Sony A7s: It’s off to the races in the 4K wars
At last year’s NAB, Blackmagic dropped a dirty bomb on the professional 4K market with the announcement of its Production Camera, costing only $4,000 (since reduced to $3,000 prior to its release this year). Independent filmmakers sat back in awe at the jaw-dropping low price – lowest 4K option at the time was well over the elusive $10,000 mark. And just a couple years prior, the lowest price point was pushing luxury car territory, restricting it to the sole purview of well-monied productions.
2014 has proved that the next great leap in image quality, in the form of high resolution, has firmly arrived, in form factors that would have seemed impossible just a couple years back.
Panasonic was first out of the gate with the announcement early this year of its GH4 at a price point of $1,700. In the last month, as footage from pre-production models of that camera has started to filter out, Joe Filmmaker is starting to understand just what all the fuss is about those extra pixels. As EOSHD’s Andrew Reid discovered in his essential tests performed all last week, while the files directly out of camera arrive in 8-bit 4:2:0, suggesting a mushy compression familiar from the current crop of DSLR video output, it turns out that all those extra pixels give substantially more color information, dynamic range and detail to play with, similar to 1080p RAW files in post dexterity.
Today, Sony entered the battle with its own mirrorless option at its NAB Press Conference in the form of the A7s, the third variant of its groundbreaking mirrorless full frame lineup, which joins the 36MP A7r and 24 MP A7. S has become a common moniker for an upgraded variant of a current model, usually introduced mid product cycle. Generally, it’s thought to stand for “superior,” while Steve Jobs declared it to signify “speed” when he announced the iPhone 3Gs. Sony took a different tack, assuring us in its address that the S stands for the astounding “sensitivity” of this model. And indeed, that does seem to be an impressive selling point. The A7s natively supports ISO 200-102,400, expandable up to a mind-melting 409,600, a feat shared only by the new Nikon D4s.
But the reason this model was announced on the eve of the greatest broadcasting conference the world has ever known lies in its out-of-this-world video specification. For starters, the A7s is the first full frame camera to offer full sensor readout out of the box ( a hacked 5D Mark III can currently do this, totally voiding your warranty in the process). This is a huge accomplishment, helped in part by the limitation of the MegaPixel count on this model to 12.2. Ever since the D800 jumped a full 24 MegaPixels over its predecessor, some photographers have opined for the days of 12MP flagship cameras, which many considered the sweet spot for the potential for large prints while maintaining high ISO performance, speed and reasonable file sizes. Sony seemed to agree, and the A7s gives these weary phottogs clinging to their D3s's and D700s cause for celebration with a return to the days of low MegaPixel full frames.
The camera jettisons the aging AVCHD of its brethren, recording internally at 50Mbps in the XAVC S codec, the consumer variant of Sony’s XAVC, which is present on its pro cinema cameras, the F5 and F55. The codec piggybacks on the highest iteration of h.264, version 5.2.
The other formerly cutting-edge feature beginning to reach mainstream audiences is super slo-mo video. The A7s is no slouch here, offering 120fps at 720p.
But the headline feature hands down is the inclusion of 4K 4:2:2 8-bit video to an external recorder via clean HDMI out. The first compatible recorder, the Atomos Shogun, was announced in tandem with the new camera, and will be available in Q3 or Q4.
The camera adds many of the video features filmmakers have been hungering for as the DSLR video revolution faded with scant feature additions. The A7s offers Sony standard zebras and peaking, but adds timecode, highly customizable picture profiles and S-Log2, which Sony claims offers a 1300% improvement in dynamic range.
Sony also took the opportunity to address the oft-cited achilles heal of the A7 family: a dearth of lenses. By rebranding the disparate A and E lens lines under the aegis of a common “alpha” mount, they smartly reframe the issue, if not actually resolving it. The FE/E lens selection is still somewhat
paltry, but the naming reinforces the fact that with Sony’s existing adapter, the extensive library of A mount glass is fully functional – autofocus and all – on A7x bodies. Sony struggled to communicate this fact when the A7 series first landed, requiring consumers to wrap their heads around a dizzying array of adapters and mount names to comprehend just what was on offer.
The new nomenclature incorporates a fact that has been slow to receive widespread attention: in the mirrorless age, the system with the shortest flange mount distance "wins" in that pretty much any lens out there can be adapted to the E mount cameras. The idea of proprietary lens systems, while still relevant in purchasing decisions due to autofocus standards, is less prohibitive today than ever before. Hopefully this is the last lens mount branding move in while from Sony, as it’s been a struggle to keep up!
In the early hours since the announcement, how does the A7s stack up to its immediate competition?
The Blackmagic Production Camera, like the sibling Pocket and Cinema Cameras, suffers from a vexing set of limitations, coupled with mouthwatering video quality. The camera bodies, while attractive and well-built, still feel like beta offerings in some way, and follow the "mindblowing sensor in a sturdy box" school common of digital cinema cameras. The ergonomic points go to the A7s and GH4 here, coming from a culture devoted to the photographic experience, which is built up around the idea of a single user having direct access to every function as simply as possible. The Production Camera, as the name implies, is designed for a production environment, and falls apart quickly after ISO 800. Thus it's kind of old school in requiring tons of light and rig build out just to be up and ready to shoot. But if you're looking for absolute video quality advantage in optimal conditions, the film-like video quality from its CCD sensor and global shutter are probably going to win the day. This, combined with its direct from camera top shelf CinemaDNG RAW and ProRes codecs, make it the go to choice for a professional workflow at this price point.
The Panasonic Lumix GH4 has proved to have shockingly good image quality in early tests, and with the optional, awkwardly named DMW-YAGH, gets a lot of pro flexibility in a compact and affordable package. The ergonomics are essentially identical to the already impressive GH3, so it's probably the best of the three in this department. The Micro Four Thirds lens mount also has a great native lineup with a vast catalogue of well built and compact options, many with built in image stabilization.
Bright 4K Future for Sony
I remember whining to a poor Sony rep at PhotoPlus about the somewhat underwhelming video spec of the A7 and A7r. I'll never know if he was privy to the amazing video version a few months out, a version in the same tiny form factor which would offer more than I could have asked for as a shooter who has long wanted one all-rounder solution for stills and video.
Taken together, the A7s introduction nicely rounds out Sony's A7x line well, providing spec sheets aimed at a huge range of consumers from high MegaPixel desiring fashion and landscape photographers down to video shooters and low light photographers. The move certainly elevates Sony, long a middling presence in the DSLR video game, as a serious force to be reckoned with for DIY filmmakers.
Sony has released a sample of the video, and while YouTube compression is no way to judge absolute quality, this will tide us over until we can get our hands on actual out of camera files. What do you think? Are you impressed by the A7s video quality?
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