Tim Naylor - DP

Thanks again Oliver. It's good to hear from folks who use the camera for work. Looks like a go for me. The 10 bit is a deal maker.

​Thanks for the notes. You said more useful insight than everything above. Please keep it coming. I have an A7s already. I thought the two would compliment each other well. Have you screwed around with any of the pre-sets outside of S Log? Often I have clients that want it 90% "burned in" and rather not screw with log. Looks to me the camera is front heavy. The rigs I've seen on line don't seem to get that as they have the balance point too far back. The Amira I use, when I let go of the handles, it sits balanced on my shoulder. This is the ideal. If you know of any rigs that can achieve this that aren't a big to do, give us the inside scoop. Also, did you try any of the internal ND's on bright sunny days? I'm curious if there was any IR contamination. This is the bane of many a digital camera that really screws up the grade. I don't buy any gear that can't pay its rent and then some. While I'm not expecting Red/Arri IQ, do you feel it'll catch on with clients like Canon did?

Please people don't take the bait and keep this on topic about what makes this camera tick. Now that we know the menu is wonky how does this camera fair in the grade? What are it's color biases? Noise threshold? Etc. Can we hear some comment on ergonomics with and without rigs? I personally would like to know if its practical sans rig to hold for a half an hour steady in an interview. Does it balance well on gimbals? Are the internal ND's any good or do they suffer from IR? Can anyone who shoots for living comment on how it performed on a job with clients watching your every move? There are loads of questions we can answer if we don't get sidetracked. I'm intrigued by this camera mainly for doc work. In the past few years, docs have been dominated by C300's. But I find for the C300 to be functional for extremely long takes, you need to rig it out (EVF, shoulder rig, AB batts) to the point where I think, why didn't we just rent a real camera? How do the flesh tones stack up to the C300? At the end of the day that is one aspect that people who pay my bills really care about, even more so than DR or rez. It's the reason Canon and Arri dominate the market and Sony and Red do not.

When we're all done slinging mud, let's talk about the camera. I'm seriously considering buying one for smaller jobs and docwork. Though usability is always a top priority. What in particular makes the menu "dog shit". Can anyone give specifics? I use an Amira for my day job and it took my AC all but five minutes to show me how to set the camera up. Big Fisher Price toy like buttons, even a caveman.... I've used F5/55's often and the Sony menu is a bit maddening but after enough swearing and clenched fists you learn it like anything else. At least unlike RED it won't change settings on you when you're not looking. As for the C300 2 destroying S Log 3, it's still vaporware.

Any other folks out there us the FS7 for work? How'd it go. Also, love to hear more about grading.

​Great article. It pretty much sums up why Arri dominates episodic TV, commercials and movies. The mini will be a hit as productions won't be compelled to using an inferior chip for drone and gimbal work. Sure its 3.2k but at the end of the day it'll always be flesh tones over rez. After reading the article I'd be curious as to how Sony FS7, 5/55 square up in the vectorscope test. When I've done comparative tests, Sony has always come dead last in color chart/fleshtone accuracy.