Den Lennie A7s insights


Bamboopictures

Senior Member
F-stop Academy's Den Lennie dispelled some myths about the A7s last night at preview session at Somerset 313.

The A7s does NOT have a pronounced rolling shutter problem as early speculated from the static shots of the official Sakura filmlet

The real reason why there weren't any dolly or slider shots became evident after watching the behind-the-scene action: The camera was tethered to a specially rigged BlackMagic deck running off a generator to record 4K. Atomos hadn't made their Shogun 4K recorder yet. Aerial shots in the Scottish fisherman low-light demo showed no rolling shutter despite the vibration from the drone. Hands-on, I didn't see the any jello except when I did vigorously whip-pans. His side-by-side comparison footage against GH4 in fact revealed more rolling shutter in the GH4 due to its crop factor.

A7s is remarkably noise free in low ISOs as well as in high ISOs.
It is not neccessary to shoot in steps of native ISOs to get clean results.

The A7s is not totally noise free at ISO 200,000. You can notice some noise creeping in the shadows at above ISO 50,000

The main take-away for me from Den's live demo (in a candlelit room with belly dancer) is the new avenues in creative lighting now open to us with A7s clean image at IS0 50,000.

A single tiny onboard LED light suddenly has as the same lighting prowess as a 800W redhead! That was apparently clear in last night's demonstration. Just think of the wonderful set up one can do with a few flashlights!! For the one-man crew, instead of contenting with playing the fill-light game, we can now kill the house light more often and light with abandonment without blowing out the circuits.

Another a-ha moment was when Den started shooting in a darken room with his lens stopped down to f11 - again no grain! With the deeper DOF that afforded, he kept the dancer much in focus most of the time. Impossible for any other large sensor camera on the market. This has implications on the use of ENG cameras from here on out. With unlimited recording time, long infinity focus, insane ISO, XLR imputs, the A7s might very well be the new standard in ENG, events, and many other applications which used to be the forte of small sensor camcorders.
We live in interesting times indeed.
 

Thanks for the review and update.
 

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