Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Sony Alpha ZVE10 II APS-C Content Creators’ Camera Kit is a great package for someone who wants to start creating videos. The Content Creators Kit is the only way you should be buying the Alpha ZVE10 II camera because it comes with a 16mm-50mm Sony E-Mount lens that has Optical Steady Shot (OSS) built into the lens, which is very important because the Alpha ZVE10 II does not have In-Body Image Stabilization (IBIS). That means the Alpha ZVE10 II camera depends on the lens’s OSS to provide most of the image stabilization. There is digital image stabilization in the camera body, but it will not be as good as the OSS on the lens. For that reason, the Content Creator’s Kit is worth its weight in gold because the included lens comes with OSS. The kit also includes a fluffy microphone cover to shield the body from wind noises. As for the Alpha ZVE10 II body itself, it has great features and clarity for taking 4k videos. There are many modes available for video capture, but auto mode is a great mode to start capturing right away and produce great results. The camera captures the videos in Sony’s XAVC format which is essentially MP4. Flip out screen is a god send for taking videos of yourself. One annoying thing about switching between modes is that the switching is done by a switch. You must manually move a slider to switch between camera, video, and S+Q modes. If you are in camera mode and hit the video record button, it will prompt you on the screen that you are in the wrong mode. If you are in video mode and try to hit the camera shutter button to take a photo, you will be prompted that you are in the wrong mode. It almost seems more intuitive to have an option where the user is in control of understanding that if you press the video record button, the camera will start recording video and if you press the camera shutter button, it will take a photo. I understand that the manual switch is there to prevent basic users from being in the wrong mode, however, it would be nice for advanced users to not have to manually switch between modes. Since this is a video camera first, there are some quirks about taking photos. Although when getting close to your subject, the camera shows a flower which is usually Macro mode. However, auto focus has a difficult time focusing on close objects. Tapping on the screen does not make it focus any better. So, your option is to move further back and rely on the zoom capabilities of the lens. I wished I had more information on the minimum requirements needed for the camera. I had purchased a Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC memory card for the camera rated at 200mb/s read and 140 mb/s write speeds. However, in trying to use the S+Q modes of the camera, it prompted that I need to use a V60 or higher memory card. Apparently my under-$50 memory card was only a V30. Unfortunately, I cannot return my memory card and will not be able to use the S+Q feature of the camera until I save enough money to buy a new SD card that supports V60 and above. In case you were wondering, those V60 and higher memory cards cost a bit more money than the standard cards to pick off the shelves. Rough estimate is that the V60 is double the price of a V30 card, and V90 is 3x the price of a V30 card. If you purchase this camera to use as a video device first, and still image capture as a bonus, you will be very happy with this camera. If you are purchasing this primarily as a still image capture device with video recording capabilities, then you probably want to consider Sony’s other offerings. Recording 4k video on this thing is just a great experience.

This is good in the way that all digital cameras today are pretty good, but in comparison with others, there are some drawbacks. The first, and most noticeable to me, is the lack of ability to transfer images via bluetooth. With my previous setup, I would transfer images via bluetooth to my phone while shooting, and those would get synchronized via the cloud to my laptop, where I could see them in detail. Having a good view of the images in near real-time as I was taking them helped me decide whether I needed to reshoot them immediately. With the Sony, you can only transfer images to your phone via WiFi, and you can't shoot while doing that, so the only real option is batch transfer. You can only see the previews on the phone screen while shooting, so you don't have a great idea of whether you need more takes or not until after the batch transfer. Rather than going through your phone, you could choose to upload to Sony's Creator Cloud service, but again, that can really only be done in a batch-type transfer, and it takes even longer. Plus, the Creator Cloud is not really useful for editing, there is no computer app (at least for Macs, anyway) so any manipulation has to be done through a browser. I adapted my workflow for batch transfers, but it's not optimal. Second, I do most of my shooting with a macro lens, and the autofocus leaves a lot to be desired compared to my other camera. There is a cool feature with the manual focus with the macro lens, where it zooms in on a smaller section of the image field (which you can select) when you start to adjust the focus, which makes up for the lower resolution of the camera screen and the necessity of batch transfers. The other thing that is troublesome is that there are light and dark bands across the image. The good thing is that these aren't noticeable when looking at a single still image, but when flipping through successive images, you can see them move across the picture. They could be an artifact of the lighting, but I don't see that issue with my other camera. Finally, this is more nit-picking, but logging into the Sony website to register the camera and set up the app has the same authentication issues that have plagued me with any new Sony purchase I try to register. It always takes multiple login attempts before it will finally work. Again, it's a good camera, like just about any digital camera at this price point, but software and features really can make a difference, and I experienced enough annoyances here that I probably wouldn't recommend it unless you have already invested in compatible Sony lenses that lock you into their ecosystem.

I brought this camera to use when I make gym content. I have no regrets so far and it’s perfect for beginners who want to get into cameras but don’t want to overspend.

It was an excellent purchase, I am surprised by its quality