A7S II : I think I'm doing it wrong

K

Kholi

Section Moderator
https://vimeo.com/195145631

So I'm borrowing an A7S II (and also thinking about trading one of my cameras for one to do a side project on Instagram) and I can't figure out why it's so noisy. I'm assuming it's the SLoG3 to internal 4K recording?

What settings are people using at this point? Especially to go out to a recorder?

Any advice would help, sorry for the noob style post, I only have one more half day with it and trying to figure out if I really need to switch for one.
 
I'm not a fan of Slog and only use it when the scene truly requires it. The camera is capable of incredible low noise performance. Try some of the other picture profiles and most important, SHOOT A TEST WITHOUT ANY PICTURE PROFILE. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
 
THanks guys. Gonna try my old Picture Profile in that case to see if it translates (Without the green compensation)
 
S-log 3 seems noisier because the whole input/curve is pushed up higher than s-log 2. It has more DR range in the shadows, less headroom in the highlights. You had an overcast, cloudy day on that shoot and it looks ok. It's a thinner image than s-log2, which I don't like.

S-log3--If you overexpose it too much by accident it gets nasty--esp. close-ups of people's faces. They can look blotchy or plasticky with no texture. If you underexpose it it's filled with atrocious noise and artifacts. I can't say I'll never use s-log 3 again but I have to take extra care with it.

A lot of people shoot with Sony's new "s-gamut 3 cine" colors.
 
Last edited:
Definitely SLog3 doing it. Changing over to SLog2 and S.GAmut helped. Will start there.

Thanks!
 
I use SLog2 with cine3 gamut. then i boost the saturation up a bit
use cine 2 or 4 for low light/DR scenes
 
I filmed this on an A6300 with S-Log3 into a Ninja Flame. The grading isn't for everyone, but I think it's super clean:

https://vimeo.com/159173964
Click to expand...

That looks really good. Skin tones/textures are nice. Now I have a renewed faith in s-log 3!

But the footage still looks awfully thin to me, like it's hanging by a thread and about to fall apart any second.

Was there a general exposure you picked for your shots, such as 1.5 stops over?

Also, was a LUT used in your grade?
 
Last edited:
Thanks! For that little project, I just eyed everything out using the tools on the Flame. Lots of scenes were underexposed (not enough lights). And I used probably more than one LUT in post...I change it up a lot in my work. Today, I would probably grade it totally differently.

Most of the time I do the complete opposite of how you're actually supposed to do things the right way.
 
dcloud said:
I use SLog2 with cine3 gamut. then i boost the saturation up a bit
use cine 2 or 4 for low light/DR scenes
Click to expand...

Do you have any footage up?

As usual... I've spent way too long looking at footage and have arrived at a fork.
 
If you underexposed s-log 3 you probably had tons of noise and artifacts in the shadows, hence you had to crush the blacks to hide that. It still looks good though. Cinematic, even. I think my problem has been overexposure and that kills the skin textures.
 
I always find that slog has more headroom in the highlights than I need, and is a bit thin on the shadows, so, since log makes this very easy to correct in post, I overexpose everything by one stop (i.e. I set my light meter at ISO 800 if my camera is at ISO 1600) (ETTR-within-reason if I don't have time to use the light meter).

Regarding settings, I would test these three options:
* Flaat (the settings I use in my no-slog3 cameras)
* slog2 with sgamut3.cine
* slog3 with sgamut3.cine (you may get a bit more DR in the shadows, at the price of noisier everything)
 
I've been testing out a Panasonic G7 the last few days with a speedbooster and a 1.4 lens and got grain/noise indoors. So your footage is definitely not noise or grain, that footage actually looks amazing considering it looks like you have no lights, just run and gun outside. I think it's not as tact sharp, but that could be because it's not in 4k maybe.
 
filmmakerguy said:
I've been testing out a Panasonic G7 the last few days with a speedbooster and a 1.4 lens and got grain/noise indoors. So your footage is definitely not noise or grain, that footage actually looks amazing considering it looks like you have no lights, just run and gun outside. I think it's not as tact sharp, but that could be because it's not in 4k maybe.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Maybe it's because I see people saying how ultra clean it is and I expected it to have less noise than my 4.6K in any light. But I think it's the slog 3. I'm going to check today to see what I get with a few different profiles before I run out of time.

At least so far as last night the slog2 did seem much cleaner.

Also I agree on detail. I uploaded it the same way as I upload everything else and it's pretty soft/low detail. My 4.6K stuff is far more detailed on Vimeo. But I'm assuming it's something I'm doing.
 
Kholi said:
Hmm. Maybe it's because I see people saying how ultra clean it is and I expected it to have less noise than my 4.6K in any light. But I think it's the slog 3. I'm going to check today to see what I get with a few different profiles before I run out of time.

At least so far as last night the slog2 did seem much cleaner.

Also I agree on detail. I uploaded it the same way as I upload everything else and it's pretty soft/low detail. My 4.6K stuff is far more detailed on Vimeo. But I'm assuming it's something I'm doing.
Click to expand...

I think it's your lens...send it here to Atlanta...let me check it out for you... :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top