Here is what filmmakers want to see from the A7.
S4 At the time of making this video, we're coming up on three years
since the release of the Sony A7 s three camera,
and in this video I want to look into the future and talk
about the three biggest things
that filmmakers want to see in the successor to this camera.
Before we get to those though, I want to blow your mind with a thought.
What if there isn't an A7?
S4 To be clear, the A7 series has been incredibly popular,
but if you ask most filmmakers today what Sony camera they want to buy,
they aren't going to say the A7 s three.
No, they're going to say they want an F three.
so this is just a theory, as is the rest of this video.
But I can see a future where Sony does away with the
A7 s line of cameras and only offers the line.
And if you consider that the A7 s is really just a video centric version
of Sony's A7 series of cameras, if we're talking about an fx3 successor,
like, say an x three mark two or an F four, etc.,
the cameras are just and even more video
centric versions of the series of cameras.
They're just the video iest video cameras that you can get.
anyways might theorizing out of the way the first thing that the vast majority
of filmmakers that I've talked to have wanted to see Sony add to the A7
s four or x three mark two or whatever they come out with is the biggest.
And that feature is of course they want to see an indie filter in this camera.
it's no surprise by far the biggest differentiating factor
between the fx3 camera and the F six camera
is that the F six has the addition of an electronic variable and D filter.
And if there's one thing that filmmakers want in a smaller and more compact
body like the A7 s four, that's an indie filter.
Heck, I'm betting that most filmmakers would be fine if the camera
had to get a little bit thicker or heavier to compete with it.
Even if they made the camera
twice as large, it would still be smaller than the Nikon Z nine, for example.
Anyways, Sony has talked about adding an indie to the A7,
a series of cameras, but they said that there are limitations
to what they can do and namely there are two restrictions.
The first, of course, is, as we already discussed, the size of the camera.
I do think that adding an indie would make it significantly larger,
but in addition,
the more difficult issue that they face is that if they add an indie filter,
they may have to get rid of in body image stabilization,
a feature that the vast majority of filmmakers absolutely love
and also a feature that happens to be missing from the X6.
C The way that Sony's electronic variable indie filter works
is that it's a piece of glass that goes in front of the sensor.
But whenever you consider that the sensor would be moving, if it has IBIS,
you're suddenly needing to add what I assume is a much bigger piece of glass
and everything just gets more complicated because it's all moving.
So I'm not saying that Sony can't fix it or figure out an internal indie with IBIS,
but it's definitely complicated.
Now the next addition that filmmakers want to see added to the A7 S4
is a very popular request, which I know is popular
because I get comments asking me if the A7 has three supports this feature
all the time.
See, when Blackmagic introduced their cinema cameras,
they added a lot of great features, including a new one that immediately
all filmmakers wanted, and that feature was the ability to record
it via usb-c to an external hard drive.
Yes, instead of you needing to spend a lot of money on memory cards,
you can instead buy a relatively cheap, solid state drive and connect
that to your camera with a usb-c cable and record all of your footage externally.
This is super convenient and whenever Sony released
the A7 S3, it included a usb-c port.
So why would it not include this feature?
In addition, we're also seeing Panasonic include the ability to record
to an external SSD with their new S5 mark to camera.
So this would be a great feature to see Sony add to theirs as well.
Speaking of Panasonic features that Sony should add to the A7 S4 though,
the next feature that Sony should take
from Panasonic also is the ability to record internal Prores.
Prores is such a ubiquitous codec these days and it's used by
so many cameras and so many filmmakers when editing that it's a
no brainer for Sony to work to add processor recording natively to the A7.
S4 Of course, the file size may end up being larger, but remember,
if you're recording via usb-c to an external hard drive,
it's going to be pretty easy to have an SSD
that's large enough to handle all of this data.
Now, speaking of large file sizes, there's a little bit of a bonus here,
but there is something else that I know that pretty much every filmmaker wants,
but it's going to be hard for Sony to get due to legal reasons.
But the next thing that filmmakers want is for the
A7 S4 to have internal raw recording.
This is a huge ask and Sony has not wanted to do it
before, due mainly, I believe, to legal reasons.
The main thing that you need to keep in mind
any time we talk raw video is that red the camera company not the color
currently have a patent on compressed internal raw video recording
and they actually recently applied for another patent and were granted
that as well.
Red has been extremely aggressive about protecting this patent
and have sued Sony in the past
when they were considering implementing raw recording internally
in their cinema cameras.
This has led to Sony's cinema line of cameras
requiring an external raw recording module and all of their cheaper cameras
like the A7 has 3fx3 and f6 only supporting raw recording
to an external recorder like an ATOMOS Here's
where things have recently changed, though.
In 2022, Nikon added compressed internal
raw to their z9 camera and read sued them over it.
But in April 2023, Nikon essentially won when the case against them was dismissed
and they are now allowed to use
compressed internal raw recording in all their cameras.
I would love to see Sony figure out what Nikon did and be able
to implement RHA in the same way that they're able to in their cameras.
And I'm betting that many other filmmakers would like this as well.
Codecs aside, there is something else that I think
many filmmakers would really appreciate if Sony implemented in the A7.
S4 Here's the deal.
Whenever a filmmaker asks me what picture profile
they should film in with, the A7 has three camera.
I really only have two recommendations for them.
For the vast majority of filmmakers, I recommend that they film in Slug three
because it is going to maximize the video quality that you can get from the camera.
It's one of the main reasons you buy a ten bit camera, and while it may
take some more work to color grade, the results are completely worth it.
Not to mention if you use my color presets which I've tuned to work
specifically with that slug three they make colored grading really easy.
I'll put those down in the video description.
That said,
some filmmakers do not want to film in Slug three, and I completely understand
if these filmmakers are working on a time crunch
where they do not have time to color grade or they're working with a client
who wants to have the unedited files delivered directly to them,
and they know that the client have no clue how to color great video.
So delivering them log footage would be a nightmare
for those filmmakers that do not want to film in Slug three.
The only other picture profile that I ever recommend they use is Acinetobacter.
This picture profile is going to give you a fantastic looking image
that doesn't quite reach the same level of dynamic range as that
Slug three, but it does look great straight out of camera.
And most importantly,
it looks dramatically better than how the camera looks when you have it.
You have the picture profile set to off.
So here's my recommendation for Sony with the A7 S4.
I want to see Sony make certain the default picture profile
for the camera.
Quit letting filmmakers buy this camera and film by default with the picture
profile off,
which gives them the opportunity to complain that the colors don't look good.
There's a reason that filmmakers buy canon cameras, for example, and don't bother
using see log because they film in the standard picture profile
and it looks gorgeous and contrasty straight out of camera.
My point is that if you want your footage to look gorgeous in contrast
straight out of your Sony camera, you need to use a Senato.
if Sony were to make a sit at home the default, and then take picture
profile off and make that its own custom picture profile
that filmmakers could still use if they needed to.
I just think that many filmmakers would be dramatically happier
with the footage they were getting straight out of camera.
And the footage that we see from Sony cameras all across YouTube would look
dramatically better to speaking of looking dramatically better,
I know I just mentioned them, but I'm going to mention them again.
If you want to make your video edits
look dramatically better, you got to check out my color Presets.
They're going to make your footage look incredible.
And they work with Sony cameras, including both the Slug three and S and a tone
picture profiles, as well as other cameras like Panasonic, Canon, Nikon, etc.
And I will link to them down below.
Also down below, I'm going to link to my edit videos like a pro guide.
This guide is going to walk you through
some of the biggest things that you can do to edit your videos better and faster.
It's completely free.
You can download it link down in the video description.
Now, did I miss anything that Sony should include in the A7?
S4 What do you think that future Sony cameras need?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
Secondly,
regardless of whether Nikon's Court case with red ends up in their favor or not,
there is an alternative, just like Canon does with their R5 camera.
It would be great to see the A7 S4 include uncompressed raw.
Yes, the file sizes would be insane, but for certain smaller shoots
it would be great to at least have the option to film Winrar internally.
I don't know if Sony would do it or not, but it'd be cool at the very least.
I know that pretty much all filmmakers would love to see Sony support more codecs
with their cameras.
Don't get me wrong, Ex AVC has been fine, but it would be great to see Sony offer
Prores internally as well.