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Winter’s Mirror – Sony A7S and Atomos Shogun


Andrew Reid
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I decided to put the Sony A7S and Atomos Shogun to use shooting some of the snow over Christmas. Shot in Derbyshire (North of England) in 4K with family and at Chatsworth House. Music by singer-songwriter Anne Haight of Berlin (hear more on SoundCloud here)

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Great shots Andrew. I really like the daylight stuff a lot. This is disheartening news for me when it comes to all the drawbacks you experienced as some of those are deal breakers (the useless screen in sunlight, and the connectivity issues with their dock). I am now looking into getting and FS7 and selling my A7s. I know its a lot more, but i think its a better all in one solution. I LOVE the 1DC when I have shot with it. Its clean, looks great and does an amazing job especially for 8bit, but it is aging quite a lot, and doesn't have the 60p in 4k which is a much coveted feature for me. 

I appreciate all your hard work you put into the site, and your willingness to share.

keep it up!

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I didn't get to watch the videos yet, but looking at the screen caps, the A7S+Shogun appears to capture a heck of a lot more detail. The Canon 1DC seems to have the same waxy, squish video that the 5D3 does in 1080P (if not using ML RAW).

And from the sample footage I've seen posted, the A7S stuff all makes it look natural and like you are there and the 1DC stuff all looks waxy and artificial. Maybe it's just down to the Canon users using poor settings or compression before uploading to Vimeo and Youtube but....

 

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Great shots Andrew. I really like the daylight stuff a lot. This is disheartening news for me when it comes to all the drawbacks you experienced as some of those are deal breakers (the useless screen in sunlight, and the connectivity issues with their dock). I am now looking into getting and FS7 and selling my A7s. I know its a lot more, but i think its a better all in one solution. I LOVE the 1DC when I have shot with it. Its clean, looks great and does an amazing job especially for 8bit, but it is aging quite a lot, and doesn't have the 60p in 4k which is a much coveted feature for me. 

I appreciate all your hard work you put into the site, and your willingness to share.

keep it up!

​Yes the FS7 was on my radar, was about £2k more than the used 1D C though. I wanted the stealth and small size of a DSLR. Stick a loupe on the back, put an IS lens on, attach gorilla pod, make a great movie Kendy Ty style.

The FS7's slow-mo I want though! Badly!

Hopefully the 1D C will come down to under £3500 soon and more people will see the sense in that. At £12,000 it was ridiculous - sort of - but the image was always going to be a £12,000 cinema picture, otherwise they'd have never have priced it for Hollywood in the first place. It's one of the most cinematic looks I've ever seen. It isn't digital-sharp in Canon LOG either. It's detailed and organic.

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By all comparison reviews I've read, the A7s has almost 3 stops more in dynamic range compared to the 1D C, so hearing how the 1D C dynamic range is like that of Blackmagic raw is a little hard to swallow.

​What reviews? For stills or video?

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​What reviews? For stills or video?

​Hi Andrew, thank you for this interesting review, you are doing a very good job with your review. I love this blog. Are u planning on doing some review for the NX1 with Shogun?

Do you know if the NX1 output its 10 or 8 bits? Thank you very much. 

 

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I'm planning to change my workhorse camera setup soon, and I've been favouring the A7S plus Shogun for a while above other options. Shooting lots of music videos and some corporate stuff. 

I was planning to go the extra mile with the FS7, and completed one pro shoot on that camera. Not done editing yet - but to get the most out of the cameras features the files are huge - the cost of storage would be too much, so I'll be renting this out on a selection of shoots. 

The A7S combo concerns me though, with reports of poor battery life, poor build quality and Slog2 not working correctly. I do love the image that the a7S is capable of above other cameras in this price range. Pretty stuck on what to do..... what is everyone's take from the research online so far?

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Thanks for this review.

I had pre-ordered the Shogun when it was first announced, but canceled it when the delays started cascading.

Based on your (and other) reviews, this version of the product clearly has applications -- but it seems Atomos missed more than one target in terms of the design, and I'd much rather wait for v.2.

Unfortunately, I can't see them delivering a substantially improved revision in the near term, as it would completely alienate v.1 owners.  And, by then, there will certainly be more cameras recording 4k internally. 

Finally, I'd like to say that "Ethic Statements" aside, I find your reviews to be honest with absolutely no pandering.

 

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great film and great report that is absolutely correct.  only things i can add is that the best shogun mount (after testing a lot) on the 1DC & A7S seems to be the "Manfrotto 492LCD Mini Ball Head with Hot Shoe Mount".  and it looks like if shogun recordings work with regular cheaper harddrives as well, and you don't even need SSDs.   

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​Hi Andrew, thank you for this interesting review, you are doing a very good job with your review. I love this blog. Are u planning on doing some review for the NX1 with Shogun?

Do you know if the NX1 output its 10 or 8 bits? Thank you very much. ​

​It's 8bit. More to come from NX1 + Shogun.

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​They are wrong.

​I've heard Cinema5d getting incredibly criticised on the Internet regarding the lab tests. I personally have no idea if they are right or not. Where are they wrong?

great film and great report that is absolutely correct.  only things i can add is that the best shogun mount (after testing a lot) on the 1DC & A7S seems to be the "Manfrotto 492LCD Mini Ball Head with Hot Shoe Mount".  and it looks like if shogun recordings work with regular cheaper harddrives as well, and you don't even need SSDs.   

 

​Another cool solution I've seen away from the hotshoe is the Edelkrone Modula 3 upwards. It's a shoulder based rig with a classic camcorder grip, the Shogun to the left (so it's in front of your face) and a mount option at the back to fit in an external device, such as extra power. It seems like the most intuitive solution I've seen... The hot shoe mount seems like a pain.  

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