Sony A7S specs announced - S for sensitivity. 4K via HDMI to "third party recorder"

[Andrew Reid]

Breaking news... The Sony A7S has been announced at NAB 2014.

It records 1080p internally in XAVC-S format at 50Mbit but the big news is the support for full 4K output via HDMI to an external recorder.

Unfortunately it does NOT have an internal 4K recording codec like the Panasonic GH4.

Read the full article here

[Butch]

Hmmm.  I need more info about this one before getting excited or disappointed.

[Nikkor]

AA

AIt has S-Llog2 but only 50mbits//s

[thementalist]

Iso in movie mode: 200-102400. 

 

What else? An advanced (how much?) Full HD recording. 

 

Disappointed. 

[iconflyer]

:( I was holding off pre-ordering a GH4 waiting for Sony's announcement...I'm disappointed, nothing special

[Derek Weston]

No internal 4k is pretty much a deal breaker for me. (especially with needing something ready-to-go in my hands by May) 

 

Wonder if there are any other bit rate options. 

 

Still could be very good. 

[Julian]

More info (based on press release)

http://www.digifotopro.nl/content/preview-sony-a7s-12-megapixels-iso-409600-en-4k-hdmi-output

 

It's in Dutch, but Google Translate will work.

[itimjim]

DR and low light monster. Will await tests, but mostly disappointing.

[itimjim]

First FF non-pixel binned sensor. Positive though.

[Tomas]

What´s about XLR?

[ntblowz]

GH4 is still the cheapest cinema 4K body you can buy without add on.  But one thing for sure A7S will look gorgeous once fully geared up, but it just out of my budget.

[mastroiani]

Price?  Overall kind of disappointing

[Butch]

GH4 is still the cheapest cinema 4K body you can buy without add on.  But one thing for sure A7S will look gorgeous once fully geared up, but it just out of my budget.

 

 

Where is everyone coming up with the price?  

[Brian Williams]

Sony introduces GH3 killer! So disappointing.

[theSUBVERSIVE]

If it's the same form factor as the A7/R and they had problems to fit a proper shutter in it, does it mean that the rumor about high fps burst was wrong or is it a different type of body? The press release doesn't say anything about it.

 

They using the same form factor should explain why it can't do 4K internally, overheating problems I guess. One thing is to output it without processing it, another is to keep the sensor up and processing all the 4K data and encoding it.

 

So Sony opted for a smaller body instead of doing 4K internally and aiming towards a higher crowd that is willing do 4K externally. The 12MP was a step forward, keeping a smaller formfactor just for the sake of size sacrificing internal 4K was a step back. They are not wrong because they are aiming higher, but maybe it looked too optimistic for thinking that Sony could do it for consumers.

[itimjim]

Clean HDMI is only 422 8-bit.

[Nikkor]

720p @ 120fps is only APS-C crop.

[itimjim]

720p @ 120fps is only APS-C crop.

That's still pretty good though. Not stellar, but still very usable.

[solo]

official page: http://www.sony.net/Products/di/en-us/products/vq5f/index.html

[MiL0]

Sony introduces GH3 killer! So disappointing.

 

I don't really get why everyone is disappointment with this announcement.

 

I figured most people want a 4K GH4 so that they can get a better 1080p end product. Or am I the only one who doesn't care about a 4K export? By the time I get a 4K TV or monitor, I'll be a couple of camera body upgrades down the road.

 

So, if the A7S produces better quality 1080p than the GH3 or GH4 can achieve (and that's a big if) then the A7S suddenly looks very appealing. And that's not even mentioning the full frame sensor (with no pixel binning), slow motion abilities and supposedly amazing low light capabilities. 

 

Hopefully Andrew is getting an A7S soon for testing!