Thanks a lot for this detailed explanation, Balazer!

Could you write a word or two about Cine 3 and 4 as well ? I found Cine 4 quite useful in darker situations.

And you are perfectly right about S-Gamut in the A7S, it's really whacky and much harder to grade than footage from a FS7.

And would you consider posting that IDT for the community?

@balazar what is the estimated dynamic range of Cine1 vs S-log?

@balazar thanks for the info i will look around for some best settings - i find it so difficult to really make the colors punchy in slog. Also i hear a lot about aces but cant seem to find a lot of info on what it is and how it is useful, can you give direction?

If you are trying to manipulate S-Log2 levels directly to produce standard video output, you are going to have a very hard time. S-Log2 was never meant for that. S-Log2 has no highlight roll-off and it's not very similar to Rec.709. S-Log and S-Log2 were always meant to have some transformation into another color space for grading, like Cineon or ACES. S-Gamut also needs some transformation: it needs to be linearized and then put through a decoding matrix. (or do all of that with a 3D LUT) If you're not decoding S-Gamut with a matrix, it will produce hopelessly weird colors that you can't correct with any standard color tools. Even with Sony's decoding matrix, S-Gamut from the a7S has a lot of color inaccuracies that you don't get with S-Gamut on a CineAlta camera, so I no longer recommend S-Gamut on the a7S.

If you want to manipulate levels directly with standard tools like levels and curves, I recommend shooting in Cine1 (or Cine2-4) with 'Still' color. It has a nice highlight roll-off, and you'll get pretty close to what you want just using a levels filter to select a range of the Cine1 RGB levels and stretch that out to Rec.709. More complicated things can be done with curves.

But of course I recommend ACES or ACEScc because they take care of the transformations for you, for whichever color space you shoot in. My video tutorial covers the basics in Sony Vegas Pro. Nuke does ACES too. Resolve has an ACES workflow also, but I haven't spent much time trying to figure out Resolve, and I don't know if the ACES implementation in Resolve is really correct or useable.

@vstardust:

You can use multiple tools to stabilize this movement. But the best way is, to use a cage for your camera, which is also mounted on top of it (so the camera body is really "jammed" inside and cannot move any more). The cage you can then mount MUCH tighter - Or even with multiple screws - onto the QR plate (or baseplate). That way you´re minimizing the movement with EVERY lens you´ll ever mount to the body.

On the other hand you can also use a lens stabilizer (like the lanparte TS-02 or similar ones) - Especially with bigger lenses it´s a good way. Though: With compact lenses (like the C/Y) that´s not possible (as there´s not enough space to use it). Also it´s not helping THAT much to be honest. You could also use a speedbooster for your C/Y lenses. As there you also get a tripod support which you can then combine with a spacer for your camera body (to get also multiple screw down points - One on the adapter and one on the body). But that´s more "DIY like" as you need to find or build a compatible spacer (and this solution is not very handy if you want to change the C/Y lenses to native Sony-E ones - As you cannot remove the adapter anymore that easily).

Btw.: According the C/Y lenses also a CLA process is helping ALOT (CLA = "cleaning lubricating adjusting"). The most C/Y lenses are quite "stiff" (focus ring wise). And a very light grease is reducing the camera and image movement while focusing significantly. Though keep in mind: These are stills lenses. They always have a little bit of "play" in the focusing mechanism / helix. So the max. stability is always limited ^^.

Additionally you can also try to "limit" the max. focusing way of your lens. For example: Use a hard stops follow focus, and don´t use the hard stops for your focus pulls - Use them to set the closest and infinity focus. Most lenses are turning OVER the infinity point (without finde adjustment). So there you could set the point with the 1st hard stop. The 2nd one you set a little bit BEFORE the lens limiter is hitting. That way you ALWAYS get the limit from the follow focus and not from the lens. And with this method the force isn´t applied to the lens (aka the body - aka the image) - It´s applied to the hard stops (and so the follow focus only) ^^.

Ok. That´s it. Sorry for the long text (@ all).
But these are the options you have to minimize the frame movement ^^.

LG

@vstardust:

Yes. Locking down from top is helping alot. The SmallRig cage you linked to should be enough yes (they offer good quality). At least it´s locking down from top AND it´s not THAT bulky compared to other solutions. (Btw.: You could even go for the cable lock at the side - For the HDMI cable for example.)

About locking it down on the baseplate / QR plate: There are two 1/4" slots at the bottom. They are quite tight together. But if you use smaller head screws (from a local hardware store), it´s maybe possible to use both threads (to get a tighter and 100% non sideway twisting connection). Btw.: Locking down from top is only possible with the hotshoe of the camera - As there are no other connections possible. ^^

LG

@nosignal, I'm not sure if you're referring to my post about video color spaces, or raw images in Lightroom. Either way, the color space setting in the camera makes no difference. Please let me know what you mean, and I can try to answer better.

Yes, I meant in Lightroom's develop module, you go to Camera Calibration and change the profile to Camera Standard.

I find I really have a problem with the way motion looks on this camera at times, for instance when doing pans it always seems to look stuttery like everything is shimmering. Changing shutter to 1/40 or 1/60 doesnt seem to help - is this to do with compression and if so will shooting to pro res recorder help?

"Sony Alpha A7S Mirrorless Digital SLR Camera Body + 1 Year Warranty - $1799"
$700 different compare to big seller, so tempted to buy but too late -;)

Tinbeo, Buyer BeWare! The one advertise may have been "sold" before the ad was even released. Most of the time these "good" deals are bait and switch. They will try to "Upgrade" and never deliver the advertised product. They could be used product repackaged. Almost always "Grey Market". No US warrantee except their own worthless one. Incomplete package with no battery, charger, etc. Huge restock fee and/or other return hurdles when you find the camera defective.

You would usually be better off buying a used/tested camera from a private party.