Sony Announcement on October 18th (Sony FS5 Mark II or Sony a7SIII ?)

I'll speculate - and I've never done this before - that the video improvements are due to a lot less data being discarded and more powerful processing. I figure that, conceptually, it's similar to C200, which outputs only 8-bit 150 Mbps 4K but is nonetheless quite visually impressive.

And the colors looks far superior to the "old" Sony look that a lot of people hated.
 
A7RIII is getting excellent photo reviews. If Sony wants to make a splash with a video oriented camera, SIII will need to have 13-15 MPX BSI sensor and the GH5 feature set. It obviously can be done from an engineering point of view. Whether Sony wants to have it done from a business point of view is another story. It has a bunch of bridge and APS-C 4K cameras under $2,000. IMO, chances are higher for a crippled A7III for ~ $2,300 than of a super-duper A7SIII for $3,300.

Or, now that it has lenses, cards and codecs, Sony can make a C200 and EVA1 competitor and a FS-5 replacement for $6,000-$8000.
 
Sony is bragging - and, I reckon, deservedly so - that they're now #2 full frame camera manufacturer both in the US and Japan. In Japan, they hold 29% of the FF market.

Imagine what it'd be like if they didn't cripple their cameras. Or if Nikon didn't cripple theirs. Or Canon.
 
Lensrentals also said a few days ago that they get more business from Sony than from Nikon (who just closed a factory in China; they claim it's because of the point-and-shoot decline, but that sounds like old news; then again, reacting today to something that happened 5 years ago is something I would expect from Nikon).
 
That D850 looks really nice but it's difficult to beat Sony when it comes to features. I left Nikon many years ago and left Canon this year in favour of Sony. I'm not looking back.
 
Samuel H said:
Lensrentals also said a few days ago that they get more business from Sony than from Nikon (who just closed a factory in China; they claim it's because of the point-and-shoot decline, but that sounds like old news; then again, reacting today to something that happened 5 years ago is something I would expect from Nikon).
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IMO, the big problem for them will be the next generation cameras. You take something like A7RIII and, with its 42 MPX and 169 MPX in a pixel-shift mode and begin to wonder how much more resolution one needs or should possibly want? Even if there are marginal improvements in low-light, FPS and dynamic range, they're pretty much topping out there as well. And then you hit a plateau where many owners will be content with their cameras for a full decade or longer as it was the case with film cameras. And then you figure the smart phones will be replacing even the middle class models with the multiple sensors a la Light or a periscope lens a la OPPO and then even the high end, with the exception of the pro niche, drops down to the smartphone segment. Sony will still me making a fortune off sensors - if a single sensor camera is good, a camera with half a dozen sensors is better - but others will have trouble surviving. In the old analog/film world, there was no external competition but the mobile business is huge and the profits motivate enough global participants to devote their creative energy to that sector as the old Japanese cartel is looking on.

OPPO - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXG_-cCgL6o

Light - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpXNyWPfs8E
 
Samuel H said:
It's not a camera for video shooters, and it's not a camera for current a7R II shooters...But the pressure for the a7S III is mounting. They better bring something awesome, because the competition is not resting: the GH5 has a really impressive feature list....
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I understand that viewpoint from just looking at the feature list. However my documentary team uses an A7RII for video for some of the reasons mentioned by Dave Dugdale: http://www.learningvideo.com/sony-a7sii-vs-a7rii/

We also just purchased two A7RIII cameras for video for some of the reasons discussed by Max Yuryev here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t8lBtCJ5BI

We have a GH5 and it's also a great camera but most of us prefer a Super35 or FF sensor. If the A7SIII has some major video features beyond the A7RIII, we may get a couple of those. However we've used the Gh5 4k 10-bit 4:2:2 codec, and it's currently a hassle to deal with in post and from actual testing I can't see much difference for our documentary work on typical playback devices. So if the A7SIII had 10-bit 4:2:2 internal I would evaluate that but if it doesn't fit into a high-shooting-ratio documentary workflow we wouldn't use it. I would like 4k/60, however.
 
I recently measured the rolling shutter on the a7R III, and it's surprisingly good, even more so for such a high-mpix sensor. Almost inexistent in 1080p mode, comparable to that of the C200, C300 or FS7 in 4k S35 mode, and still pretty good in 4k FF mode (just as fast as on the GH4, for example).
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?303559-Measuring-rolling-shutter-put-a-number-on-this-issue!

This makes me very optimistic about the a7S III. It seems Sony could easily get full-readout 4k 60 fps in FF and S35 modes out of a 22 Mpix sensor with phase detection (I would love to get 5760x3840, 1.5xQHD, exactly like the 5D3), what they need now is a new encoding chip capable of 4k 60 fps, and maybe also stop being shy and start filling the slog3 bucket (so, give the a7S III +slog3 the same DR that the FS7 +slog3 has).
 
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