Using the Sony A7rII for the first time for 2 days. Advices to a Nikononian

S

Stelvium

Well-known member
Hallo,

i'm here tryng to have suggestions for a Sony A7rII that i'll have tomorrow for 2 days for filming interviews for a documentary. I'm a Nikon DSLR user but i'm scared something is wrong with my Nikon and a photographer friend of mine tomorrow will give to me his Sony A7r2 for a couple of days. I've never been a Sony Alpha user so tonight i'll try to grab the most information on how to use it in video mode(my friend uses it for photographic purposal and he never has filmed a second of video). I'm gonna use it for interviews on a tripod and the talent will be lit by 2 led panels with softbox. On my nikon d7100 i used to film in Flat Profile (Flat 11), what kind of flat profile should i set on the A7rII? to achieve the most accurate focus on the eyes of the talent would i trust the automatic Focus or should i go in Manual?
Sorry for the silly question but i'm a little bit scared of this new system. How long would it last without heating for the interview? Any other kind of general suggestion will be highly appreciated
Thank you in advance for the kind help
 
S-Log2 is the flattest profile in the camera, but keep in mind it's much flatter than the one you used with your Nikon so you will have to color grade the footage well (and correctly).

Absolutely no auto-focus for video. That is an old model with unreliable video auto-focus. (Manual focus with focusing tools is best, preferably on a large external monitor.)

You need to watch some YouTube videos to familiarize yourself with everything (exposure, post-production, S35 vs. full-frame, menus, any specific video settings, etc).
 
Hey Norbro thank you for your suggestions. I'll try my best with the YT videos. Just few hours to learn the basics
 
Search all kinds of keywords: a7RII video basics, S-Log2 exposure, video profiles, focus-peaking settings, etc.

I think it will be easier for you to see and learn - especially when some people present information in a detailed manner, step-by-step - rather than reading about it.

That way you can say: "Oh, I like how this video profile looks." or "This specific setting is in this specific menu...I should write that down." (Rather than looking for it later in very cluttered menus.)

>>> ETC. ETC. <<<

If you can obtain the camera tonight, look through everything. Click around and read everything.
 
I'm studyng the camera and the different profiles....
Would you suggest me to set the focus with the eyes tracking mode even the talent will sit in a chair for an hour?
 
As mentioned above, no AF in video. (And there is no eye-tracking mode for video in this model.)

Even with such a simple interview setup, the camera will eventually confuse itself or randomly lose its AF patience. (The slightest head movement to the left or right looking away from the camera can throw it off and it might have trouble focusing on the person's face again.)

AI video auto-focus wasn't introduced until a year or two later after this camera.
 
Perfect Norbro!Thank you
I followed your suggestion and my saturday was basically focused on youtube videos basics...
But after watching dozens of videos and trying to set the personalized profiles and testing in my house...i have a question! For indoor filming without doing in post heavy grading, what would a good choice? I learnt a lot from Peter Lindgreen and James Matthews videos, what's the profile you would suggest?
 
I mostly used the cameras with S-Log2/3 and an Atomos recorder, but there were a few times (it's been a long time now) in 2015 when I used PP1 or PP2.

The way I saw it was...if I wasn't using LOG, the picture profile differences didn't matter much to me as they were mostly subtle changes.

The Cine1/2 gammas attempt to strike a balance between dynamic range and an out-of-the-box look, but I didn't really experiment with those because if I was going for a true OOTB look then the other saturated and contrast-based picture profiles were a better choice.

[You can also edit the picture profiles. So if you like PP1 (for example), but you think there is too much saturation or contrast then you can dial those down a bit in that PP1 menu.]
 
The OpenMemories tweak is handy for unlimited record time and time-lapse.

If you're indoors and don't have have a high contrast scene, I would recommend setting gamma to ITU709 and color mode to Still, and set zebras at 70 for light skin tones, and 100 for highlights.

I liked the GFILM tweaks to S-Log2.

Sony Log benefits from +1-2 stops ETTR, as middle gray in S-Log2 is 32 IRE, and anything below 30 IRE gets noisy, so ETTR helps counter act the noise floor.

With the GFILM tweaks to S-Log2, set zebras to about 65 to over expose skin tones by 2 stops. There's a lot of debate on the best ways to expose S-Log, so conduct your own tests to see which method works the best for you.

P.S. I'm not convinced that there's anything wrong with your Nikon, as you didn't indicate that the artifacts are present in properly exposes standard-profile videos. Flaat_11 is one of the more aggressive flat profiles, you might have been better off with Flaat_10 instead or the Standard profile with the contrast dialed down. In the past, I shot some tests with with super flat picture profiles (CineFlat and VH PseudoLog) on my Nikon D7000, and I didn't encounter the artifacts that were present in you clips, but I was using the ETTR exposure method.
 
Hallo Immacuser...first of all let me thank you for the massive informatione you are provoding to me. I fell like a rookie in the Sony Alpha world....
Second day i'm playing with the camera and today i had the interview. I brought with me the d7100 and the A7RII...Tomorrow i'll compare on my pc and will let you know guys!
Thank you for spending time tryng to help me
 
Hallo Imamacuser, thank you for asking...
Exactly as you wrote i used the D7100 as B Cam. The Sony footage came out really good and the most useful thing is the focus peaking funcion that i don't have with my Nikon.I usually go with focus magnification digitally zooming on the eyes of the talent (without having the red outlines of the parts in focus ) with my nikon. I wanted to be sure to bring home good footage and i set Picture Profile Off
that seems easy to match with my flat 10 Profile on my Nikon D7100. Can i ask you what kind of format is best to match with Nikon Footage move? I'm filming in AVCHD, am i doing the right thing? Once again thank you guys for driving me in this totally new Sony world to me
 
I haven't tried matching my Nikon D7000 to my Sony A6300, but if the interview took place indoors under controlled lighting, I'd set both cameras as close to Rec.709 as I could get them, gamma to ITU709 and color mode to Still on the Sony, and Standard profile with the contrast dialed down a bit on the Nikon. Setting a custom white balance off a gray card will help the cameras match in tint, but you'd really need a Macbeth chart to get the colors to match perfectly.

AVCHD has a fairly low bitrate, which might be similar to your Nikon's bitrate, but I'd still set the Sony to XAVC-S 100mbps to avoid compression artifacts on at least one camera.

Nikon Hackers released a bitrate hack for the older Nikon DSLRs, so I can record up to 64mbps on my D7000, but I don't think they ever had a hack for the D7100.
 
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