FS7: Opinion after first shoot

I did a quick test shoot at 4K 60p with my nephews today in the snow... Figured their saturated winter clothes + skin + bright white snow would be an OK test. I did have to do a little white balancing/tweaking pre-LUT to warm up the shot a bit. I have a color meter that I've been using on the FS700 but not being able to dial in a specific kelvin value on the FS7 is a bummer. Would be nice to properly white balance but I guess that's part of Sony's "film-like" process. Oh well.

Let me know what you think of the looks I got out of this, I also threw on some random LUTs from the Koji LUT pack. I'm pretty new to using LUTs and I'm new to Slog3, I monitored with the FS7 LCD (and since I was in 60p mode I didn't have an MLUT... I guess I didn't check on the built-in waveform, does that work in 60p?)

https://vimeo.com/113129536
password: test

Sidenote: With all the weird gotchas for using MLUTs and waveform on the FS7, I'm mighty tempted by the Gratical HD or LT... Good third-party option that will give LUTs and waveform, regardless of frame rate.


This is exactly what I think is so great about SLog3. Very easy to produce great looking colors esp. with the LC709A LUT.
I think that looks very nice. If you think of the lightning circumstances this is another "worst case scenario" in which
the camera still produced awesome footage.

THX Josh

P.S: WFM and 60p is possible
 
C'mon guys, seriously.

What are you waiting for? We already know, what that sensor and SLog2/Slog3 is
capable of. We have seen enough nice footage from the F5.

My screengrabs are quick turnarounds. I have tested SLog3 in the worst situation
one can think off. Extremem backlight, directly against the sun, face in the shadow,
white cap, handrail structure also backlit, direct reflections of the sin in water, dark ship
crossing. No sticks, only the viewfinder without the loupe...
And I wrote that this is the worst case. But after two clicks in Resolve and a quick custom
curve for the contrast the footage is usable. What's wrong on this?

Is the FS7 capable of doing different footage in other circumstances? Of course it is.
But please be careful judging what other people are capable of...

THX

Didin´t mean to be harsh, but it was´t very clear from your post that this was the worst possible scenario (then I understand it better), but I thought someone posted footage he was very happy with after a little tweak in Resolve.
 
Had my first shoot with the FS7 yesterday and my only issues were the disappearing WFM and how horrible it feels on the shoulder for any more than about 5mins. Can't wait for the extension unit to put some of the balance towards the back.

Was shooting at 1080p both 25fps and 100fps and thought the image quality was great.
 
Had my first shoot with the FS7 yesterday and my only issues were the disappearing WFM and how horrible it feels on the shoulder for any more than about 5mins. Can't wait for the extension unit to put some of the balance towards the back.

Was shooting at 1080p both 25fps and 100fps and thought the image quality was great.

Do you have a shoulder baseplate? I put an old on sale shape baseplate and the difference is night and day. Also if I know I'm going to be on shoulder I'll put a 4lb counter wait on back rails and it balances perfectly. If I get the extension or not will depend on client demand but for now at least I can replicate the feeling of having a big Vmount on the back.
 
No got nothing yet, having just sold my old shoulder rig along with my Red so went au natrel. Today my shoulder feels like it has been karate chopped.

Still waiting on what Movcam release rig-wise. Wooden Camera seem to have an upcoming baseplate/top plate/mount combo but I imagine they will engineered to be used with their existing shoulder rig instead of offering any new bespoke solution.

Teaser pic of the Movcam setup

EYU0Lbq.jpg
 
Surprisingly the Shape shoulder plate works. I was worried because it doesn't have adjustable front rails but my FF mounted up just fine with the Rokinon cine primes and I haven't come across any issue although its a little annoying taking off the velcro shoulder pad to mount it on my VCT14 QR plate. Love that system for easy on off tripod to shoulder with minimal effort.
 
Had my first shoot with the FS7 yesterday and my only issues were the disappearing WFM and how horrible it feels on the shoulder for any more than about 5mins. Can't wait for the extension unit to put some of the balance towards the back.

Was shooting at 1080p both 25fps and 100fps and thought the image quality was great.

Ben, are you using the Lexar cards from Ebay (which I also purchased) ? Just wondered if they handle high frame rates OK, and 4K.
 
Surprisingly the Shape shoulder plate works. I was worried because it doesn't have adjustable front rails but my FF mounted up just fine with the Rokinon cine primes and I haven't come across any issue although its a little annoying taking off the velcro shoulder pad to mount it on my VCT14 QR plate. Love that system for easy on off tripod to shoulder with minimal effort.
While your FF worked, your rails may not be the standard 85mm height. This would be an issue for accessories like non-height adjustable matteboxes, like my O'Connor O-Box.

As for shoulder pads, I've been using a slightly modified version of Berkey System's C300 baseplate. Like the C300, the FS7's rods need to be right up against the bottom of camera to be at the 85mm height. The nice thing about Berkey's C300 plate is that the design uses camera-specific plates/inserts to put the camera at the correct height. So if you look at his F5/F55 version, it's the same foundation but uses a different camera plate to raise the F5/F55 to the correct height. What I'm getting at is this plate is a bit more future-proof than the Vocas and Movcam plates because it's flat and highly adaptable in the future to new cameras. It also accommodates the hold spacing for Arri bridge plates, which I've seen people requesting. Oh, and it has rosettes that give you a lot more rotation clearance than using the camera's rosette:

15Lxp+

C3Ps+


And here is an older photo that shows how the shoulder pad/back rails come off (ignore that the baseplate is shifted forward... I made some tweaks and shifted it back so it's more even with the body, see photos above)

1jVah+


Oh, and Berkey should be getting his top plates in stock soon. I'm pretty excited about the design and hope that it will work for a lot of people! I'll keep you guys updated.
 
I don't mean any offense, but I don't care for the images you have posted at all. I have come to expect better images than that from my 7-year old EX1. The boat in the bottom frame in particular is just awful. Normally I wouldn't criticize someone else's footage, but since you are holding those up as an example of how great S-LOG3 is, I feel it is okay to say something. I think what it boils down to is that I am expecting more from the camera than you are. I am already getting results with S-LOG3 that look better than what you think looks great -- but I'm not even close to being happy with the look. It's nice you are happy with your images, but I expect better.

And BTW, I certainly don't need to be educated on how to expose for S-LOG. I wrote the book on the F5/55. I guarantee you that I am doing it the way Sony recommends.

I want my FS7 to look as good as my F55 does outdoors, like this: https://vimeo.com/110962175
And that requires S-LOG2.

This from the guy who didn't understand the native ISO of the FS7. Maybe, wind your neck in Doug.
 
This from the guy who didn't understand the native ISO of the FS7. Maybe, wind your neck in Doug.

Actually, it's funny you should mention that because the camera has an issue that lead me to the wrong conclusion about sensitivity. There is a fundamental difference in the way the FS7 and the F55 operate in Cine EI. I reported the problem to Sony along with another issue that was even a bigger problem when shooting S&Q. So my mistake was blindly trusting the camera's exposure before I got out my light meter and checked it myself. If Catalyst Browse had been able to read FS7 clips (it does now), or if Content Browser had been able to read the acquisition metadata (never will), I would have seen the problem immediately. First sony sells me a camera that has firmware problems, and then they provide two utility programs that compound the problem. So if you think I don't understand the native ISO of the camera, then I guess you are entitled to your opinion.
 
You know what's funny Doug? I had the exact same tools as you and I knew the native ISO was 2000.

Hubris my friend. Hubris.

:-)
 
I did a quick test shoot at 4K 60p with my nephews today in the snow... Figured their saturated winter clothes + skin + bright white snow would be an OK test. I did have to do a little white balancing/tweaking pre-LUT to warm up the shot a bit. I have a color meter that I've been using on the FS700 but not being able to dial in a specific kelvin value on the FS7 is a bummer. Would be nice to properly white balance but I guess that's part of Sony's "film-like" process. Oh well.

Let me know what you think of the looks I got out of this, I also threw on some random LUTs from the Koji LUT pack. I'm pretty new to using LUTs and I'm new to Slog3, I monitored with the FS7 LCD (and since I was in 60p mode I didn't have an MLUT... I guess I didn't check on the built-in waveform, does that work in 60p?)

https://vimeo.com/113129536
password: test

Sidenote: With all the weird gotchas for using MLUTs and waveform on the FS7, I'm mighty tempted by the Gratical HD or LT... Good third-party option that will give LUTs and waveform, regardless of frame rate.

Thanks for posting. Can I ask why the LC709A example at 0:10 looks different from the LC709A example at 0:31? You're not applying the Koji LUTs AFTER the LC709A, are you?
 
Thanks for posting. Can I ask why the LC709A example at 0:10 looks different from the LC709A example at 0:31? You're not applying the Koji LUTs AFTER the LC709A, are you?
Sorry, I could have been more clear, but all the ending shots have the 3-way Color Corrector that is properly white balancing the shot (or "warming it up" a bit... The original shot was cool) before the LUT effect. So the shot at :31 should match the shot at :13.
 
I find this thread useful but some of the rampant snippy comments need to stop. Let's be civil; we are all trying to make pretty pictures for people and not assault their taste.

Josh, loved the snow shots. It shows you can indeed get great pictures out of slog3. I want slog2 though as well for options. And I agree with everyone that the firmware needs work.
 
Anyone encountered the following yet?-

power up Fs7 and it says to perform APR. I hit 'execute' and the screen goes black and stays black. Camera seemed to be stuck in it's APR performance. I had to power down and power back up.

This is along the lines of some of the F5 quirks. I have been using an F5 lately that freezes up on the "Sony" display in the side window when you power the camera up. It does this about 1 out of every 10 times the camera is powered up. It won't even allow you to power down the camera. You have to remove the battery and then put the battery back on, power up again.

Oh well, they are computers with a lens stuck on them, after all.
 
Anyone encountered the following yet?-

power up Fs7 and it says to perform APR. I hit 'execute' and the screen goes black and stays black. Camera seemed to be stuck in it's APR performance. I had to power down and power back up.

This is along the lines of some of the F5 quirks. I have been using an F5 lately that freezes up on the "Sony" display in the side window when you power the camera up. It does this about 1 out of every 10 times the camera is powered up. It won't even allow you to power down the camera. You have to remove the battery and then put the battery back on, power up again.

Oh well, they are computers with a lens stuck on them, after all.
Mine asks me to do the APR every now and then, and I just let it sit until it's done. Usually takes a 5-10 seconds, can't remember if the screen goes black. Hasn't locked up, though.
 
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