dinzitari

I really, really hope this camera lives up to its intention. I currently shoot wedding films as a primary gig, working on breaking in to commercial work, and just wrapped my first narrative short (36 min). On that short, we shot with the Sony F5. It was a dream, and I loved working with the extra range and PQ with the Slog2 and XAVC codec. 
 
During the beginning of the year, I almost pulled the trigger on 3 Canon C100s to replace my FS100s. I wanted log workflow for my primary job, but the price was just too high. 
 
Now enter the A7s, full frame capable (i think) of shooting in a super 35 format, XAVC S codec at 50mb/s, and the glorious sLog2 gamma. It's so much more than a "low light" camera (which many are already tagging it with) This just checks so many boxes for me, a premium event camera with advanced dynamic range and codec, and capable of being a great B cam for a BMPC 4k or URSA, or Sony F series.
 
I really need to see what shooters can get out of it, and the "S" after XAVC has me suspicious that this could really be "AVCHD 3.0". I do think many of you are expecting too much from this camera though. I'm okay with 4k external, the camera has true pro cinematography tools featured in Sony's pro lineup, and the body can only dissipate so much heat for well implemented internal 4k shooting.

Here are my samples, LA7200 combined with Redrock rig. In these pictures, I was using a Helios 44, 50mm, but also tested on the Canon EF 24-70mm.
 
An issue is that the distance to the mattebox varies according to focus (on the Helios) or zoom (on the 24-70).
 
Does look good, I admit, but doesn't work at all. On the Helios, there is no problem, no vignetting. On the 24-70, without the mattebox, we can go as wide as 28mm, but with the thing in front, it's only usable when the lens is set longer than 50mm, which kills the anamorphic's main purpose: using really wide angles. :(
 


 

I own a LA7200 as well, and have a Redrock Micro Mattebox here. If you can wait a little, I'll try to put them together this week and post some thoughts about it.
 
(my panasonic came with the Cinetatics mattebox, never used it, though :P)