Andrew Reid

It's not going to be groundbreaking as the standard model, leave that for the a1 II and a9 III which are indeed ground-breaking, especially that world first on a full frame global shutter sensor in a mirrorless camera. The big appeal of the a7 V for me is: Only E-mount and Z has the wonderful Techart Leica M autofocus adapter, which means ALL of my best lenses can now be used with back-button AF for stills. When I go back to a Panasonic or L-mount camera, I have to focus it all manually, such a drag after you have experienced the other way. Then there is the GFX 100, which is now my main system. You are happy to put vintage full frame glass on it, because it changes the look in a very nice way. It makes a full frame camera look like a crop. Darker, softer corners are the trade off - usually, I don't mind it. So if I am to pick up a full frame camera it has to compliment the GFX 100, do things that can't - like the Techart adapter, an eco-system with the most adapters, the outright best mount, great AF, great ergonomics and colour (Sony have improved a lot in these areas), and Sony has a lead in terms of their outright best full frame cameras. Which means, should the a7 V borrow from the a1 II, it ends up rather good - which it is. Whereas, Panasonic's latest $3k cameras tend to borrow from the S5 II, rather than a higher-end $6k Panasonic, which doesn't exist (yet) and no S1H II either. So Sony is attractive for a lot of shooters... And over Canon RF mount, E mount takes the win by far in terms of the available glass, adapters and pricing thereof.

It's repacked and rearranged sensor data, and it has heavy compression which changes the texture of detail in the shadows, and the noise pattern of the sensor. Have a look at the word raw and what it means. Raw means unaltered, unfiltered, unprocessed raw sensor bayer RGB data. You only have that with uncompressed Cinema DNG on the Sigma Fp cameras. And other fake raw codecs like BRAW are a hybrid codec, it is partially debayered-in camera.

Oh dear https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/cameras/mirrorless-cameras/sony-suspends-new-a7-iv-firmware-this-is-why-i-never-update-my-firmware-on-day-one How many people has Sony charged $800 to replace the mainboard, when the cause appears to be dodgy firmware? The a7 IV bootloop occurs on V5.0 as well, so it's not just the new V6.0 that it's happening with as is being widely reported.

Apparently in the UK we are paying Trump's tariffs as well. £2800 = $3696 USD I just think it's an utter disgrace how the Japanese companies are treating their customers. Their currency is at an all-time low vs the GBP as well, so when the foreign currency is repatriated back home they're making an enormous margin on the FX as well compared to pre-pandemic times. The US market and corporate greed dictates the value of everything in the world, it seems.

The a7 V is quite a predictable upgrade, nevertheless it's excellent. It does however miss a lot of video features that are present on the Panasonic S1 II / S1R II for a similar price, and the cheaper Nikon Zr / Z6 III... No open gate, no anamorphic, 4K is still maximum resolution, no real-time LUT can be baked into footage, and of course Sony still has no internal RAW codec to call their own. Still, this is a $3000 entry level camera so we can't be too greedy can we? Compared to... Sony a7 IV. The previous a7 IV is now even more of a bargain, it will probably go down even further in price used, most likely to region of $1200. Stills quality the same as a7 V and probably more than most people will ever need. Video quality is excellent but the rolling shutter is on high-side, that's one area as well as the Super 35mm 4K/120p where a7 V has an advantage. Sony a9 III. Well, keep an eye on that used price as it's already not a million miles off what a new a7 V costs... Sony a1. Again, the more powerful option vs a7 V albeit with a few of the new features missing, you can pick one up used in the UK for £2700, same price as a new a7 V. Nikon Zr. THE choice if you want fake raw. Nikon Z6 III. Much more price competitive than the new Sony. Panasonic S1R II. The dark horse. It does more. Price is high though and I much prefer the Sony body design and build quality. Panasonic S1 II. Certainly has the edge on the a7 V for video, if not autofocus. More expensive, but again keep an eye on the used market prices. Overall I think the a7 V is predictable - it's good that we have another partially stacked sensor option though.

Is the 16 stops in the room with us right now?

I'm talking about in cinema, there's no use case for it. Sports yes.

Did they finally revert to the original S1 image, and drop the over-sharpening?

I had to squint very hard to see the review amongst the advertorial at DPReview. Nice firmware updates and nice specs. Pity about the stuff Panasonic can do nothing about... - L-mount is a not such a popular mount compared to Sony E, Canon RF, Nikon Z and Fuji X / GFX, despite having been released 2nd after Sony - The price is wrong, it should be at the Z6 III level - The competition is really fierce and has a very big loyal user base eager for more - A7 V will outsell the S1 II massively and the EOS R6 Mark III specs are really competitive with not a cripple hammer in sight, Nikon with REDcode, Fuji with the best sensors - All the others have moved into Panasonic's video niche in a big way, so now Panasonic must stand apart without their biggest unique selling point (GH4 days are long gone) I don't wish ill to Panasonic but they have majorly fucked things up in the camera market and all those great specs and generous firmware updates won't save them It's all the marketing and planning team's fault, not the engineers. For the loyal ones, enjoy the S1 II and S1R II, they're great cameras even if they won't sell very many.

It's been done. The water damaged stuff requires a whole next level of repair skill though.

Must not be true then!

I have a rather nice Nikon Zf but you've probably already found one for 6 quid in Japan!

I have never understood why someone would shoot a 30 minute continuous take at 120fps. It's absolutely fucking bonkers. 120fps is for slow mo. If you slowed-down an hour long continuous take from 120fps to the cinema standard of 24p, it would last for 5 hours. Who the fuck is sitting through that?

I'd argue it is the MOST important because without the camera, you don't have a picture. It is the small differences between the latest sensors and codecs that's the unimportant thing. In cinematography, our job isn't to worry about the costumes or set pieces, that's the job of someone else. So lighting and camera are the most important for a DP. What has happened is the gap between the top-end i.e. ARRI and the cheap stuff has closed up. This has been going on ever since the start of the DSLR revolution so it's not a new thing but there's never been a smaller gap that exists now, for example between something like the Alexa 35 and a $1000 used Panasonic S1H. By the way although Magellan has beautiful content and really nice camera-work, the sharpness of it and the deep DOF isn't everybody's cup of tea. It does look a bit too soap opera in parts of that trailer, I think. It looks very different to an IMAX shot film. So there's big differences between formats and lenses still... The same cinema focal length for example on 16mm has always looked vastly different to same on IMAX or large format. Also there are big differences in grading style, camera movement style, and so on. I think most relevant for us is that you don't need to make a massive rig any more to get good results. It's horrible having the weight as a one-man DP. Probably why they used such a small camera on this.

New blog post: https://www.eoshd.com/news/thousands-of-sony-cameras-are-mysteriously-failing-but-sony-isnt-telling/