My name is Reilin Joey and I am a director/filmmaker living in Amsterdam. I began my filmmaking journey taking photos of luxury cars on the streets of Berlin. As a small group of friends, we would run around and compete against each other for who could get the best photo of the cars that would pass us by. We often only got a couple of seconds to get the shot, but that was exactly what got me hooked.

This excitement for creating something compelling under pressure eventually evolved into a passion for creating eye-catching imagery & stories as I shifted my focus towards commercial filmmaking work, shooting projects all over the world.

In the past few years, I have worked with brands such as Ferrari, Audi, Bugatti, the Rotterdam government, the national ballet and more. Throughout, my main aim has always been to create something that looks very high-budget, with relatively low-budget tools.

When Sony asked me to test the new ZV-E1, I decided to go to Morocco. I had never been before but had seen many exciting photos and I wanted to shoot something that would challenge me creatively and that would force me to adjust and to be flexible; something that would take me out of my comfort zone. I wanted to tell some kind of story with my film but since I knew very little about Morocco, I wasn’t really sure what story to tell. In the end, I decided on just going to Marrakech with a friend of mine, and to let ourselves be inspired by what crossed our path.

The city of Marrakech is bursting with colours, textures, smells, movement & interesting faces waiting to be captured. For me, the most exciting thing is that the city doesn’t wait for you. You have to chase it and make your own way, to catch the moments that tell your story, and this is exactly where the new ZV-E1 comes into play.

The Sony ZV-E1 is extremely small and lightweight which makes it the ideal camera for travel. When I’m shooting a travel film, I’m constantly switching my setup from handheld to gimbal, for example, because I have to adapt to my surroundings.

To be honest, the camera instantly blew me away when I saw the form factor and the top-notch specs it has to offer. I mean, 10-bit 4:2:2 4K60P recording with a minimal rolling shutter and a very clean ISO at 12,800 already sounds almost too good to be true. On top of that it has the much-improved new menu system and improved IBIS features, which I set to standard when shooting handheld and to active when I’m shooting on a gimbal – to eliminate those extra micro jitters.

The autofocus tracking system also feels more responsive than ever before. I could literally track a child running towards me through an alley at full speed and the camera had no problems whatsoever keeping him perfectly in focus.

Shooting in Morocco, I really tried to capture the authenticity of the local culture, by getting close to people without being too obvious. This wouldn’t have been possible without a small and lightweight setup. On top of that it feels like Sony haven’t had to compromise on image quality or any other features for that matter in the slightest. Better yet, they’ve added a full-frame sensor into this tiny body and I feel like they’ve greatly improved on a number of other features.

The built-in microphone performed brilliantly, so much so that all the audio in the video was recorded using just this – no external microphone at all.

Being able to shoot using S-Log3 and S-Cinetone profiles makes the camera extremely versatile, especially as I can match my ZV-E1 footage with my FX3 cine footage in just a couple of clicks.

I would say the ZV-E1 is the perfect entry level camera for anyone wanting to get into shooting high-end video. It closes the gap between starting out as a content creator and creating stunning high-end visuals whilst giving you the possibility to capture a wide range of content varying from vlogging, to live streams to cinematic movie making. It simply brings a ton of professional features with it, for a super affordable price, in a body that is packed with innovation and unrivalled by any other at this point.

We had so much fun creating this film; it felt like we discovered a new world with new colours and interesting places every single day and it was a pleasure capturing this adventure with the ZV-E1. It’s honestly mind blowing to me how Sony continues to improve on the features of their cameras whilst the size of the cameras continues to shrink and the quality and feeling of the visual side continues to improve. If I would have had this setup a couple of years ago when I was still shooting cars on the streets of Berlin, I would have been delighted.