B Camera to match the main A7S II Cameras

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Hi All,

I am looking for a bit of advice. A few shooters I know who shoot documentaries have switched to shooting with the Sony A7S II and FS5 and I was looking to pick something up on a budget to cut with their footage.

Any recommendations for something that will cut well with the A7S II?

I was thinking maybe the Sony A6000 or A6300? Any lens recommendations? Native or use adaptors to use other brands.

The end deliverable is 1080p via Blu-ray or USB stick.

Thanks for any pointers in advance.

[Jim Giberti]

Check out the RX10 II. It gets knocked by some people but after picking one up for a 2nd slo mo camera, I've been really impressed with it as an all in one tool. We primarily shoot Canon and BM cameras and have never been a fan of Sony clors but love their tech, so I got one with low expectations and thought I might just use it as the 2nd slo mo cam and then shelve it.

I'm glad I didn't. Instead I spent a couple of days tweaking to create a solid PP and after a lot of testing I've ended up with a very solid s-log gamma/cinema color setup that gets consistently great results at 1 to 1 1/2 stop over, converted w/ Filmconvert, FJ Asst.

Here's the positives that you probably already know:

Maybe the best 1080 120p around

Great 24p 4k when exposed and colored right.

Almost ridiclulous 24 - 200 mm 2.8 glass 

Very customizable interface.

Same great evf as the 7RII

I got this for $900 open box from B&H and while I won't use it on commercial work, It's almost silly how cheap it is for what you can do with it.

I did some close up model tests with it in the studio Friday and asked two peole in my shop what it was shot on, C300, BMCC or a Sony. Neither thought the skin tone and depth could have been sony and they were blown away, as was I, that it was shot on the RX.

I looked at a ton of footage online and assumed it just wasn't going to be more than a specialty thing, but, not surprisingly it turned out that 99% of the people putting up footage really aren't very good at working with the codec, log footage and grading. 

FWIW, we start shooting on two docs tomorrow but I've choosen not to put this in either kit because I haven't tried to intercut the foootage yet and because it's only been a few days of testing. But I'll be surprised, given how fast I've progressed the look this week, that I won't pair it with a new A7S II as a small two camera setup.

I could share some tests privately.