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

[fuzzynormal]

For a guy, like Bloom, getting really nice images has a lot to do with talent and skill. It's not necessarily about the camera.

People that know what they're doing can make most cameras look wonderful. Owning the same gear they do isn't a guarantee of much.

[Wynand]

LOL... :D.  Point taken.  I have an advantage over P B as I then have so much more to learn!

 

However I bought a very expensive 64Gb SDXC card to enable XAVC-S.  I also bought a Sigma 18-35 F1.8 ART lens.  I definitely now see a better image with less noise.  I compared the image last night to my GH4 with a 17.5 Voigtlander F0.95 fitted.  I was amazed on how good the GH4 image was up to ISO 800.  The tests were done 30 min. after sunset with some sky glow left.

 

I had to fit the Sigma to the A7s via a "cheap" NEX - Canon lens adapter.  When zoomed in I see a large blacked out image with clear video in the "inner" part of the image.  As I zoom out the black on the outer sides starts to disappear until about 70% zoomed out where after I start to see the full image.

 

Is this caused by the cheap adapter?  Will a Metabones speedbooster cure this issue?

 

*****

 

Friday 5 Dec.

 

I made a silly mistake and thought that the "auto" in the APS-C mode would detect the lens automatically.  I did not!  I manually activated APCS-C mode and now the adapter & lens seems to be married well to the A7s!

[Gregormannschaft]

And just remember, if you're using SLOG-2 to overexpose by +2. Otherwise you will get noise. Personally I really like PP6, which seems to give a lot less noise, ISO flexibility but ever so slightly less dynamic range.

[flipside]

When shooting s-log, if I set up a scene in stills mode so that the camera thinks the scene is correctly exposed, as soon as I begin recording the exposure readout changes from 0.0 to + 0.7. That is, it thinks it's over-exposed by 0.7 stops.

 

Another way to test the same thing, is to set up a scene in stills mode with the exposure meter reading 0.0., then without changing anything turn the dial so that the camera is in movie mode. The readout will change to +0.7. (It's usually + 0.7, sometimes more).

 

I'd be interested to know what's causing this.

[spnsir]

I'm having a major bug with this mode in regards to the aperture opening up when hitting record.

 

In stills mode, I'll set all my settings, and as soon as I hit record, the aperture will open to the widest setting, but on screen it will still say the original aperture value. Then, while recording, I need to set the aperture in camera to wide open so it will reset, and then can set the aperture back to the value that I originally had it set at, and that the screen was displaying.

 

Ex. Aperture set to f8. Press record, screen tells me aperture is still f8, but the live view gets overexposed and I can tell it's gone wide open. I then need to adjust the aperture to the most wide open setting, and then I can adjust back to f8.

 

I'm using the Commlite adapter and have this issue with a Canon 50 1.4 and Tokina 11-16 2.8. I haven't tested other lenses yet.

[jcs]

The A7S performs different processing for live view in stills mode vs. movie mode. Colors also shift. Recommend shooting video in movie mode, especially if using an external monitor (no HDMI reset at record start/stop as with stills mode).