Zach Ashcraft

Here are the two pieces I made today with the Sony FS7.  This camera is going to be a giant hit.  Everything about it is amazing.
  Charlie Chicken:   Small Moments (180 FPS):

The Sony F3 is another bargain. 444 output, great color, good in low light too... it's now $5k! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-PMW-F3L-Super-35mm-Full-HD-Compact-Camcorder-885-Hours-w-S-Log-Gamma-/331376366422?pt=Camcorders_Professional_Video_Cameras&hash=item4d27921356

we should buy one an EOSHD work horse !!

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.

Which shots? Other than the shaky whip zoom, I'd love to know what stood out to you. I won't be offended :)

Heres a short clip from a documentary i'm working on. This was shot probably 50/50 full frame and crop mode. The opening slider shot was in full frame mode. 
 
I am not finding the rolling shutter to be an issue at all
 

Heres another short I shot today using the A7s. Opening shot is using the time-lapse app, which is pretty convenient! 
 
This was a difficult assignment. Had to arrive at the stadium at 7am and have the thing shot and edited by the afternoon before the finals show started. The a7s didn't get in the way, and the lightweight was a huge plus since I was used to lugging the C100 around. 
 
Overall Im incredibly happy with the camera
 

Heres a short clip from a documentary i'm working on. This was shot probably 50/50 full frame and crop mode. The opening slider shot was in full frame mode. 
 
I am not finding the rolling shutter to be an issue at all
 

I find that for 99% of situations S-Log on the a7s is pointless.  Particularly since most of us shooting with the a7s don't have the capabilities to post process a log profile effectively.
 
The creative styles are very powerful tools - particularly with the a7s since the dr is a lot greater than the same creative styles on most of the other sony/nex cameras.  you can actually pull down the highlights or pull up the shadows quite effectively if required, and get some of the apparently lost data back.
 
My personal favourite is the 'Neutral' creative style.  but with the sharpness and contrast dialed down to -3.  saturation left untouched.  
 

 
granted there are some peaked reds, but since I was shooting at 16000iso for the majority, letting the camera do auto exposure (due to the fast paced workflow required), where 95% of the light was coming from neons and other nasty lights.  Very little grading was applied to the footage.

Overexpose it a bit if it's noisy? You can bring it down later in post. 

First, I too think it looks sharp. :-) 
 
The hard zoom in definitely, and I'm pretty sure there's a couple of frames at the beginning of the track back that would fail (hard to be definitive on Youtube), and the BBC would potentially fail you on the speed of the dolly back itself. Yep, its that tough.
They let a ton of micro-skew go in the 5D2 days, but have tightened up recently. If you want to know why they, Discovery, Fox and others are so vigilant on skew and micro-shake its because it messes with the layers of compression they need to get it to people's homes. 
 
Now is your film fine for a web customer?  Sure! Looks really nice.
But for me, the A7s is only a specialty camera right now UNLESS I invested the time to learn its quirks. 
 
Hope that made sense. 
 

I thought this was hysterical.  
 
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/welcome-to-the-first-installment-of-pogues-101268781239.html

Heres a short clip from a documentary i'm working on. This was shot probably 50/50 full frame and crop mode. The opening slider shot was in full frame mode. 
 
I am not finding the rolling shutter to be an issue at all
 

For the record, I sold my C100 and 5D3 and went with an A7s and A7r. Way happier with the results for stills and video. I'll have a review on my site next week that I'll share here

I don't agree. Sorry! To my eye the C100 and the very similar Mk II do not look better than the A7S, which has HD more in league with the F5. Actually better because it isn't as noisy. The A7S is full frame, nicer rendering of EF lenses than Super 35 and the 4K output is superior - 4x the data in the file than 1080p ProRes, not just 4x the detail. The only image quality related issues the C100 Mk II is superior over the A7S is rolling shutter. I dare say the A7S is better in low light too!
 
The Blackmagic cameras if you stay under ISO 800 offer better skin tones, more tones in the lows (much nicer shadows with less banding) and the BMCC in particular has a significant dynamic range advantage in raw.
 
In terms of grading, raw does not compare to AVCHD, nor ProRes via HDMI. It's obvious you can do more with raw. The C100 Mk II will not give you the advantages of raw, unlike the 5D3 with Magic Lantern.
 
The GH4 is of course more details and is 4x the amount of data in the H.264 file than is the case with H.264 on the C100 Mk II. The GH4 is a bit noisy at times and the smaller sensor needs Speed Booster which has trades offs of its own, but I will bet you a lot of money that if you gave me two shots, one from the C100 2 and one from the GH4 I could match them in post so closely you wouldn't be able to tell them apart at 1080p.
 
I can appreciate why the C100 Mk II is a work tool, and at $5500 it's a very solid one which does very good 1080p with some of the best ergonomics, excellent audio and built in ND filters. But let's not pretend that $5500 is getting you anything magical on the image side. Very good compressed 8bit 1080p yes, with decent colour straight off the bat with no grading. It's certainly convenient.

I've been considering the merits of selling my C100 and 5d3 (and t2i) for a sony system. Am I crazy to consider this? The image and functionality seems to be weighing in favor of sony, at a cheaper price no less.
 
I shoot both stills and video from weddings to documentaries and some smaller scale but consistent commercial work. I'd probably want some of the native sony lenses to have good AF at weddings - probably the 70-200 and the 55 prime. Manual focus nikkor for the rest. 
 
Thoughts? Am I crazy or is Canon really that uncool. 

I am mostly looking for a wide (21-25 range) and a 50mm. I'll be picking up the Sony 70-200 for AF and image stabilization. 
 
I'll look into these, thank you sir! 

these are the lenses you should be looking at
 
the general thought of view is that zeiss stopped their deal with Contax Yashica then made new sleeker housings and its the same optics inside these newer zeiss lenses you where looking it ,
 
 
these are all C/Y mount
50mm f1.7
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carl-Zeiss-Planar-50mm-F1-7-Contax-Fit-Lens-/171498620996?pt=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item27ee1d4844
 
25mm f2.8
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Carl-Zeiss-CONTAX-Distagon-2-8-25-25mm-F2-8-G-Germany-adaptable-EOS-A7-/390941670550?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Objektive&hash=item5b05f07c96
 
28mm f2.8
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EXC-Contax-Carl-Zeiss-Distagon-T-28-mm-f2-8-/181555591858?pt=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item2a458e7ab2
 
35mm f2.8
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EXC-Contax-Carl-Zeiss-Distagon-T-35mm-f2-8-35-2-8-AEJ-Canon-4-3-5951126-/271501357737?pt=UK_Lenses_Filters_Lenses&hash=item3f36bdf2a9
 
I dont know the exact focal lengths you want but this is the range of Zeiss that are very very good and still affordable - stick them on a speedbooster and they become wider and sharper and f2!!
 
 
Or just get a Nikon 28-70mm f2.8 IF ED  - it covers the above and is killer glass and on a speedbooster is also f2!

very good , very sharp , great zeiss colours and nice blacks also very expensive each.
I would get a set of Zeiss Distagons and Planars in Contax Yashica mount just as good and alot cheaper then stick them on a speedbooster to make them all f2
save a load of cash ....

Your vimeo tags gave it away :) I was going to guess Gh2, but I would hardly say any of these cameras are **** 
 
Fantastic looking lighting in the trailer 

Yes it has an XLR add on.
And don't let a rumour made up by a 16 year old teen in a bedroom add a cloud of doubt over your filmmaking work.

Thank you guys for the quick replies! Zach please do let me know how the wedding goes with the a7s. Also yeah I saw the rumor so it adds a cloud of doubt. Andrew I was wondering if I remember correctly the a7s does have a xlr add on?

I totally understand your dilemma. I'm a C100 owner, and have an A7s on rental that will be arriving tomorrow. I'm shooting a wedding this weekend with both and will definitely chime in with my thoughts. At the moment I'm leaning towards selling all of my canon equipment and investing in sony. I don't doubt that canon will come out with a C100 replacement in the next year

It depends. Trading the 5d3 is probably a good idea in the long run but meanwhile, if the work you get done with those is good enough, why bother for the sake of swapping cameras? If you fancy the Sony A7s with a full frame sensor and just want to have one, that's another story. Go with whatever fancies you. That's not crazy, that's just normal. Our decisions are 90% emotional, anyway. 
 
 
You could put any brand instead of Sony in that sentence, and it would still be one of the not so good reasons to swap gear, aka on the crazy side of the scale. I for one wouldn't rely on any AF alone. For the time being. Especially in scenarios like live weddings where you can't have retakes. Although the native lenses of each system are always the best option for the most reliable AF in general.
 
 
Yes, Canon really is uncool, but that's another story altogether.  :P
 
Whether you're crazy or not depends on your reasons for buying new gear. People can make great looking footage with both Sony and Canon gear. I've met some with C100/300 and some others with Sony gear, and I can't really say the gear dictates the quality of their work.
So pick whatever you fancy the most, and stop deluding yourself with all the wrong excuses.  ;)

Some various shots using the awesome FF58 and other with a Voigt 50 1.5 (@2.8) together with the SLR Anamorphot.  Yes the low light ability is pretty insane on the camera, I wish I brought my Ninja Blade to record the footage though.  Hard to pack everything while on vacation since, you're supposed to be on vacation lol.  I hope there will be a 4:3 mode for 2X anamorphic on this camera one day...we can wish  :)