SONY A1 GEAR
So, by plugging it into your A1, it works as a light, bright,
“The lens is not only one of the sharpest 50mmprimes ever, with incredible sharpness across the frame even wide open, but it also focuses incredibly quickly”
large-screen monitor that can be streamed from, via a 5G connection, to all major services like Facebook Live or YouTube. And you can still record the full-resolution footage on the camera’s memory card for editing later, or even record the live stream to the phone. The Xperia Pro also allows full control of the camera from the screen. It might seem expensive for ‘just’ a phone – but if you think of it as a piece of professional filmmaking kit that works as a light and long-lasting external monitor with seamless 5G streaming on demand, it’s a more reasonable proposition. It also makes calls and does all the other things smartphones do. The icing on the cake is the 50mm f/1.2 G Master lens. Sony has already offered a range of 50mm prime lenses in FE-mount at a range of price points, but nothing from the high-end G Master range. While Canon and Nikon have been drumming up excitement with super-fast 50mm prime lenses in newmirrorless mounts, Sony decided the launch of the A1 was perfect timing to go all-out with a flagship prime. The lens is not only one of the sharpest 50mm primes ever, with incredible sharpness across the frame even wide open, but it also focuses incredibly quickly. That’s important if pairing it with a camera that has super-precise
AF and can shoot at 30fps in Raw. Like the camera, the Sony 50mm f/1.2 G Master lenses have been flying off the shelves everywhere, despite the £2099/$1998 price, as its reputation as one of the greatest lenses ever has spread like wildfire. The camera, lens and phone together make an unmatchable trio that work so well as a system. But the reality is that most pro filmmakers and image creators will be most interested in the 8K-shooting A1 and its video capabilities across the board. When we tested the video- centric Sony A7S III, we raved about it, but said that if you demand 8K, or big stills files to crop from, the camera isn’t for you. The A1 is the answer, as it offers oversampled 8K at up to 30p in up to 400Mbps. And where the rival 8K Canon EOS R5 overheats very quickly, the Sony doesn’t. We shot outside for 30 minutes on a warm summer day with no problems. That’s in Britain, so not actually that hot. But the camera ploughed on, and you really need the screen folded out to improve cooling. In an indoor studio, air- conditioned to stay at 20°C, the
MARK OF QUALITY While many Sony camera bodies look the same, the A1 branding tells you all you need to know
camera recorded 8K for almost 90 minutes before it got too hot. That was also the time the battery was about to die and the 128GB SD cards were full, although you can hot-swap and keep going. But if you power the camera via a dummy battery to a V-Lock or AC adapter, it just carries on. It really is possible to shoot long films in 8K with the awesome Alpha. Of course, the footage is incredible, but also heavy on computing power and storage. Despite converting to proxies, it still slowed our pimped-up iMac to a crawl. It had us heading to Apple to see howmuch an upgrade cost... and the purchase of an additional 16TB external drive was required. All of this firepower comes at a very real financial price – and not just the camera. If you need 8K now for massive video cropping, or want to fully future-proof footage, it’s a good solution. The 8K footage is available in 200Mbps and 400Mbps settings, and there is hardly any difference when viewing the two. But that’s on a 4K monitor. For the most detailed 4K footage, shooting in 8K and downsizing to 4K in edit is the way to go, although this does mean it takes up more memory space and the frame rate choices are limited to 30p max. When shooting the camera in native 4K mode, despite there being far more choices in terms of compression, codec and frame rates, it uses pixel-binning so the footage isn’t quite as detailed. It’s still very good, though.
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PRO MOVIEMAKER
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