Andrew Reid

  Why are you pixel peeping 720p at 120fps, ISO 12,800?   You know full well that the ultimate quality from this camera is 4K out of the HDMI, or even 1080p full frame mode at 24p.   This was only to demonstrate the creative potential / effect of slow-mo at very high ISOs.

PS - The users "Nog" and "Baltic" have been removed from the forum, because the accounts appear to have been setup with the sole intention to cause trouble.

In Premiere right click the clip, select Interpret footage and enter 25fps in the frame rate box.

I shot 'Nomad' with my friend Susanna and the Sony A7S a few days ago, in 120fps slow-mo mode. Light sources were only a candle, iPhone torch and an old industrial German desk lamp with red filter on the front. I am amazed at the clean results. ISO levels were pushing on for 12,800 in most of the shots. Read the full article here

Also, this is not a complete review. Says in the title. "Evolving". And "Part 1". I also clearly admit in the article that GH4 and Blackmagic owners might have a difficult decision on their hands here. Is that my fault? No!   I bought an A7R which I now need to sell. In a perfect would, all the cameras would come out at the same time. They don't.

Look guys. A blog is chronological. I will give you my objective opinion. I will inform. I will give you the facts. It is up to you to figure out what decisions to make based on your research of my site and of many others. The A7S wasn't available when I was reviewing the GH4. Everything positive and negative I pointed out about the GH4 has not changed. What has changed is that the competition has stepped up and offered something that is in many ways even more appealing. It will happen again, to the A7S. That's life! Enjoy your cameras. Enjoy shooting. And invest the most funds in lenses not cameras. There is always eBay for those who want to stay on the treadmill.

I think the low price was to clear stock and if they have more orders than stock, I have no idea how they will handle that.... each dealer probably has their own policy on it. Beyond Blackmagic's control.

  Talked to the Sony guys in Berlin today and they seemed surprised it wasn't already in stock, I think definitely before the end of July.

  I agree with almost all of Erik's point in his blog, and some other points not... when will people realise on the internet that it's ok to differ! Different opinions do not need so much hatred attached.   Thanks Erik for coming on here and defending your views.   As Erik said in his article it wasn't a review but a look at the shortcomings and quirks. I have a similar article in the works as well.   It isn't a honeymoon period for me, the camera is delivering on the fundamentals in a big way, for my uses.   Agree on the battery life Erik. You really need the vertical grip to improve that. The ergonomics of that are quite nice but not ideal. The lenses are indeed too expensive and there are not enough fast primes. Sony seem to have compromised aperture size to get the size of the lenses down which is why there's no F2.8 zoom. They need to introduce one, and quick, and get the prices to a more reasonable level to compete with Sigma.   I have bought the Zeiss FE 55mm F1.8 for when I need AF. It is true that the other glass on the camera is a manual focus only affair which suits me just fine for video but not so much for stills.   I am having the same problem as Erik with the Metabones adapter and blank screen occasionally, it is an incompatibility with the adapter and Metabones are working hard to fix it.   Don't share the same view of Erik who prefers S35 to full frame. I love the look of the larger sensor for almost everything, especially 24-50mm range of focal lengths. For me it is about shallow DOF yet, but not how extreme you can get it, but that you can get any control over it at all at wider focal lengths or when your subject is further away from the lens. To have a little bit of subject / background separation when they are 5m away is wonderful. I can't get that with a smaller sensor unless I use a longer focal length and that changes the rendering of the whole scene.   Obviously the low light is a big attraction for me as that's just how I work creatively. I love using minimal light and natural light sources. I am not a broadcast guy like Erik or a studio shooter. I can absolutely appreciate why some people would not need ISO 12,800!!   As Erik and I both said in our articles, grading S-LOG 2 is indeed rather tricky. But the camera has extensive pro FS700-like control over the image. Switching colour mode to ITU709 for instance with S-LOG gamma makes it easier to get the correct hue in post.   It's definitely a valid observation that auto white balance and the exposure meter aren't really to be trusted a whole lot when shooting S-LOG. Do it manually though and you will end up with a stronger image, at the expense of maybe working a bit slower, which to some will be a deal breaker, to others not. There's no ONE way is right here!   Disagree Erik actually about the 120fps. I am really enjoying it! Good bonus feature and creative. I was just shooting 120fps by candle light at 1/200, getting a usable S-LOG image at ISO 12,800. How many other cameras can you name that can do that let alone for $2500?

I don't get it, sorry. If it is being withdrawn by Blackmagic, then how is it going to rise back to £558 after the 6 they have in the warehouse sell out? Kind of contradictory no? Where is that new £558 going to come from exactly?

  Well... obvious things first :) 5D Mark III is toast

  Same depth of field as a super 35mm sensor yes, as it is the crop itself that changes depth of field because you have to reframe the shot to compensate for the narrower field of view.

  That was a challenging little pattern on there.... the 5D Mark III couldn't handle it either.   In 4K I'd expect it to be gone on the A7S.   Don't forget that the internal 1080p is going to be bettered in just 2 months... and it is already pretty good as it is!

  The rep might have been thinking of the aspect ratios for screen markers which it does indeed offer 4:3 for, in video mode. It's only an overlay though. Let's hope he's right on this one and it does have a 4:3 mode over 4K HDMI.

  A range of -0.7 to +1.3 is not exactly nailing exposure is it... plus the meter doesn't work correctly in S-LOG mode. Sometimes it fails to even give a reading. Maybe a bug?

The article I think is a good primer on the situation facing the low end mirrorless market but it does not address the high end of the mirrorless market at all, such as the A7S, A7R, Fuji X-T1, GH4, etc. so it is far from a complete article.   I always thought interchangeable lenses as a step up for smart-phone users was a silly idea. None of these users wanted to buy lenses or swap multiple primes while shooting, they all stuck to the kit lens and anyway a phone or low end DSLR is enough for their needs mainly. The manufacturers have now seen this in the sales and gone back to focussing on the high end mirrorless technology, as they should have continued to do right from the start. The PENS and GFs were never going to work long term vs the mighty smartphones. They only had such strong sales to begin with in 2009 and 2010 because smartphones back then were still not quite so good at what they do.

I've had the A7S for over a week now and can share my initial thoughts, even some firm conclusions. Here's one I've come to already - the Sony A7S is the best consumer camera Sony have ever made. For $2500 the video performance of the A7S sits between the FS700 ($8000) and F5 ($17,000) yet the full frame sensor lends more character and allows for groundbreaking low light performance. Read the full article here

  It is set to stream at 1080p (but I believe you need to be logged in as a Vimeo member to have that?) - however always download the original to judge resolution, compression, etc. Resolution on the A7S is superb, on par with the best 1080p I have seen from C300, etc.

  They grade similarly with ProRes, the raw on the Pocket is of course better for doing HUGE colour correction and changes, choosing your white balance in post. Overall yes the Pocket does have a very good image but even with Speed Booster the look is totally different to full frame. Night and day different in the rendering of the lenses. The A7S is also far less noisy in low light and is able to come very close to the ProRes of the BMPCC even with the internal XAVC codec never mind external HDMI, which is 4K capable of course so big image quality advantage there. The externally recorded 1080p ProRes is very nice, nip and tuck the same in terms of grading, etc. as the Blackmagic ProRes. Here I expected there to be a much bigger difference. There isn't. Detail and resolution in 1080p = similar, but of course the A7S will do 4K over the HDMI and Pocket won't. Less moire and aliasing on the A7S.

  I'm using Canon IS lenses with a Gorilla pod for stabilising the camera against both shoulders, with the EVF up to my eye as third point of contact for even more stabilisation. Even at 100mm it is as stable as a stable full of wooden horses.

The problem here is not to do with the master pedestal. The +15 setting helps the image by pushing the blacks away from the region of the encoding which doesn't get allocated enough bitrate. I have had consistently great results with it and wouldn't recommend it in the book if I thought it negatively effected the image.   It's important to learn how to grade an image properly as some of the colour cast issues here are easily fixed and adjusting the RGB curves would help too. Increase contrast in the image and dither the banding areas.

  You are talking about a huge REM fan here :) Buck's two latest albums, 2012 and 2014 are certainly worth a listen if you can find them. Vinyl release only!

  Pocket is a nice bargain for so little money but the A7S gives you far more. Far far more. In some ways $500 on the Pocket is $500 wasted by not getting something better. I had the Pocket on the same shoot as the A7S yesterday and hated every moment handling it. Dreary screen, poor ergonomics, too few features and no full frame look.

Only a few years ago S-LOG was a $3800 upgrade for the Sony CineAlta F3, itself a $15,000 camera. S-LOG made its debut on the Sony F35, a workhorse of Hollywood. Now Sony have put this on a $2500 consumer camera along with the best full frame sensor I have ever used for video. How good is it? Very!! I am sharing a pack of LUTs for the A7S which can be applied in Premiere, Resolve, etc. for an instant cinematic look to your A7S S-LOG 2 footage. Download Three LUTs are provided in the zip. Dynamic - for best dynamic range, will suit a low contrast shot requiring high dynamic range and plenty of shadow detail. Also good for low light. Vivid will give a punchier look to those shots that benefit from it like a sunset and where some dynamic range can be scarified for higher contrast and saturation. S-GAMUT is for when shooting S-LOG with the Color Mode of S-GAMUT and compensates for the purple tint to reds I find I am getting in this mode. For the Dynamic and Vivid LUTs you must set the camera colour mode in PP7 to ITU709 Matrix. Read the full article here

EF 24-105 F4L is a bit soft and has a lot of distortion. Not recommended. The Sigma ART version is better.   The 15-85 won't cover the full frame sensor, avoid all EF-S lenses.   The EF 24-70mm F2.8 is pretty nice, get the mark 1 as it's much cheaper.   The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 is similar in terms of optical performance believe it or not, for much less money, but the build quality sucks.   Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 VC is also worth a look as it has stabilisation and is very similar to the Mark II Canon equivalent optically.