Switch from FS700 to A7S?

I think the a7s is a really great camera, the best for its price given what I care about and what I don't care about. But selling an FS700 to get the a7s seems a bit of an overreaction to me. I don't know the FS700 well enough, it's out of my budget, but it looks like a better tool in broad terms.

Regarding image quality, you can use this comparison to judge sharpness and DR:
https://vimeo.com/98791150

Then again, one VERY important point is: what lenses do you own? The APS-C mode in the a7s is not as good as the FF mode (though it does have faster RS).

And also, it is not a big problem to me because I'm yet to see any problematic examples in real life, but: with the a7s you are stuck with 8-bit, the FS700 at least allows you the option to upgrade to someching (much) better in the future. Although given how fast Sony brings new cameras out, there may be an a7s replacement with internal 10-bit by the time you are ready to upgrade to FS700 RAW...
 
Thanks everyone for suggestions, keep 'em coming.
Even though I made it sound like I'm trying to justify the A7S route, I've always leaned towards keeping the FS700. Guess I'm playing devil's advocate with myself ;)
Plan was to try to sell my EA50 and get a Speedbooster and a Canon lens for the money. And a Sony A6000 down the road as b cam.
 
Save money, shoot for 1080p delivery and buy the A7s. You can do a lot with it and heck, you could have two angles for the price of one FS700. OR....if you really NEED the extra features for that extra price and perhaps need an "A cam" LOOK to impress clients. Get the FS700 and pay that extra price :)

That's what I would say if you're starting fresh but you're not. You have a great camera, so keep it! There'll always be something new and few clients are going to be able to tell the difference.
 
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If you want to shoot A7s with crop lens, be sure to use 60P, it is just as clean in moire and aliasing and sharpness as FF mode at 24P or 30P but noisier at high ISO like 20000 and up.
 
PSA1 said:
If you want to shoot A7s with crop lens, be sure to use 60P, it is just as clean in moire and aliasing and sharpness as FF mode at 24P or 30P but noisier at high ISO like 20000 and up.
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Can you provide more information on this- is this from your own testing or reading elsewhere? :) thanks!
 
dmitrizigany said:
As I said in my original post, I cannot afford the 7Q. And it seems unlikely I will anytime soon.
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The 7Q costs less than a A7s and a Atomos. Paul Curtis (one of the most meticulous testers I know) who owns both the FS7Q and the A7s remarked in another thread that the FS7Q is a considerably better combo for video. Aside from the lowlight on the A7s, just the fact that the FS7Q is 10 bit and RAW makes it far superior to 8 bit A7s. I've done the exact same S-Log 2 shot on AVCHD and on 7Q 4K2HD and there is no comparison, 10 bit is so much better. Plus the A7s has that nasty black alias issue.

If you didn't already own the FS700, I would maybe consider the A7s, but that's not the case. Other factors like built in NDs and having BNC which blows doors on HDMI.

FS7Q is just quite a bit better.
 
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I have to say, if you're that close to the edge financially, an fs700 seems like a strange choice to make. It's a great great camera, great quality for the price, but if you're not working enough to justify it, then it's a pretty expensive choice. If you're just trying to make a living, there's a lot of cameras that cost a lot less that will deliver good results and allow you to own the equipment that's needed to support it. I've made a fine living over the last few years only owning Canon DSLRs, I've never had a client say a thing about the image quality (well, there was one time I let an interview go out of focus and had to use the shot anyway, but that could happen with any camera.). Anyway, if you're not making enough to support an FS700, then you're not making enough to support an A7s - they are not that far apart in price. If I was financially strapped and wanted to stay in the E mount system I would be looking at something like the a6000 to shoot with - there's very few things that you couldn't do with it.

Honestly, it sounds like the problem is your marketing/business and perhaps price negotiation; you already own a camera that can take on 95% of the types of paid jobs you'll ever encounter. I like to see a 8-10x multiplier on my gear in a given year; if I own and use $10k worth of gear on paid shoots, the fees for those shoots (including expenses and editing, etc) should be about $80k-100k. I typically turn over (either selling or buying new gear) about 5% of my income in a year.

I add this edit: do you think that selling your FS700 and getting an A7s is going to increase the volume of work you're going to get or be able to do? I don't - I actually can't imagine any situation where that's going to happen. To me, there's 3 reasons you change gear 1)The new gear enables you to do more/different work 2)The new gear produces a better image/sound quality 3)The new gear makes your life easier. (There's a 4th that I've had to do occasionally; a client requires the gear to do the job, but that falls under 1).

A lot of people dropped their Canon DSLR's for C100/C300/FS700 because it bumped them up to that next level, they got hired for different things because of those cameras had abilities that their old ones did not. That's an example of 1). I might trade in my MkIII for an A7s because the image quality seems to be better, and it has a 4k path. That's 2). The A7s is lighter and easier to hump around than a heavier camera; that's an example of 3). Anyway, I would much rather see you earn an extra 10-20k by reorienting your work approach with your FS700 than trade in for an A7s, unless there's specific reason for doing so, like you have physical issues that make it hard to carry the FS700 around.
 
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I own both and they will both have their uses. FS700's weight and egronomics make it better for doing handheld work, but when you need a small camera to be not very visible the A7s is really good.

Personally when it came day to day working the FS700's buttons egronomics make it a better camera for tripod/handheld work, but the A7s fits in a bag and is with you everywhere.
 
Oh and if you need to shoot for long periods of time the FS700 wins hands down. Battery life is 5-7 hours depending on how you're configured with a Np-F970 battery
 
benjaminreece said:
Can you provide more information on this- is this from your own testing or reading elsewhere? :) thanks!
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From my own test and also others have found the same result that I have seen on thread here and there, btw you also have less jello too in crop mode.
 
gene_can_sing said:
The 7Q costs less than a A7s and a Atomos.
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Yes, but I have no need really for 4K. So at this point it's FS700 internal vs A7S internal that is the comparison.
And the 7Q is close to €4000 ($5300+) here in europe (with codecs and the media. Just not within my reach at this time.

FS7Q is just quite a bit better.
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I have no doubt about that. And that was my point all along. If I could see myself being able to swing a 7Q in the near future there would be no question...
 
Lots of valid points, Wallrc, thanks!

wallrc said:
I have to say, if you're that close to the edge financially, an fs700 seems like a strange choice to make. It's a great great camera, great quality for the price, but if you're not working enough to justify it, then it's a pretty expensive choice. If you're just trying to make a living, there's a lot of cameras that cost a lot less that will deliver good results and allow you to own the equipment that's needed to support it. I've made a fine living over the last few years only owning Canon DSLRs, I've never had a client say a thing about the image quality (well, there was one time I let an interview go out of focus and had to use the shot anyway, but that could happen with any camera.). Anyway, if you're not making enough to support an FS700, then you're not making enough to support an A7s - they are not that far apart in price. If I was financially strapped and wanted to stay in the E mount system I would be looking at something like the a6000 to shoot with - there's very few things that you couldn't do with it.
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Well, I got the FS700 with money I got from other things. I'm not into filming only to make money. It's also a passion.
The thing that makes the A7S cheaper is all the peripherial things you need. Even a proper bag for the FS700 is close to €200 while one for a camera like the A7S could probably be had for €50. And quite quickly it starts to add up... My plan has been to get an A6000 as a b-cam to replace my EA50... (which is great but I cannot carry 2 big cams around).

Honestly, it sounds like the problem is your marketing/business and perhaps price negotiation
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Haha, tell me about it. I'm the worst business man ever. I'm an artist at heart. And I work mostly with artists, and artists almost never have money.
One of the reasons for getting the FS700 was that it covers many bases. I was hoping to get into more different kinds of filming, but this progress has been slower than expected. And the situation made more difficult that I'm in a new field, in a new city/country.

I add this edit: do you think that selling your FS700 and getting an A7s is going to increase the volume of work you're going to get or be able to do?
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No, that is not what I expect. However there's things I would be able to do if I could afford the support gear, which is cheaper overall for the A7S.
I find myself struggling in two main areas with the FS700: camera movements and filming in small spaces. The first takes rather expensive rigs/sliders/steadythings to solve, the second an expensive Metabones Speedbooster.
And no, rental is not really an option except for rare cases.

Anyway, I would much rather see you earn an extra 10-20k by reorienting your work approach with your FS700 than trade in for an A7s, unless there's specific reason for doing so, like you have physical issues that make it hard to carry the FS700 around.
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Well, so do I! :D
And yes, I really need to do more efforts getting into some more corporate jobs that might pay better. But it's difficult in a new country when you don't speak the language too well...
And, yes, I don't have a car/driver's license so as I get more gear it's getting increasingly hard to carry everything.

But I'm still leaning on keeping the FS700, cause I like the chunky bastard. Hopefull in some near future there might start popping up used 7Qs for sale making it possible to take that step for me...
 
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