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Does anybody know what the maximum theoretical bitrate through the hdmi port is for the Sony A7RII. Gary Friedman makes the following statement in his A7RII book:

"Yes, you can record 4K movies on your internal memory card, but the camera applies some compression to these files in order to allow more footage to fit on a card. If you have an external 4K recorder attached to the camera's HDMI port, however, you can tell the camera to save it as uncompressed 4K video, with a bitrate estimated to be 147 Mbps. (Compare this to the available bit rates of 100M available to record on the memory card, which frankly is still pretty good. But you’re a purist; otherwise you wouldn’t even be reading this.)"

I have no idea where the figure of 147Mbps comes from. Since so many aspects of the Sony cameras are undocumented it is difficult to verify this statement. Can anybody help ?

Pretty simple. You bypass the internal processing . You have to simulate/replicate the internal processing. It is a bit of of a black box but it is safe to assume that noise reduction is the key item.

​Sorry should read Dave Dugdale.

New Shogun review from Dave Dugmore: http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/atomos-shogun-review/. 

Not overly positive. The 4k recording on the A7s was not handled in detail but the bit that was discussed was not to exciting.

Noise reduction in post doesn't give you extra dynamic range JCS or make colour any better, you still need to adjust the curve to put contrast back into the image, thus trading the dynamic range of the flat LOG profile for acceptable colour and contrast.

To some extent this addresses the core issue that is missing in this discussion. The deep shadows in the 1DC images are featureless, lacks texture and details. These are all tell-tale signs of noise reduction. Most if not all cameras do some form of noise reduction when recording internally even if noise reduction is set to zero. I will be extremely surprised if the 1DC is an exception. On the other hand the Shogun records footage from the A7s without any internal noise reduction which means that noise reduction have to be done in pp for a proper comparison. Alternatively direct recording from the 1DC sensor is necessary if you want to omit any pp in the comparison.

​I think your examples clearly shows the Sony advantage. In my opinion there are even better areas for comparison like the strap lug and the front control dial on the Nikon. If you can show this advantage on a small web jpeg, the real world advantages on the original 4k files with proper pp could be significant. Maybe Andrew should make the original clips available for download to demonstrate this. On the other hand I suspect that this discussion is not technical anymore.

The A7s have significantly more shadow detail, albeit it with more noise. With Neat Video the A7s should comfortably match or exceed the the usable dynamic range of the 1dc. The lack of detail in the 1dc shadows might be an indication of aggressive internal noise reduction. 

Andrew, can you give an indication what the current problem is with the recording of s-log 2 on the Shogun. 

It is occasionally handy to use a field monitor for still photography. It is difficult to find info about the functionality of field monitors for still photography. I will appreciate if somebody can assist me with the following questions:

1. What is the functionality of a field monitor on the sony A7s in still mode ?

2. Does monitor/recorders like the Atomos range work in still mode ? ( not necessarily as a recorder but as a monitor )  

My Lacie Thunderbolt ssd bootdrive runs without any issues on Yosemite. Use it permanently on mid 2012 27" imac.

For what it's worth, except for a few misgivings, the A7s, has reinvigorated me about what a camera can get away with. It's become my home movie, personal and some pro project go to. Anyone thinking of getting it, I strongly recommend budget in the Movcam A7s cage. Barely bigger than the camera it solves a lot of issues. If has a bracket lock for Metabones style adaptors. I have a EF MB mount constantly on my A7s. The Movcam mount bracket takes care of the freeplay between Metabones and camera. It also adds a second mounting point further securing the camera and taking stress off the E mount. It also has a proper hdmi lock. The first job I did with the A7s, I went through three micro hdmi cables in two weeks. Since getting the Movcam cage, haven't busted one. I can actually swing the camera by the cable (not recommended). Last it has two levels of quick release: 15mm rod mount to tripod and camera cage to 15mm rod mount. So you can go real small and pop the camera off in seconds with nothing but cage and top handle. Got mine off Ebay for 340.00 with rods / rod mount and hdmi lock. I don't work for them, just jazzed about a product that'd even make German engineers green with envy.

Out of interest what type of micro hdmi cable do you use ? I need to buy a cable to use with my A7s Movcam cage but it is difficult to judge what type of cable will work effectively with that type of clamp.

Andrew, I am not sure what you mean by: "So I find myself using stills mode to shoot video, but when I do that the mechanical shutter has to be enabled if I am to use S-LOG"

Go to file, then import media and the import dialog box will appear. This how you import all media into FCPX.

FCPX 10.1.3 on Mavericks can import XAVC files from any suitable sd card without any problems (assuming the sony plugin is installed). Go to the import dialog window and select the sd card. Now work through the folder sytem on the sd card until you get to the root folder. Inside the root folder you will find the clip folder. Inside the clip folder you will find the clips. Simply import the clips. You do not even have to transcode the files if you do not want to.

There should be no problem. Just remember to dig into the root folder of the sd card until you get to the clips.

Do you have a link to the Convergent Design statement ?

It's a shame the FE system standard zoom lenses are sucky.

 

Look at the horror bokeh here on 24 to 70 f4

 

http://www.photozone.de/sonyalphaff/867-zeiss2470f4oss?start=2

 

Also bags of distortion.

 

The 18 to 105 F4 APSC should be ideal, but have obscene distortion:

 

 

I dunno what the excuse is. They aren't actually designing for very short flange, there's a big gap at the back of the E/FE lenses so they don't need extreme correction at the edges. The quality sucks compares to the old Contax Zeiss but apparently it's the same company.

 

The standard zooms are all overpriced and poor performers either in speed or quality. Very sad...

The Sony A7S supports in-camera lens corrections for video. This obviously only applies to dedicated e-lenses.

Those huge distortions are hugely exaggerated if you ask me.  I'm a stills guy, I don't shoot charts or architecture, often times I actually prefer the uncorrected RAW to what LR thinks it should look like.  It's kinda nice how a 24 pulls the image center when you want that effect.

 

I was asked about the "auto-correct" feature for video, I ran a few "real world" tests and it looked like it was correcting for distortion and vignetting on the 24mm end.  If I wanted huge distortions (from a stills guys perspective) I'd go have a play with those speed boosters. (:-)

 

EDIT:  You know they must correct internally, remember when Sony offered the firmware upgrade for the A7R and said it was for the FE 4/70-200, they made a big deal out of that fact.  This was one of my reasons for not wanting to play around with all these off-brand lenses on the A7 cameras, its often a PITA to correct for that stuff in LR or PS.  How on earth are you video guys doing it for motion?  Even Resolve "looks" basic compared to a high end stills editor where correction is concerned?

I have also seen the following statement in a different A7S review:

"Unfortunately at the time of this writing, no video editing NLEs offer lens and camera specific CA, distortion, and light fall-off correction so these IQ issues can be real concerns that affect videographers more than photographers, who have more options to correct them. While correcting for IQ issues is not new for photography, it is in videography and the Sony α7S is one of the first cameras that support lens corrections in-camera in video mode."

Can any of the video guys that have tested the A7S confirm this statement.

The FE 2.8/35 is an excellent lens, no surprises, it just performs superbly.  Take a look at the FE 4/24-70 if you're using the A7S for video & stills, it really is very good on that body, the OSS is superb for video and it's small and compact.  The zoom is as good at f/8 as the prime on the A7S if sharpness is part of your criteria.

 

On the A7S the FE 4/24-70 really is worth a look at, it performs better on that sensor.  Both the FE 2.8/35 & FE 1.8/55 are top flight optics for stills on the A7S & A7R.  I shoot a great deal on the A7R and use both primes exclusively but on the A7S I'll reach for the FE 4/24-70 for the OSS.

 

Chris

The FE 4/24-70 have huge distortion on both ends of the zoom scale. Does the A7S do lens correction ( distortion, vignetting, ca ) in video mode ?