Phil Kenny

I'm glad you have this new 'unfiltered' environment here.

That FS7 footage you shot? Total dogshit. Absolute joke. 
Some of your work is fine if we embrace your limited aesthetic, but this? This is appalling. 

I agree the menus are difficult initially, particularly if you're coming into the Sony CAM eco-system cold.
But its a very good camera for the money, which you realised despite shooting without a doubt some of the most egregiously awful footage I've ever seen come out of it.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the reference to the NX1 comparison was a joke/dig, and I love that you just drove right past it, as did one of the other people here. 

Every time I think - hey that Andrew Reid isn't as much of a amateur as I thought (the Canon 1DC is indeed a fantastic camera, especially for 2011 tech) you go and post something as inane and stupefying as this footage. 

But I'm very glad I can now be open and honest with you about it. A blow for freedom of the internet! 

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

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. 
 

FS7 

 

Hadn't seen that. Very nice! I know its the F5 sensor, and man does it look similar.

I think Roger Deakins would strongly disagree with you about mirrors. Which is one of the reasons why he chose Alexa over RED for Skyfall. And he has a few other films under his belt. Almost all EVF's , even on the cameras themselves have lag and poor resolution.  If you regulary do interviews you know what I am talking about.  More than ever you are looking at a video monitor, not reality and all the details that are as a result. 

 

Personally, I think the greatest problem with digital cameras is that they are less and less often coming with mirrors.  I work ten time faster with a mirrored camera when shooting photos for instance and I don't even have to turn on a camara if I just want to frame a shot.  I would much prefer to have an digital overlay on a mirrored image, than a pixellated monitor any day.  However, we are still a few years out on that one.

Boy I would love that. A Fuji style hybrid would rock. 

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

 

There are several shots in that film would not pass QC with my clients. If that's good for you, great. I don't swing ANY DSLR around, but having to recompose my shot just because I wanted a half-decent move pissed me off, especially by the 3rd time. Simple as that. 

Its a great camera. Gives great images. But between the extra mental step of planning for movement, and the Metabones dropouts with the body I'll use something else right now, unless I specifically need the 50k iso and the client's ok with 1080. 

There is zero motion and the only one in motion is slowmotion which does not about the Sony video look. It is strange but 24p should look like 24 p right. But with the Sony many time it looks like video, something more like frame interpolation in TVs.

I love this comment, by which i mean its just plain idiotic.

Everything you've seen from the FS7 has been shot within the first 5 minutes someone has had the camera. Let's wait a few months before making such a wide declaration. Early A7s footage/GH4 footage also looked pretty crappy. Give people a few shoots with a camera - then make your judgements. 

Now to your "video" point. It has zero to do with frame interpolation. Its called over-sharpness. What really annoys me is people who shoot a digital sensor camera that isn't a RED, want a "cinematic" output, and yet use no softening filters (RED deliberately keeps their image as soft as they can get away with). None. An Alexa can look over-sharp shot poorly. 35mm film can too. When we shoot film (too rare!) we often have 3 layers of softening in front of the lens. 3 layers! When shooting a commercial or drama we have a range of Tiffen softeners ready to go for the Alexa or the F55, and we often will soften the highlights again in the grade. 

However - if you're shooting for broadcast, and you're matching $150k studio cameras which are horrifically sharp, being able to look 'video' is actually a plus! Sony and Canon and Panasonic understand this.

You want a more pure 'filmic' camera that's value for money? I can't recommend the BMs enough.

You need a camera that can shoot reportage, TV interview, a feature doc, a music video AND an indie feature? Better to start off hella sharp and adjust to taste.
I tell people all the time: A Swiss Army knife is actually a pretty terrible hunting knife. Unless you NEED that flexibility. 

I got mine a few days ago! pros & cons indeed ...
but I got noticable noise when shooting slog-2 ??? any ideas anyone? what am I doing wrong?

Nothing. :-)

Its SUPER annoying. 

The rolling shutter argument is blown out of proportion. I don't find it any less usable than any other rolling shutter camera on the market right now, especially in S35 crop mode

Yes, that's what I get a full-frame sensor for, to crop it. 
Its not crippling, but when you're in that early phase with any camera anything that 'catches' you turns into a huge problem. 

Pans that I have been doing for the last 5 years on my other DSLRs were unusable on the A7s. Then i'd remember I had to crop it. 
Over time you'd plan for that. At this point its not worth me investing the time. 

Let me repeat - the A7s LOOKS great. I just found it too annoying to learn to love, especially for 1080. Once the 4K recorders are out, my opinion may happily change :-) 

Very well written Andrew and complete.

 

This is not the first time Ive read about people using the GH4 as B-roll for the F55.  I know someone who did that and it was for SONY who hired him to do an F55 video.  For me its about over-all GH4 ergonomics and the flexibility 4k gives me in editing. I Love the A7s image but Id rather wait for the FS7, which I have the cash for, but Im not ready to move there just yet.  Meanwhile the GH4 will be my 4k training ground.  Its the best value to feature ratio Ive ever seen.

You won't regret it. As long as you can control the light on your set the GH4 will give you great images, and the first time you drop 4K on to a 1080 timeline and reframe it you'll be sold. Plus all the other niceties and fantastic button ergonomics. Even the 96frame is not useless. 

Agree with your review Andrew, but I can't shoot 1080 anymore. My two main broadcast clients now demand 4K acquisition (I work in LA). I rent an F55 a lot, but also bought a GH4 as "my" camera to replace my trusty Canon RAW/Nikon setup. 

I was very reluctant to even try the GH4, but having worked with it daily now for about 2 months, I can't go back to non-4K. I'll put up with its many quirks for that frame size. I've dealt with worse in the past :-)

When a range of 4K recorders are out I'll try the A7s again, but to be honest I'll probably get an FS7, with the GH4 as the B cam. And one day the A7s II will be out, which will hopefully address the skew issue, which is also a deal-breaker for me. 

The image from the A7s is lovely, but only if its not moving, and you're ok with 1080. The S-Log2 implementation is odd, and it tilts WAY Magenta. 

I too shoot Nikon for stills. I also liked the D800 for video. I know - but it had GREAT DR. 

I was really hoping that they had a vision for where they were going with their DSLRS for video use, but no. 

I cannot believe that there is a spreadsheet somewhere that says this is a market-making camera, or that there is a severely underserved niche in their product lineup that this covers that is a fountain of profit.

This is a lost year for Canon and Nikon in the hybrid area. With the downforce of cameras like the FS7 (they're only going to get cheaper) and the upforce of better and better phone cameras they may get squeezed out of the video area entirely. And I'm not sure there's going to be a strong pro stills-only market left either. I've already sold 4K video frames as stills to clients. Happy clients. 

As the kids say, smh. 

This has been on the cards for a while.

When Arri announced the 4K internal upres for the Amira you knew Sony were up to something major. While the two products won't compete on price, they will compete heavily in terms of customers. If this camera also does 120fps in UHD, I can see NFL Films picking up quite a few of them to go with their 125 Amiras. :-) The F5 is a more robust camera system, but this will satisfy 99% of broadcast/indie needs. 

NAB '15 should be fun.

My guess is $9995. Cripple Canon's upcoming 4K C300, take huge chunks out of whatever market is going to buy the URSA/Cion.