Hey, my name is Matt Johnson,
and I recently got back from a few days in New York City where I had
the opportunity to get hands on with the new Sony A7R V camera.
So, of course, I wanted to do some low light test
and see how this 61 megapixel AK filming Beast performs in darker conditions.
First, though, I would keep in mind that YouTube compression is notoriously awful.
So I will include download links below to a few of these video clips
if you want to download them and see them without compression completely for free.
So check it out.
I filmed all this from my hotel room at about 1 a.m.,
so this was about as dark as New York City gets.
Everything was filmed in 4K XAVC HS 24 fps with a 1/50 shutter speed
and in SLOG3 with a vintage Zeiss contax 50 millimeter lens at F 1.4.
I could have filmed in 8K, but I feel like 99% of filmmakers
are going to be using 4K and I wanted this test to be as real world as possible.
Also, I know that the shots are not going to be pushing
the dynamic range at all, so SLOG3 isn't super necessary.
But considering the most people are going to be buying this camera to film
in Slug three, it made sense to choose that as the picture profile.
Anyways.
As you can see, ISO 800 is one of the two base ISOs of this camera
and it is quite clean but also quite dark, bumping up the brightness.
Then here is 1000 iso still dark,
then 1250 ISO, which seems to be working better with the car
headlights driving through 600 now still looking clean,
then ISO 2000, which happens to be right below
the second dual native ISO of this camera of 2500.
So if you're going to pixel peep for noise at the lower ISOs,
this is the ISO level that I would pixel peep at.
To me, it still looks good and relatively noise free.
Next we get up to the second native ISO, which is ISO 2500, which looks very clean.
Now, no complaints about this level at all, but
things are still looking pretty dark, but it's definitely usable.
So let's go brighter.
ISO 3200 looks great.
And now here comes ISO 4000,
which to my eyes is finally giving us some detail in the shadows.
In the upper right corner of the image, this is probably the minimum
that I would expose this footage if I was trying to film with it,
put a grade on it.
Now, in this case, this is one of my color presets.
Who is Matt Lutz?
Do you can get at the link down in the video description?
And while things are still a bit dark, the colors are looking good.
On to ISO 5000 now and back to the ugly ungraded image.
I'm still not seeing a ton of noise, which is great.
ISO 6400 is here.
And it's funny because I remember my old Canon 70
which maxed out at ISO 6400 and had the most disgusting noise at that level.
Here we are a decade in, a few years later and things have really improved
with this ISO being completely usable.
ISO 8000 is also great to my eyes
and I would have no qualms about using this ISO as well.
ISO 10,000 is pretty
universal, regarded as one of the ugliest isos on the
A7 as three in three due to being the last ISO before those cameras.
Dual native isos kick in.
But on the A7 R five, which has already far surpassed its dual
native ISO, this footage at 10,000 still looks pretty good.
This is the point that we're going to start to see some noise
creeping into the shadows of the image, though.
Look here at the windows of this jeep, for example.
Thankfully, let's slap my who is Matt Lutz?
Color grade on this again. And there you go.
The noise is crushed down a bit and I think this looks great.
ISO 12,800 now is where we are hitting my maximum recommended
ISO level for this camera noise is there, but it isn't overwhelming.
And don't get me wrong,
you can go higher than this iso and still get a usable image.
But unlike the A7 s three or x three, for example, where the second base
ISO as at 12,800 and you can honestly go dramatically higher with those cameras
where I've easily hit ISO 32,000 or 64,000
and still had easily usable footage with the A7 R5.
This is really where you start to see the limit of cramming 61
megapixels into this full frame sensor.
Let's see how dirty things get now.
Here's ISO 16,000, which is really where you can start to see the noise jump
up even higher as the sensor is pushed more toward its limit.
I would still use this in a pinch if I was filming a darker
wedding reception, but I would also be getting a bit nervous.
ISO 20,000 adds even more noise, and it's at this level that I feel like
we're finally starting to see the characteristic slug three gray
that you normally see on an image. Things are now bright enough
that the shadows and the bright spots all look flat.
There's plenty of noise, though, all over to ISO 25,000 gets even noisier.
But take this images bright.
If I told you it was 1 a.m.,
you might not believe me because things are so well-lit.
Of course there is noise, but let's throw a grade on it and see how it looks.
Not bad, honestly, especially once you throw some YouTube compression on top.
Lastly, we've reached the max.
Here is ISO 32,000.
It's big, it's bad, it's bright.
There's plenty of noise, but it ain't the worst I've ever seen.
Still light years ahead of some of my older cameras.
There are one of my color presets on it and dang excited
to lower the brightness a bit because the shot is just so bright.
But there you go. To me it still looks good.
And if I didn't know it was ISO 32,000, I might have guessed that it was lower.
You can tell me if I'm crazy in the comments down below,
and that's how the A7 R five performs in low light.
I am planning on creating a much longer and more in-depth review of this camera,
namely aimed at helping
you decide if you should invest in it for wedding videography and photography
or any other documentary style capturing photo and video
where you need a very well-rounded camera.
So please subscribe if you want to see that video in the future.
Also, if you want to download that untouched A7 R5 footage,
you can get it down in the video description completely for free.
And my who is Matt let's color presets are linked on their below as well.
Thank you so much for watching and have a great day.