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Sony A7S III


Andrew Reid
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55 minutes ago, PabloB said:

Somebody's going to get a slap on the wrist 🤣

Sony knocked it out of the park in my opinion. It seems to be the best 4K mirrorless camera you can buy. Did they not give us something we didn’t want in a sony camera?

4K120p, 10-bit 4:2:2, ALL-I options, Slog-2 and 3, you almost don’t have to worry about ISO performance, amazing autofocus in all modes even 120p, touch to track AF, face detect, dual SD and CFExpress Type A options, 16-bit RAW output from full sized HDMI (no shitty micro port), overheating doesn’t seem to be a problem for real world use (hopefully!).

I know I said Canon knocked it out of the park with R5/6 but it turned out to be a kiddy pool. So I’ll be cautiously optimistic.

The only real downside of this camera is the 12MP stills which kinda sucks for me when I want a FF camera that can kinda do it all.

I’ll hold out on final judgment until Gerald reviews the hell out of this thing but Damn, E-mount it is for me.

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13 minutes ago, Video Hummus said:

Sony knocked it out of the park in my opinion. It seems to be the best 4K mirrorless camera you can buy. Did they not give us something we didn’t want in a sony camera?

4K120p, 10-bit 4:2:2, ALL-I options, Slog-2 and 3, you almost don’t have to worry about ISO performance, amazing autofocus in all modes even 120p, touch to track AF, face detect, dual SD and CFExpress Type A options, 16-bit RAW output from full sized HDMI (no shitty micro port), overheating doesn’t seem to be a problem for real world use (hopefully!).

I know I said Canon knocked it out of the park with R5/6 but it turned out to be a kiddy pool. So I’ll be cautiously optimistic.

The only real downside of this camera is the 12MP stills which kinda sucks for me when I want a FF camera that can kinda do it all.

I’ll hold out on final judgment until Gerald reviews the hell out of this thing but Damn, E-mount it is for me.

Agreed, bummer about 12mp. But if you went Canon you'd need a second body anyway to shoot stills to help prevent heat buildup so the s3 is the video centric body and one of the a7r's covers high rez stills. Used a7r3's are in the $1700 range, and a7r2's are well below $1000 (but you lose the Z battery and EVF/body improvements).

Juggling two bodies is not as ideal as shooting some 120p video of a surfer or a bride tossing the bouquet and then firing off a burst of photos at 12fps in the same body, but it just doesn't look like the R5 will be reliable enough on long shooting days. I want the one body solution too, but its not going to happen anytime soon.

My prediction after seeing the s3 specs - the a74 will do 4k60p with the higher bitrates to kick the r6 in the balls, but no mp bump, just sensor and speed improvements with the new processor and such. It'll also get the new body and the same EVF in the a7r3, it won't get the 5+m dot one in the r4 or the crazy one in the s3.

Chris

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14 minutes ago, abehalpert said:

I think Andrew is wrong about the color - didn't they claim it matches FX9/Venice?

Also on the price - do you know that for certain, Andrew? I was given the impression it would be about $3500 in the US.

Sorry, pressed publish before I'd finished the article!! Oops! Still learning about the camera so have corrected it, please refresh the page. It does match the FX9 on paper in terms of the wide colour gamut in LOG, but it has yet to be tested in reality.

I am sure the out of-camera colour still relies on dated Creative Styles.

3 minutes ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Thank God they didn't went up in megapixels. It will probably be very good at high ISOs. And let's say the truth, who needs 8K??

You're right! I need 12k!

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https://www.eoshd.com/news/sony-a7s-iii-is-here-sensible-update-but-not-as-revolutionary-as-hoped-plus-tough-competition-from-panasonic-s1h/

I wouldn't say it was either underwhelming, or fantastically exciting. The 4K/120p 10bit mode looks great. Other than that it seems to be lots of sensible evolutions in all areas that add up to a very usable professional tool.

The combination of features does take some beating. To have that new 10bit codec, continuous 4K 120p, good thermal management, great big high-res EVF, new menus, along with the latest Sony phase-detect AF, does appeal to a lot of people, whereas in comparison the EOS R5 looks like a bit of a broken toy to be honest, with the silly fan strapped to the back.

Sony clearly have a better processor than Canon and better engineering know-how to avoid heat limitations in 4K/120p and 10bit.

I do like the new hybrid SD / CFExpress type A card slots too. The very fast media is barely any larger than UHS II SD.

However, part of me thinks it will be a bit uninspiring to pick up and shoot with. Like all Sonys are.

The new menus look ugly, and all it really seems to amount to is putting the tabs at the side rather than at the top. Fuji's and Panasonic's menus look a lot better.

The playback thumbnails are still dreadful for video clips.

And it remains to be seen what the live-view quality is like and whether it makes use of the 9 million dot EVF and what the focussing aids are like. Is peaking still a fuzzy mess?

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8 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

https://www.eoshd.com/news/sony-a7s-iii-is-here-sensible-update-but-not-as-revolutionary-as-hoped-plus-tough-competition-from-panasonic-s1h/

I wouldn't say it was either underwhelming, or fantastically exciting. The 4K/120p 10bit mode looks great. Other than that it seems to be lots of sensible evolutions in all areas that add up to a very usable professional tool.

The combination of features does take some beating. To have that new 10bit codec, continuous 4K 120p, good thermal management, great big high-res EVF, new menus, along with the latest Sony phase-detect AF, does appeal to a lot of people, whereas in comparison the EOS R5 looks like a bit of a broken toy to be honest, with the silly fan strapped to the back.

Sony clearly have a better processor than Canon and better engineering know-how to avoid heat limitations in 4K/120p and 10bit.

I do like the new hybrid SD / CFExpress type A card slots too. The very fast media is barely any larger than UHS II SD.

However, part of me thinks it will be a bit uninspiring to pick up and shoot with. Like all Sonys are.

The new menus look ugly, and all it really seems to amount to is putting the tabs at the side rather than at the top. Fuji's and Panasonic's menus look a lot better.

The playback thumbnails are still dreadful for video clips.

And it remains to be seen what the live-view quality is like and whether it makes use of the 9 million dot EVF and what the focussing aids are like. Is peaking still a fuzzy mess?

Apparently is not continuous in 4k 120p max 30 min before overheating but still on paper the double of R5!

On thermal I think the mpixels of the sensor has anyway a big impact so not sure are better is just much less data to handle as all the other A7 series they cannot do 60fps etc...

I'm not interested in this camera but it looks like a very solid option let see some real test.

Does it has DCI or only UHD?

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I don't think its super exciting - internal raw and E-nd's would raise it to that level for me, but with the FX we knew it would get hit with the cripple hammer - but its not underwhelming either. It looks like a really solid 4k hybrid and only the second one to bring 10-bit 4k120p to the market. Full size HDMI > micro HDMI on the R5. I ordered the R5 for the HFR video and high rez stills in one body, but the obvious thermal issues made me reconsider since I'll need to be constantly shooting with a second body anyway. Now I'll just pivot back to using two Sony bodies like I did with the a73/a7r3 - only video will be much better with the s3, with more manageable file sizes compared to the R5. The v90 cards are cheaper than the newer options for max bitrates. Not ideal as I'd like to change lenses less outside and such, but there's just no unicorn one camera hybrid solution at the moment so pick your poison.

Also, those menu icon colors are horrible, but it looks like Sony finally figured out how to do a touchscreen.

Chris

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20 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

Sony clearly have a better processor than Canon and better engineering know-how to avoid heat limitations in 4K/120p and 10bit.

My guess, based on your analysis of the R5 internals, is that Canon intentionally neglected heat management in a bid to limit its appeal to video shooters. But they overshot the mark. (or maybe they only ever wanted hobbyist videographers to buy in)

Meanwhile, Sony capped the resolution of the A7SIII to limit its appeal to photogs and hybrid shooters.

Works for me though. I just want a low-light beast with good AF and 10-bit beefy codecs to ride on my Ronin-S all day

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The crazy thing is, if you want to record XAVC-I 422 10bit internal you need v90 cards. For the same price of two 256gb angelbird cards: 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1527893-REG/angelbird_avp256sdmk2v90x2_256gb_av_pro_mk2.html

You can get the Atomos Ninja V with 500gb storage and batteries: 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1456049-REG/atomos_ninja_v_5_4k.html

Then you can record prores and maybe 16bit prores raw, plus the great monitor.

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56 minutes ago, Eric Calabros said:

I still don't understand why a €4000 camera shouldn't have internal prores, beside this XAVCDEHFTYRXV nonsense. 

So why the room with a view or the that car that will drive you from A to B cost more that the other one who will do the same. It is simple, its called market differentiation. Who will buy there FX9 etc

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Was just expecting way more. This is just competing with the S1H that is already released a year ago, you would think they would crush the S1H. People are still wondering now if they should get an A7S III or an S1H, then its a sad release for me. Hopefully some good news will follow soon. Looks like the ump 12K is by far the most interesting camera this year (not talking about the resolution). 

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