Why you're better shooting video in stills mode on the Sony A7S

[Chris Gibbs]

I suppose you could set-up the movie-mode to be in Program (auto everything) for those situations where you are trying for that camcorder functionality and utilize the stills modes where you want different levels of control.  Or would you be better shooting movies in Programed stills mode OR that or the green AUTO (idiot) mode where you want camcorder functionality (point & shoot)?  

 

This stuff gets confusing, and just as I figure something out I forget what it was...............(:-)

[lesstalk]

Hi Andrew,
I appreciate you're a busy man at the moment but was was wondering if you migh help clear something up. I'm following your advice to shoot on the a7s in manual rather than movie mode and with a metabones adaptor, ef to e mount ver iv it appears that all my canon glass looses it's IS function.
Changing back to movie mode the IS switch on the lens functions once more and you can hear the lens's IS motor kick in.

Am I doing something wrong?

Also in the manual mode the back screen at very high iso's in low light seems to go into what looks like a slow refresh rate or slow shutter speed, the shutter is not changing however and doesn't record as such just looks funky on the screen. Strange.

Hope you can help mate,
Cheers paul

[lesstalk]

Ah sorry, just re-tested and found that in manual mode the lens IS kicks in only when you press record. So this is another good reason to use the manual mode as it should save battery life, in the movie mode the IS motor is running constantly.

Paul

[HeldvomFeld]

I have noticed another advantage of photo mode. When you are using an external monitor via hdmi in video mode, digital zoom for focusing doesnt show on the monitor, only on the camera. In photo mode, you can use the monitor for focusing. No idea why that is and it absolutely doesnt make sense.

 

Experienced this on a lilliput monitor.

[blafarm]

I hear what you are saying, but if they zoomed the output of the camera over HDMI -- then your focus assist would be recording on your external device.

 

Kind of a double-edged sword.

[HeldvomFeld]

sure, I was talking about focusing BEFORE recording though. But you are of course right.

 

What about the next part of the A7s review? Was supposed to be out 2 weeks ago ;)

[blafarm]

sure, I was talking about focusing BEFORE recording though.

 

Sorry I missed that inference.

[lesstalk]

Hoping someone might be able to help clear this up.

Im using a juiced link to record sound from a shotgun into the A7s. A similar method I have used very effectively on the 5dmkiii for a year or more. Pre-amps in the camera turned right down to one notch above zero.

 

Firstly the A7 seems much more sensitive than the 5d and appears to have quite a noisy floor. Secondly, and this is the killer for me, it has a really hard limiter, (several sites say it doesn't but it definitely does, once its clipped) with an exceptionally long release time, around 5 seconds or so. This means if your subject is talking loudly and peaking you will see nice green bars on the camera while the audio recorded is shot to hell. It will hit red very briefly and then back off to green while the volume of the subject being recorded remains unchanged. Am I doing something wrong?

I can't see a way to turn off any limiters in the menu.

 

I never thought I'd ever say this but the sound in the canon 5dmkIII seems great all of a sudden!

 

And before anyone suggests it, I also always record to a field recorder as back up, but the speed increase in having sound embedded in the file is essential, also I hand footage over to clients a lot who don't expect or accept the idea of synching ;-)

[urtext]

Has anybody noticed that, when in stills mode, the live-view preview is simply simulating the aperture setting, not actually opening and closing the aperture. I've got the a7s with a metabones IV and a EF 16-35. When I stop down, from say f2.8 to f22, the image gets darker, but the aperture doesn't change. Then when I hit record, the lens suddenly stops down to f22, which looks similar to the preview in terms of brightness, but the depth-of-field will change.

 

I've found a workaround by assigning a button to 'aperture preview' - pressing this will actually change the aperture. Just wondering if anyone is having the same issue, and has found a way in stills mode to have the aperture actually change like in Movie mode.

[dhessel]

We shot some footage using a ninja blade and all the video came out 3:5 ratio when using M mode. We also had stuttering if recording internally at the same time. Shooting in movie mode has been good so far. Anyone else seeing this?

[Chris Anson]

Thanks for the article. When are you planning to release your shooter's guide for the A7s?

 

Thanks, Chris

[jax_rox]

Hoping someone might be able to help clear this up.
Im using a juiced link to record sound from a shotgun into the A7s.

Have you tried/are you using the XLR interface? I've heard very good things about it.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Has anybody noticed that, when in stills mode, the live-view preview is simply simulating the aperture setting, not actually opening and closing the aperture. I've got the a7s with a metabones IV and a EF 16-35. When I stop down, from say f2.8 to f22, the image gets darker, but the aperture doesn't change. Then when I hit record, the lens suddenly stops down to f22, which looks similar to the preview in terms of brightness, but the depth-of-field will change.

 

I've found a workaround by assigning a button to 'aperture preview' - pressing this will actually change the aperture. Just wondering if anyone is having the same issue, and has found a way in stills mode to have the aperture actually change like in Movie mode.

Canon DSLRs in stills liveview (and even normal OVF) behave the same way and if you want to see the DOF you have to press the DOF preview button, in video mode it behaves normally. 

[Andrew Reid]

Actually there's a setting in the menu to give constant exposure / DOF simulation in stills live-view on Canon and Sony cameras. No need to press the DOF preview button.

[Wynand]

I received my A7s last week.  At this stage I mainly shoot video and only in AVCHD because I must still receive my SD card.  Compared to my GH4 I'm not very please at all.  I really struggle to get quality low light video as I see a lot of noise in most of the videos.

 

Three questions:

 

1.  What type of SDXC card will work with the A7s?  (I had a 64Gb class 10 95Mb/s - this seems to be a problem as the write speed is only 45Mb/s??)

 

2. Will the XAVC-S codec improve my video quality in low light?

 

3. What do I have to check in the video setting to improve low light without so much noise?  I used profile 6 to access the lower ISO range.  I shot with a APC sensor prime lens from my NEX 5R (16mm F2.8) at 1600 ISO (NTSC) and dropped the frame rate to 30 to allow more light.)

 

Comments will be appreciated. 

[jax_rox]

1.  What type of SDXC card will work with the A7s?  (I had a 64Gb class 10 95Mb/s - this seems to be a problem as the write speed is only 45Mb/s??)

I have two PNY 64GB SDXC UHS-I cards with write speeds of 95Mb/s. Not had a problem with them at all. You can only shoot XAVC-S to SDXC cards, but you can shoot AVCHD to others.
 

2. Will the XAVC-S codec improve my video quality in low light?

XAVC-S is a high quality and very efficient codec. Use it for best results. AVCHD will still be usable, but if it's a choice - go XAVC-S
 

3. What do I have to check in the video setting to improve low light without so much noise?  I used profile 6 to access the lower ISO range.  I shot with a APC sensor prime lens from my NEX 5R (16mm F2.8) at 1600 ISO (NTSC) and dropped the frame rate to 30 to allow more light.)

I'm not sure what this question means exactly... How low light are we talking? I'd shoot Slog XAVC-S.
Bear in mind that there has to be some light for it to give results. You couldn't, for example, expect the camera to see detail in a pitch black room.

[Wynand]

Thanks!!  I shot about 15 min. after sunset which left enough "glow".  There were also some lights from the house next door and my outdoor light was on.  The video was not bad but it had too much noise - the stuff I saw from Philllip Bloom made my buy this camera and now I see just noise in my video that I do not see in his....  I'll get the right card and try again!

[Wynand]

Can one use Canon APC lenses on the A7s?  I suppose it must be in APC mode and you'll need an adaptor?

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

Yup you can with an adapter and APS-C mode.

[Bob Wall]

Thanks!!  I shot about 15 min. after sunset which left enough "glow".  There were also some lights from the house next door and my outdoor light was on.  The video was not bad but it had too much noise - the stuff I saw from Philllip Bloom made my buy this camera and now I see just noise in my video that I do not see in his....  I'll get the right card and try again!

 

 

You are probably underexposing.