Working with the Sony NEX-5n for broadcast

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 16^th, 2012

Guest post by Johnnie Behiri:

Working together with my BBC correspondent Bethany Bell is a cameraman’s dream come true. The reason is simple, she lets me do my job….:).

A minute before the new Canon C300 and Nikon D4 are here to lift the picture quality bar, here is our attempt to work with the Sony NEX5n in a “normal short feature for broadcast environment”. It is part of our ongoing effort to test different modern working tools.

The little Sony is a lot of fun to work with. Its low light capability is very nice and working in even 1600 ISO is a absolutely “worry free”. Moiré and aliasing are surly there but after working with the Canon 7d how can I complain…:)
Camera DID NOT warm up and shut off probably due to the fact that I was working with EVF connected and my sequences (even the interviews) did not stress the camera to the limit.

About this short feature:
Vienna’s coffee houses are often called the city’s “public living rooms”. For the price of a hot drink and perhaps a piece of cake, customers can come and spend the day, just relaxing with friends or reading the newspaper.

Often housed in beautifully grand and ornate buildings, coffee houses are so much a part of the fabric of the Austrian capital that Unesco recently included them on their list of intangible cultural heritage – describing them as places “where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill.”

Bethany Bell went along to Vienna’s Cafe Weimar and Cafe Diglas to find out more.

Lenses: the kit 16mm f/2.8 and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lenses (my decision using those lenses was based on their “off the shelf availability”).
Creative style: “Sunset”. Settings: contrast -3, saturation -1, sharpness -3.
Format: AVCHD 1080/25
Tripod: Sachtler DV8 SB
Rig: Vocas
Audio: Tascam DR-100 recorder, Sennheiser G2 EW100 wireless system, Sanken Lav mic, Cos 11D
Electronic VF: Cineroid Metal HDMI version
Light: Cineroid mini LED light L2C
Editing: Adobe Premiere CS2 with Cineform Neo4k
Color correction: Cineform “FirstLight”

Music: Karl Minarik

The BBC Close-up series focuses on aspects of life in countries and cities around the world. What may seem ordinary and familiar to the people who live there can be surprising to those who do not. conditions. bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16538189