I just got my a7s through Amazon and was shocked to find it was a AP2 version (Asia Pacific - world camera PAL/NTSC switchable). It also arrived without a warranty, CD or instruction manuals ; (
I called Sony up and they told me how to switch the language (I think the default was some form of Chinese, the world clock was set to that time zone by default). Sony also informed me that it was probably a grey market product so it would not be supported if repairs were needed. They offered to register it via phone, but I was wary of keeping it.
I did some more research on the interwebs to find out exactly what I had in my hands.
News Shooter had a blog post about the A7s as a world camera.
http://www.newsshooter.com/2014/06/25/the-sony-a7s-a-world-camera/
You'll notice that the first screenshot has a menu item at the bottom allowing for switching between PAL and NTSC. By default my camera was in PAL mode, I made the switch and was able to see the NTSC frame rates. My hopes were up, maybe I was holding something special in my hands.
While using the camera I got the warning message that "You are shooting in NTSC". This seems to happen every time I turned the camera on or changed between the playback mode and shooting mode. This camera is definitely a PAL first device and takes great care to warn the user.
That seemed to be a minor annoyance but I could live with it. Then I found out that the AP2 version may not be able to output 4K via HDMI in NTSC frame rates (see the dvxuser link below).
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?324461-Is-the-sony-a7s-a-world-camera-shoots-ntsc-and-pal
I tried accessing the 4K output but it was greyed out, both in PAL mode and NTSC mode (maybe because I don't have a Shogun?). By the way, you need to reformat the camera and card when you are switching between the two modes.
I am going to try and call Sony to verify the 4K output issue. I downloaded the manual but it was not clear if 4K output is not possible in NTSC mode.
TL;DR Does anyone know if the PAL/NTSC version can output 4K in NTSC frame rates? If not this thing is definitely going back. Also, anyone have any issues with grey market cameras and services/repairs/resale value?
- Akshay