kye Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 20 minutes ago, jonpais said: Yeah, it’s the same story with any lens in video mode - turning the focus ring for magnification only works for shooting stills. Assigning a fn button for focus assist isn’t the end of the world though. I’ve got a little Manfrotto Pixi that I really like - I might try using that to help with the shakes. It doesn’t give me more points of contact, but when folded up I can get a nice grip on it. The pixi is pretty short, but you might still be able to use it like this? You'd have to use the articulating screen to tilt up a bit. It might be a bit cramped but worth a shot and gives you an extra contact point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trek of Joy Posted July 24, 2018 Share Posted July 24, 2018 11 hours ago, Robert Collins said: I think that is just for stills. I dont even think they have DMF in video mode. @jonpais 1. Well you could put focus magnify on a custom function button. 2. I am willing to bet (never used the Sony FE 85 1.8) that you will get better stabilization with the Batis 85 (my favorite video lens) because of the built in OIS - it still wont be up to Panasonic though. Oops that correct, I shoot a ton of stills so I 'm always in Manual mode - its just become second nature for me. I have the punch in on the AEL button I video mode. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 What about the skin tones? https://jonpais.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/sony-a7-iii-what-about-the-skin-tones/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 Close up: face detect autofocus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 Yeah I don't see how Canon, Nikon is going to have all these great abilities in their new cameras to start with. Surely some of it is protected with Patents? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Django Posted July 27, 2018 Share Posted July 27, 2018 From my experience face detect AF works fine on clear single face shots, but it starts to hunt or switch focus once other faces come into view. We had a busy event the other day and the A73 on gimbal couldn't keep up with Canon's dual pixel face tracking on our A-cam: The eye AF remains the most impressive Sony AF feature imo, unfortunately it disables in video (hopefully not in upcoming A7S3). As for skintones, it's a mixed bag as well.. on youth it's pretty uniform but once facial hair, wrinkles and other skin imperfections appear, they get exaggerated somehow.. Not the most flattering... combined with typical mixed lighting AWB issues.. Noise reduction also creeps up heavily in low-light as you crank up ISO, giving waxy airbrush look to skin tones: Never got this side effect on A7S2 so in that regard it's a step backwards.. All that being said.. i still think A73 is great bang for buck and paired with good glass ( we're using Batis here) it's got that FF wow factor clients crave, but i wouldn't yet pass on Canikon giving them a good run for money with their upcoming mirrorless offerings.. kye and Trek of Joy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 @Django is correct - face detect AF can and will switch faces if there is more than one person in the frame. I haven't shot at high ISOs yet, maybe I'll do some low light shooting this weekend. On another note, one of Sony's disadvantages (too small for my hands) also turns out to be one of its strong suits. I never had much luck balancing my GH5 with many of my favorite lenses on the original Zhiyun Crane, but for some reason, it's a breeze with the a7 III - the 85mm f/1.8 is a piece of cake, and even the fairly massive 35mm f/1.4 is doable without great effort. Which is important, because none of my lenses are stabilized and I shake quite a bit. And although the camera is small, even the 35mm lens doesn't protrude beyond the camera body. Lastly, I haven't used the a7 III on the gimbal long enough to be 100% certain of this, but it seems I can tighten the baseplate screw in the bottom of the a7 III enough to prevent the camera from twisting with heavier lenses, whereas with the GH5, whenever I used a slightly bulky lens, the camera always managed to work itself loose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 More good news - the fairly gargantuan Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 also balances on the original Zhiyun Crane, but the eyecup will hit the rear motor if raised too high. The 50mm f/1.4 barrel hits the baseplate, so I'll need another plate before testing it out. That's why I'm all for Sony releasing lenses like Fuji's ultra compact ultra high quality 23mm, 35mm and 50mm f/2 primes, but do not want them to reduce the size of the body. Anyhow, this is all great because I'm not ready to spend another $700 on a Ronin S and carry all that extra weight around (2.1 lbs vs. 4.1 lbs.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 28, 2018 Share Posted July 28, 2018 21 hours ago, Django said: As for skintones, it's a mixed bag as well.. on youth it's pretty uniform but once facial hair, wrinkles and other skin imperfections appear, they get exaggerated somehow.. Not the most flattering... combined with typical mixed lighting AWB issues.. Noise reduction also creeps up heavily in low-light as you crank up ISO, giving waxy airbrush look to skin tones: Never got this side effect on A7S2 so in that regard it's a step backwards.. All that being said.. i still think A73 is great bang for buck and paired with good glass ( we're using Batis here) it's got that FF wow factor clients crave, but i wouldn't yet pass on Canikon giving them a good run for money with their upcoming mirrorless offerings.. Because your screengrabs are such low resolution, it is difficult if not impossible to see the nefarious effects you mention.At what ISO are you seeing the dreaded plastic skin? Also, it will be at least another year before we see a single FF mirrorless from Nikon and it will take them years to catch up with Sony’s lens lineup; and it is doubtful a FF Nikon will run a mere $2,000. I don’t own Nikon glass, and I’m not interested at all in adapters. Finally, I’ve got no reason to expect them to be able to compete with Sony on the video side. ATM, it’s all pure conjecture anyhow. As far as Canon is concerned, I’ll eat my hat if theirs isn’t crippled to high hell. They’ve already made their position abundantly clear: if you want uncropped 4K video, get one of their cinema cameras. Sony has been making real strides with their mirrorless cameras, and soon all of their a7* bodies will have the Venice color science too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Django Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 @jonpais the full announcement will be made next month with an expected release shortly after: https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/mirrorless-is-coming.page as for pricing, rumors indicate 2 models: a 45MP at $4000 & a 24MP under $3000 including the kit 24-70mm lens. although video specs is yet uknown, i kinda doubt Canikon will miss this opportunity to go head to head with Sony. regardless competition is good for consumers, including Sony users.. and they still have their A7S3 wild card.. It's going to be an interesting Photokina year for mirrorless that's for sure. jonpais 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Django Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 18 hours ago, jonpais said: Because your screengrabs are such low resolution, it is difficult if not impossible to see the nefarious effects you mention.At what ISO are you seeing the dreaded plastic skin? I wasn't the Sony/gimbal operator but it was a dim night exterior shot so probably +25600 ISO to nail such exposure (screengrabs are SOOC). There are various A73 low light tests online that better depict such NR behaviour from the camera: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 I have to laugh when I see the lowlight of these cameras. For years I have been using cameras that start being pretty shameful, even for home videos, at ISO 3200 or 6400. Nit-picking these cameras at ISOs this high feels like being judgemental of someone that won bronze in the olympics!! webrunner5, jonpais and Drew Allegre 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Andrew Reid Posted July 29, 2018 Administrators Share Posted July 29, 2018 So rare we go higher than 12,800. Especially at fast apertures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Django Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 All depends what kinda shooting you're doing.. wedding, event, concert, noctural shooters will value the fantastic high ISO performance of a speciality cam like A7S2. especially when trying to capture natural lighting environments. i even talked to a famous indie director recently who shot all his night scenes for an upcoming big budget feature on A7S2, as the film uses zero artificial lighting for artistic purposes. he said never again though as he ran into so many body issues/complications/failures as they were shooting in rough climate. i think they ended up going through like a dozen bodies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kye Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 53 minutes ago, Django said: All depends what kinda shooting you're doing.. wedding, event, concert, noctural shooters will value the fantastic high ISO performance of a speciality cam like A7S2. especially when trying to capture natural lighting environments. i even talked to a famous indie director recently who shot all his night scenes for an upcoming big budget feature on A7S2, as the film uses zero artificial lighting for artistic purposes. he said never again though as he ran into so many body issues/complications/failures as they were shooting in rough climate. i think they ended up going through like a dozen bodies! Even then, the cost of the bodies might have been cheaper than paying everyone to mill around waiting for the lighting to be moved and fine-tuned in setup after setup after setup. I remember the first student film set I was on had a girl sitting at a table in a cafe, at first alone and then she was joined by someone else and they had a conversation. There was a small vase with a flower in it on the table and it took about 2-3 minutes every time we changed camera angles to move the flower to somewhere that looked remotely natural. I think it ended up covering about half the tables surface, and we all had a good laugh when both the Director and AD swore that they would never let an art director put a flower on a table ever again!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Django Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 1 hour ago, kye said: Even then, the cost of the bodies might have been cheaper than paying everyone to mill around waiting for the lighting to be moved and fine-tuned in setup after setup after setup. For sure.. also having several bodies allowed them to shoot in multi-cam and save time on set & in post by minimzing takes. unfortunately can't really talk much about this project as it's yet TBA but it's been really inspiring to hear about such usage from an award winning director of what is commonly considered prosumer gear in a full feature release.. again the process wasn't without complications especially considering weather sealing, and this is another area where Canikon could certainly make a difference. kye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webrunner5 Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 The Olympus EM1, mk II takes weather sealing to a whole new level. On the web there is a video by Blunty using it in a tub of water! Yeah my A7s, I don't like wiping it off with a damp cloth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trek of Joy Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 On 7/27/2018 at 10:54 PM, jonpais said: More good news - the fairly gargantuan Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 also balances on the original Zhiyun Crane, but the eyecup will hit the rear motor if raised too high. The 50mm f/1.4 barrel hits the baseplate, so I'll need another plate before testing it out. That's why I'm all for Sony releasing lenses like Fuji's ultra compact ultra high quality 23mm, 35mm and 50mm f/2 primes, but do not want them to reduce the size of the body. Anyhow, this is all great because I'm not ready to spend another $700 on a Ronin S and carry all that extra weight around (2.1 lbs vs. 4.1 lbs.). Interesting, that's a big lens to hang of the front of a single grip gimbal. I just scored a great deal on a mint Moza Air, the 16-35/4 and 28/2 and 85/1.8 will be my main lenses. This is my first gimbal since the disaster that was the Beholder DS1, so I'm a little hesitant. But I want to integrate one into my shooting and $300 isn't a bad starting point for me. The Ronin-S looks great with a killer app and great features, but the gimbal by itself will pretty much outweighs the Moza + camera/lens. Hopefully its a hit and they come out with a smaller/lighter version, call it the Ronin-SL. The 50/1.4 is big, you can always go with the 55/1.8 if you can live with the CA. The 35/2.8 is close to a pancake and really good. And early reports about the Sayang 24/2.8 look really good as well - and its tiny. Its also cheap. I love the 28/2 despite its faults. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonpais Posted July 29, 2018 Share Posted July 29, 2018 @Trek of Joy Yep, I bought the 55mm f/1.8 specifically for shooting on a gimbal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Collins Posted July 30, 2018 Share Posted July 30, 2018 15 hours ago, Trek of Joy said: Interesting, that's a big lens to hang of the front of a single grip gimbal. I just scored a great deal on a mint Moza Air, the 16-35/4 and 28/2 and 85/1.8 will be my main lenses. This is my first gimbal since the disaster that was the Beholder DS1, so I'm a little hesitant. But I want to integrate one into my shooting and $300 isn't a bad starting point for me. The Ronin-S looks great with a killer app and great features, but the gimbal by itself will pretty much outweighs the Moza + camera/lens. Hopefully its a hit and they come out with a smaller/lighter version, call it the Ronin-SL. The 50/1.4 is big, you can always go with the 55/1.8 if you can live with the CA. The 35/2.8 is close to a pancake and really good. And early reports about the Sayang 24/2.8 look really good as well - and its tiny. Its also cheap. I love the 28/2 despite its faults. Chris The Batis 18 2..8 is also great for a gimbal - and with Sony's clear zoom is pretty flexible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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