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

ahalpert said:
1st a7s3 body images leak: https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/first-leaked-image-of-the-new-sony-a7siii/

I may buy this camera but dang it I hate those flimsy little a7-style bodies...
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If this is the body, it seems more ergonomic and slightly less boxier than the current A7 bodies. Micro HDMI! Dear God, nobody making mirrorless
other than Panasonic has a freaking clue. That is a huge negative, even if you'll never hook up a Ninja to shoot RAW, we mostly need monitors and
Micro HDMI is hot garbage. The specs look appealing but no fan with a "new type" cooling system? I'm skeptical that can work in the
field, under heat and duress but if they can prove it, that's nice.
 
ahalpert said:
Mate - you'll have a hard time getting better recording than the pocket as it records 12-bit raw from some higher bit-depth DGO sample (as brawley likes to remind us)

The R5 does raw at unwieldy bitrates and isn't apsc, though it's got the AF.

So who will deliver the camera you want? BM doesn't seem likely to delve into AF. Z-cam I dont think they're doing phase detect either. Komodo could be a possibility but surely it'll be some time before their AF is useful.

The A7SIII they claim will have RAW out. Not sure of the bit-depth. Supposedly it's a craptacular micro HDMI port (but could they have a USB-c raw output?). But A7SIII to a recorder could get you the bit-depth and color sampling that you seek. Probably not as much detail as the P6K but you're comparing to a 4k. You get the AF but only 12MP stills and it's FF.

Hard for you to get what you want... if the R5 engineered RAW from an APS-C crop you'd be set! And they could probably run it at 60fps too. I doubt they'll do it
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RAW is great and I love it but there are (very expensive) cameras that don't shoot RAW and have better IQ than the p4k. I'd take FS7 internal codec IQ over p4k BRAW IQ any day. I don't like the price or the form factor, though.

I think the one most likely to deliver the camera I want is Sony, but I'd rather have it APS-C with 24+ Mpix. Maybe in a year or two...

The XT3 is VERY CLOSE to being exactly what I want: I was resisting the urge to buy it when the AF disaster happened and killed that urge. The XT4 should be perfect for me, but I have trust issues now. Plus, there's the glass thing: I LOVE my sigma APS-C primes (16mm and 56mm), I don't know the Fuji lenses and have no idea if I could find comparably good alternatives at a reasonable price (the Sigma 56mm is gorgeous and 100% the reason I stopped lusting over FF).

It's not terribly important, though: six years ago, choosing the wrong camera could mean your footage would look visibly worse. Right now there are LOTS of good-enough options, and it's more a matter of personal preference. That's part of the reason my thoughts about this are so chaotic now. I want a single camera to shoot stills and video, and I want eye-detect AF, but I'm super happy with the p4k and if this was the camera I had to use for the next 10 years I'd be perfectly fine.
 
puredrifting said:
If this is the body, it seems more ergonomic and slightly less boxier than the current A7 bodies. Micro HDMI! Dear God, nobody making mirrorless
other than Panasonic has a freaking clue. That is a huge negative, even if you'll never hook up a Ninja to shoot RAW, we mostly need monitors and
Micro HDMI is hot garbage. The specs look appealing but no fan with a "new type" cooling system? I'm skeptical that can work in the
field, under heat and duress but if they can prove it, that's nice.
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Agreed. Micro HDMI needs to be done away with. I almost always shoot with a monitor attached to the camera, and having to use Micro HDMI is the worst.
 
Samuel H said:
RAW is great and I love it but there are (very expensive) cameras that don't shoot RAW and have better IQ than the p4k. I'd take FS7 internal codec IQ over p4k BRAW IQ any day. I don't like the price or the form factor, though.

I think the one most likely to deliver the camera I want is Sony, but I'd rather have it APS-C with 24+ Mpix. Maybe in a year or two...

The XT3 is VERY CLOSE to being exactly what I want: I was resisting the urge to buy it when the AF disaster happened and killed that urge. The XT4 should be perfect for me, but I have trust issues now. Plus, there's the glass thing: I LOVE my sigma APS-C primes (16mm and 56mm), I don't know the Fuji lenses and have no idea if I could find comparably good alternatives at a reasonable price (the Sigma 56mm is gorgeous and 100% the reason I stopped lusting over FF).

It's not terribly important, though: six years ago, choosing the wrong camera could mean your footage would look visibly worse. Right now there are LOTS of good-enough options, and it's more a matter of personal preference. That's part of the reason my thoughts about this are so chaotic now. I want a single camera to shoot stills and video, and I want eye-detect AF, but I'm super happy with the p4k and if this was the camera I had to use for the next 10 years I'd be perfectly fine.
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I bought an FS7 used for $3k in February (bad timing). With the FX9 out, used FS7s have gotten cheap. But agreed - the form factor is sort of shoulder mount-friendly

Maybe sony will deliver for you. The a6600 is 24mp aps-c with AF. But I think still 8-bit 4:2:0 or whatever. One more generation and it could be 10-bit.

Plus they sell those sigmas in e-mount. I dont know how good Sigma autofocus is though and it's something I only recently started paying attention to. For example, I've been reading dustin Abbott's reviews on samyang e-mount autofocus lenses and apparently their first few were not so good. They improved with each new lens and got really good (fast accurate smooth quiet) a few lenses back and now everything they put out is good. Everyone complains about sigma autofocus frankly. And supposedly tamron does great autofocus on sony. Autofocus complicates life.

I think you can adapt your MFT lenses right to e mount but not electronically afaik
 
In my opinion Fuji lenses sucks. Not optically as much as how they operate and I'll take Sony lenses over Fuji lenses any day. That's why I ditched all of my Fuji stuff except the X100V which still sucks a bit.
 
Can any german speakers give us the cliff notes on this breathless YouTube video? https://youtu.be/4Eb3gqEBK-c

ich spreche nicht deutsch but I think he's saying he screenshotted an instagram story of the A7SIII that was since taken down.

Does this look like it says xavc s? I think that's an H264 mp4 xavc codec

EDIT: I think it says XAVC HS - a new codec? I think xavc only goes up to 4k 60fps... I bet this is a 600Mbps codec giving an hour of 4k120 to a 256gb card

Screenshot_20200724-155842_YouTube.jpg
 
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4K 100 fps, 51,200 ISO, sound up to 120 fps or maybe 180, HD 240 fps, (external?) Raw in two resolutions or frame rates, price $3,500.

When he says Canon 5R has 8K Raw, computer translates it as "Cairo".
 
I'm getting a tingle. This could be a cool camera. How neat would it be if it was RAW via USB to an ssd instead of an atomos.
 
I'm not going to record over micro-HDMI, I only did that once and the cable broke after a couple of hours. Having to unplug and replug every time the camera was turned on did not help (the recorder wouldn't get the signal otherwise). But USB... that I can do!!! Is there any info on that or was that just a wild idea?

Re: my dream camera: I have the a6500 and I have the sigma 16mm f/1.4 and 56mm f/1.4, for stills that's my dream set: images look great, there's enough resolution, I love the a6XXX form factor, the lenses are extremely sharp, fast, have beautiful bokeh, and yes the AF is good (it's not great on the 30mm, which is an older design that I don't have, good enough on the 16mm, and pretty good on the 56mm). I was adamant on getting a full frame camera at some point, until I got the 56mm. In my mind it's the APS-C equivalent, at a third of the price and the weight, of their highly praised 85mm f/1.4 Art. But the video on the a6500 is not so great: yes it has slog3, but it doesn't have the DR of the FS7, and at 8-bit and low-ish bitrate it leads to issues. The p4k beats it by a wide margin.
 
Samuel H said:
The XT3 is VERY CLOSE to being exactly what I want: I was resisting the urge to buy it when the AF disaster happened and killed that urge. The XT4 should be perfect for me, but I have trust issues now. Plus, there's the glass thing: I LOVE my sigma APS-C primes (16mm and 56mm), I don't know the Fuji lenses and have no idea if I could find comparably good alternatives at a reasonable price (the Sigma 56mm is gorgeous and 100% the reason I stopped lusting over FF).
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If it matters, the X-T4 has had disappointing QC issues, several IBIS issues too. The X-T3 just dropped to $999.00, at least here in the States. I picked up two more open box off of Amazon for $930.00 ea. The boxes had been opened, I don't think the cameras had ever been powered up though, the batteries were still sealed.
We now have three of the X-T3s, they shoot 4K DCI or UHD without overheating, the video is superb. You should reconsider with all of the "hot, new, must buy" Canons and Sonys at $2,500.00 to $4,000.00. The X-T3 is the best bang for the buck by far.
 
Samuel H said:
I'm not going to record over micro-HDMI, I only did that once and the cable broke after a couple of hours...
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BTW the photo on SonyAlphaRumors.com shows a full-size HDMI connector, which conflicts with the micro-HDMI statement. Unknown which is correct.

https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/more-leaked-sony-a7siii-image-details/

My documentary team has shot with micro-HDMI on various Sony Alpha cameras for years, all using cages and cable clamps. We don't like it but have never had a problem. Previously I had a larger HDMI connector (which wasn't clamped) sheared completely off. If the cable is clamped to a cage it tends to be OK, whether regular, mini or micro. If not clamped it is vulnerable, although full size HDMI is somewhat more robust.

Example: https://images.app.goo.gl/reuEUDeWuHjwWuPt7
 
Either way I personally hate the A7 series connectors. Had my second A7R II connection fail on me today on a shoot while tethering with a client, non stop issues on two bodies now. Honestly haven't been the biggest fan of their build quality over the years.
 
puredrifting said:
If it matters, the X-T4 has had disappointing QC issues, several IBIS issues too. The X-T3 just dropped to $999.00, at least here in the States. I picked up two more open box off of Amazon for $930.00 ea. The boxes had been opened, I don't think the cameras had ever been powered up though, the batteries were still sealed.
We now have three of the X-T3s, they shoot 4K DCI or UHD without overheating, the video is superb. You should reconsider with all of the "hot, new, must buy" Canons and Sonys at $2,500.00 to $4,000.00. The X-T3 is the best bang for the buck by far.
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The X-T3 really does sit at a sweet spot. Specially if you find one with the older firmware. I believe the AF issues came with FW 3.0.
 
Carlos Morillo said:
The X-T3 really does sit at a sweet spot. Specially if you find one with the older firmware. I believe the AF issues came with FW 3.0.
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They've pretty much fixed the bad AF twitching issue that was in V3.0. The current V3.21 firmware has improved the AF immensely. It's still not Canon or Sony level, but it's better than
Panasonic or BMD, it's usable most of the time, under most circumstances. I did a shoot a month ago and used eye detection the entire shoot and it was flawless on three X-T3s, which made me very happy.
Granted, it was a single talent on a brightly lit, constrasty set mostly delivering lines to a teleprompter but the eye detection worked great through the glass of the teleprompter, which was a good thing.
Also had a lower angle motion control rig shot on our Rhino EVO slider and it too tracked really nicely.

The X-T3s are the best bargain on the market right now with the new low price. The perfect camera to buy during these times of who knows if and when you'll have paying work. I think dropping $3,500 for the
A7 SIII or $3,800 on an R5 is a much bigger investment and risk in the 2020 work environment.
 
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XDDDDD

puredrifting said:
They've pretty much fixed the bad AF twitching issue that was in V3.0. The current V3.21 firmware has improved the AF immensely. It's still not Canon or Sony level, but it's better than
Panasonic or BMD, it's usable most of the time, under most circumstances. I did a shoot a month ago and used eye detection the entire shoot and it was flawless on three X-T3s, which made me very happy.
Granted, it was a single talent on a brightly lit, constrasty set mostly delivering lines to a teleprompter but the eye detection worked great through the glass of the teleprompter, which was a good thing.
Also had a lower angle motion control rig shot on our Rhino EVO slider and it too tracked really nicely.

The X-T3s are the best bargain on the market right now with the new low price. The perfect camera to buy during these times of who knows if and when you'll have paying work. I think dropping $3,500 for the
A7 SIII or $3,800 on an R5 is a much bigger investment and risk in the 2020 work environment.
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Thanks for the detailed report on the XT3. I was always confused about the AF situation, it's good to hear it's back to good performance. I definitely like the form factor and the awesome dynamic range (looking at the latitude tests on the lensprotogo youtube channel, it's almost matching the UMP, clearly ahead of the p6k, A7III, and p4k). And the price, of course. If the new announcements fail to impress, it's definitely a contender for me. Currently watching reviews on the Fuji 56mm f/1.2 to see if I could be happy with that instead of my Sigma...

And yes, completely agree with the last part
 
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