Andrew Reid

I can guarantee that the internal XAVC-S 1080p from the A7S will not look as good as getting 1080p from the 4K output and doing your scaling in post with all that processing power available on your desktop.   8bit 4K 4:2:0 = 10bit 1080p 4444 remember. If the maths have complications and gotchas, the image to my eyes does not. The GH4's 4K looks like 10bit when you grade it and when you look at it on a 2K display. Gradations are smooth. Colour is fantastic. Sampling shows no signs of pixilation or jaggedness at 2K. At 1:1 at 4K you do see some aliasing and jaggies from 4:2:0 sampling. They disappear when scaled correctly to 1080p or 2K.

  4K = good 1080p.   So therefore you should care a lot Brian!

Raw or ProRes / Pocket Camera vs GH4 and A7S 4K is definitely a topic for a future blog post.   My feeling so far (based on the GH4) is that this compressed 8bit 4K stuff makes for very nice 2K and 1080p indeed, which looks every bit as good colour and dynamic range wise as the Blackmagics or raw on 5D Mark III.   Also GH4 in 4K has far less moire & aliasing than the Pocket Cinema Camera and BMCC, especially when downscaled to 2K.

Atomos have just sent me some info on their upcoming 4K recorder, primarily for use with the A7S and GH4. Read the full article here

A good idea to separate output and recording when speaking of HDMI and the external recorders.   So 8bit out to 10bit is still 8bit.

  Den or the Sony spec sheet? Who is right?   3840 × 2160(30p/24p) / 1920 × 1080(60p/24p) / 1920 × 1080(60i),YCbCr 4:2:2 8bit/ RGB 8bit

  Where's the source of the info please?   Good news if true.

  It will be as moire free as a JPEG still at full resolution. It reads out every pixel from the sensor in 4K video mode.

Looks impressive at high ISOs. Remember the HDMI output in 4K is uncompressed... YouTube does not give you the full image quality.Read the full article here

I am not disappointed in the S-lightest :)   Just picture the full frame 4K image out of the HDMI on this thing... going to look AMAZING.

Breaking news... The Sony A7S has been announced at NAB 2014. It records 1080p internally in XAVC-S format at 50Mbit but the big news is the support for full 4K output via HDMI to an external recorder. Unfortunately it does NOT have an internal 4K recording codec like the Panasonic GH4. Read the full article here

Sony is making some 4K related camera announcements at NAB Watch the live announcement here or scroll down on the home page Here are my running thoughts as we watch the Sony presentations... Read the full article here

As we get closer to the press conference, more unconfirmed rumours on the A7S have come in from NAB. Read the full article here

NAB 2014 kicks off today (Sunday) with the first major announcements. Here's a look at what could be in store for filmmakers at the biggest video and broadcast trade show of the year... Read the full article here

No poetry on the forums ;)

  For video it definitely does.   For stills, depends on print size. 36MP loses some low light performance but the oversampling makes up for it. Like going 4k to 1080p.   Other thing that matters is the pixel design, micro lenses and gaps between pixels. For example Blackmagic Production Camera has only 8MP but tiny pixels because most of the space on the sensor is taken up by global shutter circuitry.

You know what I mean.   A one shot AF confirm to grab focus quickly is fine, then AF lock, I have used that myself. But the hunting and electronic buzzing of AF is not suitable for cinema. Photojournalists if aesthetics don't matter, then yeah, grab the shot whichever way you can.

First I mentioned 4K (look at the date of the article) then after they say 4K too.   Then I mention XAVC-S, which 5 hours later appears there too.   Forgive me for the paranoia :)   Next I may mention BS-detection mode and XABCXYZ codec and see if it ends up on any other sites too.

By the way Sony Alpha Rumors seems to have copied my info! But they made a mistake which needs clarifying...   They suggested no 'clean' 4K to the SD card.   'Clean' means free of icons and text.   Unless you can't turn the date stamp off I highly doubt the SD card recording of 4K XAVC isn't 'clean'.

On the snipers, it isn't so much the fact they point out an error as the sheer hatred and bitterness in which they do it. I don't want a forum full of people like this, therefore both users have been banned permanently.

Sorry for the 60Mbit confusion. Indeed the codec is not limited to that. The AX100 is. The paragraph should have read as follows and I have corrected it in the article...   I also did some research on the AX100's implementation of XAVC-S. It records in MP4 format but perhaps rather disturbingly it has a much lower bitrate than the GH4's 4K codec. It is just 60Mbit/s vs 100Mbit/s on the GH4 in Ultra HD. I have not yet graded any footage from the Sony AX100 but it will be interesting to see how XAVC-S stands up at that bitrate. It is a very modern codec and bitrate isn't everything.

The AX100 sensor is 20MP though.   This is 12MP and will run a lot faster hence the "S".   Unless that stands for 'slow' ;)

  I'm curious what AX100 footage looks better than the GH4. Really curious.   Was it the bendy trains that did it for you?   And you do realise that 90% of the look is defined by the lens, and with the AX100 you only have one!   F0.95 vs F2.8... hmmm. Quite a difference.   Cooke vs consumer camcorder zoom lens. Hmm.   I'm not convinced AX100 has the imaging prowess over the GH4 and the codec is a full 40Mbit short of the GH4 in 4K too.

  I don't get paid to promote anything.   I do believe I was first to sing the praises of the D5200. When the D5300 came out it was way too small a step to be considered "golden", especially after all the revolutions of the previous year such as raw on the Canon DSLRs and Blackmagic Pocket ProRes.   Now the GH4 is here and all that nice Nikon glass you have can go on the Speed Booster. You could shoot 4K with the same effective sensor size as the Nikon D5300, with an extra stop of low light performance, for under $2000.   Look to where the ball is headed not to where it has been if you wanna catch it.   If you don't want to catch it then stick to whatever works for you, just don't bother us with it :) It's boring.