Sony A7Rii stress test: shooting 4k in a steel mill

Hi,

Great write-up and details! Appreciate all the info and links.

Were you triggering record on the A7RII from the Odyssey? Someone had said that when they trigger recording from an external device, they weren't getting any overheating issues, whereas triggering from the camera did result in overheating / shutting down.
 
It's definitely a good camera when paired with an external recorder, but the over heating issues when shooting internally make that feature moot for me. Sharp with great color rendition. Missed the low light capabilities of the 7s, but that's the compromise for high MP i suppose.
Agree with much of your sentiment, except the end, after the a7s2 announcement, I'm done with Sony for a while.
 
Agreed... The footage I have seen from the A7RII (in crop APS-C mode) 4k is really great. In other online footage, it seems that in full frame mode it's not so great and to a lesser extent the 1080p mode exhibits a little noise as well. Not that the latter is unacceptable, but it is there and some may think it mimics film grain a little bit anyway. With that many pixels it's understandable.
I am looking forward to seeing what the A7SII will be capable of. It is my understanding from different Sony interviews that of course its the same sensor and everything (with stabilization of course), but it is supposed to be 1.5-2 stops better than previous model A7s (I would assume they mean with Slog3), but they also have mentioned the noise level being slightly improved. I am guessing they had to tweak some things a little since the camera was to gain the Slog3 and the Slog2 already seemed to reach the limits of the previous A7s.
As for color, I notice a great difference in color rendering of the A7RII vs the other A7 series models, which is very very welcomed. This color rendition change/tweak is supposedly going to be carried over to the new A7sII. We shall see, as the A7RII has an entirely new backlit sensor which may be more advantageous for such modifications rather than the identical sensor from the A7s used again for the A7sII but with further adjustment in output/read profile. It would be very impressive if Sony could match the two different technologies in relation to giving identical color. If so it begs the question..... When is the firmware coming for the A7s to achieve the same thing? Of course they won't because they are moving on and such. To bad they couldn't have just put a new backlit sensor in the A7sII as it would probably lower noise even further... I guess they are saving that last bit for next years A7sIII.
I am interested to see how the A7RII and A7sII compare in real world footage/usage. As for now in relation to A7 Series cameras, I see A7RII best for 4K in APS-C mode and A7sII possibly best for 4K in full frame mode, if the above mentioned is matched.
 
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I actually already checked out the video and you are right FF doesn't look that bad, but it is also in normal daylight conditions. Like I eluded to earlier it can definitely be used well enough generally, but I am really comparing to the possibility of what the A7sII will possibly offer. Based on what I have seen of the A7 Series cameras thus far, I see A7RII is "best" for 4K in APS-C mode and A7sII possibly "best" for 4K in full frame mode. Which camera will be the best overall.... to early to say. So, I will just be looking for a good future comparison between the two before I decide which would work best for me. The A7RII is pretty impressive overall considering the high sensor pixels.... The backlit sensor tech must be helping greatly in that case.
I have heard from a couple of online sources that the color handling has been improved for the A7rII and also for the upcoming A7sII (especially in the red tones). The A7rII footage you posted also has much better reds and less color shift than the A7s footage shown. Hopefully it bears true, that the A7sII will exhibit similar color characteristics to the A7rII. Curious if the white balance was on auto, custom, or set to a “standardized” setting.
Maybe it's just my monitor, but the A7s footage looks a little bit suppressed down especially in the dark tones and black areas on the first part of the video. Surprised the A7s footage was that different when compared to the A7rII.
I think the A7rII with a few minor profile adjustments could be used with FS700 footage quite well.
 
FF is good to about 3200, after that it gets really noisy. The detail is basically a wash at lower ISO's. Here are some good side-by-side shots.

https://youtu.be/zNSeU4pbz9c

I really wish the A7rII's PADF made it into the A7sII. Seems deliberate, so we'll see it in the $3500 A7sIII next fall. Its especially annoying since a similar system has been used with the much cheaper A6000/5100 for over a year and a half yet it can't be added to one of its top of the line bodies. That's bullshit. I bit the bullet with the A7rII to get 4k internal, IBIS and the new AF (don't care about the BSI sensor), the A7sII seems like a cash grab before all the new tech gets into the next version.

Unless you need to shoot at 100,000 all the time, for me the A7rII remains a better choice, S35 noise is comparable to the current A7s recorded externally up to at least 25,600, and FF is still very usable in many situations. Lower ISO when shooting slog is welcome and the green cast from the A7s is gone too.

Overheating for me is completely overblown, I haven't had my camera overheat once in real shooting so far in in Florida and Arizona - the only time it reared its ugly head was when I run it well past the record time limit just to see how long it took to actually shut down.

But that's me. YMMV.
 
Overheating for me is completely overblown, I haven't had my camera overheat once in real shooting so far in in Florida and Arizona - the only time it reared its ugly head was when I run it well past the record time limit just to see how long it took to actually shut down.

Agreed. I haven't had mine overheat once yet shooting all day.
 
The Camera Store review is up. Jordan sez - no overheating; FF 4K soft, more like 2.5K; menu is rather confusing; video is very nice, eye detect auto focus a tremendous plus.

I thought, by looking at Chris's and Jordan's shirts, that the video quality was superb.

But you can head over to their YouTube channel and watch the whole two parter (photo + video).
 
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