The Sony A7S, X70 and Atomos Shogun at Pinewood Studios

[Andrew Reid]

On a trip to Pinewood Studios earlier this week I saw for the first time Sony A7S 4K footage projected in a theatre. The surprise was just how well the 1080p held up for cinematic projection. I also had my hands on the Atomos Shogun 4K recorder and field monitor, the new Sony X70 1" 10bit XAVC camcorder and more...

Read the full article here

[AaronChicago]

Let us know if you find a better solution for mounting the Shogun. I use a hotshoe at the moment with my DP7 and it's always moving b/c of the weight.

[lafilm]

Andrew,

 

did you find out if the new Atomos Shogun will take in true 4K, and not just UHD?....and will/does it have true framing guidelines for 2:35/2:40 Aspect Ratio for cinema? (it's predecessor did not, unfortunately) 

 

Thanks

[blafarm]

 

did you find out if the new Atomos Shogun will take in true 4K, and not just UHD?

 

 

I'm pretty sure the only specs I've ever seen talk about 3840 x 2160 UHD (Atomos' website and reliable resellers).

 

I admit it's an odd choice to not support true 4k.  I guess it's possible final production units might deviate from the published specs.

 

However, maybe the choice was due to the panel being natively 1920 x 1080 -- and not wanting to include the additional expense or power consumption of a real time scaler.

[1tkman]

Let us know if you find a better solution for mounting the Shogun. I use a hotshoe at the moment with my DP7 and it's always moving b/c of the weight.

Are you happy with the Shotgun, outside of weight? Are you eyeing something different?

[sunyata]

Cool article Andrew, love the tap with the taped label... mmmm, "Sony/Pinewood" beer. 

[richg101]

lovely article. I hope you re affirmed the demand for a 10bit to sd card paid firmware update for the a7s to kanta!!!....:)  They won't do it I am sure, but if they offer it 1yr down the line in the successor to the a7s this will be incredible.  4k is null and void IMO.  working with the A7s's  1080 xavc-s is a dream...  giving us 10bit true xavc 4.2.2 would be even better!, and the new sd cards will handle it i am sure. 

[Michael1]

The Shogun sounds nice, but I would be interested in a smaller, lighter, and much less expensive, 4K version of Ninja Star, which would be great for "run and gun".

 

Michael

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

How was that Sony beer Andrew? :D

[Oliver Daniel]

Nice article dude. 

 

Couldn't help but notice your comments on needing a focus system you can use by not taking your hands away from the handles. 

 

I backed a project on Kickstarter called The Silencer by an American company called 24shots. It's a focus system which can control both the focus and the zoom (in different models) by pressing triggers that are fixed to the handles, so you don't need to take your hands away. 

 

I haven't got mine yet, but it seems very neat and not many people know about it! Should be delivered soon so won't mind sharing my experience.

 

Links: 

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/24shots/silencer-follow-focus-system?ref=nav_search

 

http://www.24shots.com/

 

 

I'm pretty much set on the a7S but it has to pass my rental test first on one of the shoestring projects..... (drum roll)...

[Andrew Reid]

lovely article. I hope you re affirmed the demand for a 10bit to sd card paid firmware update for the a7s to kanta!!!.... :)  They won't do it I am sure, but if they offer it 1yr down the line in the successor to the a7s this will be incredible.  4k is null and void IMO.  working with the A7s's  1080 xavc-s is a dream...  giving us 10bit true xavc 4.2.2 would be even better!, and the new sd cards will handle it i am sure. 

 

Yes I asked for 10bit :) A nice big firmware update would make a very good camera a great one and truly take sales of Canon I think.

 

Would the last one still shooting H.264 on a 5D Mark III please stand up? ;)

[AaronChicago]

Are you happy with the Shotgun, outside of weight? Are you eyeing something different?

I don't have the Shogun right now, but the SmallHD DP7 which is similar minus the SSD recorder. I love it though. I'm able to view LUTs over Log footage in real time.

[hmcindie]

 

Would the last one still shooting H.264 on a 5D Mark III please stand up? ;)

 

Still shooting on it, still getting moolah from clients! 

[Tzedekh]

Any mention what form 4K will take on the X70? Will it be UHD, or considering that the X70 is supposed to be the "pro" version of the AX100, could true DCI 4K be possible? Also will it be 8-bit 4:2:0 UHD XAVC-S used on the AX100, or the 4:2:2 10-bit long-GOP 4K XAVC Sony announced nearly a year ago?

[Policar]

Still shooting on it, still getting moolah from clients! 

 

So are a lot of people getting money from clients...

 

But for those who have graduated into theatrical releases (such as, presumably, most people here), I can see the need for something sharper.

 

Although what's funny to me is that 90% of what I see shot for tv or theatrical is Alexa, which isn't even 4k. :)

[Michael1]

Yes I asked for 10bit :) A nice big firmware update would make a very good camera a great one and truly take sales of Canon I think.

 

Would the last one still shooting H.264 on a 5D Mark III please stand up? ;)

That would be nice, but I am not optimistic the internal data bus (hardware) was designed to handle anything more than 8-bit.  It's still good you got your two cents in, though.  Perhaps they will build it in next time.

 

Michael

[AtomAnt]

Yes I asked for 10bit :) A nice big firmware update would make a very good camera a great one and truly take sales of Canon I think.

 

Would the last one still shooting H.264 on a 5D Mark III please stand up? ;)

There are PLENTY of people still using the 5DIII/H.264 for paid television work. It's still the industry standard DSLR......

[elgabogomez]

I was at NAB at the sony theater, where they had a fairly large cinema proyection screen with a sony 4k top notch proyector and they were showing snippets of 4k proyects made with sony cameras, from theatrical (fiction, documentary and animation), and tv series (the 1st episode of the blacklist and another i don´t recall) and live pop and rock concerts... And while the image was good, very good technically, i wasn´t "wowed" by it. That is why i don´t understand the "nothing compares to 4k" attitude. If in a theatrical presentation there is no real "wow" in 4k compared to 2k, there is no way a smaller screen will show that much of a difference.

On the other hand, i can swear most movies look better in my 50" plasma at home via blu ray than at the movie theater so i will reserve judgment untill a high quality delivery médium for home consuming in a 4k screen and a 4k player with better bitrates or better compression comes along. I don´t trust bitstream for 1080 let alone for 4k.

[hmcindie]

I agree, my home plasma (The last Pioneer Kuro models, with very good blacks) consistently looks better than ANYTHING I see in a theatre. That's just because the contrast / black levels are outstanding and in theatres they suck. That's why I'm way more interested in OLED screens than anything to do with 4K.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

I can assure you both that 4K viewed on a 50" - 60" 4K TV does look much better than equivalent 1080p TV. It's a lovely image when viewed on a large enough screen.