Trek of Joy

Got mine Saturday. Agree about the EVF, its incredible. The larger grip compared to the a7III is really nice, still wish it was about 2cm taller so my pinky doesn't wrap under and a 1cm or so further away from the lens mount - its pretty tight with fat lenses. Touch tracking is amazing, it sticks to everything. 4k120p in something this small also nuts. And you can use v90 SD cards for just about everything, as opposed to something like the R5 which needs the CFexpress cards. Haven't tinkered with raw/Ninja yet either. There's so much to this camera. So far no regrets.
Cheers
Chris

Haven't tested it yet, but Clear Image Zoom does a 1.5x crop in 4k and a 2x crop in HD. On the a7III there's no IQ loss.

Clear image zoom is not the aps-c crop, its a 1.5x digital zoom. I use it for quick punch-ins on the a73 all the time. Just haven't got around to trying it on the s3 yet.
Chris

FYI the Prograde V90 cards are on sale, if you use the code ALPHAGVRD20 they knock 20% off. I bought two 128gb v90 cards for $188. I haven't found a better deal. 
Chris

In regards to Raw vs Log formats, while its nice to have a the ability to change color temp and ISO in RedRaw, etc.  The Kodak Cineon system, a 10 bit RGB 4:4:4 Log format was the gold standard for over 20 years when scanning film for digital processing in VFX and later for Digital Intermediates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cineon
Every post house on the planet worth its salt should be comfortable delivering professional results using a 10 bit log "digital negative".  It wasn't until the rise of HD video acquisition over the last 10 years that raw became a thing.  And the early reaction to Red's raw format was mostly met with derision due to its lossy (gasp!) compression format.  Attitudes have definitely changed as people got used to the new formats.
I think the big step up in the video/DSLR space was when we went from 8-bit video recording to a 10-bit log format like the GH5 offered.  The 8-bit log formats from Technicolor's Cinestyle, to C-Log, S-log, V-log are just too prone to banding and color artifacts when pushed heavily.  The ability to shoot raw is nice, but 10 bit log is a totally viable format for any post house to work with and deliver great results.

Thank you sir and yes am gona try this on my ronin s i know it should handle with easy since it holds 1dx markiii with 35mm 😁

Nice! The 24/1.4 is my favorite E-mount lens. Its awesome on a gimbal too.
Cheers
Chris

My a7siii with glasses have arrived 😁

Some tests and a review from Brandon Li.
Chris
 

I shouldn’t type before drinking coffee LOL! The handle itself isn’t the issue because obviously it’s in the way, it’s the shape of cable that allows you to move the K3M off the shoe, from what I’ve read it doesn’t seat properly with the small rig cage. Someone posted on the FB group that you need a hotshot extension to make it work. 
As far as the handle, it’s pretty much always on for me, just another option for carrying, more attachment points, and another point of contact. I find it very handy, unless it’s on a gimbal. The handle is also where I mount my Ninja, or a shotgun, or my G3 receiver and so on. 
Sony has been all over the map with the design of the XLR MIS modules, the first one didn’t attach to the shoe, just used a cable, the second only attached to the shoe with no cable and now the new one does both. IDK, maybe it’s just easier to file away a little bit of the cage so the K3M fits. It would be nice to be able to just pop it onto the shoe for quick interviews and such. 
My current setup is a little clunky, I use the Beachtek DXA micro and a Sennheiser MKE 600 for nat sound and a G3 wireless for lav or stick mic interviews. Just thinking about the Sony’s as a more compact/streamlined audio solution. 

My camera is on the truck so I’m just waiting for delivery!
cheers
chris

There are really no bad options among all the 10-bit FF hybrids, they all have warts, but they all are capable of producing an amazing image. Sometimes we get hung up on bickering over aspects that are dealbreakers for me but not an issue for you. I don’t have the time while I work or the eyesight for manual focus, so for me I need good AF and a few key primes. And I have no interest in a c300 size camera. Obviously others don’t have the same problem. But right now only Sony, Canon and Nikon cover the bases and despite a brief flirtation with the RF mount I’m sticking with Sony. My a7s3 is on the way, it’ll be my first camera that shoots decent 120fps and 10-bit after years of Sony’s 8-bit codec. Good times. 
cheers
chris

So, I have been eyeing the Kondor Blue Sony Ultimate Cage and have been in discussion with them about that very thing where the remote cable comes forward  and there is no way to change that.  Their cage goes a little low at that spot, and I am hopeful that I will be able to have the cable that comes out of the MI cable to be able to go up and over the top.  Basically, it might just require a slight filing to create a beveled edge on the part of the cage that is close to the MI.  Depends on how badly you want to achieve 4 channel audio into your main media files (reduced post work), for me that is one of my top priorities, so I will figure something out and of course share it.
I am sending them caliper level measurements to them, but right now they are busy machining out the cages and what ever adjustments they were able to do before the final CNC instructions were done already.  So what ever it is I am going to start with that and Figure it out.  
The good news is with their design has the camera on a Quick Release 501 Plate System, so you can slide the camera slightly forward or backward into the position that works for you (first attachment shows that with an arrow)  So I am hoping that I will be able to slide the camera and 501 plate back slightly allowing the leading bump of that XLR-K3M MI shoe cable reroute thing; to protrude forward but not hit the cage.  Then where the cable leave that it may be best to have a filed notch in the NATO rail to more gradually allow the cable to move up and away from the rail and not put stress on the connection inside the shoe.  A small cable size notch in the edge of the NATO rail won't keep it from functioning when you go back to run and gun setup with top handle.
The other alternative here, is that Kondor Blue is known for creating custom cables to solve these exact kind of problems.  I have already suggested it to them, but that solution will take some months.  It would involve a design where the cable comes out to either the left or right instead of straight ahead.
BUT... let me ask you this?  If you look at the second picture, the XLR-K3M itself does NOT have a leading bump and will likely just seat in the MI shoe (at least on the Kondor Blue cage).  In my opinion, if you are recording 4 channel audio you are on a tripod, so why worry about a top handle.  And if you don't have the top handle on (which on a well designed cage, takes 2 seconds to take on or off), why not just install the XLR-K3M straight into the shoe when you need 4 channel audio?  I'm planning on 95% of my 4 channel needs being tripod based and have no reason for the top handle.  I'm just going to make a lanyard that lets me hang the handle to the side when not in use and add back on when leaving the tripod.  That being said, my place of choice to hang my Ninja V from was the front of the top handle, so now I will be mounting their cine magic arm (or pro) on the top just to the side of the middle.  They have these sweet mini QR plates that will make it easy for me to go from a side loaded Monitor to back on the top handle for run and gun in a couple of seconds.  
MUCH more to come on the build out of that
In this first picture you can see the reroute cable that lets you run your XLR-K3M 12" away from the top center.  you can see the front leading bump it has and how it might hit the cage and/or NATO rail IF you have a cage that does not let you adjust the front/back position in your cage like the Kondor Blue does.

 
Here I am showing the XLR-K3M itself, and it does not have that leading bump off the MI shoe like the reroute cable does.

@Hangs4Fun so many posts full of great info! Been debating between the K3M or the older one with the cable as I don’t need 4 channels. Some are repoing that the K3M’s cord doesn’t seat properly with a small rig cage and top handle. That’s going to be my usual setup as I like to put the Ninja on the end of my top handle. Hmmm...
chris

Some more tidbits I checked out tonight, before I head to bed..
ANY output over HDMI restricts you to only 2 audio channels (for those using the XLR-K3M 4 channel, it does do 4 internally, but you are currently restricted to choosing 2 of the 4 to go out HDMI for RAW or regular)  Those Sony G memory cards (UHS-II SD) that Sony sold before they came out with the TOUGH series, do NOT register as V90 cards to the Sony A7SIII unfortunately   Even though they have the same performance of 300MB/s read and 299MB/s write, they apparently can't sustain V90 speeds or something.  This REALLY sucks for me because I had invested several hundred dollars in those cards.  I only have 4 of the new TOUGH G cards and 2 of the TOUGH M cards, so will keep bugging PRO support to figure something out there (either Sony needs to support those very expensive cards or swap them for TOUGH G cards). The LANC option and record option in the Ninja V does not seem to be triggered by the Sony A7SIII.  This is a feature I use all the time on my Ninja V.  When I hit record on my other Alpha camera, it also triggers the recording on the Ninja V at the same time.  Atomos has been having problems with this as they were releasing new versions of their firmware, it would get fixed then broke again. There's a pretty cool audio monitoring feature that actually helps you monitor 4 channels (see the attached photo).  The caveat is to do 4 channels, it combines channels 1 and 3, and 2 and 4. but it does work I was able to record and monitor 4 channels.  All the controls of the levels were done on the XLR-K3M The only way to record proxy's at the same time you are recording to both memory slots and outputting over the HDMI, is with the high priced Express cards.   HOLY CRAP did my Ninja V get hot when recording that RAW output.  It has a really good exhaust fan and heat sync (you will hear the fan in your recording if your mic is not at least 3 or more feet away).  It literally blows hot air out like a tiny space heater.  The A7SIII was very hot to the touch as well.  I have an IR temp gun, once I calibrate it and make sure it is accurate, I will take some measurements of the two. Good  night, will work on some footage tomorrow (or today I guess, lol).

Here's the XLR-K3M running 4 channels into the A7SIII.  This way you inject 24bit/48khz digital signals straight into the media file and have dials and switches of control.  In the A7SIII screen shot you can see the 4 channels levels on the bottom left with a peak marker.  Once the XLR-K3M is plugged in, you can no longer control levels in the camera, it is all controlled on the outside dials of the XLR-K3M.
My typical setup and what I used in this example is a boomed MKH-416 on Channel 1, the XLR mic that came with the XLR-K3M as the on-camera mic (or could be a second boomed mic) as Channel 2, and 2 RODE Wireless Go setups using a splitter that runs one of the lav setups as the left channel (Channel 3) and the other as the right channel (Channel 4).
I verified that I can take the MP4 from the A7SIII with these 4 audio channels into Premiere and see each of the 4 channels and can control each one separately.  For me this is HUGE, because you are basically looking at the FX9 I could not afford (or justify this year) and I needed 4 channels of audio preferably not external, for doing in studio or on location interviews. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the A7SIII does PD charging faster than it can use the battery.  Which is why I went with the FXLION NANO TWO V Mount.  As you can see in the output of the NANO TWO, it's pushing 9.3volts and a couple of amps out to the A7S3, it too supports PD charging in and out.
I WAS thinking about putting a dummy Z100 battery in my A7SIII to run off my V Mount, but.... now, I'm leaning towards running it off of USB-C PD.  Between this solution and the previous post with the Atomos Sync Time Code device that allows you to swap batteries while recording; this PD solution between the NANO TWO and the A7SIII would also allow the same since the camera actually would be running on the Z100 battery.  I could be in the middle of recording to both memory cards and outputting RAW, yet swap my V Mount battery with no disruptions to video or audio (the XLR-K3M also runs off the A7SIII through the MI port).  
Of course depending on how much space you have memory wise, you will now run out of space before battery.  It's just comforting to know if you starting recording when lots of space on your sd/ssd, but low on your V Mount, you could swap while recording (mostly useful for events, weddings, interviews, etc).  Obviously movie production or any filming involving shot lists, you could manage a swap of the battery around takes.

I know some people were interested in the reported in camera Highlights and Shadows adjustment in the Standard Creative Look and aren't plan on using SLog-3 or RAW.  For those, you will be pleasantly surprised at the adjustments you can make in camera (and these make a lot more sense than some of the concepts covered in Picture Profiles).  I still recommend trying SLog-3 with this camera. 
Here are the Standard Creative Look settings and the amount of adjustments you can do now.  Defaults are 0 on all of them except Sharpness defaults to 4 and Clarity to 1.
Contrast -9 to +9 Highlights -9 to +9 Shadows -9 to +9 Fade from 0 to +9 Saturation from -9 to +9 Sharpness from 0 to +9  (default is 4) Clarity from 0 to +9   (default is 1)

The grip on the A7SIII is so much more comfy depth wise (though part of my pinky still does hang off the end).  In this picture you can see my the grip extender from my A9 and how much deeper that grip is.  It feels like you have so much better control

One thing that I am still trying to catch my breath on, is that it can only get about 48 minutes of 12bit ProRes RAW out of a freshly formatted 1TB SSD.  Get your wallets out, if you are looking to do mostly RAW.  I think it may be showing the amount of record time based on 60fps, because the calculations I was seeing put a 1TB 4K/24p recording at around 100 minutes for ProRes RAW and 70 minutes for ProRes RAW HQ.  I will know more once I test..
BTW, I confirmed that the Western Digital Blue SSD 1TB drives, can handle the RAW output from the Sony A7SIII.  And those are only $104 with a decent warranty.  I use only the WD Blue drives on my NAS and my Drobo 5C, so was hoping these would handle the RAW sustained write speeds.  We'll see, I will do more testing, like filling up the drive with a frame that has moving objects in it and see if it starts having problems towards the end of the space.  I mention this drive, because Atomos is terrible at adding new drives and such to their supported drives page.

Well, I got her earlier today, but it was senior night for my oldest and a big high school football game to attend to.
I will share a photo of my Ninja, receiving a 16bit RAW 4.2K output to it 🙂
One VERY odd thing though is, I was testing 4 channel audio through the Sony XLR-K3M plugged into the hotshoe on the A7SIII.  And it did 4 channel internally just fine, but restricted output over the HDMI down to only 2 channels?  Not sure what is going on there, the Ninja V is capable of like 10 audio channels.
More to come soon 🙂
 

There are really no bad options among all the 10-bit FF hybrids, they all have warts, but they all are capable of producing an amazing image. Sometimes we get hung up on bickering over aspects that are dealbreakers for me but not an issue for you. I don’t have the time while I work or the eyesight for manual focus, so for me I need good AF and a few key primes. And I have no interest in a c300 size camera. Obviously others don’t have the same problem. But right now only Sony, Canon and Nikon cover the bases and despite a brief flirtation with the RF mount I’m sticking with Sony. My a7s3 is on the way, it’ll be my first camera that shoots decent 120fps and 10-bit after years of Sony’s 8-bit codec. Good times. 
cheers
chris

That Micro-HDMI is one of the main reasons I didn't buy a XT-3

My newer Ninja V shipped with the Zilr cable. Unfortunately, because I didn't have a cage/clamp for my X-T4, I bent that sucker in about a week. I have two Cromo branded cables by Lindy that work great and were super cheap. Amazon no longer carries them. I also have a Ugreen cable as a spare. Whatever you buy, buy at least two.

yeah me too 
its small diameter wire
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1488896-REG/zilr_zrhaa01_4kp60_hyper_thin_high.html

I’m using Zilr. Works great.