On the 8th and 9th April, I was invited by Tim Cumming to work on his 48 hour BFI Sci Fi film. Apart from being humbled I was extremely excited to get to work on a film outside of my comfort zone but also with an exciting piece of kit. The Sony A7S II.
I’m a Canon C100 owner and I”ve always been on Canon bodies so for me it was a great test to see what the otherside of the world Sony really have a grip on.
I’m going to break down what I liked, loved and was surprised by with the A7S II.
Image Quality & Low Light
First off this is something that the A7S II is known for. There is no mistaking it, this camera has fantastic image quality. It is of course dependent on lens choices but I was really shocked at how good the image quality was. Hands down excellent.
The low light performance, while I never really stretched it passed ISO 6400, was barely showing me any noise with still very accurate colour representation, unlike my C100 which starts to crack at 6400.
In Built Body Stabilisation
For someone who has never had stabilisation except on lenses, this was both revolutionary and a blessing. There were times when I was shaking like a lead when hand-held and this just completely blew my mind.
We mainly shot on my Tamron 24-70, a Canon 24-105 (this lens belonged to Doug Kirby, a fantastic guy who was a wealth of energy and helpfulness for my tired brian) Tim’s Sony 70-200 and a 50mm 1.4. We had A Mount adapters and E mount adapters and all worked brilliantly with the IBIS.
Bacon saved, so many times.
Ergonomics
I have to admit whilst I was excited about a lot of aspects of this camera, because I so often work as a lone camera operator and need everything in each reach and usability. This made me a little nervous about the A7S II but again, I was being optimistic.
While I wasn’t too bothered about sound on this shoot as that was being recorded separately, I have got very accustomed to my built in ND’s on the C100. It just made it a bit more fiddly to use but I’m used to it from my 7D Mark II and every other camera I have had.
The camera body itself is tiny which in some ways was a real benefit and in other ways entirely infuriating. The one unforgiveable aspect (and anyone who owns or uses Sony cameras) will know is that it is the button placement and the menus.
The menus weren’t too bad, I could honestly get passed that headache, but that record button just made me so cross. I was fiddling looking for it all the time and it just doesn’t make sense why it is where it is. You can’t re-route it either which is also another major pain in the arse.
Something that was nice was the ability to punch in and check focus while filming which wasn’t then passed on to the final video itself and clear image zoom which proved very handy in a pinch. I’ve no idea how it actually works but I’m sure its powered by magic.
So Why Won’t I Be Getting This Camera
Well I’ve had nothing to say but good things so far, so why wouldn’t I want to invest my hard earned cash into a camera as wonderful as this. Apart from the ergonomical side of things which while a hassle can be forgiven, actually what lets it down for me is its photographic abilities.
I’ve started working more and more on the photographic side of my business and I would need to completely reinvest in Sony glass, Sony this, Sony that to be able to reasonable match what I currently do now.
I like full frame, I like the low light but my photos end up on prints, canvas etc and 12 megapixels just doesn’t cut it for me. There just isn’t the pixel count to make blowing up the pictures worth it. Mostly this is where I feel the A7R II wins out with its 40mpx sensor.
I use autofocus a lot (on my 7d Mark II it’s fantastic) and I would have to get native Sony lenses to be able to get that back. An investment I just can’t make at the moment. Plus there are matteboxes, sound recorders, rails, rigs, eye pieces etc etc – it’s a headache to jump system.
Saying that though, there is a very strong case to use this camera as a B camera or for when I need 4K. I know I don’t need it yet but I will be making the jump in the next year or so. This may well be the camera I jump to it for.
Here is the video I shot with it for the BFI 48 Hour Film Challenge:
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