Sony AS100VR and Sony A65 DSLR

[dirtbox 0]

There doesn't seem to be any real information on here about using the Sony A65 DSLR or the functionality of the Sony AS100VR for work jumps so I am going to roll both into one review.

Over the last weekend I put 12 jumps on my new camera set up: A Sony AS100VR and Sony A65 with Sigma 10-20mm lens. Plenty of people have written reviews on the Sony AS100VR action camera and they all know more about image quality and video recording than I do but not a lot has been written (from what I have seen) about functionality/adapting it to work jumps.

AS100V Settings: The first 5 jumps I played with different settings on the AS100. All videos were done on the pro-mode (XAVC S) with 1080p60fps. I played with the steady shot on and off, padding the box (some reviews suggested it was necessary) and the color settings. With the steady shot on the image had a horizontal 'shake', adding a piece of padding (business card) to the box did decrease the amount of shake but didn't 'fix' it. Stead shot off made for nice smooth footage, to my eye at least as smooth as a CX110 camera and having padding in the box made no difference so I took it out. The camera has both neutral and vivid colour settings with the vivid producing a much nicer image (in my opinion). So after playing around with it I will continue to use it on 1080p60fps vivid color and steady shot off with no padding in the box.

Also worth noting is that you will need SDXC cards to use the pro-mode settings and a 1:07 freefall clip is about 435MB. A low quality copy (540p) can be viewed here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10154461698780635&l=3359354394787768747

AS100V Getting your cards: In terms of function the camera is a bit of a pain in the ass but manageable with a bracket to invert it. You could use it without the box or use the lens protector but I'd rather try and protect the camera. The engineers must of been out to lunch the day they designed the box as they put the clips to open the door on the bottom which makes retrieving the camera from the box if mounted on a flat surface impossible. I made a bracket out of steel banding to hold the camera upside down (the cameras software allows you to invert the image) and now taking the cards out is like taking a CX110 out of a Rawa box; open the box, grab the camera, open the camera door, retrieve the card and do the opposite to put it back together.

AS100V Control and batteries: For recording on the ground I just use the physical controls on the camera itself. Once in the aircraft I had to use the physical control on the camera to turn it on but then you can control it with the wrist mounted remote which shows recording card status. There is a 10 second lag between turning the camera and remote on and getting them to connect so I was turning it all on about 500ft before the red light and a ~3second lag between pressing record and the camera recording. The wrist remote used about 50% of the battery over the weekend/12 jumps. I found the camera battery lasted ~6-8 jumps though spare batteries can be purchased cheaply from Amazon (I paid $16 for 2) and switch out the same way as the cards do.

Current set up: Bonehead flat top narrow with the Sony A65 screwed directly to the helmet (no bracket) with thumb screw and a large washed in the inside and a layer of cork between the camera and helmet. Next to the stills is a Sony AS100V mounted upside down inside a square bracket bolted directly to the helmet. It weights 5.1lb (2.3kg). Photo of set up is attached.

Sony A65 settings: I have been playing with both manual settings and using the cameras of sports setting for skydiving all with decent results. You can pick your own settings for what you want to achieve. Worth noting though, even with Sandisc Extreme pro cards (write speed of 60mbs, off the top of my head) I am still using the low continuous mode as the high setting fills the buffer and can take 7 seconds to clear. Images range between 5-8MB.

Sony A65 functionality: Battery life on it is solid; I started the day with a battery at 27% and got through 5 jumps before it was down to 15% and I switched batters. The second battery did the next 7 jumps and it is still at 86%. Switching batteries, with my set up, just meant undoing the thumb screw inside my helmet to access the door and popping a new one in and tightening the screw. Memory cards are accessible from the side so basically, if I start the day with a full battery I would only have to unscrew my camera to change the battery at the end of the day assuming I did 15 camera jumps. You can either buy switches made specially for Sony (~$70-$90) or you can buy an adapter from Hypoxic (~$40) and use Canon switches. (~$50).

I have attached some different photos using the A65 in different settings with the Sigma 10-20 lens over the last few months. Most (all?) where done with manual settings/ Aperture priority.

[mircan 0]

Thanks for writing about this. Do you have any links to tandem videos made with AS100?

dudeist skydiver #42

[dirtbox 0]

There is a degraded video link in the post, of I get access to faster internet I'll put up a high def one.

Cheers

Dave