A year after introducing its first camera for vloggers (the fixed-lens ZV-1), Sony is bringing the concept to an interchangeable lens platform. The ZV-E10 ($699.99, body only) is built around the same sensor as the stills-focused a6100, but is made just for video. It has a quality in-camera microphone, a front-facing display, and some focus and metering modes tuned for vlog video. The 4K video it captures is crisp, but digital stabilization tightens the angle of view when working handheld, and a weak battery means you’ll want to carry some spares for all-day work.
Made for Video and Vlogs
The ZV-E10 is built with the needs of video-first creators, particularly vloggers, in mind. As such, it drops the EVF, built-in flash, and Mode dial from the stills-first a6100. Instead, it uses a quality three-capsule microphone (a windscreen is included) and adds a swing-out, front-facing LCD. It’s a slim, light camera—2.5 by 4.5 by 1.8 inches (HWD) and 12 ounces.
Sony is offering the camera in a black (which we received for review) or white finish. If you’re already in the E-mount mirrorless system, you can buy it as a body only. There’s a kit option with the E PZ 16-50mm for $799.99, but if selfie vlogs are your thing, you may prefer a wider zoom. The camera relies on digital stabilization to supplement lens-based IS; it’s quite effective, but it does crop the view of your lens.
It’s built around an APS-C sensor, smaller than the full-frame chips Sony puts in its a7 series. You can use both full-frame (FE) and made-for-APS (E) lenses. There’s typically some penalty of cost and weight by opting for full-frame glass, but it’s a plus if you’re already in the Sony system. To get a wider view, I used the Sony E 10-18mm F4 and Tamron 11-20mm F2.8, and tried it with the Tamron 150-500mm for telephoto shots.
The grip is way too small to use handheld with a big lens, as it’s too unwieldy to hold the lens while using the rear display to frame shots. A tripod came in handy there, as well as for some long-exposure images. For the most part, I used the camera handheld along with the GP-VPT2BT Wireless Shooting Grip, available separately for $150.
The grip connects to the ZV-E10 via Bluetooth and includes controls to record clips, adjust zoom, and toggle Background Defocus (more on that later). It’s an almost required accessory for handheld use—you’ll naturally hold the camera steadier with a pistol-style grip—and it folds out into a convenient tabletop tripod. Tilt and rotation are supported, too. If you’re buying the camera, you should try and make room in your budget for the grip.
Controls and Interface
The ZV-E10’s controls are a departure from a stills-first camera. There’s no mode dial on the top; instead you’ll set the capture mode via the menu. You do get a shutter release at the top of the handgrip. It has a rocker to drive zoom on power zoom lenses, like the E 16-50mm kit option.
An On/Off switch, Record and Background Defocus buttons, and a control wheel are located on the top. There’s also a mode button to swap between still, video, and slow-motion (S&Q) capture. As mentioned, there’s no traditional mode dial, so you’ll need to go into the menu to change between auto, manual, shutter, aperture, and other exposure modes.
Background Defocus is a feature introduced on the ZV-1. It’s made its way here and works the same way. Pressing the button opens the f-stop on the attached lens as wide as it will go. With the right glass, you’ll net a blurred-out background behind your in-focus subject. If you want everything to be in focus, tap the button again. The lens aperture closes down to get more of the shot in focus. If you know your way around a camera, you can still set the f-stop manually, but this is a quick way for anyone to get the bokeh look, regardless of level of expertise.
The center of the top plate houses the three-capsule mic. Sony bundles a windscreen with the camera, just slide it into the hot shoe to shield the built-in mic. The hot shoe also accepts Sony’s digital on-camera mics and can mount a standard analog mic; the 3.5mm input is nearby on the left side panel.
The rear is dominated by the swing-out LCD. Physical controls are on the right side. The full Menu and on-screen Fn menu buttons are at the top, while Play and Delete are at the bottom. The rear command dial sits between. It turns to adjust settings and includes four directional presses—Display, ISO, EV, and Drive.
Physical controls are supplemented via on-screen menus, but touch support is limited. You need to use buttons to navigate through the on-screen menus, which extends to the very useful Fn interface, an overlay menu with a two-strip design housing a dozen options. It’s completely configurable (via the main menu), and it’s worth taking the time to fiddle if you want quick access to a certain feature.
Sony has a better menu system with real touch controls on some of its high-end cameras, including the full-frame a7S III, but it’s not included here. The ZV-E10 is built on an older processor and sensor platform, one that doesn’t seem to support the new interface.
It does limit your control over the camera when you’re both cinematographer and on-screen talent. You can tap the screen to set a focus point, but that’s really it. If you’re recording a selfie vlog and want to make some settings between clips, you’ll need to get behind the camera and work with the rear buttons.
The display itself is excellent. The 3-inch 1.4-million-dot LCD is sharp enough to be your only viewfinder, and plenty bright, especially if you turn on the Sunny Weather display setting, something that came in handy when working with the camera outdoors in early summer. A red outline shows around the frame when recording. There’s also a tally light on the front panel, an additional visual confirmation that you’re rolling footage.
Power and Connectivity
The camera includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to connect to a smartphone—you’ll use the Sony Imaging Edge Mobile app for Android and iOS for remote control and file transfers. It includes USB-C to connect to a computer for transfers or for use as a webcam. It complies with UVC and UAC standards, so it’ll work with Macs, PCs, and Android 11 smartphones. Streaming is at 720p and includes an audio feed.
The ZV-E10 is powered by Sony’s oft-lamented NP-FW50 battery. It’s rated for about 80 minutes of record time or 440 photos, but your mileage will vary based on how you use the camera. On-the-go charging is available, but it’s pretty slow. It took about three hours to recharge a nearly depleted battery with an 87W Apple charger.
The hot shoe supports Sony digital microphones. You can also use analog mics via a 3.5mm input, attach a set of earphones for monitoring (also 3.5mm), or send a clean 4:2:2 8-bit video signal out of the micro HDMI port to feed an Atomos Ninja V or external other recorder.
Images and video are saved on SD memory. There’s a single slot nestled into the battery compartment. The ZV-E10 supports UHS-I transfer rates, and can also use Sony Memory Stick Duo cards.
Quick, Reliable Autofocus
The ZV-E10 uses the same autofocus system as other recent APS-C models from Sony, including the a6100 and the step-up model in the line, the a6400. It mixes phase and contrast detection, spreading coverage across the frame. The autofocus is able to track subjects once they’ve been acquired, and it supports face and eye detection for people and pets.
There are some fine-tuned options for vloggers. One is Product Showcase, a one-touch setting for product reviewers and others who present items to camera. Sony’s face detection will typically stick with you no matter what gets in between subject and camera, but this prioritizes focus on objects close to the lens. It works quite well.
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More related to metering than focus, the camera is also tuned to set exposure based on detected faces. This is especially useful when recording video with changing light—say a walk-and-talk moving from sunlight to shadow, and for scenes with a strong backlight. If you’re starring in your own vlog, you’ll want to be properly exposed.
Focus is fast, and the camera does as good a job tracking action as others in the Sony series. We consider it to be among the best you can find in an APS-C camera, and it’s backed up by a very speedy burst rate, 11fps. It manages 111 JPGs, 48 Raw, or 43 Raw+JPGs before the buffer fills, but if you do fill it all the way, you’ll need to wait for all the photos to save to memory before you can switch to a video mode. We clocked it around 25 seconds for Raw, 37 seconds for JPG, and 76 seconds for Raw+JPG pairs.
Imaging and Video
The ZV-E10 uses a 24MP CMOS sensor to snap photos. It’s the same as in the a6100 and image quality is identical. If you stick to JPG capture, you’ll enjoy photos with clear detail through the standard ISO range. If you delve into manual settings, you can move beyond ISO 6400. Photo quality suffers when you move past ISO 12800, and is blurry at the highest ISO 51200 setting.
Raw capture is available, too. You’ll need to use software to process images—we use Adobe Lightroom. I wasn’t able to look at Raw photos from the camera, as Adobe hasn’t yet added support. We know what to expect, though, which is the same level of clarity and flexibility you get from the a6100.
Sony’s Raw files offer loads of room for creative photographers to edit exposure and color. They retain more detail at high ISOs, but show a bit of a grainy look at high settings. It’s still best to keep the camera at ISO 12800 or below when you can.
For video, the ZV-E10 is a little better than the a6100 in terms of specs. It records 4K footage at 24 or 30fps at the same 100Mbps recording rate, but has a few additional color profiles, including a flat S-Log3 for grading and HLG for HDR playback. The video is captured at 8-bit quality, though, so you won’t have as much room to adjust color as with 10-bit footage.
Off-speed recording is available, but only at 1080p. It’s available in the S&Q (Slow and Quick) shooting mode. You can record at 1, 4, 8, 15, 30, 60, or 120fps with 24, 30, or 60p playback options. It opens up some creative possibilities for cutaways and b-roll, as much as 60x speed fast motion and 5x slow motion. Pushing the camera to 120fps nets footage on the soft side, but the slow-motion effect is compelling enough to forgive. The Fujifilm X-S10 and X-T4 go further with slow-mo, as far as 240fps at 1080p, and net clearer 120fps footage.
You can hear the quality of the ZV-E10’s mic for yourself in our sample footage. The audio comes through loud and clear. You’ll hear some rattling in our test video, but that’s my fault. I attached a set of anchors for a Peak Design camera strap, which in turn knocked about the sides of the camera. If you use Peak straps, you may want to skip putting the anchor connectors on the ZV-E10, especially if you’re using the Wireless Shooting Grip.
If there’s a complaint to be made about the ZV-E10 as a handheld video camera, it’s with stabilization. In-body systems (IBIS) are more and more common, but Sony chose to rely on a mix of lens-based stabilization and digital ActiveShot to achieve handheld footage that’s free of jumps and jitters.
With the handheld grip, ActiveShot is effective, but it comes at the cost of angle of view—it crops footage to get the job done. It makes a wide-angle lens a useful add-on, especially if you don’t have long arms.
The Sony E 10-18mm is a good fit, and it includes optical stabilization. ActiveShot is good enough where I’d recommend leaving it on when you’re able to do so, as there’s still some jumpiness with lens stabilization on its own.
If you’re serious about handheld work, adding a gimbal isn’t a bad idea. I paired the ZV-E10 with the Zhiyun Weebill 2 and it netted absolutely smooth footage. It comes with cost—a few hundred dollars for a quality gimbal, and there’s more to carry, charge, and configure.
A Vlog Camera With Swappable Lenses
Sony tells us it’s going after creative vloggers with the ZV-E10, and the camera’s design and feature set certainly appeal to that audience. The camera puts video features first, tunes controls to match, and captures clear in-camera audio without the need for an add-on mic. We’d love to see more cameras with microphones like this.
It’s powered by the same sensor and processing engine Sony uses in its a6100 and a6400 stills models. It nets fast, accurate autofocus for stills and video, and is smart enough to recognize faces and eyes. The 4K footage and 24MP stills are both up there with competing stills models: not quite best-in-class, but not too far behind.
There are some drawbacks to consider, too. Battery life is a big one; you’ll want to grab a few spares if you plan to use the camera all day, and get an external charger to get them back up and running at the end of the day. For handheld video, the lack of IBIS is palpable. ActiveShot delivers good results, but we hope the next version of this camera has a stabilized sensor.
I’m also disappointed by the touch interface, or lack thereof. There’s very little you can do to change settings from the LCD itself, which is problematic for one that’s sure to get a lot of selfie use. Other Sony cameras have a refreshed menu system with much better touch support, but it’s not here.
That said, if you’re all about your vlog, or video in general, the ZV-E10 gets more right than wrong. It’s a compelling upgrade for creators currently using just a smartphone, especially since one-touch features like Background Defocus and Product Showcase are so easy to use. You don’t have to know your f-stops to get the bokeh look.
You can change things up with different lenses. Sony has a big library of native autofocus lenses, and since this is a mirrorless camera, you can use nearly any vintage SLR or rangefinder lens via an adapter. Old lenses are good fit for creative video, many show a soft, glowing flare that you don’t get with modern glass.
As for alternatives, Sony has the ZV-1 with a fixed 24-70mm zoom lens and smaller 1-inch class image sensor. It’s very similar otherwise and it’s expensive. At $750, it costs nearly as much as the ZV-E10 kit, but is one to think about if you don’t want to deal with lens changes. Panasonic has the Lumix G100, a Micro Four Thirds model with a quality internal mic, but its autofocus isn’t nearly on the same level as Sony’s.
We’ve yet to give an Editors’ Choice award to a specialized vlogging camera. The category is nascent, and we haven’t yet seen a model that knocks us off our feet. We’ll keep looking, though. In the meantime, the ZV-E10 is a good way to go, as long as you’re aware of its limitations—and buy some extra batteries.
