The Sony a6500 and Sigma 16mm in Belize was a very capable camera. The Sigma 16mm f/1.4 is hands down one of the best lenses for Sony cameras. I keep talking about this lens, I know.
As some of you are aware and if you’re active on YouTube or social media, there are several announcements of the Sony A7siii and Sony A7c as well as a lot of talk and reviews of the a6400 and a6600, but is the a6500 still a good choice in 2020?
For many of you in the community I’ve heard that the Sony a6500 is what you’re currently filming with or that it’s more readily available and within your budget depending on the country you’re in. The Sony a6500 paired with the Sigma 16mm f/1.4 was my primary filming setup while in Belize and in my opinion this camera was more than capable of capturing the look I was going for.
Remember though, you’re filming in 8-bit color, which is plenty for most. It just means that you have less color depth when you’re editing, so if you’re trying to recover certain aspects of your image you may find that the color doesn’t hold up as well. However, if you start off and become familiar with the right camera settings from the get, then you’ll have fewer issues with having to recover that footage.
As I’ve said in the video and as I always say, experiment with your camera. Use these Cine 4 camera settings as a baseline and adjust as needed. Just go out and film.
Camera Settings:
Picture Profile 1 (PP1)
Black Level +1 Gamma
Cine4
Black Gamma Wide & +3 Knee Manual 80% +2
Color Mode Pro
Saturation -4
Color Phase 0
Color Depth:
R +3
G +2
B -1
C -3
M -3
Y +3
Detail -5
For 60fps or 120fps Detail is set to 0 (Zero)
4K 100M 24fps
I also filmed in 60-120fps (1080) and stabilized where I needed in post, specifically while on the boat. Be sure to experiment with white balance as needed, but I remained on the daylight setting, because you know, sun.
The gear I use to create