Sony A7RIII & A7III tips, tricks and best practices

[salim]

I bought the A7Riii and I wanted to make this thread into a resource where I can learn from others and share what I have I've learned. There is enough overlap in video with A7iii that I think it would benefit both camps. 

I bought mine $300 less than the MSRP via GreenToe. If you're not familiar it's like Priceline for buying gears. You place your price and if it's reasonable, sellers match your price or make a counter offer. I placed a bid for $2750, later increased it to $2780 and I got an offer for $2890 which I accepted. It's from a US Sony dealer. I've also heard people buying some zeiss lenses about $200 blow MSRP. You can go to Greentoe.com or if you follow my affiliate link, I think I get $25: https://gtoe.me/YsjOxVWyaM   

 

So I like to discuss camera settings, picture profile people are using, AF settings, post processing, LUTs, noise reduction techniques, etc. 

I start with what @Don Kotlos replied to my question on his picture profile settings: 

 

setting suggestions by Sony Global Ambassador: 
 

 

 

a setting used by a youtuber: 

and by another YouTuber: 

 

 

Understanding picture profiles: 

PDF  version: 

HTML version: http://helpguide.sony.net/di/pp/v1/en/contents/TP0000909109.html

 

Picture profile comparison: 
 

 

One YouTubers recommendation for Cine4 profile settings:
 

 

Exposing SLOG2 for skin tones:
 

 

Wolfcrow's explanation and reasoning for his Slog exposure process: 
 

 

 

Cine4, Slog2/3 comparison video: 
 

 

 

Some good reads from XDCAM, they're not specific to A7Riii but still very informative: 

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2014/10/using-s-log2-from-the-a7s-in-post-production/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2014/03/understanding-sonys-slog3-it-isnt-really-noisy/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2017/09/why-is-exposing-log-brightly-beneficial/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2017/09/why-are-sonys-isos-different-between-standard-gammas-and-log/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2017/12/using-luts-for-exposure-choosing-the-right-lut/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2018/03/banding-in-your-footage-what-causes-it-is-it-even-there/

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2017/12/more-on-frame-rate-choices-for-todays-video-productions/

 

Not specific to A7Riii but relevant to getting a correct exposure:  
 

 

[salim]

Here's a good example of A7iii temporal noise reduction (AKA ghosting). You can see it well in this example. Also interesting info on the description of the video:

the image is deliberately underexposed by 2 stops. it seems that in s-log2/s-log3 and itu 709 (800%) (basically every PP that has a base iso of 800) gammas the amount of noise reduction is turned down considerably, almost completely freeing the image from ghosting artefacts (s-log3 has even less NR than s-log2). this only occurs with the underexposed parts of the image (which are inevitable), so it seems on the a7 III it's better to shoot s-log2 at high iso in low light environments (given you can manage to overexpose the image 1,5/2 stops to avoid noise) rather than shoot in any of the cine profiles or with PP off. i'd assume the noise reduction algorithm is so aggressive that it confuses the inter frame codec a lot thus resulting in image doubling and even quadrupling.

 

 

 

[Mark Romero 2]

My limited input is basically just a recap of wolfcrow's hour-long video on slog 2 exposure (which is well worth watching):

In a nutshell, use spot metering and expose whatever you consider important at 40 IRE or above, and set your zebras to 70 IRE for your skin tones (for Caucasian folks).

He cautioned against the generic "expose two stops over" or the generic "expose to the right" because you might have inconsistent skin tones (and he was assuming that is what most filmmakers would care about), and with inconsistent skin tones one would have to do more work to match skin tones from scene to scene.

That kind of makes sense to me. Say you have a shot with someone with darker skin and a not overly bright sky, and you just expose two stops over (or you expose to the right using multi-segment metering). Then your next shot features a lighter-skinned actor and a bright sky, and again you decide to expose to the right. The overall exposure is lower than the scene with the darker skinned actor and the dark sky, and the skin tones will be off.

He mentioned that slog 2 was designed to have a filmic look when handling highlights / over exposure

Anyway, I have watched it like three times and that seems to be the main gist of it. The info also seems to jibe with the information from the article by Allister Chapman that you linked to here:

http://www.xdcam-user.com/2017/09/why-is-exposing-log-brightly-beneficial/

[Don Kotlos]

I have mentioned that before, but I will do again here: When playing with picture profile settings it is important to change the exposure from -3 to +3 stops in order to observe any potential color shits. Some combinations produce more color shifts than others, so adjusting the exposure for skin is a good tactic in general. 

[salim]

Here are sets of videos on how to best customize your A7/Riii cameras to make them into an image making tool. There are few different options and how to do them with various preferences but these are some of the better ones that I've found:

This one does a good job of showing you also how to customize your sony as well as which customization he uses:
 

 

 

This one is geared a bit more for those doing weddings: 
 

 

This one covers everything and it's probably good for beginners:
 

 

Good overview on what to setup for hybrid shooters: 

 

 

Full setup and understanding of Sony menus for beginners coming from different camera brands:

 

 

[mopixels]

Hey Salim.  Thanks for creating this topic.  I just found it and I'll check it out tonight and report anything about the camera I discover.

 

[salim]

I was unable to update the firmware on my High Sierra mac. I switched to our other machine that had Yosemite on it. But if you have High Sierra and had no luck update the firmware here's a video: 
 

 

[jonpais]

 

[salim]

Andrew Reid has his recommended picture profile. This is to get the optimal color and image straight of these cameras. It's basically a PDF guide (and LUT for some color grading) with his recommended picture profile settings. 

He spent a lot of time, and quiet honestly it would take anyone endless hours to come up with the same settings. So for the price (even though it's just a profile setting formula) it's rather worth it and obviously helps this site. 

Here's a sample video: 
 

More about the picture profiles here: https://www.eoshd.com/2018/05/eoshd-pro-color-v4-hdr-for-the-sony-a7-iii-and-a7r-iii/#more-19196


This is where to order it:  https://www.eoshd.com/purchase-and-download-pro-color-v4/