Re: Sony A6000 (I had one for a few years). First of all, great stills camera. Autofocus was excellent. Low light was great. I was able to get really good image quality. Small, lens were inexpensive. Great upgrade path. It was a great value.
Shortcomings. No mic input. You can use a sony brand mic in the hotshot. That is it. Not a problem if you are using an external recorder (which I did). Screen does not flip out. No way to monitor with it pointed at you. MAJOR hassle.
Battery life wasn't great.. not a deal breaker.
Most current cameras can be controlled and monitored via wifi on a phone or tablet. With the A6000, this was only possible in photo mode, not video.
Still, the quality was so good for the size and cost that I would still consider it.
A6300 and above resolved most of the problems.
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The main problem that everyone mentions is Mic vs camera placement. There is just no way to over come this. They need to be independent to obtain good results. Wiring mics to the camera is fine, but mics integrated or mounted on the camera severely limit you.
That said, it does complicate things (though it isn't as bad as it sounds once you get used to it). What about giving the Zoom camera a try. It may work out fine for your needs. Most places offer 30 day returns.
With the zoom, trying to get 2-3 people in the shot means placing the camera fairly far off. This may be acceptable for you, but there are compromises. I just looked at the Q8 and see that it has the interchangeable mics as well as XLRs with Phantom. This means you can use the ECM-3 extension cable to move around the stereo pair and still attach two additional mics and get them in the correct position. This really wouldn't be bad if you were happy with the camera portion. I don't think the QN4 would be the best option, but the QN8 may work well for you.
https://www.zoom-na.com/products/pro...phone-capsules
One of the best ways to monitor with any of these is via a tv or computer monitor. Most of the cameras will output via HDMI. This can go to a regular tv or direct to most recent monitors via HDMI or DVI. I have a 5 year old 24" monitor that I use. Again, it is complicating things, but you can actually see what is going on vs. a tiny screen on the camera where you really can't if it is a few feet away.
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