Rungunshoot

I've had it for 2 weeks now and just wrapped my first paid gig with it.  This is definitely not an A-cam.  It overheats very quickly in 4k. I used it in 90 degree weather for about 20 minutes and got a heat warning.  I tried to keep recording and ended up getting black/corrupted frames. The cam also reverted my memory card to "read only", requiring me to re-format it once I had dumped the footage.  The 4k rolling shutter is so bad that it ruins my attempts at post-stabilizing 4k footage because it warps the image too badly.  And there's no IBIS so good luck with Rokinon primes.  Regarding the lowlight image, I disagree with Andrew's endorsement; I find the in-camera noise reduction artificial-looking. It creates blocky patches that resemble MPEG compression artifacts.

 But I still want to use the a6300 for a few reasons.   First, it's small.  I can easily mount it on a small gimbal.  Second, autofocus.  It's really good. Maybe not as good as Canon, but it can track a moving face in all but the dimmest of light or heaviest backlight.  The AF is ultimately very usable, especially on a gimbal.  Third, it's relatively cheap and (theoretically) weather-sealed.  Which means I don't feel as scared doing dangerous stuff with it.  Finally, it uses APS-C lenses, which means it stays small even with lens attached.  You can put the cheapo 16mm pancake on it and it's almost pocket-sized.  So while I wish Sony would fix the glaring issues with this cam, I'm gonna keep using it for a few months in anticipation of something better.  

Yeah I think the FS5 would be an addition to the A7sii, not a replacement.  So maybe my kit bag would have both cameras and a bunch of FE glass.  When I'm filming action/daytime/slow-mo I use FS5. For ultra-shallow DOF/lowlight/gimbal work, a7sii (or a7rii).  

Low light test. FS5 nowhere near as good as a7sii.

https://vimeo.com/148669030

Autumn Leaves Creative Style

-3 Contrast, 0 Saturation, -3 Sharpness

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4
Rokinon 14mm T3.1 Cine
Metabones EF-E Adapter mkIV

Edited in FCP X
 

​Normal Metabones EF-E adapter mkIV

Love the colors of the interior portions - the blue wall against the flesh tones looks great.

Looks great, fair play - can you explain the -3,0,-3 part? 

-3 contrast, 0 saturation, -3 sharpness

I also use Dynamic Range Optimization (DRO) level 4

Great music, dynamic movement's, editing and very nice colors. Is Autumn Leaves picture style on the A7S? And did you film handheld?

 

thanks for posting.

Thanks,

Autumn Leaves is a creative style. It's available if you go to PP OFF mode (picture profile off).  I found it to be the punchiest with the warmest colors, and the DR is still good enough for me.

Everything shot handheld.

Shot in my spare time during a commercial gig.  Autumn Leaves creative style, -3,0,-3. Edited in FCP X with Impulz LUTs

That was some weird shit. I liked it.

Eye candy from the largest mall in the world, Dubai Mall.  Shot on Sony A7s in Autumn Leaves creative style (-3,0,-3) and then processed with Impulz LUTs in FCP X

Hey guys, I threw a sample video together for you...

pass: jockjams

It's a compilation of some paid work I've done with the A7s.  

I'm really against shooting s-log2 with this camera.  I've never been able to get anything but weird results from it. Maybe I'm just not a good enough colorist, but I haven't seen many other people get good color from it, either.

My current favorite shooting mode is the creative style Autumn Leaves with contrast -3, sat 0, sharpness -3.  I set wb manually to compensate for a7s's tint problems.  Then I grade in FCP X.

A few shots from Abu Dhabi.   I really like the way this camera handles nighttime and sunset shots, but I'm having trouble getting satisfying colors in daylight.  Would appreciate any feedback:

Graded in FCP X with native CC tool, Pixel Studios ProHDR, and Impulz LUTs

Great work.  Not pretentious or touristy at all, and I love the way you integrated just a few timelapses/hyperlapses.

Cool I'll try to get that up in the next couple days. Gotta travel overseas today but I'd like to see what you all can do with the grading.  

Yeah all handheld. It really helps having a lens with IS.

I just did a test, and I really like the colors I get when turning Picture Profile off and just shooting in Sunset Creative Style.  It worked on my old NEX-5n to produce smoother gradients, and it looks like it gives good rich colors on the A7s as well.  I think you do lose dynamic range in the highlights, but for medium and low-contrast scenes, I think it's a good way to get punchy yet natural colors.

Anyone else tried this? Any thoughts?

Serious question,

 

Anyone have a link to a Sony FS7 video that does not look like VIDEO ?

This is the best I've seen so far:

EDIT - I thought you meant A7s, sorry!!

That looks amazing. Great job.

Sure thing, man.  Sorry I can't post more, but this footage is from a paid job and I don't want to release any unauthorized footage.

You can easily dial down the saturation in post on the color from the a7s, so long as it hasn't clipped in-camera.  I find that dialed-down saturation from 8-bit cameras tends to look better than boosted sat from footage shot flat.  The only time I think I would shoot all the way flat on the a7s is if I'm filming something like a nightclub or neon signs where I'm dealing with crazy saturated light sources in-frame.

5dmkIII raw (converted to LOG-C and then rec709):

Sony a7s (cine 4 - color, saturation and contrast dialed down -1, then gamma lowered and shadows raised a bit in FCP X):

My thoughts are that the a7s can give you some nice skin tones and balanced color if you don't try to do S-LOG 2.  I consider midday sun to be a challenging environment for 8-bit cameras, as the color can easily become washed out and desaturated.  I find that I need as much saturation from the camera as possible (without clipping) before processing.  Then I lower the gamma a bit in post and lift the shadows in order to give it more of a filmic shadow response.

What you can't do with the a7s in my experience is extreme shadow recovery like this backlit shot:

To me, this A7s issue is not just about colour temperature. It's about how weak and pastel the colours appear. 

 

I'm very far from a tech-head, but I wonder if to allow for extracting so much DR from a compressed codec Sony have stretched the colours too thin? Also contrast can affect the impact of saturation so that might have something to do with it?

 

Or perhaps it's just that everyone who has uploaded a video has been so focused on showing off the impressive DR, they forgot to think about contrast and colour! I doubt it though ...

Matt, I think you nailed it here.

Most of the footage we've seen has been shot flat in order to show off the mighty dynamic range of the A7s.  But when you spread 13 stops of range over an 8-bit gamut, you sacrifice color fidelity.

I'd like to see someone set up the A7s for a punchy in-camera look that maybe sacrifices 2 stops of range but gains back color fidelity, especially in the flesh tones.  I'm sure the camera can do it.  I've extensively used the NEX-5n, RX100 and RX10, and those low-end cams produce beautiful color.

In response to Andrew's original post, I think the A7s is just as sharp as C100, but the C100 is a much more usable camera in the real world mainly because it doesn't face the horrible rolling shutter issues of the A7s.  And C100 has a long-lasting battery, whereas the A7s battery appears to drain very quickly.  Plus, C100 has that magic color science that makes Canon cams sing regardless of their technical inferiorities.

Am I blind? What is it about the colour there that is not achievable by the a7s?

The colors look natural, not posterized, faded, or magenta-hued.  The whole spectrum is rather faithfully represented, and the highlights blow out in a pleasing way.  Most of the A7S footage I've seen has a brittle, desaturated look with digital-looking highlights, odd color casts, and often a tint toward magenta.

I had to rethink my attitude towards artifacts (and artificiality) after seeing this video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugeVou06fWI

Holy crap. That video has every technical flaw in the book...but it's awesome.

Beautiful. This is what the A7s was supposed to look like.

I'm holding on to my hacked 5dmkIII until someone provides a graded A7s sample that can compete.