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External Monitor Or Recorder Sony A7Rii


DBounce
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I'm currently looking into external monitoring solutions for the Sony A7Rii as I find pulling focus and seeing fine noise detail to be challenging when the camera is mounted to my slider. With this in mind I have been looking into the various options currently on the market. The SmallHD 702 seemed interesting, but then I thought perhaps the Video Devices PIX-E7 represents a better value, given that it seems to do pretty much everything one could want from an external monitor, in addition to having the ability to also record just about all variations of ProRes. With that in mind, is there a significant advantage to recording external to the PIX-E7 vs recording internal to the SD card in camera?

Your thought on this matter are appreciated... And I will be sure to let all know my thoughts on the Video Devices PIX-E7 when I've had a chance to use it a little.

 

 

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Got in the brand new Video Devices PIX-E7 yesterday. Quick observations, build quality is first rate. Tap to zoom is very handy and works well. When plugged into the A7Rii it defaulted to 422HQ 10bit. The resulting recordings looked very good and the unit was not loud when operating. The PIX-E7 does get warm, but not hot. The display is very nice, pulling focus was quite easy and noise was easy to detect when present. Colors looked good. The monitor allows you to add non-baked in LUTS which is very handy. Peaking and zebras are also nice to have.

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I have had the same issue with my A7Rii and was looking to add monitoring to support the HDMI record functions of my Tascam 701d. I really don't want to deal with external recorders so I'm testing out Sony's newest monitor. It's not cheap, but a bit less the Pix-E and Small HD options. Will try to post my findings when I get it.

It seems like the best value for my set up my be the Pix-E with their audio adaptor but I must say I've been pleased with the 701d so far. Perhaps not as good at the MixPre D and a dedicated recorder but great for on camera or dedicated mixer so far with my model mic collection.

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Does the A7Rii record 10 bit externally?

Of course not, Sony wouldn't dream of doing that on a camera which cost around 3000USD+ .... unfortunately it has 8bit out only. The A7sII, which is supposedly the more video oriented version from the A7 line doesn't even have it. Blackmagic Design is starting to look more appealing to me these days.

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Does the A7Rii record 10 bit externally?

I wondered about this also. And there have been serval discussions online. Some say it does, other say it doesn't. What I do know is that when the Video Devices Pix-E7 is connected to the A7Rii hdmi output, it detects the signal as 10 bit, and defaults to the ProRes 422HQ 10 bit for the recording. 

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I'd eat grass if it was 10bit and Sony not telling it to everyone and his mom whenever they can. They don't seem like the company to pass that oportunity up.

Good High ISO vs. 10bit vs. 4k vs. sensor size vs. high framerates still is a total tradeoff. Pick your poison, there's no camera to do it all.

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  • 2 months later...
On 1/25/2016 at 11:00 PM, DBounce said:

I wondered about this also. And there have been serval discussions online. Some say it does, other say it doesn't. What I do know is that when the Video Devices Pix-E7 is connected to the A7Rii hdmi output, it detects the signal as 10 bit, and defaults to the ProRes 422HQ 10 bit for the recording. 

About the 10bit external recording, did you find out if it actually is 10bit? Atomos have stated in a document that with the a7rII, it is:

https://www.atomos.com/wp-content/themes/atomos/PDFs/Atomos_Shogun_fully_supports_New_Sony_a7rII.pdf

 

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45 minutes ago, liamlumiere said:

About the 10bit external recording, did you find out if it actually is 10bit? Atomos have stated in a document that with the a7rII, it is:

https://www.atomos.com/wp-content/themes/atomos/PDFs/Atomos_Shogun_fully_supports_New_Sony_a7rII.pdf

 

To be honest, if there was a difference in color depth or anything else it was marginal at best. After performing  several test shoots side by side to see if there as any gain to be had by recording to the external recorder, I ended up returning it and now just shoot internal. 

To me the slight gain in quality was not a good trade-off for the much larger file sizes. But after reviewing my post, yes there was a difference, but just not a big enough difference to warrant the extra bulk and larger file sizes. Also, I did not find that I could push the colors further in post by using the external recorder. This leads me to believe that the bit depth is still 8 bit. The difference is sharpness is down to the codec.

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18 minutes ago, DBounce said:

To be honest, if there was a difference in color depth or anything else it was marginal at best. After performing  several test shoots side by side to see if there as any gain to be had by recording to the external recorder, I ended up returning it and now just shoot internal. 

To me the slight gain in quality was not a good trade-off for the much larger file sizes. But after reviewing my post, yes there was a difference, but just not a big enough difference to warrant the extra bulk and larger file sizes. Also, I did not find that I could push the colors further in post by using the external recorder. This leads me to believe that the bit depth is still 8 bit. The difference is sharpness is down to the codec.

Thanks. I was thinking of getting a ninja 2 to record a downsampled 4K but at least I would gain the 4:2:2 and files that don't need transcoding for good performance. 

With your input, the unsupported quicktime and the new proxy function of premiere, I will keep using the internal files. 

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