First Impressions of the Sony Z-V1 (And the one big problem no one talked about in the reviews)
A little while ago, I decided to upgrade my Vlogging camera, and so I bought a Sony Z-V1. I had been using a Canon GX1 Mark II, but I wanted something with 4k recording, and the Sony seemed like a good option. I have been using it on and off for the past few weeks, and so here is some early first impressions of Sony’s little Vlogging camera.
Why the Sony Z-V1?
So, why did I buy the Sony S-V1 and not some other camera? Well, I wanted to use this for two reasons. Firstly, for in-studio vlogging. For this reason, I wanted to be able to record 4k to do zoom ins and re-framing to be able to avoid jump cuts. Secondly, I want to be able to use this out and about, should I ever get back to my “Street Photo Diary” series of videos. In this case, I wanted something with a microphone in, which was the biggest issue I had with the G7X.
Finally, I just wanted a small, pocketable camera to have on me for general purpose filming out taking stills, to get a better result than my phone. The key features for me were the flip around screen, the microphone in and the ability to record 4k.
I had watched many reviews of different cameras, and the main reason I went for the Sony was that it seemed to offer the best video quality of any of the cameras I had considered, in a small package. Indeed, my early impressions bear this out. It was the only camera in this form factor to offer a log recording option, and also unlimited record time, which can come in handy sometimes too. That was my main criteria for buying the ZV-1.
So, is it any good?
Initial Impressions — the good
When I first shot some video with it, I was immediately impressed with the quality. I can’t believe that you can get this quality video out of a camera so small. It’s kind of nuts that you can. Sharpness, clarity, colour are all perfect. If anything it’s a little over sharp by default, but you can reduce this.
Shooting Log with this is a little tricky. You can get nice results, but getting it without noise requires some practice, and my efforts so farer are a mixed bag. The colours are also pretty good for the most part. Sony has definitely improved its colour science over the years, although I still find the auto white balance a little on the yellow side in cloudy or overcast weather, and the cloudy, and daylight presets are a little warm too. But this is easily fixed.
The 120p recording is also impressive, even though it's only in 1080, but that’s fine for me. I don’t need 4k 60 or 4k 120 so none of that matters to me.
One of the main reasons that I wanted to move on from my Canon G7X Mark II was the lack of a microphone port on that camera. This has a microphone in and full level meters, although I’m still finding it hard to get the levels just right with my external microphone. But the quality is great, and it saves trying to sync up an external recorder after the fact.
Still quality is actually pretty good with this camera too, although I don’t have anything too exciting to share. I won’t bother sharing stills now, but when I get to shoot some better stills with it, I will add to a follow-up article.
Stabilisation is a mixed bag. It’s not great, in either the standard or active mode, however, it does have one interesting trick. When you record video, it also records gyroscope data from the stabiliser, and you can do post stabilisation on the video using Sony’s own software. While the software itself is clunky as hell, it is extremely effective. You do get a bit of a crop doing this, but it works really well.
The bad
I watched many reviews of this before I purchased. The one thing that they kept complaining about was that the lens wasn’t really wide enough for Vlogging because of a mild crop in 4k. I wasn’t that put off by that because it was similar to the G7X and that was always fine for me. Indeed, this isn’t as big a deal as people were making it out to be. But the camera does have one major flaw, which in my opinion is a much bigger issue, and I’m just utterly befuddled as to why none of the reviewers that I watched even mentioned it.
When recording in 4k you can’t adjust the screen brightness. If you had been in another mode, and you switch to 4k or start recording if in still mode, the screen will dim. And it’s not a bright screen at default brightness.
While this is fine inside, it makes it very difficult to see the screen outside. It’s also very reflective, so even in cloudy conditions, it's very difficult to see the screen. This is just inexplicable to me. With no other way to see what you’re doing, it's a huge problem — and one that I just can’t understand that people reviewing this camera didn’t mention.
You can see it just enough to judge framing, so it's not a total loss, and it depends on the angle and the lighting conditions. Funnily enough, it's nearly better in the sun than it is when its cloudy, but its something you should seriously consider if looking at this camera. If you use it in 1080 it's no problem as you can turn the brightness up, but if you want to record in 4k, be prepared to squint to see it.
Conclusion (so far)
So, overall, I’m in a bit of a love hate situation with it. It’s capable of truly remarkable video for such a small camera, but it’s let down by Sony’s baffling decision not to let you increase the screen brightness when shooting 4k. I still haven’t used it too much outdoors, so maybe I’ll get used to it or find a solution, but as it is, I’m just baffled by this. It's a let-down to what would otherwise have been an almost perfect pocket video and vlogging camera.
If you’re interested in the ZV1 its available in most camera stores that stock Sony, and from online retailers.
- Sony ZV-1 on Amazon: Amazon US | Amazon UK
- Sony ZV-1 on BH Photo
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