Sony a7s iii - A Revelation
I had 24 hours to gather my thoughts on a camera …
At my disposal: A mind numbingly fast Porsche Taycan Turbo and the newly released, and highly anticipated, Sony A7S III. Throw in some of the world’s best seafood, an artist (not me) and the beautiful backdrop of Vancouver, BC - and this is what happened…
Gear Used:
Camera - Sony A7S iii
Lenses - GM 24-70 f2.8 (over 95% of footage)
GM 16-35 f2.8 (A few clips of the car interior)
Full disclaimer - I’m not going to be testing the camera with charts/graphs or listing out specs. There are people more interested and well versed in discussing the technical qualities of a camera so I’ll leave that to them. I shoot videos for commercial clients for a living and film personal projects for Youtube. All of my thoughts will thus be from that perspective as it relates to the usability experience. I also have no financial ties to any camera or gear manufacturer that would sway my opinions.
How to know if you should buy a camera.
The first step takes place long before you ever touch, or even see the camera. Defining exactly what it is you hope this camera is going to do for you is paramount. Often times this step is the only one, as it quickly reveals we don’t need said camera. This starting point will play the most crucial role in your final assessment of a camera. An Arri Alexa is a terrible option if you’re looking to upgrade your mobile vlogging rig.
What I’m looking for:
A small, single operator, run & gun camera with a greater emphasis on convenience than image quality. This camera would serve three purposes:
A gimbal camera for automotive shoots with little to no crew
YouTube camera
B-camera to my blackmagic pocket camera
Let’s break those down
Gimbal camera for automotive shoots
Often I’m hanging out of a car with a camera on a gimbal or snagging detail shots quickly. Near flawless continuous autofocus is paramount here as we’re often moving quickly and the distance between camera and subject is constantly changing. Continuous video AF needs to either be perfect or it’s useless which narrows our options to Sony or Canon. Size will also be a factor as the lighter we can get the camera, the longer my back will last.
YouTube camera
Often, these videos are shot quickly and require the ability to respond in an instant with minimal setup time. Sometimes I may even hand off the camera to someone else for quick shot or two. This is where size and creature comforts like internal stabilization, autofocus and inconspicuous design are helpful. Vancouver is often a backdrop to many productions which has educated most aesthetically desirable locations with knowledge of shooting permits. The moment you show up with a cinema looking camera you will be (politely) approached by security and asked to pack up and leave. A mirrorless design does wonders for us run & gun, beg-for-forgiveness shooters.
B-cam to blackmagic pocket 4k
My pocket 4k delivers a beautiful 12 bit RAW codec that trumps the Sony with a far more nuanced image and flexibility in post, but it’s a beast of a rig. For snagging some quick b-roll on a gimbal or as a second angle for talking head interviews, my next camera needs to deliver an image that is robust and comparable in dynamic range.
Our test
Our adventure, however silly as it may seem, incorporates most of these requirements and then some during the 24 hour period I had both the car and the camera.
Pros
Competent in Every Way
The sheer ability of the Sony to do so many things competently is astounding. It has a great robust 10 bit codec (in all frame rates) that allows you to massage the footage to your aesthetic taste in post. We started and ended the day in the dark with rain and snow sprinkled throughout and the camera didn’t skip a beat.
The autofocus is near perfect and quickly earned my trust. It was almost too good such that I occasionally switched to manual focus because I find the human hunt for focus (in documentary style shoots) actually adds some character that can be lost when the AF is so clinically accurate. On a day as hectic as the one we had, fatigue sets in and the burden lifted by outsourcing focus to the software engineers at Sony was a treat - especially for the automotive rolling shots.
IBIS was fine, nothing earth shattering but removes enough of the micro jitters to allow for usable hand held footage.
Rolling shutter is also massively improved and a particularly welcomed improvement for fast moving automotive content.
Overall, the Sony a7s iii feels like a robust workhorse with frame rates galore in a ergonomically pleasant package. Oh - and excellent battery life.
Cons
Internal Noise Reduction
This is a frustrating one and what I was afraid of most when seeing other people’s footage in the early launch videos - the internal noise reduction is heavy handed and can’t be turned off. This results in a loss of nuance, texture and detail in the mid tones that renders the image less premium (or filmic) looking in my opinion. So much so that I found myself adding grain just to add some texture back into the image. The newly announced FX6 allows you to turn off the internal noise reduction but I doubt it’ll come to the Alpha cameras anytime soon. The one solution is to film in ProResRAW externally but this requires an additional monitor and added workflow if you don’t edit in FinalCutPro.
Innaccurate Monitoring internally
To obtain clean shadows in SLOG2 and SLOG3 (the codecs that offer the widest dynamic range) you do need to overexpose your image by about 1 to 1.7 stops respectively (often referred to as ETTR or “expose to the right”). I have no real issues with this other than the fact that this overexposure cannot be monitored correctly (with a LUT compensating for the overexposure) internally. So you will need to either:
A) be ok monitoring an overexposed image on the internal LCD
Or
B) use an external monitor (which adds bulk and possibly cost if you don’t have one yet)
A question I have that perhaps Gerald Undone can answer - Is one of the drawbacks of ETTR, essentially a reduction in usable dynamic range since you are using 1 to 1.7 stops of the claimed 16 stops in the highlights (and losing them in the shadows had you exposed ‘correctly’)? Am I completely misunderstanding this or is there some truth to this logic?
Conclusion:
Did I buy the camera? No.
There are the two main reasons:
An additional con for me is the added cost of Sony E-Mount lenses as I’m currently invested in the Canon ecosystem. I use EF lenses on my stills camera as well as my Blackmagic pocket. The amazing autofocus is only possible on native e-mount glass so purchasing the Sony and adapting EF lenses is a bit like buying a Tesla and charging the batteries with a gasoline generator stored in the trunk.
The EOS C70. This wasn’t available for me to test or review at the time of filming this video so my reservations about switching systems along with the announcement of the C70 has created some serious doubts for the Sony purchase.
Reason 2.5 - Maturity. I’m generally a moron (my wife can attest) when it comes to camera purchases but during uncertain times like this, it feels irresponsible to make a massive investment in something I’m not 100% sure about.
The Sony truly is near perfect mirrorless video camera with but a few quirks. For most, these quirks will be minor annoyances completely offset by the massive capabilities of this little camera.
-Nima
A special thanks to:
Porsche Centre Vancouver for lending us the Porsche Taycan Turbo - I now know what it’s like to operate a spaceship.
Rob at Organic Ocean Seafood for educating us and providing us with the best sockeye salmon you can get in Canada. Sorry about the massacre on the mountain…
Lorne Lapham Sales and Rentals for lending us the Sony A7S III to test. They’re not only a rental shop here in Vancouver BC but also have been a great resource to me and many other filmmakers over the years.
Matt “The Tooninator” Boismier for agreeing to participate in such a ridiculous video. FYI he was the focus of a previous episode where we chat about art and drawing naked people.
Andrew Lo for assisting (and never giving up on that salmon)
Vitor Leao for assisting
Michael Wong for piloting the Taycan while I was filming and giving us access to film the studio portions of the shoot
and Katherine for watching numerous iterations of this before it was finalized = )
When Fujifilm offered to lend me the XH2S, there was a lot I was looking forward to - new FLOG2 codec 10bit 4:2:2 , highest rated video dynamic range from a fujifilm camera, hybrid flagship (enjoying Fuji colours in both photo and video).