A huge thank you to my friends at Bhphoto.com who helped get me some very critical gear in my hands, particularly the Sony a7s and some very important accessories for it.
I have only started to look at the A7s and will have plenty more information coming shortly. I have some very mixed feelings about it, initially I didn’t like, and then I started looking at some of the things it can do. The more time I spend shooting with it, the more I realize this is a very special camera.
ISO Noise Comparison Charts are coming soon, but take a look at this result tonight. I was just super curious to see how far I could push it in low light:
This first image was taken to simulate what I was seeing with my naked eye. Essentially a glob of shadows with some streetlight hitting a wall:A huge thank you to my friends at Bhphoto.com who helped get me some very critical gear in my hands, particularly the Sony a7s and some very important accessories for it.
I have only started to look at the A7s and will have plenty more information coming shortly. I have some very mixed feelings about it, initially I didn’t like, and then I started looking at some of the things it can do. The more time I spend shooting with it, the more I realize this is a very special camera.
ISO Noise Comparison Charts are coming soon, but take a look at this result tonight. I was just super curious to see how far I could push it in low light:
This first image was taken to simulate what I was seeing with my naked eye. Essentially a glob of shadows with some streetlight hitting a wall: Canon 50mm 1.4 ,@f1.4, 1/60, ISO 6400
Ill be honest, I really wanted to just max this baby out, so I did: Canon 50mm 1.4 ,@f1.4, 1/60, ISO 409,600
I wanted to take it even further, so I added a Metabones Speedbooster to give an extra stop of light: Canon 50mm 1.4 , with Canon Metabones Speed Booster for Sony NEX @f1.4 (f1.0 equivalent), 1/60, ISO 409,600
You can see that maxed out these images are pretty much unusable unless you are going for a very grungy, digitally, kind of look or are someone that doesn’t really care about image quality, think surveillance.
Even down to 51,200 it looks more or less similar. Ill need to do some more testing to find out what the sweet spot is for ISOs in low light with the Sony a7s, but the thing that impressed me so much was that it was able to see dynamic range, and colors far past what my eyes could, imperfect as it may be. I was very impressed.
Im not sure we will do a Crash Course Training Tutorial Video on the A7S, but I should have an idea after a few more days of testing.
More to come.
What didn’t you like about it at first? I got mine on Monday and I am liking the video quality (shooting into a Ninja Blade for 422 clean signal), and shooting to ISO 51,200 looks better than anything I’ve ever shot with (though I’ve never touched an Alexa or Red) or seen on the internet. The menu is a little buggy. Some things I clicked on and nothing happened or caused weird things to happen to my recorder, the battery is terrible, no flip/touchscreen. I hope you do a Crash Course on it because there is no such tutorial out there and I have no idea how to use Sony cameras (Canon invested). Thanks!
Hi Abe- The main thing that bugged me at first was how you have to move the AF selection square around. It just isn’t very quick, maybe I have been spoiled by the GH4 and the 70D with their touch screen. The Second was the FPS, with continuous focus it is 1.5 fps. I realize it isn’t really a sports shooting camera, but 1.5fps isn’t much. Agreed the battery drains quickly too, and I wish the monitor was more floppy instead of tilty. All those said, I was seriously impressed with it’s ISO performance and low light focusing, literally off the charts of anything Ive ever tested. Im loving the image quality coming out of it. Ill post some numbers soon.
Thanks Michael! I guess I should have mentioned. I didn’t buy this camera for photo use. It’s entirely for wedding videography. 🙂 BTW, I followed your advice on your business DVD. Got the clients then got the gear. Thanks again for all that you do! 🙂
The second and third images are overexposed by 2 or 3 f-stops. Why? You basically amplified noise by several times. The image should reflect the real scene, and it is complete darkness in your case. I do not understand such experiments.
Michael any tests on the sony A7 or A7R
Hi Abe,
Yea I heard the A7s is mainly for video…. By the way I do you have email address had a quick question?
Also