Guide 4
Videos
I started to shoot some video of squirrels with the Sony A9. Video was unfortunately not a strong point for this camera, but it was capable of shooting slow motion at 120fps in full frame, full-HD with sensor stabilization. On the down sides it only allowed for highly compressed 8-bit colour depth and there were no log profiles either. The latter restrictions meant that filming in the snow lost a lot of detail in the snow, but I was happy to get this footage while shooting hand-held.
These two clips were taken on different phones. My wife took the left video on her iphone, which is also capturing the audio. On the right I used the Hikmicro E20+ thermal camera on an Android phone to register the squirrels body heat. I synchronized them in post so they should be showing the same moment. I originally planned this to show the heat from cracking nut against the snow, which it does do, but I didn't plan for it to be such a fun audio clip. I think this is due to it being mating season.
Now that I have a better camera for shooting video I am able to capture slow-motion footage like this in 4k, with 10-bit, 4:2:2 colours, much better bit-rates, decent colour profiles and focus tracking. I still wish that Sony would have added animal eye-AF in video to the Sony A1, but nothing's perfect I guess...
Squirrels often like to run away with whole hazelnuts to bury them, but for this next video I was lucky enough to be allowed to video this one gnawing and breaking the shell. You'll also notice that the squirrel pauses mid way to vibrate their jaw. I think this might be sharpening the teeth for the next round...
This last video shows a hazelnut being broken into in slow-motion...