Andrew Reid

  That was a challenging little pattern on there.... the 5D Mark III couldn't handle it either.   In 4K I'd expect it to be gone on the A7S.   Don't forget that the internal 1080p is going to be bettered in just 2 months... and it is already pretty good as it is!

  The rep might have been thinking of the aspect ratios for screen markers which it does indeed offer 4:3 for, in video mode. It's only an overlay though. Let's hope he's right on this one and it does have a 4:3 mode over 4K HDMI.

  A range of -0.7 to +1.3 is not exactly nailing exposure is it... plus the meter doesn't work correctly in S-LOG mode. Sometimes it fails to even give a reading. Maybe a bug?

The article I think is a good primer on the situation facing the low end mirrorless market but it does not address the high end of the mirrorless market at all, such as the A7S, A7R, Fuji X-T1, GH4, etc. so it is far from a complete article.   I always thought interchangeable lenses as a step up for smart-phone users was a silly idea. None of these users wanted to buy lenses or swap multiple primes while shooting, they all stuck to the kit lens and anyway a phone or low end DSLR is enough for their needs mainly. The manufacturers have now seen this in the sales and gone back to focussing on the high end mirrorless technology, as they should have continued to do right from the start. The PENS and GFs were never going to work long term vs the mighty smartphones. They only had such strong sales to begin with in 2009 and 2010 because smartphones back then were still not quite so good at what they do.

I've had the A7S for over a week now and can share my initial thoughts, even some firm conclusions. Here's one I've come to already - the Sony A7S is the best consumer camera Sony have ever made. For $2500 the video performance of the A7S sits between the FS700 ($8000) and F5 ($17,000) yet the full frame sensor lends more character and allows for groundbreaking low light performance. Read the full article here

  It is set to stream at 1080p (but I believe you need to be logged in as a Vimeo member to have that?) - however always download the original to judge resolution, compression, etc. Resolution on the A7S is superb, on par with the best 1080p I have seen from C300, etc.

  They grade similarly with ProRes, the raw on the Pocket is of course better for doing HUGE colour correction and changes, choosing your white balance in post. Overall yes the Pocket does have a very good image but even with Speed Booster the look is totally different to full frame. Night and day different in the rendering of the lenses. The A7S is also far less noisy in low light and is able to come very close to the ProRes of the BMPCC even with the internal XAVC codec never mind external HDMI, which is 4K capable of course so big image quality advantage there. The externally recorded 1080p ProRes is very nice, nip and tuck the same in terms of grading, etc. as the Blackmagic ProRes. Here I expected there to be a much bigger difference. There isn't. Detail and resolution in 1080p = similar, but of course the A7S will do 4K over the HDMI and Pocket won't. Less moire and aliasing on the A7S.

  I'm using Canon IS lenses with a Gorilla pod for stabilising the camera against both shoulders, with the EVF up to my eye as third point of contact for even more stabilisation. Even at 100mm it is as stable as a stable full of wooden horses.

The problem here is not to do with the master pedestal. The +15 setting helps the image by pushing the blacks away from the region of the encoding which doesn't get allocated enough bitrate. I have had consistently great results with it and wouldn't recommend it in the book if I thought it negatively effected the image.   It's important to learn how to grade an image properly as some of the colour cast issues here are easily fixed and adjusting the RGB curves would help too. Increase contrast in the image and dither the banding areas.

  You are talking about a huge REM fan here :) Buck's two latest albums, 2012 and 2014 are certainly worth a listen if you can find them. Vinyl release only!

  Pocket is a nice bargain for so little money but the A7S gives you far more. Far far more. In some ways $500 on the Pocket is $500 wasted by not getting something better. I had the Pocket on the same shoot as the A7S yesterday and hated every moment handling it. Dreary screen, poor ergonomics, too few features and no full frame look.

Only a few years ago S-LOG was a $3800 upgrade for the Sony CineAlta F3, itself a $15,000 camera. S-LOG made its debut on the Sony F35, a workhorse of Hollywood. Now Sony have put this on a $2500 consumer camera along with the best full frame sensor I have ever used for video. How good is it? Very!! I am sharing a pack of LUTs for the A7S which can be applied in Premiere, Resolve, etc. for an instant cinematic look to your A7S S-LOG 2 footage. Download Three LUTs are provided in the zip. Dynamic - for best dynamic range, will suit a low contrast shot requiring high dynamic range and plenty of shadow detail. Also good for low light. Vivid will give a punchier look to those shots that benefit from it like a sunset and where some dynamic range can be scarified for higher contrast and saturation. S-GAMUT is for when shooting S-LOG with the Color Mode of S-GAMUT and compensates for the purple tint to reds I find I am getting in this mode. For the Dynamic and Vivid LUTs you must set the camera colour mode in PP7 to ITU709 Matrix. Read the full article here

EF 24-105 F4L is a bit soft and has a lot of distortion. Not recommended. The Sigma ART version is better.   The 15-85 won't cover the full frame sensor, avoid all EF-S lenses.   The EF 24-70mm F2.8 is pretty nice, get the mark 1 as it's much cheaper.   The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 is similar in terms of optical performance believe it or not, for much less money, but the build quality sucks.   Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 VC is also worth a look as it has stabilisation and is very similar to the Mark II Canon equivalent optically.

Yes Speed Booster in APS-C mode works fine, nice with lenses like the Sigma 18-35mm F1.8 and for when you want reduced rolling shutter or 60p while maintaining high detail levels. 60p in full frame mode is soft and moire-ridden!

  Aperture yes, on the adapter ring. Auto focus no.

A7S owners! Would you like to test my LUT for SLOG footage?   Feedback welcome...   http://www.eoshd.com/uploads/EOSHD-A7S-1a_1.C0004.cube.zip   You can load it in Resolve or Premiere. FCPX too though not sure how as I don't use it.   In Premiere use the Lumetri effect under Video Effects > Color Correction, to load the file and apply the look.   This is very early stages stuff so might not work for all sorts of shots... but please post your results and let me know the outcome!

Go for Canon. The adapter takes Nikon adapter rings. A Nikon adapter does not take Canon adapter rings.   Besides the Canon L range on the whole is stronger than Nikon equivalent.   Voigltander 35mm F1.2 you will enjoy on the A7S if you liked the Nokton lenses on your GH2. That is Leica M mount and not cheap but worth it.   If you need stabilisation, Canon ultra sonic stabilised lenses like the 35mm F2 IS and 100mm F2.8L IS Macro are the best.   Also this guide will definitely help - http://www.eoshd.com/eoshd-shooters-guide-sony-a7-a7r-lenses

I don't understand why the hell tech radar are converting everything to TIFF rather than testing the raw files, because the software supports the raw files from all the leading cameras that DXOMark themselves have tested.

Get it, it's a bargain. Enjoy summer with it. But realise that come October you might want to get the next one :) For me it seems like a temporary purchase, not that it will ever expire, but the march of technology is relentless at the mo.

The only way is also the best way :)   Metabones Speed Booster EF to BMPCC   http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1064603-REG/metabones_mb_spef_bmpcc_bm1_canon_ef_to_bmpcc.html/BI/6943/KBID/7492   It goes to nearly Super 35 / APS-C with this.   Timing is good for you as the adapter is released on Friday (18th july).

In stock at the new price at B&H here:   http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/964117-REG/blackmagic_design_blackmagic_pocket_cinema_camera.html/BI/6943/KBID/7492   And Adorama http://www.adorama.com/BMCCP.html&&1&KBID=66885 â€¦

  TechRadar say they use equipment and software supplied by DxO to do the testing. You'd think after a result like that they would stop and check their methods. Clearly some kind of operator error!

Interesting thanks. Unfortunately the interpretation of the SDK in that article is wrong.   It is for software development on a PC for example, that interfaces with the camera. It will not allow custom software to run on the camera let alone custom firmware.   The SDK has already been available for a wide range of other Nikon DSLRs so is not even new...   https://sdk.nikonimaging.com/apply/   And thread here on Nikon Hacker is worth a read https://nikonhacker.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2096

Yeah 24p on this camera is in a faux cinema aspect ratio with the crop forced on you in-camera, 1920 x 810. 30p otherwise. Nothing about the image is better than the G6 and the codec is FAR worse so beware!

http://www.eoshd.com/content/12923/cure-banding-dslr-footage-gh4-4k-holds-key