Sony A7R IV / A7S III / A9 II to feature 8K video, as new 60MP and 36MP full frame sensor specs leak

[Andrew Reid]

Sony has developed a duo of 8K capable full frame sensors, which will soon be released in two Sony cameras.

Read the full article

Got the specs sheets @androidlad?

[crazyrunner33]

I hope they allow a video mode for the full 3:2 sensor. We've lately been producing content that has to be viewed both at 16:9, 1:1 and vertical.  

[webrunner5]

Wow Sony must have a R&D budget that would knock your socks off. They are a Pit Bull on the video side.

[newfoundmass]

I don't want or need 8k.

 

[sanveer]

 

"The source also told me the sensors will have this:

1: Weighted pixel binning: improve the image quality when shooting videos with pixel binning. Already featured in a lot of Sony sensors.

2: A new dual-gain ADC mode: improve the dynamic range by almost 2 stops. The sensor loses 50% speed when using it. Details not known yet. Already in XT3’s sensor.

3: Digital Overlap HDR (DOL-HDR): It’s like bracketing, but you can shoot 2 frames almost at the same time! (The minimum time interval is only 1/6000 seconds). All the new sensors with 3.76um pixel size have this function."

And the multiple ISO settings on Sony sensors for their own cameras.

So these sensors (mentioned above) have 3 settings for improving dynamic range range alone. AND, both of these sensors can easily push nearly 15 stops (and I wouldn't be surprised if they breach the 15 stop of dynamic range mark), and have 4-5 stops of highlight and shadow recovery in post with their 16-bit sensors. 

No wonder nobody cares about organic sensors and quantum dot and graphene and other technologies in sensor material.

 

[Kisaha]

16 minutes ago, sanveer said:

No wonder nobody cares about organic sensors and quantum dot and graphene and other technologies in sensor material.

 

You talk the old language!

Organic sensors and graphene will shape the future, not the present.

Graphene will improve almost any modern application(from oil extraction and water filters to ?) and is the biggest EU research program, and probably one of the top in the whole world.

Gaining a couple of stops, and a few dozens of minutes of extra battery life is nothing like the next generation of cameras.

Even the last couple of years the performance, bitrates and data transfer in cameras improved dramatically, while price decreased dramatically also. P4K, X-T3, Z6 were unimaginable a couple of years ago, or even in early 2017!

[Coiii]

The sensor it's "capable" in paper. It doesn't mean that the processor and everything else will be capable to support that resolution to capture video.

At best, the new cameras will max at 4K60 10 bit. Expecting 8K it's dumb.

[OliKMIA]

Unfortunately the Moore law and hard drive technology are not developing as fast as the sensors. I can't even imagine the hurdle to edit 8k video in h265 and/or store it in raw. Proxy can help for editing but not much for storage.

The latest high end CPUs are just expensive rebranded server processors. Most NLE don't use all these cores and Intel keeps postponing the 10nm architecture because they can't manage it. In terms of hard drive technology, the first HAMR and MAMR drives should be available next years with increased capacity but the prices should hurt because of the production cost.

Right now I'm very happy with 4k and I prefer to focus in HFR, HDR and 10-12 bits codecs. I'm no against 8k but computer are not ready for this yet.

[ND64]

I haven't seen a sport shooter with 20mp or 24mp camera who says "I need more pixels". 

[Deadcode]

What will be the "usual" bitrate for 8K?

For 1080p there was 28Mbps AVCHD first, then 50Mbps with newer codec's. For 4K the usual was 100Mbps. For 8K  IPB h265 i say 200Mbps seems to be the favorable.  V30 SD cards could be enough.

Actually i dont think processors are there yet. If these sensor's will be in the A7 line, they will be limited to 4K 60

But the same sensor will probably record 8K in Sony's next high end cinema grade cameras.

[Sanka]

I just wonder how much heat thoses new sensors are going to produce with such a busy life inside tight bodies.

[Nikkor]

16bit stills, interesting!

[David Bowgett]

We're only just now starting to get past the overheating issues that dogged a lot of earlier large-sensor 4K cameras. Unless there's been a big jump in their manufacturing technology, Sony are going to find it seriously difficult to keep the sensor at acceptable temperatures in 8k30 mode, to say nothing of 80k60.

[gethin]

dynamic range yay, 16 bit yay, 8k urgh.  Honestly.  I'll feel like I'll have to get it at some point to future proof my stock footage, but with processors improving at about 5% per year, its going to make editing blerg

 

[ND64]

16bit is ordered by marketing department. Even 14bit is only useful at base ISO, beyond that you only waste the extra bit with noise. 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

My Macbook fighted with h264 4K25p 100mbps 8 bit files OK. It's on its knees with h265 4K50p 10 bit files. 8K it's the last thing I need from a camera for the next ten years!

[gethin]

1 hour ago, Eric Calabros said:

16bit is ordered by marketing department. Even 14bit is only useful at base ISO, beyond that you only waste the extra bit with noise. 

is that still true when you can capture 16 stops? I ask because I dunno   I know that even with my 6 year old d800 I can push  a 5 stop underexposed shot to to be almost usable, so far fewer bits having to do the work of many.  Isn't that scenario where extra bits are bit better? 

[sanveer]

21 minutes ago, gethin said:

is that still true when you can capture 16 stops? I ask because I dunno   I know that even with my 6 year old d800 I can push  a 5 stop underexposed shot to to be almost usable, so far fewer bits having to do the work of many.  Isn't that scenario where extra bits are bit better? 

Interesting. I am suddenly wondering how much is the maximum a camera photo/ image can be pushed in post. 

[lucabutera]

And with this the Canon is definitely dead!
Just use a resizing program to get 4k and 1080p files with a noticeable improvement in color sampling and detail, compared to a native 4k.

[Danyyyel]

So it will be 8k 4.1.0 Hurray... I just saw Samsung advertising 8k TV, my guess they are not selling anymore TV, 1080p was aready plenty and a lot of people did not move to 4k, now they have to the next gimmick 8k to try and sell cameras and TV.