Nate Mook

Sure, may take me a few days to get to it, but happy to do so at some point this week!

Indeed, I'll film some more in the next few days in different locations/lighting and compare both cameras. I only have Canon lenses, so perhaps that puts the A7Rii at a disadvantage, but the newest metabones adapter seems to be working solidly.

Not to mention A7Rii overheating before the update. Seems like every one of their cameras as of late has shipped with a major defect. You can (sorta) understand why Canon takes so long to update their hardware.

Yeah, you can always stylize footage and give it a creative look to fit the mood of a film (and agree, a lot of Sony footage is stylized). But I'm more curious about whether it can give a natural and cinematic look, something clients will see and go "wow, that's beautiful".

Some of that softness at full-resolution is due to the 1DC image being zoomed slightly to match the APS-C framing. Since I was most concerned with color and how it would look when viewed at 1080, I wasn't overly focused on the sharpness. And yeah, it's possible some of it is from the handheld shaking with no stabilization. Here's another frame grab with the 1DC not zoomed beyond the UHD timeline: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2135/1DC-A7Rii-Test2.jpg The Sony is PP6, Cine4, Pro Gamma, Black Level +8, Black Gamma Level +7, Saturation -4, Detail -7, Knee Auto. It's not perfect and I'll need to spend more time testing the dozens of adjustments, but surprisingly close in both daylight and 3500k indoor light at night. The Sony is also shot in M (not Movie) mode. I need to do some more testing, but it seems the Movie mode has slightly different color rendering (possible I had a setting off and could be completely wrong, so need to confirm..).

I'm in the same boat, I'd love to have something a bit smaller and more video-centric. I plan to play with S-Log over the next couple weeks -- curious to hear how you find it and your thoughts once you get a chance to compare both cameras. My current feeling is the 1DC ultimately puts out a better image, but if it's only slightly better, the other benefits of the A7Rii might outweigh that for the type of work I do.

Not as carefully matched or shot as jcs' test (handheld, natural light only), but here's a quick comparison without extensive grading of the A7Rii and 1DC when it comes to skin tones: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/18887-a7rii-skin-tones-1dc-quick-compare/

So this is absolutely not a scientific test, but I was curious how the A7Rii would hold up to my 1DC, which I believe gives a wonderful cinematic image, especially when filming people. Chalk it up to Canon's color science, a great sensor, 4:2:2 color, whatever -- but at current used prices I think the 1DC is a steal (and it takes amazing stills) That said, it's also getting long in the tooth, and the A7Rii was an attractive potential upgrade, especially with 42mp stills, IBIS, and small body that makes gimbal work manageable. But I wondered how it would fare image-wise, especially when it comes to skin tones. I didn't want to use S-Log2 or C-Log, since I don't have any experience grading S-Log2 and I know it can be a challenge, especially on the 8-bit codec. So I shot my 1DC in the neutral profile with sharpness and saturation down, which is what I normally do when not using C-Log. I did my best to match it on the A7Rii -- Andrew's EOSHD Flat settings (Cine4, Black levels up, Detail down, Saturation down a bit) come quite close actually, but I used Pro gamma as Cinema gamma just made the reds look off. Again, this is by no means a scientific or extensive test, and I did very little grading (no LUT, just a single color correction layer in FCPx). And I'm sure someone could do a better job matching the shots, but this at least gives you a sense of the general differences. My big question was whether I could easily get an image out of the A7Rii that could compete with the 1DC without a ton of post work. Both cameras are using the same white balance, ISO, and aperture, although the crop factor is slightly different due to APS-H vs APS-C. I used a Canon 50mm/1.2 on both cameras, and both are handheld with no loupe to stabilize, making it easy to tell which camera is which due to Sony's IBIS. Although I did a number of tests, here's a quick comparison for those interested. This is 4k scaled down to 1080p to make it easier to share: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2135/1DC-A7Rii-Test.mov Here's a frame grab from FCPx that's higher-res (1DC is zoomed slightly to match so will look less sharp when viewed at full res): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2135/1DC-A7Rii.jpg My personal opinion thus far: The A7Rii can indeed put out a beautiful image when filming people, although it's still not quite as gorgeous as the 1DC. This could be because the 1DC is slightly softer (maybe due to the low-pass filter, so perhaps the A7Sii could be better) and the A7Rii sensor detail just doesn't benefit skin (most photographers end up smoothing skin a bit, I imagine), or due to color, or maybe I just need to spend more time tweaking Sony's insane number of settings. It seems like the 1DC has smoother highlight roll-off, and just gives a touch of softness that benefits people, making it *feel* a bit better to me, even if it's technically inferior. That said, it's close (some might prefer the A7Rii look). And with the A7Rii I gain a lot of great video features the 1DC does not have. Don't know if I'm quite yet ready to retire my Canon and go all in on Sony... but it's tempting and I will be keeping an eye on FS5 firmware updates. Curious to hear from anyone else who has worked with the A7Rii or A7Sii when it comes to filming people.

Well done, beautiful and stylistic video. I think this is a perfect example of where the A7s really shines, especially those low-light shots.

Although it's technically not perfect, there is something slightly more beautiful and cinematic about the Cooke. But the SLR Magic performs superbly for the price and looks perfectly paired to the 1DC. Is there a release date set? If I can ask, where did you find your Cookes?