FS7: B-camera: need your expert advise :)

I picked up the A7rII and use it alongside my FS7, as needed, for B-Cam, gimbal cam, etc. I have found it is easy enough to match up to the FS7 and serves its purpose for MY needs. It's fairly capable for video (although lacking in audio, ND, form factor, etc.) and a fine stills camera.
 
Yeah - there is also A7Rii, which does have phase detection and native FF, plus it can record 4K in S35 mode so Speed Booster can be used, thus effectively making up for the little lower sensitivity than that of A7Sii... From another thread:

jcs said:
As an A7SII and C300II user, the A7RII looks better than the A7SII in color and AF from examples posted online. Unless you will be shooting mostly in very low light, the A7RII looks like the way to go if color and AF are top priorities (both will overheat where the A7SII might do it a bit less). The A7SII has less aliasing in FF 4K, perhaps check out the examples online. 4K S35 looks great on the A7RII (no S35 4K for the A7SII), appearing quite a bit more detailed than the A7SII FF 4K. SLog3 in 8-bit isn't very useful due to banding.
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P

I think you need to focus in on those caveats.. something that does what you want to do apart from a caveat does not do what you want it to do.

In using things (cameras/lenses/lights/cars, whatever) the smallest caveat can become the biggest bugbear.


In terms of taking stills.. you have a bit of canon glass.. now I dont follow DSLR for stills much (because all the cameras are awesome!) but you could consider any old used canon DSLR for that. My minimal experience (of sony mirrorless for stills) is that a sony mirrorless will not give the experience of a 'proper' DSLR - although silent shooting is a plus.
 
No idea what the 'experience' of shooting with a DSLR over a mirrorless is other than more weight. But I've taken an A7s to Cambodia and Vietnam. It spent 3 days travelling down the Mekong. Been to Croatia, Roman castles and Scottish woodland cabins. To Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. To NYC. To Snowdonia in the middle of a blizzard.

Dust. Monsoon storms. Rooftop timelapses. Humid sunsets on a beach. My A7s and A7sII did it all. Even did paid stills gigs with it for a few clients.

Let DSLRs finally die off. All hail our new mirrorless overlords!
 
Staring at another electric screen not ground glass.

AF is indecisive because unlike DSLR the AF is not working at minimum DOF

Shutter button indecisive

Too thin, hand cramps

Sony menus.

--

Personally I just chuck a DSLR in my kit for stills, because once you rig any thing on a camera to shoot video it becomes unusable for stills.

Used DSLRs are cheap 12mp is good enough for anything buy Vogue.

This might help P's choice.. or not :)
 
AF is fine if that's your bag.

Shutter button is fine. Various options for how you want it set up. Mechanical or Electronic shutter etc.

OLED viewfinder is amazing.

Never had a hand cramp but maybe I have little Donald Trumpies.

Don't need to rig anything to an A7 to shoot video or timelapse if you don't want.
 
Want to replace my 5D3 with a A7rX for stills work, but am waiting for a version with a bigger buffer, & utilizes USB 3.0, or faster, for tethering.
 
OK, so my choice now has changed again, and now it is either A6500, or A7Rii. The latter would give me the AF phase detection, and 2 possible operation modes:

- in FF with my Sony FF lenses (both he current 28-135mm, and future ones), as well as my Canon EF lenses with Sigma-MC11 adapter
- in S35mm crop mode - with Speed Booster and my Canon EF lenses

The above is very tempting, but I have some related questions:

1. In this article http://mirrorlesscomparison.com/preview/sony-a6500-vs-a7rii/ , I read:

„An interesting point about the hybrid autofocus system of these two cameras is that it offers phase-detection AF even with A-mount and EF-mount lenses as long as you have a mount adapter such as the LA-EA3 or the Sigma MC-11.”

Did they simply omitted the Speed Booster, or isn't phase detection working with it? Interestingly, the Sony authorized retailer I'll be buying this stuff from sounds like a technically savvy person, and tells me only the Sigma will take full advantage of the AF phase detection - is it true? This is really very important, because if I can't use Speed Booster with Alpha phase-detection AF system I'd need to return to the A7Sii as the king of low-light - considering all my lenses are just F4.0 !!!

2. As you know, the A7Rii lacks S-Log3 gamma; as I grade my footage for HDR in Resolve - what do you think it would mean to me in terms of inter-cutting with my FS7 which I've been using with S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine almost exclusively?

- would it be necessary to switch BOTH to S-log2, in order to make them look as closely as possible using RCM to P3-DCI/ST2084 in HDR?
- or do you think it would still be better to keep using S-Log3 on the FS7, and S-Log2 on the A7Rii?

3. Last but not least - a non-boosting EF adapter for Full-Frame shooting: how is the Sigma-MC11 rated against the Metabones Mark IV or Commlite by the community here? With Canon EF lenses - not the Sigma ones? Price-wise, Commlite would be the cheapest with the Sigma twice as expensive, and Metabones Mark IV again doubling the price - but I really need an adapter which can use all the Alpha advanced features most realiably...

Thanks for your patience, guys :)

Piotr
 
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moldcad said:
2. As you know, the A7Rii lacks S-Log3 gamma; as I grade my footage for HDR in Resolve - what do you think it would mean to me in terms of inter-cutting with my FS7 which I've been using with S-Log3/S-Gamut3.Cine almost exclusively?

- would it be necessary to switch BOTH to S-log2, in order to make them look as closely as possible using RCM to P3-DCI/ST2084 in HDR?
- or do you think it would still be better to keep using S-Log3 on the FS7, and S-Log2 on the A7Rii?
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8 bit + S-log3 = bad idea. Any log gamma really is a bad idea in 8 bits, barely good in 10.
 
Ignore the idea of using AF with non-Canon lenses via Metabones.

The A7sII has better colour than the A7rII. The A7sII fixes the slightly green tint.

You don't need to shoot the A7 in a log mode to be able to match it easily. A quick contrast adjustment and it is there.
 
Ben Scott said:
Ignore the idea of using AF with non-Canon lenses via Metabones.
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Ben, I don't quite follow - I'm going to use my Canon lenses via the Speed Booster (if A7Rii is my choice - in the APS-C "crop" mode of course). My question was whether phase detection AF can be used successfully in such scenario - so what do you mean by "using AF with non-Canon lenses via Metabones"?

Piotr
 
Ach, OK - you mean Sigma lenses with Canon mount on Speed Booster.

And how does the Sigma-MC11 adapter work with Canon EF lenses on the a7 cameras?

Piotr
 
Badly. It is a stills adapter. Leave it well alone.

You have all the information anyone could ever need to make a decision about what works for you. The truth is just about any of the solutions put forward will be fine. Don't try to get A-cam shots on a B-cam and they'll usually intercut fine. Nobody complained about 5Ds in Iron Man 2
 
Ben Scott said:
Badly. It is a stills adapter. Leave it well alone.
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Ben - I'm just gathering bits and pieces of information to make my decision optimal. The Sigma adapter has been suggested to me by the Retailer I'm going to buy my B-cam from as the best one for working with Alpha series phase-detection continuous video AF (better than both Metabones Mark IV and Commlite), but perhaps the guy has his own agenda in selling the Sigma? Therefore, please bear it with me just a little longer, and explain why should Commlite be better (if it really is I have nothiing against, as it's also the cheapest one). Or should I buy the Mark IV? Of course, all this is about adapters for FF mode shooting on FF camera (A7Rii or A7Sii)...TIA

Piotr
 
I'm not the person to talk about AF with. I don't use it.

I do know that everyone who has tried to use the Sigma adapter for video has had huge problems with it and it has limited compatibility with a lot of lenses.

The Commlite isn't great for AF either but is a good solid cheap adapter for electronic iris control.

The Metabones is best for AF with Canon lenses.

AF isn't great. Save yourself the problems and focus manually and avoid the whole headache.
 
OK - thanks for the info; having used my Speed Booster for some time now I also have most trust in Metabones. As to using AF - I never use it either, but we're talking now 2 cameras operated by a single person, so the luxury of running the B-cam in AF mode could be an ass-saver sometimes :)

Piotr
 
Or just set it up so the subject is within the focal distance of the B-cam with a bit of a safety margin to let them move forward and back a little bit.
 
moldcad said:
Yeah, I know - plenty of info available on-line. But what I really need is the opinion of the fellow FS7 users on this forum - so please forgive me this question, and try to answer it in a way that would help not just me, but also perhaps shed a new light on the matter so even those more advanced would benefit?

So here I go: if I wanted a B-camera for my FS7, which way to look? A video camera, or a still one? I'm sort of leaning towards the latter - but which would you recommend as an FS7 companion: Sony or Canon? Full frame or APS-C? Please consider which glass I currently have (see sig below)... I'd really appreciate a good advise (oh, and the price is a consideration, too - it cannot be much more than $1,000). TIA!

Piotr
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The best B-cam to the FS7 is…. . . . the FS7 or the FS5.

If you don't want to spend that much, then of course look at A7sii but since your requirement is $1000, then go for the BMPCC. BUT the speed booster will cost you another $500-$800 unfortunately.

I've used the BMPCC as b-cam on a few F55 shoots and with some work it can be matched up quite well. What's great about the BMPCC is the size of the camera and image quality it delivers. In some cases the size makes it easier/faster to use than a fully equipped F55. So I like having the best of both worlds, plus the BMPCC will shoot RAW. Memory cards are $35 for 64GB. The BMPCC eats batteries so it's ok for short segments or if you given time to change batteries, but otherwise you'll want to plug it into AC ($100 A/C adapter) or look into v-mount power solutions (Camtree makes amazing v-mount to rail kit for $65). Rolling shutter is quite bad on the BMPCC I have to say.

If you want to go Canon route, look at a used C100 but I doubt you'll find one for under $1000. Canon has the best out of the box look in my opinion. Check out CP8 profile, no log or mess to deal with later. Here are shots with small timeline tweaks on Premiere timeline: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...n-C100&p=1986602339&viewfull=1#post1986602339

There are a hundred answers to your question, unfortunately none of them perfect. You'll have to decide that on your own.
 
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