A7rii and A7sii gets longer 4k recording with firmware

[John D]

This is amazing news.  I hope/assume that the update will help the overheating issue when using a power cord. Downloading now to find out.  

[Ottercam]

Just ran a test on my A7sII with the new firmware. Seems to do nothing for the camera, began overheating at the 39 minute mark, shut down at 43 minutes.

[blafarm]

Guessing just adds whatever coding magic to dissipate heat on the 7RII to the 7SII. 

It would be interesting to know if the "coding magic" is simply raising the temperature threshold that triggers the overheat warning.

[The Chris]

It would be interesting to know if the "coding magic" is simply raising the temperature threshold that triggers the overheat warning.

I can't imagine that's the case, when it overheats and shuts down the camera and battery are really hot, raising that would increase noise and potentially cause damage. After 30 minutes with 3.0, the body and battery are not as hot IMO. I'm not going 2.5 hrs like the guy in the video, but there's definitely something different going on inside. I don't have one of those cool infared thermometers, so I can't check the difference.

[blafarm]

I can't imagine that's the case, when it overheats and shuts down the camera and battery are really hot, raising that would increase noise and potentially cause damage. After 30 minutes with 3.0, the body and battery are not as hot IMO. I'm not going 2.5 hrs like the guy in the video, but there's definitely something different going on inside. I don't have one of those cool infared thermometers, so I can't check the difference.

That's' interesting.  My A7SII has never exhibited overheating issues -- so I have not been able to see any difference with the new firmware.  I will say that startup is significantly faster -- which is nice.

[TheRenaissanceMan]

Any difference in battery life with the new firmware?

[theriley25]

As an owner of the original a7s I have to say that it is frustrating to see sony supporting their newer cameras while the ones less than 2 years old don't get the same attention. If something can be done to reduce the overheating while recording 4k internally on the newer cameras then the same can and should done to enable internal 4k recording on the a7s. 

Now that we know overcoming heat issues is possible via firmware with recording 4k internally can anyone explain why sony can't do the same with the original a7s? Other than the obvious: sell more a7sii's

[blafarm]

Now that we know overcoming heat issues is possible via firmware with recording 4k internally can anyone explain why sony can't do the same with the original a7s? Other than the obvious: sell more a7sii's

Unfortunately, that is always going to be the case -- not only with Sony, but with the majority of other manufactures as well.

I think it just comes down to deciding when enough advances have been made to reconcile selling an older model -- and buying the latest model.

[JurijTurnsek]

Now that we know overcoming heat issues is possible via firmware with recording 4k internally can anyone explain why sony can't do the same with the original a7s? Other than the obvious: sell more a7sii's

There is no way of doing this without pissing off many, many Atomos Shogun owners. Also, would you be happy knowing you had a 4K body all this time, but were "locked out" of the feature?

[richg101]

There is no way of doing this without pissing off many, many Atomos Shogun owners. Also, would you be happy knowing you had a 4K body all this time, but were "locked out" of the feature?

agree.

when sony developed the internals of the A7S, and priced the unit to cover their development expenses and earn a profit they will have also factored in that the tech from the first a7s could be transferred into a new model.  If the a7S had all of the features of the A7Sii then it would have had to have been priced higher to accommodate for their inability to sell as many a7sii's later down the line to recoupe initial development costs.

The only people who suffer from product disabling are those who buy an initial unit and watch the rumours sites for the next model rather than going out and using their purchase and enjoying it and/or earning money from their work.  The idea is that you buy a piece of equipment and use it enough to warrant the purchase for the year it is current.  if being at the height of technology is important then the £500 loss from reselling a year down and getting the next model is worth it.  Unfortunately it's no longer the consumer products that are pushed and sold to us liike consumers (most of us here are consumers - A consumer is someone who spends more money/exerts more time on the act of buying an item than they do of acting out the endeavour that they planned to use the item for).  You just have to see how much consumer marketing is used on the RED Raven.  it's the price of a mortgage deposit on a basic property, yet from the marketing it feels like they're selling a computer game to a 15yr old or a bottle of aftershave or a gym membership to a ponce in his mid 20's.

 

The key to happiness in all this is to stop reading the rumours sites.  you'll make a lot more use out of your camera since you'll never know the latest model has a new feature purposefully placed their to appeal to the consumer within.

 

 

  

 

     

 

 

 

[The Chris]

There is no way of doing this without pissing off many, many Atomos Shogun owners. Also, would you be happy knowing you had a 4K body all this time, but were "locked out" of the feature?

I seriously doubt Sony cares about Shogun owners feelings, or Odyssey 7q owners, or Pix E5 owners, or any other third party device owners. Was the extended recording "locked out" of the A7RII? Seems like an engineering improvement, which may be possible to replicate in the A7s. With the A7sII still being very new it won't happen soon, but I can see the A7s getting an update in another 6 months like the XAVC on the a6000.

[Ed_David]

The only people who suffer from product disabling are those who buy an initial unit and watch the rumours sites for the next model rather than going out and using their purchase and enjoying it and/or earning money from their work.  The idea is that you buy a piece of equipment and use it enough to warrant the purchase for the year it is current.  if being at the height of technology is important then the £500 loss from reselling a year down and getting the next model is worth it.  Unfortunately it's no longer the consumer products that are pushed and sold to us liike consumers (most of us here are consumers - A consumer is someone who spends more money/exerts more time on the act of buying an item than they do of acting out the endeavour that they planned to use the item for).  You just have to see how much consumer marketing is used on the RED Raven.  it's the price of a mortgage deposit on a basic property, yet from the marketing it feels like they're selling a computer game to a 15yr old or a bottle of aftershave or a gym membership to a ponce in his mid 20's.

 

The key to happiness in all this is to stop reading the rumours sites.  you'll make a lot more use out of your camera since you'll never know the latest model has a new feature purposefully placed their to appeal to the consumer within.

Perfect.  The rush to have the latest and greatest is some weird fetishization spurred on by marketing.  The iphone 3 once the iphone 4 came out was immediately garbarge.  We live in this throwaway culture for photography and video as well.  If it's not the latest, it's total trash.  

Well a tungsten fresnel from the 80s still produces a more beautiful wrap than the newer HMI units.  Or an old Oconnor tripod from the 90s still has the smoothest head compared to all the latest.  

It's all madness. And what's sad especially with red, is that everyone constantly rushes to preorder their cameras, without even having used them. And then they find out they have issues with them, like the dragon, which causes Red to make a completely redesigned body.  And let's all preorder the weapon, and then later find out it's flawed too.

Preordering and drooling over unreleased cameras is pretty nutso.

But with that said, if you are smart and can sell before the new one comes out, you save a lot of money.