Exciting New Arrival: Sony Cool Friend Camera Review

As I open the box and reveal the new Sony Cool Friend camera, my excitement is palpable. This is not just any ordinary camera; it's a game-changer for content creators, especially those who are just starting out. The Sony ZV line is geared towards vloggers and beginners, and this camera truly embodies that spirit.

I have to say, I'm thrilled to see the white version of the camera, which looks incredibly light and compact. Most cameras in the Sony Alpha lineup come with a different design aesthetic, but this one stands out from the crowd. The camera's full-frame sensor is a major selling point, offering improved image quality that's hard to beat. And the best part? It's affordable!

Now, I know some of you might be thinking, "What about the Sony a7S III and FX3?" Well, while they're certainly excellent cameras, this one offers a unique combination of features that make it an attractive option for many content creators. For starters, the camera has a flip-out screen that rotates similar to the a7S III, allowing for easy self-recording. And with its compact size and light weight, it's perfect for vloggers who want to capture high-quality footage on-the-go.

One of my favorite features of this camera is its AI-powered features. Sony has really outdone themselves here, incorporating advanced algorithms that make editing easier and more intuitive. Plus, the camera can shoot up to 60 frames at 422 10-bit resolution, which is equivalent to what you'd get with the a7S III. However, there is one caveat: recording time is limited compared to the higher-end cameras.

Another feature I want to highlight is the camera's compact lens. The kit lens that comes with it is surprisingly decent, offering a 28-60mm range that's perfect for vlogging and everyday content creation. And because it's so small and light, you can easily swap out lenses or use it on its own.

But what really sets this camera apart is the thoughtfulness that Sony has put into its design. The front of the display features a red ring that indicates when you're recording, eliminating the frustration of not realizing you didn't hit record mid-sentence. This little detail speaks volumes about the attention to detail that Sony brings to their products.

As I continue to explore this camera, I'm impressed by how seamlessly it integrates with my existing workflow. Whether I'm snowboarding in Telluride or capturing footage around town, this camera delivers high-quality images and videos that exceed my expectations. And at an affordable price point, it's a game-changer for content creators who want to upgrade their equipment without breaking the bank.

So what makes me think this is the best beginner camera on the market? In my experience, most cameras in the Sony Alpha lineup have a steeper learning curve, which can be intimidating for new content creators. But the Sony Cool Friend camera has thoughtfully designed features that make it accessible to anyone who wants to create high-quality content. Whether you're just starting out or looking for an affordable alternative to more expensive cameras, this one is definitely worth considering.

As I wrap up my review of the Sony Cool Friend camera, I'm left with a sense of excitement and anticipation. This camera has the potential to revolutionize the way we create content on-the-go, and I feel privileged to be among the first to experience it.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Ooh, do I have somethingexciting inside this box?Let's open it up and check it out.Spoiler alert, it's a newSony Cool Friend camera.I'm so excited!(upbeat music)Oh my gosh!They sent the white one. Look at this!It's so light.Most of the Sony ZV line is geared moretowards vloggers and beginners.This is by far the best beginner camerathat I could ever have wished to have hadwhen I first startedmaking YouTube videos.This right here is a full frame cameraand most of these run fora pretty hefty price tag.So now that we have a full frameaffordable Sony camera, game over.(upbeat music)So this camera, I wouldkind of put in the lineupbetween the Sony a7S III and the Sony FX3.Now, there are somesimilarities, but there's alsosome differences why you wouldchoose the higher end camerasover this one.But honestly, for mostpeople who are just cominginto this starting contentcreation, the past weekthat I've been using thiscamera, I am so blown awayby the footage even justgoing outside vlogging thatif this was swapped withone of my Sony a7S IIIsI am not even sure if Iwould notice when I'm lookingat the footage using the camera,I definitely would noticefirst of all, becausethis is the white versionso it has a completely different look.Even the buttons and someof the layout of thingseven the interface on the screenit has a completely different feel.Then a bunch of the othercameras in the Sony Alpha lineup.So you can get this with justthe body or the kit lens.So this is a 28 to 60 lensand surprisingly this isactually a pretty decent lensfor how much zoom you can get.Now, obviously oneof the reasons that youwould be getting this typeof camera is to be ableto swap out lenses.So the fact that you'reable to just pop this off,add another lens willcompletely change the lookand feel of your video.Why I really like this lensis if you are just using thisfor vlogging, this is sosmall, it's super compact,and even the camera bodyitself is super light.This does have a flip out screenjust like so, watch thiswait....this is great.Ooh, there we go.So this just rotates verysimilar to the a7S IIIand I also like that it does flip this wayso I can see myself when I'm recording.So Sony has so many differentlines of cameras andin their ZV line, which isgeared more towards vloggersand content creators andpeople kind of on the go.It has a recordingbutton up here at the topbut it also has a light thatyou'll see in the front.And this is also somethingthat I absolutely love ison the front of the displayyou can see that thereis a red ring all theway around the display.Hi Nathan.- Hey!- Hello!And that will let youknow that you're recordingif you're filming this way.And there have been somany times when I'm filmingand I actually don't realizethat I didn't hit record.So this, this will alleviate all of that.The thoughtfulness that theyput into this kind of a camerafor newer content creators is somethingthat I really love.Oh man, I'm so excited to be testing outthis new camera right now.I'm actually in Telluride.I've never been here before.We're going to dinner andwe're in a little townand today we snowboardedall day and I actuallyam very impressed.I mean, I fell a lot,but the amount that Ifell the first time that Idid this was exponential.So we are making progress, butthis little town is so cute.How you doing?Hey!(soft music)The best part about havinga full frame sensor isbecause the sensor is larger,once it gets dark out, that'sgonna allow so much more lightinto the sensor.So we'll be able to get lowerlight photos and videos.So one of the reasons that I think a lotof people would choose thiscamera over the a7S IIIor the FX3 is obviously costbecause this is a muchless expensive deviceand this does have somereally fun AI featuresthat some of these higherend cameras don't have.But some of the things that I feellike aren't really that big of a dealfor some content creatorsis you can only use SD cardswith this, whereas theFX3 and the Sony a7S IIIyou can use CF expresscards which are much fasterand will allow you torecord higher quality media.So this can shoot up to60 frames, 422 10 bitwhich is equivalent topretty much what you can filmwith the Sony a7S III.The big difference thoughis with recording time.So you won't be able to record as longas you could with the Sony a7S III.You're basically getting ahigh end full frame camerain a smaller, compact,lighter size with AI settingswith a few features missingthat most people probablyreally wouldn't even notice.So some of the fun featuresI feel like for a lotof newer content creatorsis the fact that it's takinginto account that youmay not actually know howto use a camera in all of the settings.And I totally get that becausethere are some settings evenon my cameras now where I'mlike, \"Hold on a second,how do I do this? How do I do that?\"Well, the great thing aboutthis is it will do a lotof these things for you.You don't have to actuallydo any adjustments.For example, it has thisthing called product showcase.This is so great for mebecause obviously I'malways showcasing a productbut this will allow youto have a fast focusof something that you're holding.All right, so I'm gonnaturn product showcase on,when I hold up an item,it focuses on it so fastthis looks like I'm holding up an Oreobut it's actually just the lens cap.Product showcase.(soft music)Product showcase and on Boxer's Dream.So now we're gonna test outthe background de-focus.Now this is a shot that Ifeel like a lot of peoplelove to get.I'm such a huge fan ofhaving kind of that beautifulblurred out Boca.You can get that by adjustingthe aperture, but honestlyif I told someonethat who just got thiscamera, they're like,\"I don't even know whatthat means,\" which, I meanI feel like you probably kindof should maybe look it upbut with this, you don't really have to.You just hit Background Defocus.It automatically willadjust the aperture togive you that look and you don'teven have to know anything.It hurts my soul, but alsolike that's freaking great.So right now the background defocus is on,so the background should be blurred out.You can't really see what's going on.I really love that Bocalook that you can getwith a lens when you're turningthe aperture all the way up.But with this, it does it automatically.So you don't even need tomess with any settings.So now we're gonna turn it offand it'll show you whatit looks like without it.So here's what it looks likewith a background defocus off.There are a lot offactors that go into thisdepending upon the type of lens you havewhat the aperture actuallyis, and this is a 4.5,so this isn't really gonnagive you that much defocus.But yeah, this is what it looks like.(soft music)This other feature thatI really like is it hasa cinevlog feature.So when I click on this, thischanges a bunch of settingsit turns it into cinetone footageand it also makes it widescreen and 24 frames a second.Then when you go in,this gives you some differenttypes of flavors of cinetone.So this is auto colorcorrecting your footage togive you a really cool look.The first thing that we're testingout here is the cine vlog,and this is with nothing on.This is off, off, off, off.Next one will be on.So here we are in cine vlog.It is now on, and thishas a more cropped lookbecause it does do the wide screenand I was already shootingin 24 frames a secondbut this will automaticallytake it down to 24.Now we don't have any looks on yet,so no little added flavors.So this is what it looks like.Just normal cinetone,no added color effects.So let's add the first one, shall we?So this is the goldvariation of the cinetone.Check it out. How does it look?Shining, shimmering, gold and splendid.This is cinetone Ocean.How does it look?Does it look like I'mswimming under the sea?It's always greener insomebody else's lake.Here's cinetone forest.Does it look like I'm outin the forest, huntingand gathering, planting,foraging for mushrooms?There are so many color variations.Now, in addition to cinetoneis this, this is Clean.Now within the Cleanthere's other variations thatyou can do of this as well.This is clean autobut you can also change thisto gold, ocean, and forest.You can also adjust the levelsof intensity, high, medium, or low.But we're just gonna gothrough the basic onesso you guys can see.This is Clean.What do we have coming up next?Here we have Chic up next.How does it look? I don't know. (laughs)The best part about shooting these typesof videos is kind of goingback and watching the footage.So like I am enjoying itat the same time as you guysare while I'm editing it.So here it is: Chic.Next up, we have: Fresh.How fresh does this look?Do I look like super fresh?Like the produce aisle atWhole Foods, I don't know.Hard to say.Here's Fresh.And next we have Mono.So this is a nice black and whiteand this doesn't have the optionof giving you a gold oceanor forest, 'cause obviouslyit's black and white.So this is what you get.It does have the low, mediumand high settings thoughso if you do want to add a little moreyou could do that as well.But here it is.These are all of the color looksthat you have for thecinematic vlog options.There's so many optionsin here. I'm overwhelmed.Like I'm basically only gonnabe able to scratch the surfaceof what this camera can do in this video.It's just a quick little overviewbut man, wow, there's so many things.(soft music)We are now at the top of themountain going to dinner.Like we took the gondolaall the way up, we're here.This is so cool.(soft music)Now, one of the reasons thatpeople love full frame camerasis because the sensor is much larger.So this will allow you to get more light.So this is so much betterfor low light videos and photography.And the other thing of coursethat I love about these typesof cameras is you canuse full-frame lenses.Now this is a new lens from Sonyand this is the 20-70 andI'm absolutely obsessed.Now this lens is an F4 so a lotof the G master lensesare like a 2.8 or a 1.8.So even though this is an F4,the fact that this isso small and compact,the fact that I can get 20-70inside of here is awesome.Let's swap our lenses real quick.Now, I love this lens, thisis much higher quality glassthan this one, but because this is a 20,this makes it almost likethe ultimate vlogging lens.Now, because this is a 20 millimeterthat's gonna give you a much wider fieldof view when you're vlogging.So here we go. I am vlogging.Now there's a couple optionsfor steadying your footage.Now, right now I have allof the steady options off.So this is just completelyhandheld, nothing special.This right here is instandard, which I usually useand you can see that thereis a full frame here.And when I switched to get this footagea little bit more steady,that's when it cropsin slightly to helpwith the stabilization.And here it is, little bit of a crop.This is active steady.So I love putting this onbecause it gives you a much smoother kindof vlog style, cinematic feel.And here we are. Look at that.Super smooth, super steady, gotta love it.Now we have one more setting in herewhich is dynamic active.So this is super, super steadybut it does crop in a little bit more.So there you see, we are cropped inbut it's also very, verysteady, super stable.And I mean obviously likeI'm just holding this herebut when I'm walking aroundand being able to get smooth, steady shotsof scenery or whatever itis that you're filming,that's when I woulddefinitely be using this.This also has somethingthat is very unique.It has like an AI auto framing option.Now this is really interesting.So as you can see here, I'mnot really moving around,but the camera is actually moving a bunch.And you'll see I'm stayingin the center of the frame.So this is like you would giveto someone who maybe doesn'teven know how to use a cameraand they can keep you in the centerof the frame because itdoes all the work for you.And it seems like the magic of this isit's cropping in significantly.So it's giving the camera a lotof space to move aroundto keep you in the centerand it just knows, like itjust knows that you should bein the middle of the frame.I'm so impressed.Another fun AI feature inthis, is with the microphone.It has Microphone Directivity.I have a microphone thatI used to use by Deityand it was really coolbecause it had a frontand back microphone andyou could choose to useboth the front and the backand each one would kind ofrecord on a separate trackor you could decide touse the front or the back.Well, what's cool about thisis if you turn it on auto,it will automaticallydetect where the microphoneshould be pointing.So say I'm out filmingsome scenery or justfilming something and I'mtalking about whatever it isthat I'm looking at, themicrophone will automaticallydetect that I'm behind andthat's where the microphoneshould be directed.But say I'm over here.Oh, Nathan is now in the frame,it's gonna know to switchthe microphone to him.- Hello, hello, hello.The microphone is now listeningto me and my voice saying the ABCs,A B C D E F G.- But you can also manually decide whereyou wanna have the microphoneso it doesn't switch.So if you know you're out filmingand you only want itto be focusing on you,I'm going to switch it to the rear.So now it should onlybe focusing on my voice.Hi Nathan. Hello.- Hi, can you still hear me?Camera, can you hear me?Hello camera,A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P- Like I'm sure I can hear youbut you can probably hear me better.Okay, so now this is me talking.So this is what it soundslike for me behind the camera.- Hey, how's it going? Hey friends.Hey. Hi. Hello.- Yep. Now we're gonnaswitch it to all directions.So this is front back, all around.Hi Nathan!- Hi. Now we're talkingthe same tone of voiceand I'm excited about Mario card- So now here I am filming myself.So if you're back there talking- I'm still talking aboutMario card over here.- Yup.So the microphone setting isdefinitely very interestingand I'm super hyped totake this camera out.Vlogging. It's so light.Oh, I love it.The other thing that I likeabout this is it doeshave an XLR hot shoe.So when you do take offyour little microphone hat,your microphone wig, windscreen,whatever you want to call it,this does give you access to this.Now you can use anyof the Sony XLR hotshoe compatible devices.Microphones, we've got plenty.Now with the XLR hot shoewhy this is so great is youdon't have any other cables.You can just plug in amicrophone and there you go.Automatically have amicrophone that's attachedand the camera will recognize it.Now if you don't haveone of these microphones,and you have one that actuallyhas a 3.5 millimeter inputlike so that's okaybecause we do have a 3.5millimeter microphone inputs.We also have headphone monitoringa micro HDMI output,USBC and that is where our SD card is.Now, this is a Sony XLR inputthat I use all the time.This is basically whatI've been using for yearsfor audio input.Now, why I like this is becauseit does have two XLR inputs.So I'm able to use this SennheiserAVX wireless system, andif I wanna have an additionalshotgun mic, I can plug thatin as well, fully kitted out.That definitely adds a littlebit of weight, (laughs)but honestly considering thealternative, I'm into it.I really love this AI feature.It will recognize when twopeople are in the frameand auto adjust the apertureso that both are in focus.You'll see in this demo, theaperture is automaticallystarting to change asNathan comes into the frame.So you'll see I'm still in focus.He was out of focus,and then he slowlystarts coming into focus.Super cool.- I think you did it.- Okay, go see.Okay, I'm gonna pause.- Go see, go see.Is he doing his genie back?- Yeah, I did.- So cool!- Yeah- If I would've had this whenI first started vlogging,I don't even know.Another thing this has is a self-timer.So you can set a timerfor three seconds, fiveseconds, or 10 secondsand you can have this berepeated or only once.So right now I'm just gonna do it once.So I'm gonna do three seconds,and I'm gonna flip that around.Hi. Hello.So something else that is cool on thisthat I really love isthey have an S&Q setting.And I'm not gonna lie,for the longest timeI didn't actually realizewhat that stood for.It stands for slow and quick.This will give you a reallyquick way to be able to jumpinto slowmo videos or time lapses.I did actually shoot alittle time lapse herein Colorado when I was in Tellurideand I love shooting time lapsesand the fact that this was so simpleand easy to do made this timelapse just like that...easy.So you can shoot 60 frames a secondand you can do up to 4K 120 and HD 240.Those will actually becoming out later at launch.So I can't actuallytest those out right nowbut it is pretty cool thatif you do wanna shootslowmo videos up to 240,you can actually do that on here.Well, thank you guys for watching.I'm gonna link in thedescription if you wanna checkout this camera and get more informationbecause there's honestly so much morethat I didn't get a chance to cover.This is such a powerful camerafor the price that honestly, I'm shook.I'm just, everything about it.Every time I jump into the menuand just test it out more,I'm more and more impressed.So I look forward to seeingwhat you guys think of it.And I would love to hear from you guys.What do you thinkabout all of this AIpowered videography, photosall of this stuff that isnow being powered by AI?I'm kind of into it, butit's also really scarybecause what is even real anymore?I don't even know.Do I care? Do you care?I don't know!I'm so conflicted, but I'm not conflictedin the fact that I really lovethis camera and this lens.See you guys in the next video.Don't forget to like,comment and subscribe.Hit the bell to be notifiedwhen I post new videosbecause I will be postinga bunch here shortly.I've been filming a bunchof fun stuff for you guysso I will see you there.And I think that's it.Okay, bye.(soft music)\n"