07Apr Changing my mind about the Sony a7s
I was a little disappointed with Sony a7s announcement yesterday. I was hoping for internal 4k recording and that seemed to be the biggest disappointment for me. I had almost marked the Sony a7s off my list until I had a chance to play around with it this afternoon. Even though the internal 4k recording option was pretty much a no go, the low light performance was, for a lack of another term, amazing.
I spent 45 minutes at the sony booth playing around with the a7s today and I was basically blown away. I’ve shot on the 5d mark III for years and I trust it for shots up to ISO 6400, the Sony a7s blows it out of the water. Ian and I shot from ISO 32,000 all the way up to ISO 80,000. Even at ISO 80,000 the noise was less than a 5d mark III at ISO 6400. The Sony a7s is incredible in low light and puts the c100/c300 to shame.
While I’m disappointed with the lack of 4k internal recording, I think low light performance makes the Sony a7s an all around winner for 1080p applications. The added benefit of adapting Canon lenses makes the Sony a7s a great option for future upgrades. I’ve added the a7s to my list of things to buy.
April 7th, 2014 at 10:56 pm
Hey Dee Jay, I’ve been following your blog for awhile and watching your videos forever. Great stuff man! I’ve been super intrigued with the GH4, and your excitement for it only fueled mine. This Sony A7s is really throwing a curve ball at me, though. Any chance you’ll be getting both and doing a head to head? I’m coming from a Canon 6D, so it would be super nice to be able to keep the lenses I’ve been using with the Sony.. I agree with you on that completely. BUT the lack of internal 4K is a super bummer at the same time.
April 8th, 2014 at 5:44 am
This could be useful. http://www.eoshd.com/content/12562/panasonic-gh4-vs-sony-a7s-compared-wins-4k-battle-paper
April 8th, 2014 at 9:26 am
Thanks for that Johnny! Really interesting read there. I’m still thinking the GH4 will be the way to go for me, because most of the time I am on the go… So it would be great to not have to set up as much to get a shot.
April 8th, 2014 at 11:44 am
I’ll probably be selling off my c100 after NAB and picking up both the Sony a7s and Panasonic gh4. Between the two I think it’ll cover just about everything I’ll be needing for the next couple of years.
April 7th, 2014 at 11:04 pm
Throw in the Atomos Samurai 4K recorder for $2000 and you have a great low-light 4K camera for less than the price of a C100!
April 7th, 2014 at 11:22 pm
How do you need to adapt the canon lenses to get them to work? Will they fit directly or need an adapter? No chance of AF for photography with them is there? Such a shame about the lack of internal 4k though.. Any idea on price?
April 8th, 2014 at 3:05 pm
What is that black box at the side? Hdmi converter?
April 8th, 2014 at 4:12 pm
That’s to prevent people from inserting a memory card.
April 8th, 2014 at 10:35 pm
oops, my guess was way off.
I guess that makes sense, firmware probably not even finalized yet.
April 8th, 2014 at 10:13 pm
ye low light sounds great but – the biggest thing with all the footage sown is – there is no movement in it- so it seems like the rolling shutter might be beyond terrible – i mean for still amazing – but hang rolling shutter and bent pictures for an advertised film camera is just ugly – did you do any panning or is the thing looked at the booth so you can’t test it 🙂 ?