Good Enough: The Enemy of Best

T

Tom Roper

Veteran
Since I'm considering the A7SIII, I thought I would review the GH5s comparison to the previous Sony low light top dog, A7SII. I've shot countless dark wedding receptions with the GH5s sometimes long after the others had packed it in.

The video comparison matches exposure, and separately matches DOF between the two cameras under review.

https://youtu.be/q4-yE4ytw5k
 
When there were people moving into and out of the frame, or I was circling the couple, or moving among tables of guests, with the GH5s deeper DOF I would focus to a distance on manual, and keep that distance as I moved about rather than try to chase lens focus. As long as I kept that distance, my subjects were in focus. Now you switch to a shallow DOF FF camera, if you stop down to deepen DOF you have to go with very high ISO, or chase lens focus if you don't. And it seems the Sony AF is better with Sony branded lenses, of which it seems a bit of a dearth of choices in faster glass with OSS, or at a reasonable price point for not having any E mount lenses now. Shallow DOF is a great look for the 5-7 minute highlight reel, but what about the other 5+ hours of event coverage?
 
A lot of variables on the table here.

Most weddings I shoot end up as a highlight reel, although yes there are longer edits too.

It doesn't have to be Sony-branded lenses. Recent e-mount Samyang releases have good AF (the 45mm and after that). The Tamrons have good AF. And the recent Sigmas do as well (can't remember starting when - I'd have to double-check the reviews). You just can't adapt EF glass and get good AF.

My plan right now is to get the Sony 24-105. F/4 on FF is already decently shallow DOF, frankly. That lens would cover most of what I need to do on the gimbal. Then I might get the samyang 45 for dark situations or shallower DOF. The lens doesn't have OSS but I'll be on gimbal anyway. Then I might get the sigma 100-400 for long shooting if I need it. Ultra wides I'll stick with what I have because focus pulling is easy there.

Also, with A7SIII sensitivity, going to an f/4 will not be difficult most of the time. On my S1 and 24-105 f/4, I was pretty happy at weddings except for dark dance floors.

With my GH5 and then S1 on the Ronin-S, I would use the focus wheel on the handle adjusting the focus motor. I didn't have to set it and forget it anymore. I was pretty happy with that approach, but it was difficult to nail focus with shifts at close distance. And it also requires a lot of concentration
 
Just watched gerald undone's review of the Sigma FE 24-70: https://youtu.be/cufAsVxmNsw

It looks like a great lens. He says autofocus is on par with the Sony GM - maybe the GM is a hair more responsive. But the Sigma does better auto focusing in low-light, so it's not a total win for the Sony. And the Sigma is optically beautiful and half the cost of the Sony. Food for thought! I could possibly just buy that FE lens and be done with it. Adapt my EF lenses when I need them and just go without autofocus. A 24-70 f/2.8 can cover so much of what I need to do, especially on gimbal and especially on a low-light monster like the a7siii
 
I've been looking at the A7s3 and am struggling to find any of the 24-70 2.8 lenses with image stabilisation. From what I can see the SOny IBIS is still not very good. And has anyone seen any footage that looks great, was hoping it would have a similar feel to the FX9 but haven't fallen in love with the image yet
 
ade4all said:
I've been looking at the A7s3 and am struggling to find any of the 24-70 2.8 lenses with image stabilisation. From what I can see the SOny IBIS is still not very good. And has anyone seen any footage that looks great, was hoping it would have a similar feel to the FX9 but haven't fallen in love with the image yet
Click to expand...

Yeah Sony IBIS is not the best. I'm going to be using it on a gimbal so I don't care that much, I would have bought a camera without IBIS even.

The Sony 24-105 has stabilisation but is f/4. Same for the Sony 24-70 vario-tessar: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008126-REG/sony_sel2470z_vario_tessar_t_fe_24_70mm.html

No 24-70 f/2.8 stabilized lenses that I know of

I haven't loved most of what I've seen, either. (But then again, I don't love the footage from previous A7-series cameras but they're very popular.)

I thought this looked good from Matti on YouTube and he says he graded the slog3 with just contrast and saturation adjustments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtwxF5GIKc&feature=emb_title

Then there's this cinema5d mini-doc that I thought looked nice with a cooler palette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y94nSdgHnI0&feature=emb_title

I haven't seen anything that looks like FX9 cinetone, though. I didn't love the way Philip Bloom's ProRes RAW short looked.

So much of it comes down to grading. I feel like you can do good things with this camera. I also feel like it's a money-maker and the color science won't hold it back.
 
Yeah thanks had seen those and most of it looks like good old solid Sony rather than the lovely FX9 stuff that had got me interested in Sony again. Am preferring the Panasonic and Fuji image right now although I realise this is early days and the camera is very capable of the good stuff, just maybe with a bit more work (am not great at grading)
 
I'm not great at grading, either. I like the images coming out of the R5 but the damn thing is too limited. Also, the R5 only records c-log, so I wonder how much the color quality comes down to a lower dynamic-range gamma. I thought the s-log2 stuff I've seen from the A7SIII had richer color than the s-log3...

Anyway, I want a camera with good AF so that will be Sony or Canon. I had an S1 but sold it for that reason. Fuji has PDAF but not as good and they're APS-C.

The a7sii and a7iii have been wildly popular, so I'm sure the A7SIII will be as well. For me, it's a business decision. And I have faith I could make the camera look less video-y
 
Yes the R5 and R6 are a no go for the overheating problems. AF is not so crucial for me and have been happy with the AF of the XT3 when ever I've used it. The A7s3 will be a very capable camera in the right hands, it is a business but also I want to love the image of the camera I own. The Fuji still makes me smile when I go through the footage at the end of the day
 
That makes sense. There may be a canon c100 or C200 successor coming out by the beginning of September (in time for me to cancel my A7SIII preorder). But I'm guessing that it will be more expensive, larger (less good for my ronin-s), and probably crippled in the codecs somehow.

Canon may release a mirrorless 1D (R1?) that may not overheat but be very expensive. I dont expect them to solve the heating issue until the R5mk2 if even

So, for me, the A7SIII was chosen by process of elimination, given that I want a FF camera with best-in-class AF and 10-bit codecs
 
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