a7s color test

[cyork]

I could easily say "why record in 14bit RAW if you can't even color grade the way I like or tell a story with what you shoot?" ....but I don't. Cause it's subjective and amazing work has been produced regardless of camera used or data levels.

The "8bit is for videography" claim is elitist nonsense. You make the most of what you have and if it's any good, you'll know.

 

[Erik Naso]

How are u guys nailing white balance. Are u dialing it in. or using some other method?
Thanks in advance.

Both. If I'm in an obvious situation then dialing it in is easy but when the lighting is mixed then I switch to M mode and either balance from a gray card or use a ExpoDisc. I found in Slog2 you have to get the exposer very high like 4 stops to get a white balance or the camera errors and has a green color balance. Also noticed when I have zebras set to 100 if the card is showing zebra strips on it I can get the camera to take a custom WB. Kind of annoying. I usually dial up the ISO to achieve the exposure.

 

[TajJackson]

Both. If I'm in an obvious situation then dialing it in is easy but when the lighting is mixed then I switch to M mode and either balance from a gray card or use a ExpoDisc. I found in Slog2 you have to get the exposer very high like 4 stops to get a white balance or the camera errors and has a green color balance. Also noticed when I have zebras set to 100 if the card is showing zebra strips on it I can get the camera to take a custom WB. Kind of annoying. I usually dial up the ISO to achieve the exposure.

Thanks so much for your detailed response Erik. Have the regular expo disc and the warm version one. Gonna try them with my rented a7s today.

 

[crackermd]

My first weddign experience with a7s... what I can do to avoid this kind of sh*** ?... with canon 5D mkIII all was fine...

 

[Shooter]

Eh. It's a good low light camera. Great for documentaries.

But this 8-bit stuff is strictly for videography. Let's not kid ourselves thinking we can get robust color.

As a reality check...record the Color Bars generated by a camera to see just how robust the actual color is in 8 and 10 bit codecs.

BTW - I have no idea if an A7s can generate HD Color Bars because I dont own one.

 

[jcs]

The A7S (and GH4 in good light) produce wonderful 8-bit moving images. After having taken a break from shooting 5D3 RAW using these new cameras, yesterday I reviewed 5D3 RAW footage processed with ACR. After ACR highlight and shadow recovery, sharpening, noise reduction and minor color tweaking, the 5D3 RAW footage is truly amazing. No motion compression artifacts, very low noise artifacts, plenty of resolution and detail, and amazing color: 'it just looks right' to myself and clients (even if not 'color chart accurate'). While the 5D3 is a far superior stills camera compared to the A7S, when fast workflow and disk space are important, the 5D3's H.264 is no longer even considered. 5D3 RAW can suffer from fixed pattern noise, however I found it rare (and perhaps newer versions of 5D3 post software do a better job fixing 'vertical stripes' etc.). For extreme grades, I have seen FPN with the A7S (which I hide with masked blurs and masked noise (pretty easy with PPro CC 2014)).

While the A7S has better dynamic range, 5D3 RAW does really well with ACR post processing to bring highlights down and shadows up:
https://vimeo.com/88478272

I shot this handheld with the Canon 70-200 F2.8II on the top of Runyan Canyon in Hollywood. This was also a test to show an issue with ACR: flickering as scene lighting changes (most of the time this is not an issue).

Could the the 8-bit A7S produce colors like the 14-bit RAW 5D3? Sure, the example above (and everything viewed on the internet) is 8-bit! Also note that A7S H.264 (XAVC-S) can be processed with Photoshop and ACR (convert video to a Smart Object then apply Adobe Camera Raw as a filter).

In terms of ultimate image quality (including motion), 14-bit 5D3 RAW is clearly better than the A7S. Even without ACR, 5D3 RAW footage can be amazing:
https://vimeo.com/77580463

I find the above video to be one of the best examples of 5D3 RAW- compare it to the best A7S footage out there (any have comparative examples?).

When shooting in a fast production environment, I grab the A7S for location shots and the GH4 for 4K studio green screen shots. 5D3 RAW is still useful for nature shots and where the amazing color is worth the extra effort and disk space.

 

[Samuel H]

My DR measurements are finally out, main thread here, web page here.

Summary: I'm very happy with my a7s
(but the difference with the 5N is not nearly as big as it was in my first measurement; the difference is that the first time I required fine texture in the shadows for them to qualify as "usable", and this time I had to go for "I can see big shapes and there's not too much noise"; unintended result of me being slightly dumber than usual) (that means: there's a big difference between the 5N and the a7s if you require your shadows to show fine textures in order for them to qualify as "usable", but if you just want to see where there's a table, the a7s still wins but they are not that far apart).

 

[DC Brandon]

Brilliant!

 

[cyork]

My first weddign experience with a7s... what I can do to avoid this kind of sh*** ?... with canon 5D mkIII all was fine...
View attachment 90734

Only thing you can do is lower your exposure. It happened with our fs100's as well. Something about how that Sony tunes their sensors, I guess. Otherwise, I prefer the Sony's detail and overall rendering to Canon. Someday, we'll have it all

 

[Samuel H]

Lowering exposure helps, but there's an even better fix: keep color temperature at 5000 ºK or higher. Much easier to fix WB in post than to fight the blue highlights from hell.

 

[Samuel H]

I adjusted my measurement of the usable DR for the a7s, taking into account that colored highlights look awful about a third of stop before cliping (I measured that it's just a third of a stop, and now my number is 11.7 stops instead of "12 stops but depends").
I also posted full shots with every camera, so you can see how that difference looks like. Hint: one stop can be a lot...
main thread here - web page here