bjohn

I only have experience grading footage from the Blackmagic OG Pocket and BMMCC, either ProRes HQ or compressed raw, and the 8-bit Sony H265 is new territory for me; I barely touched it as I assumed I'd have very little latitude compared with what I'm used to. But I can push it more than I thought so I'll spend some time experimenting with the strategies you described. For next time, I'm on the fence about what to use. I might have been able to get by with my two Micro Cinema Cameras as long as I stayed near the stage where the lighting was good, and in daylight I much prefer them over the Sony for video. Having two cameras would make my job easier: I can set one up on a tripod and aim it at the dancers, and use the other on a monopod or steadicam for the musicians so I can make more cuts between them. But the nice thing about traditional music is that it's repetitive, so I was able to simulate two-camera work just by grabbing footage from later in the clip where the tune repeated. If I end up doing more of this I may consider getting a Sigma fp, which would allow me to use all the lenses I use on my Sony (all are adapted, no e-mount) with the added cost of a few adaptors, or else the BMD Pocket 4K or one of the Panasonic MFT cameras, as my video/cinema lenses are all MFT or PL mount.

Happy for any advice, thanks! And good point on sharpening the slow-mo; I added midtone detail in the other clips but probably forgot to do that in the slow-mo, which I added at the last minute (I'm pretty resistant to slow mo as it's so overused). I'm using the latest version of Resolve; I use Resolve Colour Management.

Here's the "souvenir" video I put together for the participants; I'll also do a more fast-paced 1-minute promo version later this year. Shot on Sony A7iii with Tokina 28-70 2.6-2.8 zoom (the Angénieux design) and Zeiss 35/1.4 ZF2. I learned a lot from this experience; I only had about a week to get used to shooting video on the Sony and made lots of beginner mistakes the first night; the second day was better. Focusing manually on dancers in a dark environment is an exercise in futility so I mostly didn't bother; I set a focus point and let the dancers drift in and out. I occasionally shot wide open so I could use lower ISOs but mostly stayed around f4 indoors to get more depth of field. Shot in 4K but edited in a 1080p timeline so I could crop and zoom if needed but I mostly didn't need to; the obligatory slow-motion shots were at 1080p since the A7iii can't shoot those in 4K anyway. I recorded the audio separately with omni mics on the balcony above the musicians, to capture the ambience, but the camera's own mics were practically usable on their own and I was tempted to just use the camera audio (in the end I used the separately recorded audio and synced by waveform). I didn't spend much time on grading and there are a number of things I'll fix when I have time (including pulling down some highlights); the lighting was challenging and the dancers were bathed in blue-yellow light.

I used the Tokina 28-70 ATX Pro zoom (the Angénieux design, first version with poorer flare resistance) at my first-ever video shoot using a Sony A7iii a couple of weekends ago (I normally use Super 16 Blackmagic cameras but needed the Sony for its lowlight capabilities). The Tokina gave everything a nice low-contrast look that fit the mood but I was especially struck by the flares -- see these clips (which I didn't end up using, so these are straight out of camera with just some small lift, gamma, gain adjustments; the audio is camera audio but that surprised me as well).

Thanks, this does make it interesting; the rolling shutter is an issue but for the kind of video I do it probably won't matter much. I use an A7iii and A7s for photography and have plenty of fast lenses, although only one is e-mount; the rest are adapted (Leica M, LTM, Minolta SR, Nikon). So I'd have to put adapters on the speedbooster, which would make for a bulkier package, or I could spring for one fast native e-mount lens.

Does the speed booster also improve low-light performance, in the sense that you won't need as high an ISO as you might otherwise? If so, I think I may consider the FX30. I normally use older Blackmagic cameras but have started to get more requests to film under low-light conditions and those cameras are pretty much useless for that; I used my A7iii for the last shoot and it did fine but I'd prefer to have a dedicated video camera (I use the A7iii mainly for photography). I don't need fullframe necessarily, but I need decent low-light performance and the FX3 or A7siii are a bit expensive for my budget.

It worked out okay, but I think I would have done a better job with the Blackmagic cameras I have been using for years. The Sony did do well in low light, although I was mainly at around ISO 3200 in the darker areas, occasionally up to ISO 10,000. The lighting was very challenging; I used the Cine Meter II app on my phone to measure reflected colour temperature and dialed it in manually on the Sony to get me close. We'll see how the video turns out after I edit and do some minor color grading; i'm hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised. I shot it all at 4K except for the slow-motion clips, which can only be shot in 1080p, and I think I'll just do a 1080p timeline and put the 4K clips into it so I can zoom in and pan them if necessary.

I think the main caveat, when choosing between the A7siii and the FX3, is that if you ever envision yourself wanting to shoot without an external monitor, the EVF of the Sony A7siii can come in handy especially under bright conditions where it might be hard to see the LCD screen. Check out Brandon Li's comments on why he chose (and stuck with) the A7siii in his "favourite gear of 2023" video here:

I settled on using the A7iii for video and will leave my Blackmagic cams at home. I did a lot of tests with the Sony, including one at a concert Tuesday night, all of which came out better than I expected. Now my only quandary is lenses. Ideally I'd shoot all the video on one lens for consistency/continuity, but I only have one zoom, the Tokina ATX Pro 28-70 f2.6-2.8 (the Angénieux design) and while I love it in daylight I've been less than thrilled with the images I get from it at concerts. I have that lens in Nikon mount, and the other Nikon mount lens I have is the Zeiss ZF.2 Distagon 35mm/1.4, which is an amazing lens but won't match well with the Tokina. On the rangefinder prime side I have three Sonnar lenses (50mm, 73mm, and 105mm) but nothing wider than 35mm. The first dance is tonight, but the headline acts are tomorrow night so I'll be able to try out a few different lens strategies tonight to see what works best in this location and under this lighting.

My larger problem here is that I'm running out of time: this gig is next weekend, I have a very busy week ahead at work, and we'll be out several nights this week (one night I'll be shooting photos at a concert in a dark jazz club, so can at least try shooting some video to see how that works in low light). There's a lot to learn about shooting video on the A7iii; I've watched a few tutorials and it seems I need to use different picture profiles for low light vs. daytime, and I won't have much time to test. So if I'm not feeling confident by Friday I'll just stick with the Micro Cinema camera, put my fastest lenses on it (I do have an f1.4 lens for example), and try to find the best-lit spots for any video of the evening dances; the daytime shots won't be a problem. I'll have my Sony for photos and can take a few low-light videos with it, but they'll be at 4k so I'll need to supersize the BMMCC timeline to match if I end up needing to use that footage.

Based on the ISO sensitivity charts I've seen and my own experience I think the A7iii is just as good in low light as the A7s except at the very highest ISOs which I'd never use anyway. So using the A7iii would be a win regardless. The "larger pixels = better low-light performance" mantra is largely a myth, as explained well in a video that I don't think I can link to here because it's on DPReview. I could simplify things even more and use the A7iii for both video and photos, saving video to one card and photos to the other, but I'd have to remember to turn off my picture profile at the end of each video shoot before switching to stills, because it has been shown by Gerald Undone and others that picture profiles can affect raw stills files. I suppose I could set up one of the custom dial buttons for video and one for stills, but I have both of my custom dial buttons set up on the A7iii already for different stills shooting scenarios and I'd rather not change them since I don't plan to shoot much video on that camera in the future.

Yes, raw stills; I think the only difference is that the A7s only offers compressed raw whereas the A7iii has the option of uncompressed (which I use), but in practice I haven't noticed a difference; if I were shooting landscapes I might see a difference but for concert and dance photography it hasn't been an issue for me. I've taken thousands of raw photos at events like this with my A7s and have been happy with the results. When the lighting is really poor there's always the option to convert to B&W, which I often do. One big advantage of the A7s for stills is that I can take more than 1,000 photos and still have plenty of room on my SD card, whereas the same-size card on my A7iii will be close to full at 1,000 photos. And stills are much less demanding on the battery; I shot 1,200 photos at a wedding reception on my A7s earlier this month and the battery wasn't even halfway drained by the end. Video drains the A7s battery quickly; it looks like I'd have no more than 20-25 minutes. Sony made a supplemental battery grip for the A7s but I think on the A7iii I'll be able to get by with the internal battery for the short amount of video I'll be shooting. I was planning to use my rangefinder lenses for the stills, which is what I typically use at concerts and dances for their more "magical" rendering and bokeh; I have a good selection of fast M- and LTM-mount lenses, a few of which also have unclicked aperture rings, and all but the 28mm perform well on Sony. The only problem, though, is that I don't have ND filters for most of those lenses, and step-up rings aren't even available for some of the vintage ones because their filter threads are in long-obsolete sizes. So I might end up using my rangefinder lenses only for the photos (I generally won't need ND for those) and my Minolta Rokkor lenses for video; I have step-up rings and ND filters for all my Rokkor lenses. I also have one e-mount f0.95 lens that I sometimes use when taking photos at dances, and can use my ND filters on that as well so will bring it along.

I've been doing a lot of tests, and currently I think I might switch things around and dedicate the A7iii to video and use the A7s for stills. I've shot a lot of concerts and dances with the A7s and am comfortable with it for photography; the only potential issue is the relatively low resolution (only an issue if someone wants to make a large print, which has never happened so far, and if it does I can always superscale it). I do sometimes need to crop a little in post, but rarely enough to be a problem with 12-megapixel files. The A7iii has more modern options available for video, plus it has image stabilization which could help me take some static shots without a tripod (I'd use a tripod with IS turned off for pans and other moving shots). I'm not sure if the rolling shutter is any better but I can't imagine it could be worse, and the battery life will be better. The two main dealbreakers for me with the A7s are the rolling shutter and short battery life. In good light, I far prefer the footage from my Blackmagic Micro Cinema Camera, it's no contest, but good light will be scarce at this event. And I've been pleasantly surprised at most of the footage I've gotten so far from the A7s (even Slog2, which I overexposed slightly and pulled down in post) so that's encouraging me to see what the A7iii can do.

The sound quality from those mics is pretty poor, even on the newest phones. Have you considered something like the Shure MV 88? It comes with a foam windscreen that's pretty effective, even outdoors if the wind isn't too strong. The sound quality is far better than what you get with the internal mics, and you can adjust the stereo width. I have the first generation of this mic and my only complaint is that it was designed for recording loud things (rock music at concerts, I think) so you really have to crank up the gain for quieter sources. But the thing works well and is not too expensive. Only works with iPhone, though, so if you're using Android you'd have to find something similar for Android.

I'm referring to the A7s; I don't want to shoot video on the A7iii as I have it set up dedicated for raw stills and I think some of the picture profiles can affect the raw image based on what I've read in the past. I don't use picture profiles on my A7iii. I would use the A7s for video. I got rid of all my autofocus lenses years ago, I only use manual. I can easily switch to NTSC but then you get an annoying warning all the time that you're in NTSC mode on a camera that was made for the PAL market. It's not the end of the world but it slows you down and is an annoyance. Yeah, I think I'll forget about SLOG. The other thing I've noticed, though, is that rolling shutter is vastly reduced if I operate in APS-C mode. But then I'll have more noise in low light so I'm on the fence about using it, plus of course my wide-angle lenses won't be quite so wide.

One of the advantages of the small sensor of the Super 16 BMD cameras is the larger depth of field, which is better for this kind of video where I'm essentially doing documentary-style shooting. With the A7s I have access to my faster lenses that I'll have with me for photography, but I'll stop them down for video because there's no chance I'll be able to maintain focus with a 0.95 or even 1.5 lens wide open on fullframe video. I've had a look at some tutorials for the original A7s and have been experimenting with different settings and so far happy enough with the results. For shutter speed, I just need to keep it at twice (or more) the frame rate, right? So (because my camera is a UK model) if I have it at 25p I set shutter speed at 1/50 or higher; if I'm shooting slow motion at 50p I'd set it at 1/100? I might just keep it at 1/100 so I can switch back and forth between 25p and 50p with a minimum of adjustments to other settings. If I want the max dynamic range I could shoot in SLOG2, which has a minimum ISO of 3200 and use heavy ND filtering in daylight, but I'm thinking I'll use Cine 4 for daylight and Cine2 for night...I'll experiment with both approaches. The only other concern I have is potential for flicker from the stage lighting, which has been a problem in the past in other venues...I will have to figure out the optimum shutter speed to avoid that.

I was planning to set white balance manually, which is after all what I do with the BMD cameras. My main photography camera is a Sony A7iii, which is also good in low light and has IBIS, so that's an option as well. I'm just hesitant to set it up for video because I have everything set up for stills including both of the custom dial settings. I have shot a little video on that camera in the past just as an experiment and the results weren't terrible, although still a far cry from what I get from the BMD cameras. And I have some great fast lenses that I use on the Sony, including one f 0.95 lens that I could use either on the A7s or the A7iii. I'd rather keep the A7iii as a dedicated photo camera and use the A7s for video.

Totally agree; movement is life, and I dislike most static shots of people in action, especially playing music or dancing. Birds in flight is another one; I'd rather see the blur than have every feather revealed. Focus is a larger challenge when shooting manual lenses in low light; a lot of the photos I took in that album missed focus but nobody minded and I'd rather have an out-of-focus shot that captures an evocative moment than no shot at all. I've tried stopping down to f4 for a more forgiving depth of field, but then ISO has to go up and I'm dealing with more noise. I took a bunch of photos at a wedding reception a few weeks ago while people were dancing, also in a dark room, and there was a light show -- when I slowed the shutter speed the lights painted amazing bands and patterns across the dancers. Only one person complained that the images were out of focus. I don't worry about it too much but I certainly try to get things in focus...the best approach I've found is to position myself and focus on a spot and then take photos as people move into the zone of focus.

Here's a link to an album of photos I took at the last one of these dances; the organizers like the motion blur and "artistic" feeling of these; they were all shot with fast manual lenses on my Sony a7s, mostly wide open or close to it, and sometimes I slowed the shutter speed to 1/15 to accentuate motion blur. So I think they'd love seeing some video shot with a 360 degree shutter; I'll try that in the darker environments. There will be daytime activities as well (teaching of dances, community meals, etc.) so all that will be easier but the evening dances will be more challenging. https://www.flickr.com/gp/135631509@N07/4t605qh5Q3

I was actually planning to do that for some of the shots. There will be some lighting, likely string lights around the perimeter and possibly some dim overhead lighting. I've been able to get decent light that way at these dances in the past.

Thanks -- I've also had my eyes on the fast MFT lenses from Laowa. My current lenses are f2, which is okay but faster would be better. Not better enough, though. I tried shooting ISO 3200 B&W film at one of these events recently and got almost no usable photos. This dance will be in a different venue, one I haven't been to before, and it's too far away to scout out in advance but I'm sure they will lower the lights for ambience and it'll be dark. I've had good luck pointing the camera to an area near better light and waiting for the dancers to move through it.

Thanks, both of you! Given the short timeframe (less than two weeks from now) I will probably just stick to what I know (my Blackmagic Micro and OG Pocket cameras) and just try to find some good light for the evening dances (close to the stage, which will be brightly lit, usually works), but I'll have the A7s with me and will experiment with it as well. I'll set it up in advance and test. So far my impressions are that the rolling shutter is pretty extreme; I will have a Glidecam with me as well as a monopod and will just be sure to move slowly, which of course I also do with the Blackmagic cams. Battery life isn't great either, although I will be shooting only short clips; the entire video is envisaged as 1-2 minutes total; I'll probably shoot 30-40 minutes of footage over the weekend as raw material. I have four batteries for the A7s, so that should be enough. They aren't picky about image quality (the example video they showed me was very amateurish) and they're not paying me so there's not a lot of pressure other than my own standards and desire to give them my best work. My BMD cameras are better set up with cages, monitors, external batteries, etc., and I am very familiar with them so that's probably what I'll use; I warned the organizers in advance that my cameras are not good in low light so I at least set expectations, but I think I can pull it off if I stick close to the stage. Sound will be easy as they just want me to record one or two performances and use that as a soundtrack; I don't need live sound, nor does it need to be synced to video. I have a good music recording setup (MixPre 6 and a good stereo pair of mics on a tall stand).

Oops, looks like I was wrong about that: I can indeed use ProColor 5 on the A7s so I'll set that up.

I've been asked to take photos and do a short video of a traditional dance weekend at the end of August. They asked me based on the photos I've shot at similar dances, and I'm all sorted on the photography front. But the only video cameras I have experience with are my Blackmagic Micro and original Pocket cinema cameras, which I love but they are not made for shooting in low light. And the dances happen in dimly lit rooms. When I shoot photos for these dances I'm often at ISO 12,800. The native ISO on my Blackmagic cameras is 800, and anything above that starts getting very noisy very fast. I do have an original Sony A7s that I have only ever used for photography, but obviously this could be the right tool for this job. But I am a complete neophyte on shooting video with a hybrid camera; everything is different to what I'm used to. Also, I'm in North America but I bought this A7s from a seller in the UK so it's set up for PAL; I assume that won't be an issue since this video will only be viewed on youtube not broadcast, but if I'm wrong about that please let me know. Google searches for shooting video on the A7s largely turn up tutorials for the newer A7siii, which is a very different beast with features that aren't available in the original A7s. Can anyone point me to a good crash course on what settings I should use and anything to watch out for? I also have very little experience in grading Sony footage in post, but most of what I read indicates that it's not worth shooting log and trying to grade since the files are so heavily compressed, and I should just use a profile that gets me close to what I want straight out of camera. I have Andrew Reid's Pro Color, but only the latest version and that doesn't apply to the original A7s; I'd have to buy an older version. Any advice would be appreciated, I'm all ears!

Try using this tool: http://aggregate.org/DIT/IBIS/ It's quite clever, and the developer explains its limitations and goes into the mechanics of IBIS in some detail.