Mark Romero

2 hours ago, noone said:

Option C for me but that I would use the A7s for stills to because I love the A7s as a stills and video camera especially in low light though is no slouch in good light either.

It also gives you much more choice in lenses (Nikon is not so adaptable and the APSC Sony makes it harder for wide angle).     

The A7s will also give you a choice in both FF and APSC modes (especially for video).      Should you ever need 4k (as you will in future) you can always add a external recorder to get it with the A7s and by then there might be zillions more cameras with 4k (or greater).

The A7s is not a camera if you need tracking AF or AFC at any great speed or if 12mp isn't enough (actually even around 5 or 6mp is often more than enough for me) but otherwise it is a great camera.

 

Yeah, the a7s possibly COULD work for me for stills... I don't really need too many mega pixels for real estate stills. The only thing is that if it is anything like the a6300, then the files might take a bit more massaging in post, and shooting slog 2 is not going to happen.

1 hour ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

I see now that you already have the Tokina and want 20ish mm equivalent. Whoops! If you're alright with manual focus, definitely look at some of the older Nikkor glass in that range. It's one of the few vintage lineups I'm not familiar with, but a quick Google search should bring up some solid advice on which ones are worth seeking out. 

Edit: not sure why I quoted myself. Whoops again. 

Yeah, I will probably look into a 20mm manualfocus lens.

So here are my priorities:

1) Can shoot both stills and video

2) Speed both on site and in post (due to low budget - usually only $200 to $300 for a 1:30 minute video to a 2:30 minute video, and the real estate agent / homeowner might only allow me a limited time on location)

3) Low light and High Dynamic Range capability

4) Depth of field: the more DOF, the better

5) Ability to use on a gimbal

6) Video Image quality

Yes, video image quality is at the bottom. 

As for which one(s) win in each category:

1) As a stills camera: D750 > a6300 > a7s original

2) On site / PP speed: D750 > a7s original > a6300

3) Low light / dynamic range: a7s > d750 = a6300 (but the sony cameras are HARDER to work with to get that dynamic range / low light)

4) DOF: a6300 > D750 = a7s

5) Ability to use on gimbal: It's a wash, really: a6300 works well on Zhiyun crane I own, but LCD screen is dismal. a7s could work on Zhiyun crane. D750 won't work on Zhiyun crane, works ok on Beholder DS 1 I also own, but probably would have to sell both Crane and DS1 and buy Ronin M for the D750.

6) Video image quality: a6300 > a7s > D750 (but the amount of work that needs to go into the Sony footage to get that better image quality makes me question whether it is worth it).

So that's kind of everything. In summary

Option A: Sell Sony a6300 (and back up a6000, sony lenses, Zhiyun crane, Beholder DS1), buy a Ronin M and an ultra wide lens for the D750, and enjoy ease of use / quick turnaround on soft(ish) 1080p footage that might have a little less DOF, or...

Option B: Sell my Nikon gear, stick with the Sony a6300 and enjoy the sharper image and increased DOF, but then deal with the longer times required on site and in post, or...

Option C: Sell my Nikon gear AND sell my a6300, buy an a7s and ultrawide lens for video (easier to use than a6300 but not as easy as the D750), then use the a6000 for shooting stills. Big drawback I see is having two ultrawide angle lenses (one for the full frame a7s for video, one for the crop sensor a6000 for stills)

Anyway, thanks for reading this long post. Your thoughts are appreciated.

50 minutes ago, TheRenaissanceMan said:

I'm with Mercer, the XC10/15 sounds far more suitable for you than a D7500. Deep focus, lots of detail, strong codec, and (in standard mode) accurate color (which I'd imagine is important for real estate).

It'd be worth keeping the D750 alongside it for the agent interviews and stills (if that's a concern), but if you don't plan to, I'd sell it post haste if you want to get the most you can for it.

That said, don't sell or switch cameras based on what some nerds on the internet who don't make a living from their images tell you. The D750 is a great HD camera. If you're happy with the images, your clients are happy with the images, and the camera doesn't make your life difficult, then why change it? You'd be better off investing in some lights or support gear, and just work on improving your craft. 

Thanks for your input. I appreciate your thoughts. Especially the part about improving my craft

13 minutes ago, mercer said:

Yeah unless you are specifically being asked for 4K, then I wouldn't switch. The D750 supplies a beautiful image. 

Thanks for the thoughts. No, not being specifically asked for 4K, but I do want to present something sharp and clear for the clients.

Thanks for posting the video.

Yes, it does look nice. No doubt about that. And it looks like it would be EASY to work with.

It's the 2.2 crop factor that has me worried though. With the Tokina 11-16 I would still be at 24mm full frame equivalent, which is wide but I normally try to shoot at 20mm equivalent.

I wouldn't need f/2.8 because I would still need a heaping amount of DOF. On a crop sensor, I usually shoot around f/5.6 to f/6.3, although I know some people who use a crop sensor D7200 and shoot at f/4 with the Tokina 11-16.

I have found the Sigma 10-20 f/4-5.6 to be not all that sharp (I've had two that I used with my Nikon D7000 - one was very sharp in the center and horrible on the edges and corners, the other was pretty sharp all throughout the frame, so I kept that one). Otherwise, that would probably be my choice for 4K on a 2.2. crop factor.

I will look into the 1080p of the D500 / D7500 as well. 
 

On 6/3/2017 at 0:39 PM, TwoScoops said:

The D750/D810 replacements should have 4k, coupled with the great color science etc; could be pretty interesting.

 

Yes, that would be appealing, although I am interested in when it might be released. 

The other thing is, once it's released, I am sure the resale value of my D750 will drop like a stone...

Since I deliver in 1080p, I guess I just have to test out:

a6300 4K downsampled to 1080p versus D750 shot flat than sharpened significantly in post

If the soon-to-be-released D7500 didn't have the silly 2.2 crop factor for 4k then this would be a no-brainer for me.

21 hours ago, dbp said:

Haven't shot with it personally, but one of my second shooters uses one, so I've edited footage from it. I quite like the colors/skintones that it produces.

Yes, I like the ease of getting good colors out of it (compared to either the 4K or the 1080p of the a6300 / a6000 when shooting flatis / desaturated).

20 hours ago, scotchtape said:

I'm using the GH5 right now, but also used the G7 because it was super cheap for 4k.  

A6300 4k for real estate shots is no joke, shouldn't really overheat if you are doing short clips.  I also have the a6500 and the image is fantastic but I don't use it on shoots because of ergonomics.  I would use it more if I was doing more residential exteriors / interiors.  

Good luck on your next move!

Yeah, the ergonomics / ui are killing me, but even with short clips, it still overheats. Heck, even the a6000 overheated on me shooting 1080p. Both cmaeras are using the latest firmware.

12 hours ago, gethin said:

yes I'm talking video!  (DR in stills is Huuuuge compared to panasonic, but just a bit better in video). D810 better than d750.   What I notice is that you can still lift the shadows a bit in nikon's 8bit, which is surprising seeing as the codec isn't much chops either. Whereas my gx85 is too noisy to lift them much at all. 

Thanks for the clarification. Aside from the shadows, i noticed that you can recover highlights an awful lot on the D750 as well.

On 5/29/2017 at 11:35 PM, mercer said:

If you hate using the a6300, what makes you think you'll enjoy the a7s? The D7500 will be released this week, may be the smaller, lighter body with a little cropped 4K will be a better fit for you until the D760 gets released. 

Well, I wouldn't say that I would ENJOY the a7s, I would just hate it less than the a6300

In all seriousness, I appreciate your input. What I think I would PROBABLY enjoy of the a7s is a brighter screen (the screen of the a6300 dims during 4K shooting) and better 1080p than the a6000 / a6300 / D750). And the lack of overheating (I've had a couple or gigs where I had to let the camera rest for 20 minutes or so - doesn't look great in front of clients).

Of course, this means I would give up 4K and have to go with 1080p. The 4K of the a6300 CAN BE nice, just kind of hard to get it right.

Yeah, the D7500 looks like it could be good. A lot of it depends on how well it will handle low light / high contrast situations. I don't have the time to set up lighting and doing real estate videos, I often have dark interiors and very bright windows. If it handles high iso / high contrast as well as the a6300, then it might be ok.

On 5/30/2017 at 2:55 AM, gethin said:

i dont know about the sony's but the nikons dynamic range wins over the panasonics.  I also dont know why you'd be worried about the "soft" 1080 image. Most people will be watching these vids on their phone.  You could probably shoot VGA res and it would look alright.

Thank you for your input.

When you say that the Nikon's dynamic range would be greater than the panasonic's DR, just to confirm, you are talking about video and not stills, right? And you are saying that the DR of the D750 in 1080p would be greater than that of the Panasonic in 4K, correct?

And yes, I understand what you are saying that many people will be seeing these videos on a phone or tablet. I would like to be future-proof though.

On 5/30/2017 at 7:12 AM, Django said:

I used a D750 before switching to Canon. It's a great camera, especially on the stills side. The 1080p is definitely soft but it didn't stop me from making great videos.

I did pick up a second hand A7S (original) few weeks ago, mostly for it's low light abilities but also to use all my Nikon glass I kept.

1080p on that is definitely sharper then D750 and grading S-Log is pretty easy I find. Ergonomics are poor but having an EVF is a bonus. 

I'll be getting a BM Video Assist soon so 4K will be available on it too.

I feel no particular attachment to the Sony like I have with my Fuji or DSLRs though FWIW.

Thanks for the input. Still don't know which way to go now... D7500 sounds most interesting because it COULD serve a s a good dual-purpose stills and video camera.

5 hours ago, Geoff CB said:

I would not upgrade to the A7s, it's a minuscule upgrade (and still 1080p) wait until the next round of sony cam's to buy the A7s II /A7r II or a better camera than that when you can afford it.

Thanks for your input.

Yeah, I wouldn't think of the a7s (original version) as an UPGRADE over the D750, but more of the fact that I can then use similar lenses and use the same stabilizer (Zhiyun Crane) for both the a7s and the a6300. The D750 is a bit too heavy for the Zhiyun Crane from what I have heard (it works, but someone has reported damaging their stabilizer with long term usage of it).

The appeal of the D750 is the usability and the fact that I can use it well for BOTH real estate still and video. And that I HATE using the a6300... (love the size, hate the UI).

7 hours ago, TwoScoops said:

It's soft but worth keeping just for the profile videos I'd say. 

Yeah, that is something I considered. I do like how it looks for photographing people, and I am not sure how much more flattering 4K would be for peoples faces.

Thank you, scotchtape.

May I ask what you are using for your 4K footage?

The a6300 had good footage but... it's really kind of a pain to get the best out of it (dim screen, overheating, lots of color work needed).

And the 1080p out of the a6300 is bad (I know that 4K is preferred, but for slo mo stuff, need 1080p at 60fps)

So the only alternative is GH5 which does 4K 60fps.

The crane is a nice gimbal. Yoiu will need to calibrate it once you get it. It's easy to do. Then you will want to adjust the motor strength. Off the top of my head, I think I get the best results from setting motor strength to lowest, but if you are putting a mic and a monitor on there, then maybe medium would be best for you???

I use the dual handle grip thingy and it is pretty ok (maybe not $100 ok but still pretty ok). I have it set up so that when I hold the dual grip straight up and down, the main stem / handle of the crane is at an incline forward about 30 degrees or so. This seems to me to help take out some of the up and down bobbing motion you get from walking.

Anyone using a D750 frequently (for video) and either loving or hating it?

Along with my D750 and a couple of lenses, I also have a Sony a6000 and an a6300 which I use, and which I have a love / hate relationship with.

Logic tells me I should sell my D750 and get a used a7 S (original version) for shooting 1080p so there will be some compatibility with my a6000 / a6300

But sometimes my emotions tell me I should get rid of my sony gear, stick with the soft-ish 1080p of the D750, and just enjoy the dynamic range and easy-to-grade footage and simple UI of the Nikon (and enjoy the fact that it doesn't overheat).

I shoot primarily real estate videos. I try to make them look somewhat cinematic. I will also be trying to shoot more real estate agent promotion videos (where they talk about why they are such a great real estate agent and why you should hire them).

Anyway, just wanted to hear everyones / anyones thoughts before I come to a decision on it.

Thanks in advance.

I have the a6300 and the Zhiyun Crane (version 1) and the Sony 10-18 f/4 lens. I don't have a monitor or mic mounted on it though.

The drawbacks to the a6300 / a6500 when shooting 4K are...

1) The dreaded overheating issue, and 

2) Very dim monitor that is highly reflective (not a problem I guess if you are using an HDMI monitor, I guess), 

3) Not the friendliest codec around (you will most likely be transcoding 4K XAVC S into something else for editing, whether it is through your NLE's built-in optimize media function or something else),

4) If you want to maximize dynamic range, you are going to really want to shoot SLOG 2 or something very flat and really want to grade it.

So it is certainly doable, just if you are doing it every day, maybe you want something that is a little easier to work with???

(Don't get me wrong: the 4K footage can be beautiful. Just kind of a hard camera to work with.)