Sony A7s Lens Planning

[paulcurtis]

It think it's a bit premature. Both the A7 and A7r have tough times with certain lenses and until the 7s is testable, who knows what that sensor will and won't work with. There are leagues of pages out there trying to match certain lenses. The 7r shows strange flaring but has curved micro lenses the A7 doesn't have shutter slap but doesn't fair as well with some wide lenses. YMMV

cheers
Paul

 

[Nirv]

It think it's a bit premature. Both the A7 and A7r have tough times with certain lenses and until the 7s is testable, who knows what that sensor will and won't work with. There are leagues of pages out there trying to match certain lenses. The 7r shows strange flaring but has curved micro lenses the A7 doesn't have shutter slap but doesn't fair as well with some wide lenses. YMMV

cheers
Paul

Sage advice. I have several fingers and toes crossed that the A7s is going to make a good travel companion but until it's actually released it's just wishful thinking on my part.

 

[JanusCC]

I'm just about to play with an A7S at Sony Osaka... any requests?

 

[Nirv]

I'm just about to play with an A7S at Sony Osaka... any requests?

Sensible Rolling Shutter tests making a note of focal length with a comparison between FF and APS-C modes in 1080p. If it's bad please say so.

Does lens distortion get removed in video?

Would be nice if you could confirm what focus assists are available and if indeed you're able to zoom in focus and reframe with AF lenses in an ENG style of workflow.

Footage would be nice.

Many thanks.

 

[dfreerider]

I'm just about to play with an A7S at Sony Osaka... any requests?

Do you happen to know when the A7s will be available for sale in Hong Kong and Japan?

I'm travelling through Asia right now. I will go to Hong Kong, and perhaps visit Japan as well, and it would be nice to pick it up while I'm there, but I can't find any official shipping dates.

 

[JanusCC]

Do you happen to know when the A7s will be available for sale in Hong Kong and Japan?

It is available on the 20th June in Japan. They didn't know about Hong Kong

I only had a short time with the camera so I couldn't get definitive answers on your questions Nirv. I will see if I can go back another time when there are fewer people around. The main thing I was happy to see was the ITU709(800%) option which I think is better than S-Log2 on an 8-bit camera.

 

[FrameFarmMedia]

I'm just about to play with an A7S at Sony Osaka... any requests?

I would love to know if the A7s has an electronic shutter option. Also what cine gamma modes it offers other than Slog. If you happen to be talking to someone who knows I would love to hear the estimated DR in Slog Video to see how much Sony is trying to cram in there.

One thing i am not clear about is how Sony is taking the 4K sensor scan and downsampling to 1080. Lineskipping? Pixel Binning? Since that is the mode most people will use its important to see.

 

[vincent thomas]

Im not sure. Even if you are certain to deliver in 1080, i will capture in 4k for sure myself.
120fps is only 720p unfortunately to what i could see, i would have love another inbetween option similar to the gh4, 96 at fullHD

One thing i am not clear about is how Sony is taking the 4K sensor scan and downsampling to 1080. Lineskipping? Pixel Binning? Since that is the mode most people will use its important to see.

 

[paulcurtis]

I would love to know if the A7s has an electronic shutter option. Also what cine gamma modes it offers other than Slog. If you happen to be talking to someone who knows I would love to hear the estimated DR in Slog Video to see how much Sony is trying to cram in there.

One thing i am not clear about is how Sony is taking the 4K sensor scan and downsampling to 1080. Lineskipping? Pixel Binning? Since that is the mode most people will use its important to see.

Several outlets have reported that it has an electronic shutter options, in fact on Sonys site too i believe.

The big fanfare about this is that it is downsampling the whole sensor for 1080p, not binning or skipping.

If, as reported, it has Rec709800% then that would be a good alternative.

The biggest achilleas heal IMHO is the 8 bit XAVC, why they couldn't go to 10 bit on a camera of this expense i don't know. I guess a follow up question would be is the hdmi out always 8 bit, even for HD?

Seems such a dumb idea to limit it in this way...

cheers
Paul

 

[Nirv]

Several outlets have reported that it has an electronic shutter options, in fact on Sonys site too i believe.

The big fanfare about this is that it is downsampling the whole sensor for 1080p, not binning or skipping.

If, as reported, it has Rec709800% then that would be a good alternative.

The biggest achilleas heal IMHO is the 8 bit XAVC, why they couldn't go to 10 bit on a camera of this expense i don't know. I guess a follow up question would be is the hdmi out always 8 bit, even for HD?

Seems such a dumb idea to limit it in this way...

cheers
Paul

Limitations are not technical, how would they get us to buy this sensor again in a FS700 body that will likely support 10 bit compressed recording? 10 bit out of HDMI would seriously impact on the F5 as there would be far too much cross over. 8 bit output just keeps the separation of markets wide enough.

 

[dfreerider]

It is available on the 20th June in Japan. They didn't know about Hong Kong

Thank you! Really appreciate that you asked

 

[Jim Ritscher]

I'm just about to play with an A7S at Sony Osaka... any requests?

For the GH4, they sell an attachment to give you XLR capabilitities, etc. Is there any such equivalent for A7S, and if so, what capabilities does it provide? If no, what is the audio input capability?

What lenses is Sony planning for the A7S? (They must be thinking about this). Will such lenses work on the FS700?

Any information would be valuable.

 

[zwarte_kat]

Here is the XLR kit, already available:
http://store.sony.com/xlr-adapter-a...M/cat-27-catid-All-Camcorders-NEX-Accessories

Also the Sony website states that you can use both the full frame sensor and the super 35 crop for both HD and 4K video.

http://www.sony.net/Products/di/en-us/products/vq5f/

Scroll down to where it says:
World’s first full-frame sensor capable of full pixel read-out without binning process for movies*1

World’s first full-frame sensor capable of full pixel read-out without binning process for movies*1

The sensor reads out image data from every pixel, even during Full HD and 4K*2 movie output, and enables recording and output of Full HD movies at 60p (50p), 60i (50i), 30p (25p) and 24p frame rates, as well as output of 4K movies at a 30p or 24p frame rate, with both resolutions available at both full-frame and APS-C (Super 35 mm equivalent) size.
*1 When used in 24p/30p (25p) movie setting.
*2 4K movie recording requires a 4K compatible recorder.
​

​

This is great for people with e mount or other aps-c lenses. For example I can keep using my 18-200 FS100 kit lens for run and gun style work, or get the Sony Zeiss 16-70 OSS e mount. And sometimes it's better not to have such enormous shallow dept of field.

Also the Holy manta EF adapter with build in vari ND filter seems to work on full frame on the A7 cameras. This makes it really attractive to me as I could finally mount my zeiss primes, get the their full coverage (without speedbooster), and have a build in ND filter BEFORE the lens like in a camcorder, which makes for easy lens switching.

I also dig that he ISO of the A7s goes down to 50, big change from my FS100's 400 Iso, so you would need less ND to start with.

Overal an interesting option for FS100 users who have been longing for SLOG-2 and better 60P quality, and want something smaller

 

[FrameFarmMedia]

The biggest achilleas heal IMHO is the 8 bit XAVC, why they couldn't go to 10 bit on a camera of this expense i don't know. I guess a follow up question would be is the hdmi out always 8 bit, even for HD?

Canon C300 50mb/s 422 8bit Clog looks pretty good. XAVC 50mb/s 8 bit Slog2 should look decent also. Clog tops out at 12 stops according to Canon. I wonder how much more Sony can fit into that without negative image effects.

 

[Samuel H]

Canon C300 50mb/s 422 8bit Clog looks pretty good.

Indeed. And slog has about two stops more DR than clog, which is a lot, but not enough to put it on a completely different league in terms of banding issues. 709-800% can be a very good alternative for those worried about this anyway.

(also note that I was one of those who complained a lot about the 8-bit thing when the C300 came out; in theory, it's a probem; in practice, as it turned out, not so much)

 

[aly324]

It think it's a bit premature. Both the A7 and A7r have tough times with certain lenses and until the 7s is testable, who knows what that sensor will and won't work with. There are leagues of pages out there trying to match certain lenses. The 7r shows strange flaring but has curved micro lenses the A7 doesn't have shutter slap but doesn't fair as well with some wide lenses. YMMV

cheers
Paul

Strangely, my 35/1.4 SLR lens suffers edge and corner (more like 20% on both sides) smearing on my A7R, but not on my girlfriend's A7.

I don't understand why the A7R shutter is so much louder. Is it made of more durable material or something?

Anyway, I've been assuming that the bigger photo sites on the A7S sensor will mitigate the smearing and color shift with wide angle lenses.

 

[blafarm]

For the GH4, they sell an attachment to give you XLR capabilitities, etc. Is there any such equivalent for A7S, and if so, what capabilities does it provide? If no, what is the audio input capability?

What lenses is Sony planning for the A7S? (They must be thinking about this). Will such lenses work on the FS700?

Any information would be valuable.

And then there's this new version of the same product that was shown at NAB:

http://www.newsshooter.com/2014/04/14/nab-2014-improved-sony-xlr-audio-jackpack-for-a7s/

 

[Samuel H]

Anyway, I've been assuming that the bigger photo sites on the A7S sensor will mitigate the smearing and color shift with wide angle lenses.

Not really. You'll get about the same smearing as you get when you downsample your current stills to 12MP.

 

[JanusCC]

Soo, I went to go and test out the things you guys had asked about on the A7S and it had turned into a folder full of pictures... :furious3:

 

[Samuel H]

Something else I'd like to have confirmed: exactly which fps options are available in the NTSC and PAL versions of the camera? There's a worrying note in the manual that would mean that the PAL version can be switched to NTSC, but the NTSC can't be switched to PAL (so, no 25p and no 50p). Here we talked about it and have it almost solved, but I'm spending $$$$ on this so I want to be 100% sure.