scorsesefan
Veteran
Congrats, Abe!... Also looking forward to hearing your impressions. Especially how you match it with your FS7. I'm much more likely to go for the A7SIII than switch systems to Canon...
Sony A7SIII = $3500, 10-bit 4K120p internal, 16-bit 4K60p RAW out
- Thread starter ahalpert
- Start date
Congrats, Abe!... Also looking forward to hearing your impressions. Especially how you match it with your FS7. I'm much more likely to go for the A7SIII than switch systems to Canon...
puredrifting
Major Contributor
I just had a brand new A7 SIII and some nice lenses show up from Sony for a review.
Only problem is that they didn't send any of the new CFExpress Type A cards or a reader
so I can't shoot anything with it!
Checked lensrentals.com and I will be on a waiting list to rent a card and reader because the cards havent been released yet.
Anyone know of an online rental source that has the Type A cards and a reader for rent?
Only problem is that they didn't send any of the new CFExpress Type A cards or a reader
so I can't shoot anything with it!
Checked lensrentals.com and I will be on a waiting list to rent a card and reader because the cards havent been released yet.
Anyone know of an online rental source that has the Type A cards and a reader for rent?
Samuel H
Major Contributor
This is great (but I'm always in fear of pressing the trash can button FOR ANYTHING: even in the cameras where I can re-assign it to any other function, I leave it unused) (edit: note I didn't claim my fear was rational...)
ahalpert
Major Contributor
No, but don't you only need those cards for shooting 4K 60p all-I? I'm pretty sure that every other codec on the camera, including 4K120p long-GOP H265 and 4K24p all-I H264 can go to SD cards if you want to try those modes out first. Seems like a pretty big oversight from Sony thiugh
scorsesefan
Veteran
Dan, have you tried Adorama Rental Co. here in NYC? Not sure if they have what you need but I believe they do ship...
LoganMackay
Well-known member
As was said above, you can shoot with SD cards and you will only be locked out of shooting s&q mode.
joema
Active member
In theory you only need CFE Type A for 4k/120 All-I. However there are some issues with the A7SIII not identifying high-performance UHS-II cards correctly. I have some Sony G UHS-II cards that I tested at over 200 megabytes/sec writing speed (1,600 megabits/sec), yet the A7SIII rejects those as too slow for several different codecs. I think that is probably a firmware bug that will be fixed in future versions.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
There is no 4K120 all-I. I believe the HS mode is all long-GOP? I forget where I read it, but i thought that 4k60 S-I was the only mode requiring CFexpress. But the camera demands V90 for some modes. I had a quick play with it this morning and it wouldn't let me switch into s-i mode with the sd card I had in there, but I'm not sure if that was because I was already set at 60p
But 4K120 HS mode (which, I believe, is the only mode that shoots 4K120) was allowed on my card. After all, it's only 280Mbps
I'm really interested in the H265 + proxy workflow, especially now that FCPX accepts externally created proxies. Now FCPX just needs to work with the gyroscope metadata!
But 4K120 HS mode (which, I believe, is the only mode that shoots 4K120) was allowed on my card. After all, it's only 280Mbps
I'm really interested in the H265 + proxy workflow, especially now that FCPX accepts externally created proxies. Now FCPX just needs to work with the gyroscope metadata!
ahalpert
Major Contributor
Wow....the touch tracking on this is like...where have you been all my life.
It seems like for slow slider-type moves on an object at close distance, this camera will eat it for breakfast. If I move rapidly from an 18" distance to a 6" distance, it lags behind and needs a moment to adjust at the end. But manually, so would I. Unless I got lucky with the pull. So there definitely seems to be a limit on how quickly you can track in, at least at close range.
Eye AF seems pretty incredible so far. Lots of testing remains to be done.
The one thing that is nagging me is that it would be nice if the focus transition speed were easily adjustable on the fly. I have it set to fast adjustments now and that seems to work well for keeping an object in focus. But then when you do a rack, the focus move is almost instantaneous (after a sub-second delay where the camera figures out the new position). So, in order to do a leisurely rack, I would need to change the setting. I see myself toggling the focus speed adjustment quite a lot for different types of shots.
The color in basically all the presets looked relatively horrid at first glance. But I was pleased with tweaking a profile for 5 minutes to try to look more like the soft-contrast and slightly muted color of Panasonic cine-d. Still have to shoot tests and look on the computer, but I think this thing is gonna SOOC just fine.
It seems like for slow slider-type moves on an object at close distance, this camera will eat it for breakfast. If I move rapidly from an 18" distance to a 6" distance, it lags behind and needs a moment to adjust at the end. But manually, so would I. Unless I got lucky with the pull. So there definitely seems to be a limit on how quickly you can track in, at least at close range.
Eye AF seems pretty incredible so far. Lots of testing remains to be done.
The one thing that is nagging me is that it would be nice if the focus transition speed were easily adjustable on the fly. I have it set to fast adjustments now and that seems to work well for keeping an object in focus. But then when you do a rack, the focus move is almost instantaneous (after a sub-second delay where the camera figures out the new position). So, in order to do a leisurely rack, I would need to change the setting. I see myself toggling the focus speed adjustment quite a lot for different types of shots.
The color in basically all the presets looked relatively horrid at first glance. But I was pleased with tweaking a profile for 5 minutes to try to look more like the soft-contrast and slightly muted color of Panasonic cine-d. Still have to shoot tests and look on the computer, but I think this thing is gonna SOOC just fine.
joema
Active member
It says on the B&H site "S&Q 120p XAVC S-I 4K will require a CFexpress Type A". https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/faq-sony-a7s-iii
Yes H265 is nice for certain things, esp. since it has 10-bit capability. I'm not sure FCPX 10.4.9 and later can accept externally-generated proxies unless there is accompanying XML metadata, such as produced by Frame.io and other workflow apps. NLE support for the gyro metadata would indeed be nice.
Bassman2003
Veteran
Thanks for your feedback and I look forward to hearing more. I am amazed that I am pretty much in the A7SIII camp over both of the Canons at this point. I like how Sony made the entire camera 10bit rather than just the LOG modes. SOOC would be great and am interested in your findings. Brandon Li using the Standard profile is a great sign that the imagery is solid without needing a lot of tweaking. (maybe a slight shift towards magenta to take some green away).
ahalpert
Major Contributor
My bad - I see that now. I would imagine the quality of long-GOP H265 280Mbps 120p might be better than all-I H264 600Mbps?
I will find out about fcp proxies. I thought they had just updated ro make it play nice with externally created proxies. Which is what it should have had all along. My enthusiasm for H265 will be heavily dampened if that doesn't work.
PS the menu system on here is the easiest menu I've ever worked with on a stills camera by far. Virtually no trouble finding anything. Except when I went to look for some sort of synchro scan mode, which I believe it doesn't have, and came up empty. It doesn't have a way to deal with LED banding, right?
ahalpert
Major Contributor
I've been a sony hater for a long time. It had a lot to do with what I felt was their strategy of offering clickbait specs (FF 4k, video AF) at the expense of solid fundamentals (10-bit beefy codecs, fast rolling shutter, good SOOC color).
The codecs and RS are now best-in-class so my last concern was painting the color in-camera. I think it's going to work.
Bassman2003
Veteran
I feel the same way. I do wish Sony had a software profile creator like Canon's "Picture Profile" software. That would be the best of both worlds. The menu options have improved, but having full color wheel adjustments is no comparison.
scorsesefan
Veteran
@Abe. Are there any Mluts to preview the log modes like the FS7 on the A7III?
ahalpert
Major Contributor
puredrifting
Major Contributor
Thanks for the feedback guys on the cards. All I have around here are Sandisk Extremes which are V30 cards. Guess I can try them but I would much prefer to review the A7 SIII with the proper cards that Sony engineered the camera for.
I'll report back what I can do with my relatively slow Sandisks with the camera. The Sandisks are perfect for the C200 and the X-T3s, not sure about 2020 tech though? I'll check out Adorama rentals and I have a message in to my Sony Rep.
I'll report back what I can do with my relatively slow Sandisks with the camera. The Sandisks are perfect for the C200 and the X-T3s, not sure about 2020 tech though? I'll check out Adorama rentals and I have a message in to my Sony Rep.
Bassman2003
Veteran
Looking forward to your thoughts Dan!
scorsesefan
Veteran
Ah. Just from that menu item I can see their new menus are more intuitive...