be tailor-made for each lens and its particular stabilization needs.

In a Sony SS system the same system controls stabilization at the imager block regardless of focal length, meaning that the image block has to move both faster and further to stabilize a longer focal length lens.

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As a complete aside, and just to really muddy the stabilization discussion, Panasonic has released a new stabilization control system called "Dual I.S." which Panasonic claims, "... in-camera image stabilization works in tandem with in-lens LUMIX I.S. to maximize stabilization. In-body and in-lens stabilization can be used separately, or activated together to minimize jitter more effectively."*

Obviously, for such a close cooperation between 2 dissimilar stabilization systems requires matched and paired camera bodies and specially designed lenses; currently that means exactly 1 - Panasonic camera body, the Panasonic LUMIX GX8 4K Mirrorless ILC Body, and then 7 - Panasonic lenses.

The effectiveness of this new dual stabilization system has yet to be thoroughly tested and quantified, but I'm rather proud of Panasonic for the attempt and I do hope for early adopters' sake that it shows a demonstrable image improvement.

BTW, I have hoped for this dual stabilization for some time, and talked about it in the following post from early 2007 (almost 9 years ago ):

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=459054&postcount=3

ziggy53 wrote: »

"Imagine a lens and body which could coordinate their stabilization systems? Such a system could be vastly superior to either technology alone. I suggest such a system would be possible in the next few years. Is it worth waiting for? No way of telling.

Anyway, such a system would allow the development of Canon and Nikon camera based stabilization, if they could justify and market the need and demonstrate system superiority."

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*(http://shop.panasonic.com/dual-is/dual-is-lenses)

b08rsa

OK, here is the tripod I am currently looking at. What are your opinion on using something like this to shoot video. Also would you look into a different type lens to get more of a steady shot? I was using a 75-300mm lens to record video.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1164521-REG/manfrotto_mk294a3_128rc_294_aluminum_tripod_with.html

ziggy53

b08rsa wrote: »

OK, here is the tripod I am currently looking at. What are your opinion on using something like this to shoot video. Also would you look into a different type lens to get more of a steady shot? I was using a 75-300mm lens to record video.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1164521-REG/manfrotto_mk294a3_128rc_294_aluminum_tripod_with.html

This particular set of legs and head may be difficult to level quickly. On a grass field (soccer) I greatly desire the 755XB MDEVE sticks with an integral 50mm half-ball.

So, this is what I recommend:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/555407-REG/Manfrotto_128RC_755XBK_128RC_755XBK_Aluminum_Tripod_System.html

Not sure why Adorama is so much more expensive (pretty tired from a long holiday weekend, so I might be missing something), but read the reviews there anyway.

http://www.adorama.com/bgrc755xbk.html

I can't see if this particular head has built-in levels. If it doesn't have levels, just order another quick-release plate, swap that bare plate for the camera, use a bullseye level on the bare plate until the level centers using the half-ball. Tighten the half-ball at level and swap the camera/plate back on top and shoot. It's much faster to do than to explain.