FS7: FS7m2 - which camcorder or mirrorless as 2nd/3rd camera ?

A

Azzriel

New member
Hello !

I am buying FS7M2K next month.
Have some money left to get 2nd and 3rd camera and decision (for now) went for 2x a7sii, or even one of them a7rii as there is a need to shoot some great photos. All of them would get Atomos recorders.

What i have not take in consideration are camcorders that would go well with fs7. Reason is that no one is mentioning them as option at all, everyone is taking (atleast what i read around the web) fs5 or a7sii.

Otherwise then using a7sii or camcorder as 2nd/3rd camera, they would be used for small ENG team for few minutes interviews.

a7sii with 24-70 f/4 is around 4000$, f/2.8 around 5000$.
In that price range (or less preferably), when looking to shoot video only can you recommend camcorder that would be a par with a7sii performance ? I guess there is no need for Atomos recorder on camcorder so that 1000$ less to spend on another Shogun.
 
I do have the A7Rii as the intended B-cam for my FS7, but after using it for a while I also purchased the GH5 - and in spite of it not being Sony, I find it to grade much better alongside the FS7. All thanks to it being 10bit, I guess - the A7Rii's 8-bit video is much less gradable, so now I keep it as an excellent stills camera.

Piotr
 
Yep - when in need of UHD@50p my Shogun Inferno is indispensable; when shooting 25fps I use it as well when shooting with my full rig. I only record internally when shooting hand-held.

Piotr
 
I myself just went the A7SII route and am very thankful I did. It cuts great with the FS7! I shoot it in Slog2/Slog3.Cine and simply apply a LUT Calc LUT I made that converts the Slog2 to Slog3. Boom, it matches exactly just like that. Literally in seconds and just a couple clicks, I can have all my A7SII footage match my FS7 footage. It's awesome! I also have an A7RII and personally, I haven't had issues matching it either. I made a LUT for it as well that takes the A7RII footage and converts it to match the FS7. Sometimes it's a little greener, so I may make a slight adjustment, but again, it just takes seconds and I'm matching.

To me, the A7SII is the perfect B-cam for the FS7 and I wouldn't look elsewhere (unless you want to drop the cash for an FS5). The A7RII can work just as well with just a slight color adjustment and with that, you've got 42MP pictures. Either way works!
 
A7RII would be nice to combine as there is need to do nice photos as well.
But i read it has problem with overheating opposed to a7sii. You had any issues with any of them ?
 
My A7RII has only overheated when recording long interviews in the 100 + degree Texas sun. But, in its defense, even my FS7 screams in that situation.
 
Of course, many of these combos would work well, depending on your needs, type of work, style and priorities.

I think for me, I'd be looking into an FS-5 as a B-camera, for its 10bit he image, and audio inputs. Then, if there's money left over, the A7sII for low light.

If you're going the FS7II route, the 10bit of the FS-5 would be much better for matching and creative grading.
 
I've been thinking of selling my GH4 and getting somthing from Sony for lightweight gimbal/B/C cam for my FS7 like A6500,A7Sii/Rii . I've been leaning towards the A6500 for size, price and AF on gimbal but never thought about the GH5. The GH4 is a pain to match in post.
 
as others have said, I think it depends on how you'll use that 2nd cam most. I use my 6300 for gimbal work with my FS7 quite a bit - and it can match pretty darn well. Have occasionally used it for 2nd angle for interviews as well with great results. As a bonus, it's a great small camera to travel with and take with you on vacation, etc.
 
Totally aware that FS5 would be perfect match, but need as many cameras as possible (thats why i was wondering if camcorder could be good decision).
Without lenses F5 is 4.800,00$, a7sii 2.700.00$, a7rii 2.900,00$, a6500 1.400,00$.

a6500 + 16-50mm + 55-210mm = 1.700.00 $. Adding external recorder, tripod, batteries could fit in price range of a7 body only. Would seem like a clear winner but still not made decision. All seem to do the job fine.

Use case is for ENG 2nd angle, small studio with 3 or 4 cams, but since i have few ENG teams that need to work with 1 cam, should be able to do the interview without FS7.
Minor "problem" is that i have to spend a larger amount altogether (around 30.000,00$), where FS7 was a clear winner over C300mkii and similar cameras, but for the rest of the equipment its hard to decide.
In the budget are cables, tripods, converters, SSDs, Teradek for live, BMD for connecting 3-4 cams for studio/concerts, so its not a much of a budget. Lots of things to squeeze in. Laptops and desktops are in separate budget of around 5.000,00$, but will manage to get whats needed. (basic laptops getting the material of the cameras, and strong desktop for editing).

Where will the job lead in following year is hard to predict and money needs to be spent in a month. But lets say that we have studio covered as the lights are most important there, documentaries also with fs7/any a7 as 2nd or gimbal. Guess the hardest use case would be club concerts where we can not do much about lights and there are always some sort of problems.

If some of you has the time and all around knowledge for setting it all up (pretty sure i will forget some important cable/converter in the end), i would be more then gratefull for the help and further questions about whole setup, so i dont spam this part of the forum with the offtopic things.
 
I had the a6300 as a B-cam and it was easy to match with the FS7 CineEI. But the rolling shutter when rigged into cars or mounted on gimbals is a pita. I went for a GH5 test - and I kept the little beast. Unfortunately I sold my m43 lenses a year ago with the BMPCC :-/ Cinema-V looks great. saturtion and sharpness dialed down. Vioila. Great when your are handheld shooting and want to stay under the radar.
 
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Clermond said:
I had the a6300 as a B-cam and it was easy to match with the FS7 CineEI. But the rolling shutter when rigged into cars or mounted on gimbals is a pita. I went for a GH5 test - and I kept the little beast. Unfortunately I sold my m43 lenses a year ago with the BMPCC :-/ Cinema-V looks great. saturtion and sharpness dialed down. Vioila. Great when your are handheld shooting and want to stay under the radar.
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hmm I might have to look into the GH5. I think the a6500 rolling shutter might be a deal breaker for the intended use as a small cam to get places my FS7 can't. I like the idea of 10bit internal with Gh5. How is the AF on the GH5? That is what attracted me to the A6500. On my GH4 I always used adapted lenses so have no native panasonic glass.
 
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FrameFarmMedia said:
hmm I might have to look into the GH5. I think the a6500 rolling shutter might be a deal breaker for the intended use as a small cam to get places my FS7 can't. I like the idea of 10bit internal with Gh5. How is the AF on the GH5? That is what attracted me to the A6500. On my GH4 I always used adapted lenses so have no native panasonic glass.
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I had the great Lumix 12-35, the Nokton 25/0.95, the Lumix 7-14 and a FD 50/1.4 with Novoflex Adapter
I bought the GH5 with the kit lens 12-60 and purchased the 7-14 again which is a must for me. Instead of native lenses I collected some cheap FD lenses: 20mm, 28mm, 85mm plus a used Speedbooster FD/m43. I used AF only very rarely up to now with the kit lens but not for tracking.
 
I have choosed for my two Fs7 an A7RII for cam C because i need very good still and the best Auto focus in alpha world. A7SII or Fs5 is not as good as A7RII in AF. The last thing is that i prefere choose aps-c or Full Frame in 4k with metabone classic or speedboster.
 
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Buying an a7S mk2 / a7R mk2 / a6500 (any of these three) as a 2nd camera to the FS7 makes sense, as an easy match with it (relatively speaking).

And arguably you could just repeat that again for the 3rd camera, but it is an interesting case to instead go with a camcorder which can fill a different niche to any of the other two.

So I'd strongly suggest the Sony X70 (which is very affordable, or the Sony AX100 if going even cheaper) as it is also a 4K camera, but has a 1" sensor which by camcorder sizes is quite big!
 
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