After all those gh4 v-log and NX1 H.265 support on premiere, how do these 2 stands compared to A7S?

[Milton Lopes]

Good evening, guys!

 

I'm new to the forum, and besides reading lots of posts here, thats my first post.

I'm a brazilian low budget filmmaker looking towards buying a new camera and got a few points in wich i think you guys can help me haha

By now i own only a Canon 600d i bought three years ago. Altought i've never had any complain from my clients when i do events or corporate things, the compression and the low light performance of the camera simply makes me sick when i'm doing my own stuff :'c I know thats not the best camera out there, but the cameras picetags here are not that friendly (an a7s body in sony's official store here costs the equivalent of $3200...) and that was the best i could afford back on 2012 when i was starting doing my first shorts.

I've read a lot of things here and at other sites, and i'm really impressed by the a7s. I usually do documentaries and some run n gun stuff, and that dynamic range and low light perfomance sounds like heaven for me that most of times shoot in places where i have no control over lighting. The gradeability of s-log2 its one of my concerns, but i dont think it may be soooooo much worst than grading the sony handycam shoots i'm used to grade where i work (oh that skins tones that makes everybody look like they're sick :C).

Well, i was almost sure i'd rather go with the a7s besides its price tag, work only with 1080p by now and let the 4k as an future upgrade when i can afford a pix-e5, but then came V-log for GH4 and h.265 at premiere and then i ask myself again, the dynamic range and low light of the a7s is really worth a price tag difference that, here,is enough for buyng the rokinon 3 lens kit?

Well, i've seen very little things about how the GH4 stands against nx1 now that it has v-log, and h.265 support on premiere ends one of biggest concerns about the NX1. And, well, considering the GH4, the speedbooster is really expensive here too (the only seller i found with the EF speedbooster is asking the equivalent of $970 for it).

 

So, what do you guys think? After all those things, how do you consider those three cameras compare to each other in therms of usability, grading and dynamic range at their log profiles (NX1 gamma DR, GH4 v-log and sony's s-log2) ? I know all of them are awesome cameras and i'm sure all of them will gave me the wonderfull images i'm looking for, i'd love to have each of them in its particular way, but sadly i have to choose one :c Considering the agressive pricetags over here and documentary and run n gun stuff as the main concern, what you things i should do? The A7s alone almost kills all my budget, i know that it must be the perfect camera to my, but its the quality difference really worth the price difference?

 

I can avoid the absurd pricetag of the camera body buying it from a local site where people traveling to US offer to buy the camera for you for just a little tax, equivalent by now to $100 (brazillian law allows travellers bring one camera with them free of taxes haha), but the acessories like the speedbooster and the lens i cant avoid :c

 

Sorry for the giant text and for any writing error haha My english writing its not that great :c

But thank you all for the help! The doubt its killing me and i think you guys can help solve it   I'm planing buying the camera around november or december.

Well, see ya and thanks!

[Axel]

Former owner of 7D, used 5Dii and 5Diii a lot, former owner of GH2 and BMPCC, now using A7s with or without Shogun, having seen a lot of reviews on GH4 and the competition, I feel fit to draw some very general conclusions.

First of all: colors. You may not know now, but with a Canon DSLR you already have the best color palette for 8-bit currently available. Very recently, there was this thread about an Ursa Mini clip, and everybody raved about the colors. And for a reason. The colors are rich. But then watch this ancient clip, and you will notice that despite the fact that the skin colors seldom touch the ominous "skinline", they are all believable and beautiful. 

In fact, to get close with any other non-Canon camera is hard, unless you shoot 10-bit or raw. I am very sceptic about using flat picture styles like Slog or V-log. If you are limited to 8-bit: forget that, is my advice. 

Reverie shows poor resolution and poor DR, for today's expectations. Without knowing your specific camera, I guess that's true for the 600D as well. Now, without Slog, the A7s can't deliver the theoretic 14 stops. If the GH4 with V-log and external 10-bit can show it's full 12 stops (and if glorious colors can be graded from that) still remains to be seen, imo.  The current tests/demos don't impress me much.

Resolution-wise, many cameras top your 600D. 4k of course is a better HD, but right now I feel the A7s' HD resolution to be sufficient to decide against the Shogun (if that meant the setup became to cumbersome for run&gun). If there ever will be a hack for this camera, and they had to decide between 4k and 10-bit internally, I hope they choose the latter.