Sony A7SIII = $3500, 10-bit 4K120p internal, 16-bit 4K60p RAW out

NorBro said:
After watching so much Canon footage for this past month, more than ever in my life between the R, the II and the III...I think I have finally developed the Canon color science biased for the first time in my life (and I was a very heavy Sony shooter along with Canon forever).

Even in the B&H video, I really saw a difference.
Click to expand...

I've always had the canon color science bias. Most of this A7SIII stuff looks just ok to me. But look at Philip bloom's now I see part 2. The first 1.5 minutes looked meh and then everything was very pretty after that.

The thing is - my clients aren't as sensitive to color. I always thought the FS7 and Sony a7 series would flounder vs canon. But I was dead wrong. Folks care more about the other specs.

I like the look of Cinetone. I wonder if any of this is cinetone
 
Last edited:
SIII looks like a great camera for video shooters, an OK camera for hybrid shooters and a crappy camera for the photographers.

PS. I think, with proper upscaling software, it'll be passable for stills too.
 
In this test towards the end, the A7SIII overheated shooting 4k60p before the R5: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcp8wXAUZY&time_continue=1&feature=emb_logo

But they had the sIII sandwiched between 2 other cameras. I wonder if that hurt it.

In any case, I'm more concerned with the recovery time. When pondering the R5 I already reasoned that I only ever shoot 50% on/off when rolling 4k60 continuously. And perhaps an external recorder would let it go unlimited if I had to
 
The footage looks just like the FX9. The IBIS is mediocre, the HFR great. I'm not in love with the look, but for handing off wedding XAVC footage and being robust, solid AF, it's the best tool. If only some people would get married.
 
ahalpert said:
In this test towards the end, the A7SIII overheated shooting 4k60p before the R5: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgcp8wXAUZY&time_continue=1&feature=emb_logo

But they had the sIII sandwiched between 2 other cameras. I wonder if that hurt it.

In any case, I'm more concerned with the recovery time. When pondering the R5 I already reasoned that I only ever shoot 50% on/off when rolling 4k60 continuously. And perhaps an external recorder would let it go unlimited if I had to
Click to expand...

I’d say this is a pretty flawed test: He has the cameras resting on top of what looks like dark grey plastic and all bunched together.
 
ahalpert said:
Design inertia? Economy of scale in production? Marketing deception?
Click to expand...

From what I've been told, it is really expensive to design a new camera form factor from the ground up. I agree, in this price range, going to your
exisiting parts bin for a lot of the camera parts is more economical.

All of us who shoot for a living know that shooting video with a DSLR/mirrorless form factor kind of sucks, but it's the price you pay to get top video
features, under $4k, in a small and light form factor. Same with the Pocket Cinema cameras, their form factor is lousy but the value equation is off the scale so you live with it.
 
Tom Roper said:
The footage looks just like the FX9. The IBIS is mediocre, the HFR great. I'm not in love with the look, but for handing off wedding XAVC footage and being robust, solid AF, it's the best tool. If only some people would get married.
Click to expand...

Lol ditto. I bet we can tweak the look in camera to get better results.

Look at some of the cooler palette behiri uses here, I think this is nice- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y94nSdgHnI0&feature=youtu.be

Screenshot_20200728-133019_Chrome.jpg
 
ahalpert said:
The thing is - my clients aren't as sensitive to color. I always thought the FS7 and Sony a7 series would flounder vs canon. But I was dead wrong. Folks care more about the other specs.
Click to expand...

Not all, but several clients over the years have shown me that they are fine with magenta/cyan bias cadaver-like skin tones of the Sony FS7. I've shot Sonys many times over the past five years and never had a client complain about the skin tones,
even though to me, it's like looking at a cartoon, they are so bad.

That's where the rubber really meets the road and you make a choice to be an artist or to be a smart businessman. The smart businessmen (and women) bought FS7s and made
a boatload of money, skin tones be damned. And to be fair, shooting Log and fixing it, you can get the Sony footage 90% of the way there, it's just a PITA but I've seen good looking
FS7 footage. Just not straight out of camera and I'm a lousy colorist.
 
ahalpert said:
I'm watching this on mute right now but I think he got 17 minutes of 4k120 before overheating vs 2.5 hours of 4k60p. I think this camera will more than meet my needs for recording 4k60p. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ2GK3riMg8&feature=youtu.be

And then a little later and cooler in the day (32C) he got 50 minutes continuous at 4k120p. Houston we have liftoff
Click to expand...

Max Yuryev did 45 min at 4k/120 with the LCD panel closed before it shut down. He then turned it off for 1 min, then it ran for 15 min at 4k/120 before another shutdown. He then shot normal-length 4k/120 clips all day at 90F ambient and it never shut down: https://youtu.be/q2Lzn2aI11Y?t=257
 
puredrifting said:
Not all, but several clients over the years have shown me that they are fine with magenta/cyan bias cadaver-like skin tones of the Sony FS7. I've shot Sonys many times over the past five years and never had a client complain about the skin tones,
even though to me, it's like looking at a cartoon, they are so bad.

That's where the rubber really meets the road and you make a choice to be an artist or to be a smart businessman.
Click to expand...

Technically we are artist-businessmen...but yes, everyone I know who bought an FS7 early made bank. I should not have resisted.

Everything you said is so spot on.

I also feel like I can probably finagle decent SOOC color...gotta see and play. Certainly on the Sony RAW stills side - that stuff can look good. But lots of flexibility to work with there

The R5 definitely makes it easier to look pretty...

I actually like Cinetone from the FX9. Not a lot of the A7SIII stuff I've seen looks like that though
 
Looking at the specs they basically addressed all major complaints:
- fully articulated lcd
- 10 bit raw
- 4k up to 120 (cropped?)
- even better low light
- redesign menu!
- full size hdmi
- better af (nice but how much better)
- faster read speed to avoid rolling shutter
- no recording time limits (did I misread that?)
 
Peter C. said:
Looking at the specs they basically addressed all major complaints:
- fully articulated lcd
- 10 bit raw
- 4k up to 120 (cropped?)
- even better low light
- redesign menu!
- full size hdmi
- better af (nice but how much better)
- faster read speed to avoid rolling shutter
- no recording time limits (did I misread that?)
Click to expand...

Better low light? That was a complaint from the a7sii? Twas pretty good already :)

The 4k120p crop is like 1.1x. Not that I'll be using it much (although it DOES record sound, so maybe that will become the new corporate activation overkill framerate)

Yeah it seems like there are no artificial recording time limits. Overheating in 4k60 and 4k120 in hot situations after an hour or three
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top