Sony A7S and 4K Sony NAB announcement - live EOSHD text commentary

[Andrew Reid]

Sony is making some 4K related camera announcements at NAB

Watch the live announcement here or scroll down on the home page

Here are my running thoughts as we watch the Sony presentations...

Read the full article here

[Julian]

35 minutes to go for the A7S...

[jlev23]

F55 gets pro res...

[jurgen]

Have to imagine Panasonic just breathed a massive sigh of relief. No internal 4K on the A7S. That's pretty big, I think.

[sfrancis928]

What a horribly executed announcement. Why have a guy who barely speaks English do an English announcement??? Sony need to get some more lively presenters.

[nazdar]

He is confident that 4K picture from this camera will satisfy all video profesionals. Well now even amateurs know how to pixel peep very well. We will see. :)

[theSUBVERSIVE]

There is always a catch and some guy in the other post got mad that people thought there could be one and that becase he was comparing the FS line up against the Alpha cameras, which are far from being the same thing and very likely to be made by two separated teams.

 

But that's not totally a bad thing because they are making so this may be great 4K camera for those willing to pay, and it's clearly aimed more at professionals that will use it with a full rig for 4K. And it's very likely that the 1080p will beat the 5DMKIII in both low light and IQ, which is the camera I thought was aiming more than the GH4. But as there is no price yet, I don't know, but my bet was that this would be near the 5D price, double the GH4.

[leo]

OMG, this should be the best low light camera for video ever made, let down for not having 4k internal but that huge ISO and full sensor readout should end DSLR's era in videography forever, even professional cameras are threatened by this little thing in low light, and the DR, man o man.

[Marino215]

I guess we gotta wait for the a99 announcement for internal 4k but jeez with 1080p looking that good in the dark i can think of a hundred scenarios where it can come in handy. For Stanley Kubrick lowlight the 7s could be a great specialty cam for extra dark scenes, with ultra fast glass it might be fun.

[Derek Weston]

OMG, this should be the best low light camera for video ever made, let down for not having 4k internal but that huge ISO and full sensor readout should end DSLR's era in videography forever, even professional cameras are threatened by this little thing in low light, and the DR, man o man.

 

Could be a beast. Biggest worry is jello lens. Really like the fact that it's a full frame sensor... matches my nikon lens lineup. 

 

Agree that the quality could be hard to beat. 

[fuzzynormal]

Sony need to get some more lively presenters.

 

Yeah, but the beats getting dropped were dope.

[john_d]

via dpreview: link

Looks like we can record in crop mode and can do 120fps!

 

Additional Pro-Quality Video Functions
In video mode, the α7S can output 4K video4 at QFHD (3840x2160) to an optional external 3rd party 4K recorder, and can record full HD (1920x1080) at frame rates of 60p, 60i, 30p and 24p directly to a compatible memory card. Video modes can be changed from full-frame to APS-C (super 35mm equivalent) if desired, and in this crop mode, the camera can support high frame rate 120fps shooting at standard HD resolution (1280 x 720p), creating a 5x slow-motion effect.

The α7S camera is also equipped with S-Log2 gamma. Common to Sony's range of professional video cameras, S-Log2 expands the dynamic range by up to 1300% to minimize clipped highlights and loss of detail in shadows. Additionally, for the first time ever in a Sony α camera, the α7S adopts the workflow-friendly XAVC S recording format in addition to AVCHD and MP4 codecs. XAVC S format allows for full HD recording at a data rate of 50 mbps with lower compression for improved video quality.

Other specialist video functions on the new camera include a picture profile that can adjust settings like gamma, black, level and color adjustment, and can be saved for use in a multi-camera shoot. It also has Full HD and 4K base band HDMI® output, time code/user bit for easier editing, synchronous recording feature with compatible devices, various marker and zebra displays on both the LCD screen and viewfinder and can dual record XAVC S as well as MP4 (1280x720 @30p).

The camera also has a Multi-terminal interface shoe that is compatible with Sony's XLR Adaptor Microphone Kits (XLR-K1M plus a new model under development), allowing the use of professional microphone systems.

[themartist]

So what hardware is required to shoot in 4k?

[tosvus]

+Should be a low light beast

 

---No internal 4K is a really big minus in my book

-lenses (selection, size)

 

..ok 120 fps for 720p, would have been a plus if it was 1080p, now I'm not sure.

? No mentioning of price yet, I think, but guessing it may be around $2K or higher?

 

I still think the Panasonic GH4 sounds really good. This will probably mess up Canon's sales unless they do something drastic though.