Video capability. There is no separate video recording mode on the Sony A580: Video can be initiated from any still-capture mode by pressing the video Movie button on the angled rear face of the body. Over the last couple of years, high-definition video capture has become a fairly common feature for interchangeable-lens cameras, available in many single-lens reflex and single-lens direct view cameras at all price points. The various implementations to date have spanned the gamut from models that keep control entirely in the camera's own domain, to those which offer significant creative possibilities, and here the Sony A580 falls in the middle ground. Some manual control is possible: metering mode, white balance mode, and creative style can all be defined prior to movie recording, and exposure compensation and lock are available at all times. As well as a stereo internal microphone, connectivity is available for an external microphone. The A580 doesn't offer full manual control, however, and nor is autofocus possible during video capture. As in many DSLRs to date, you're instead restricted solely to pulling focus manually during video capture, a notoriously difficult skill to master. ~~0.4 MB/second (~83 minutes on 2GB card) As noted above, the Sony A580 offers two video recording formats, either the HD-only AVCHD format or the less space-efficient but more computer-friendly MPEG-4. The MPEG-4 file format is a bit less efficient in its use of memory card space for a given image quality level, but is more widely supported, and seems to be a bit easier for older computers to read. AVCHD is the best choice if your primary output is going to be directly to a HD television, but MPEG-4 probably a better choice for your computer, particularly if it's more than a year or two old. In AVCHD mode, the pixel resolution is 1,920 x 1,080, and the data stream on our test sample seemed to be recorded at an average rate of 2.1 MB/second, the maximum rate according to the 'Main Profile' spec for AVCHD. No options are offered for lower bit rates, but in our experience, there wouldn't be much point to them: We've generally found lower AVCHD bit rates to result in poor detail and excessive artifacts, especially in higher-resolution and higher frame-rate cameras. At ~17 Mbits/second, file sizes are modest enough that we see little or no benefit in greater compression. (You'll definitely want to buy a really big memory card for use with your A580, though: Even with AVCHD compression, video files take up a lot of card space.) With a frame rate of 60 fields-per-second (interlaced), the Sony A580 produces smooth motion, though not as smooth as could be possible with a sensor running natively at 60i. ![]() The A580's sensor is read at 30 frames-per-second (progressive) and video is interlaced to 60i by extracting alternate field pairs of each 30p frame. (The AVCHD standard does not define 1,920 x 1,080 at 30p, so providing 60i from a 30p sensor makes perfect sense.) While this is not true 60i from the sensor, it does have the advantage of making de-interlacing much easier, though sophisticated de-interlacers can certainly produce more fluid looking motion from true 60i video. MPEG-4 mode offers a choice of two resolutions both recorded at 30 frames/second (progressive), with data rates and compression ratios as detailed in the table above. Illuminati. Firmware update now available at Sony Japan’s. Maybe I thought I saw something and I needed a firmware update. I’ve compared the speed with my A580. With news about a firmware upgrade for the SLT cameras is there any word of a possible A580 firmware upgrade or are we gonna be completely ignored about?
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