extraCrispy

I'm not well versed in the 3rd party battery department, but I've had 2 Watson batteries and chargers for 3 years now for my a6300 and have had no problems with reliability of the batteries or charging them.

Hey y’all. So I have had a CalDigit TS3 Plus TB3 dock for a few months now, and I pair it with my Dell XPS 9570 (Running windows 10 pro) that I use for work. Recently, the dock decided to stop working (as in worked Friday, and stopped working properly today, Monday). I had similar problems with my original Kensington dock, but it was solved by switching to this CalDigit dock. So the problem manifests it self as killing all networking functionality (no wireless connection from the card internal to the laptop or from the NIC in the TB dock), no USB connections through the dock, and the track pad does not work on the laptop. What does work are the two displays that are connected to the dock, the laptop display, and the laptop keyboard. Also of note is that when ever I try to restart using the proper “Restart” or “Shut Down” options provided, it sits in spinning dot limbo for about 5 minutes, and then BSODs giving the “DRIVER_POWER_STATE_ERROR” code, and then restarts. The only way I have found to reset the laptop after having the dock connected is to do a hard reset and disconnect the dock. I have tried every combination of powering on and plugging in dock that you could probably think of, as well as updated every driver possible (TB, USB, graphics, BIOS, etc.). I have also tried using the dock with the main 130 W power brick also plugged in, removing the dock as a verified device through the thunderbolt software, and uninstalling the thunderbolt drivers through device manager to all Windows to freshly install them on a reboot. Has any one else experienced any issues with a dock like this? Either specifically with a Dell XPS 9570, or not? Thanks everyone!

Agreeing with people above, the best way to learn what your camera can and can't do is to literally click every button and go through every menu. That being said, this video is a pretty decent overview of what features your camera can have and what it can do!

The Black Magic Cinema 4K is a fairly priced 4k video camera. Its around $1300 for the body, and then you would need to buy a micro four-thirds lens, but it has external audio capabilities (@Thanatopsis is 100% right about a camera not being able to remove the drone for you) and a headphone jack. It also will give you the ability to expand a bit in the future too since the lens system is interchangeable. However, the Sony RX10 that @ThePointblank mentions is also a viable option that seems like it will meet your needs too, it's just not as purpose built as the Black Magic. Hope that helps!

I agree with lanchu on this one. Is it going to be the sharpest thing that you've ever seen? No, and there are definitely cameras that create sharper videos, but that doesn't mean you can't squeeze the best out of the one you have right now. The best camera is the one you have with you right now! And that being said, I'm sure there are people here who would be willing to look at what you have and help squeeze the best out of your camera. I know I would be willing! And what are you thinking about making? Sounds like some good fun for you and your son!

I've heard good things about that prime lens. That will be great to learn on. As far as the zooms you've posted, there isn't really much I can say about the individual lenses because I don't own either one of them (I shoot Sony, so....) or have research into them. But if you want that extra reach and don't really care about a faster aperture right now, then go for the Canon. It'll be a good stepping stone up to a 24-70 and 70-200 f2.8 combo. Might not be as sharp as the sigma (more zoom, inherently less sharp, general rule of thumb for lenses like this), but if you're doing Facebook/Instagram type stuff, no one is going to be able to tell anyway!

So are you only looking into zoom lenses here, or are prime lenses (fixed focal length, no zooming) an option? Primes in the range of 15 mm to 35 mm (for an APSC sensor, the size in your camera currently) are great for travel and are usually fairly light and small within your price range.

I agree. But still, if you were willing to do your due diligence, you might be able to find something on a second hand site. Might be worth while looking into those point and shoots too, just as a place to start. However, if you wanted to do a film camera instead, that you can definitely find cameras and lenses for less than $200. Heck, less than $100.