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Sony A7s, FHD camera, with 12Mp sensor, big DR
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  • Seems everyone is preoccupied with video and not very interested in stills. Tons and tons of rain here, but we were blessed with an awesome sun shower - was able to catch some morning sunshine peaking through the clouds and slick streets. Picked up a grey market FE55/1.8 for $700, and it's fantastic on the A7s:

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  • Lovely pics! I am interested in the A7s for the photography aspect as well. I frequently shoot in lowlight conditions such as comedy clubs. The lowlight capability for stills intrigues just as much as the video side. I have also never had a full frame camera before just APS-C size. So I am very interested in getting the full frame look for stills

  • @Dafilman21

    It's a great camera for stills, especially for street and portraits - reminds me of my much beloved D700 which had 12mp and one of my all time favorite cameras (digital or analog). I haven't been to any dark smokey clubs recently but thats next. And the FE 55/1.8 is a incredible lens, people say its too big and expensive for what it is but there are not so many native mount options available at this point and I'm not sorry for buying it Some Voigtlander M mount options are great too. Here are some monochromes:

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  • I got my camera yesterday, adapter and lens arrive next week. Never had an interest in the full frame aesthetics for video, but I sold the BMCC and bought the A7s because I miss still photography, (last time I did it was in school when we shot on actual 35mm.) Being able to choose APS-C mode or bring down the exposure and crank up the ISO for a more "cinematic" depth of field in video without the usual noise this will be great!

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    Compared to the Panasonic Lumix GH4, which will record 4K video straight out of the box, at a lower price and with a much larger range of lenses available, the Sony Alpha A7S may seem limited and expensive as a 4K video device, particularly as you will need to buy an external recorder for 4K video. However, for stills photography and low-light the Sony Alpha A7S delivers very impressive performance, with low levels of noise even when using high ISO settings.

    http://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony-alpha-a7s--ilce-7s--review-25855

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  • These Sony E (APS-C) lenses don’t support Optical SteadyShot on the a7S: SEL1855, SEL55210, SELP1650, SEL18200LE. https://us.en.kb.sony.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/45044/p/40096,40680,40758,90987,94075/c/65,66/kw/steadyshot

    Optical SteadyShot is supposed to work fine with the SEL18200 (first version, not LE).

    Distortion compensation works for video mode on Sony E-mount lenses, but it’s kind of weak on the SEL1855, leaving some distortion. So the nice and tiny SEL1855 ends up being a disappointing video lens on this camera, not doing nearly as well as the Panasonic Lumix G 14-42.

  • @balazer

    I imagine the 18-105G power zoom might be a fine performer on the A7s.

  • Got my A7S today. The only thing I can say is Wow....I never expected a sensor with such a low light capability or dynamic range. As a huge Canon fan and everyday user, I have to say this camera really dwarves any Canon in low light. Absolutely unbelievable. The problem now are the lenses as I do feel like carrying huge Canon/Nikon/Zeiss lenses on such a portable and agile camera. I think I would need a 1.8-2.0 nice zoom lens. Well a 2.8 would be enough. I know I can use my APS Sony zooms but that seriously alters the low light capability. A proper sample short will be posted soon. :-) I love my GH4 and the fact it records 4K internally it is a huge advantage. I will find the space for using both.

  • FE Zeiss lenses to be announced at Photokina as per Sony Alpha Rumors.

  • MikeLinn, thanks for sharing that video about moire. I haven't seen that.

  • I just got mine today. Loving it. FF at last!

  • Got mine yesterday. Haven't got a lens for it yet. Definitely like the feel of the body. It's a perfect size for a camera.

  • @duckpark

    Haven't got a lens or haven't got the right adapter? :-)

  • In the video below, there is an interesting use of S-Log2. It allows to show the background without clipping, but after grading, it introduces clipping in the background, not too much, but it clips. I was wondering if thee is a way to recover the contrast and gamma of the image, mainly in the shadows, without clip the highlights in background... Maybe a custom curve or a custom 3D LUT... See:

  • @apefos Yes, of course there is. The colorist either didnt know/care that he had clipped the highlights, or wanted it that way. No special LUT is needed, just using a simple qualifier to mask things off during adjustments is enough. Or skilled use of the curves adjustment.

  • thanks @joethepro i think i understood:

    it is possible to use masks (with smooth edges, feather) to separate the 0-255 range in 0-64, 64-192, 192-255 or something like this. then the grading can be done separately for shadows, midtones and highlights.

  • @apefos Yes you are correct. Davinci Resolve, for example, makes it very easy to select which parts you want to mask off and use multiple types of blending/feathering to adjust them.

  • got my sdxc card today. this is what i recorded on my way back home. all footage is slog2 1080p60 first i wanted to see if shooting 60fps was possible indoors in PAL land. Well - it's not. Thank got i waited for the european a7s. then i wanted to see how will shooting 60fps aid me in handheld after importing to ppro i slapped a warp stabiliser on all the clips and exported one clip for resolve i was just fooling around with footage. different luts for different shots. on top of it all is 50% grain from filmconvert. denoiser failed me on default settings. saving up for neatvideo for ofx... more important then ND. it helps you get rid of that rgb noise. this footage can look great when it's denoised first and then has some added grain from filconvert.

    https://mega.co.nz/#!AwcVlAyS!Zw2kzA6L0KYRO0z38cbIh58hTxd9OA59PnC-2fd802s

    first impressions front heavy annoying "running in ntsc" message hard to focus in slog (there is not enough contrast for peaking) a lot of running around the menus very low monitor visibility in bright sunlight lame record button position overall = happy ^^

  • I have had the A7s for about 24hrs and so far I am loving it. The feel of the camera is nice however the grip makes it harder for me to hold than the GH4. The menus make perfect sense to me so far and I pretty much know my around the camera now. As soon as I got it in yesterday I took it out on a shoot. I like to take new cameras out on low stress jobs, I needed to pick up some performance shots in a comedy club so the lowlight capabilities came in real handy. Tomorrow I am doing some pp testing. Also I have had the camera on for maybe about 6hrs and the battery still has juice. I only recorded for about 10 mins out of those 6hrs but I don't think the battery life is all that bad

  • Oh and another thing you can charge the battery in camera connected to a PS4 pretty fast!

  • @jurand Really nice looking footage! Beautiful grading as well. Which lens(es) did you use?