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Evolving Sony A7S Review (Part 1)


Andrew Reid
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Can anyone explain to me why S-LOG2 affects RAW photos at iso 3200? I get files that are slightly noisier, but with way more dynamic range, especially in the highlights.

 

It only affects JPEG though right and then you have to grade it! Shoot raw for better results.

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FWIW, I had an A7 out on a music video shoot yesterday & it performed like a champ.  Shot on & off for about 12 hours.  Went through three batteries & didn't even fill up a single 64 gig card.

 

After messing with ML Raw on a 70D, then the Blackmagic Pocket, not to mention having a GH4 for about 4 days, I think I'm ready to settle down with the A7s.  

 

It's amazing in low light, and grades very, very easily.   It's rock solid stable, and is so much easier to work with than the BM pocket.  (battery life, storage, screen/viewfinder)

 

Clients were blown away by the images.  This thing rocks in Slow Motion! :)

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Hello,

 

I have received my A7s from amazon (3rd party seller) in US, however the camera is not locked in NTSC mode.

 

Also I am having problem to record my footage with REC RUN timecode on them, in fact all the footage has starts at 00:00:00:00 no matter what setting I use in the UC/TC settings. Wondering if I have missed anything.

 

Thanks,

Edmond

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Funny moment, we shot a music video with the Sony a7s and the 5dmarkIII as a b-cam.

 

While looking at the a7s footage the director was like "this looks great, sharper and more filmic than the 5d". Then I switched material back to 5d and once more to the a7s. He didn't realize it but then said "yeah this 5d stuff looks more soft" while I was playing back a7s shots.

 

Sometimes all these differences just go away when the material itself is good enough. Plus placebo can be very strong ;)

 

BUT the A7s did look very nice with its .mp4 files. ISO 25,600 was really pushing it (it gives more compression errors, we got macroblocks and detail smearing due to noise reduction) but it was UNBELIEVABLE how a simple cellphone lit up a car so much during the night that the specular highlights were BLOWN OUT.

 

I couldn't believe that it was a cellphone doing it, a cellphone that was 5 feet away from the car. It was just so dark that we could light with very little lights and still see forest in the shadows. A7s is a godsend here in Finland as it can get very dark after summer.

 

Unfortunately the Yongsuo ef-mount adapter didn't send the stabilize signal to lenses (eventhough it did with the nex7) so our 200mm shots were almost impossible.

 

One question, has anyone gotten the HDMI and back LCD output simultaneously? Our LCD always went off and I couldn't find anything to fix it. More impressions of the a7s will probably follow.

 

This shot is ISO 51,200 and a bit of noise reduction (still mode) it saw better than my eye:

 

15032683121_4ac6bd65cb_c.jpg_DSC0490 by hmcindie, on Flickr

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Hello,

 

I have received my A7s from amazon (3rd party seller) in US, however the camera is not locked in NTSC mode.

 

Also I am having problem to record my footage with REC RUN timecode on them, in fact all the footage has starts at 00:00:00:00 no matter what setting I use in the UC/TC settings. Wondering if I have missed anything.

 

Thanks,

Edmond

 

Seems like AVCHD is able to record the TC but not XAVC-S.

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  • 1 month later...

Andrew, you are talking about 14bit raw in small file size, but that's internal and not rwa any more, is it?
as I know sony only lets us output 8-bit through hdmi, so the 2000 bucks for the shogun to end up with slog2 in only 8bit leaves me a bit puzzlet cause it kills all the possibilities in post... sony outputs only 8bit, atomos records maximally 10bit, so where are the 14bit?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Nice shot man!

 

By the way my A7S review part 2 and conclusion are coming this week. Sorry it took a while.

 

Is it still coming or have I somehow missed it?

 

Really looking forward to more info from you on the A7s, it is looking like a very tempting camera. 

Am trying to decide between getting the A7s to shoot a feature film with, or using the BMCC EF and BMPCC which we already have. 

 

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Yes, looking forward to Part deux!  Especially more info about the actual differences between the different gammas and other things in the picture profiles -- like, what is crispening exactly?  (That's in the Detail submenu.)  And what does black gamma do?  Any insight into these things would be a big help.

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I have no 24p in my camera. Any ideas?

Thanks Andrew!

 

Can I use APS-C lenses in video mode? Aside from when I want the best quality, where I am using a combination of FE and Canon glass, I really fancy that 16-50 power zoom for taking out with me on nights out etc or when I want something in my pocket. Can you crop the video like that? If not, what is the smallest way to get some stabilisation?

 

Thanks!

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