[Sam:] It looks way better, so what the heck Sony
Woah! Okay, so that's a discovery
[Wren:] Dang!
[Sam:] All the cameras suck. Literally, they all suck
Well, not all of them. There's two cameras that definitely don't suck
and I can show you right now
This one doesn't suck if I'm trying to make a video. I'll bring the RED
Obviously It's a super high-end camera. It's also really good for high-end photos too
It's a little big though
This thing
Also, it doesn't suck
it does everything the RED doesn't do
It's small, it's waterproof
You can put it anywhere
So on one side we have ultra high quality video
and also great photos if I need them
and then on the other, we have lightweight, versatile, weatherproof, goes with you everywhere
and for years I've been trying to find something that kind of combines these both
and that hasn't existed until now
[Suspenseful sound]
It didn't take much the guess that it was an a7iii
I'm super, super excited about this camera. It just came in and I'm dying to use it
Well, why? Look at this this. Thing is tiny
it's super tiny. But what's really important about it is what's inside
This camera has a sensor that is basically the same size as the one on the RED
and is gonna give me that nice Cinematic look
Suddenly, why do I need this camera? I got this RED, I got this GoPro
Well, I just had a baby boy and he needs some portraits
Also, I'm trying to practice my cinematography more often
so a camera that's full frame with a nice lens on it is going to replicate using the RED pretty well
So it's gonna get me experience in my career and also fulfill a ton of stuff that's happening in my personal life
It's a great in-between for that
so B&H has sent this camera over to us on loan
and I'm gonna test it out and see if it's something I want to keep
So we got to test this baby out and I think there's a few scenarios
that will really show us what it's got
First off I want to go out with Nick and Clint and do some cool night-time photography
We're just gonna be on foot. So the lightweight package hopefully is going to help
(Off camera)[Nick:] You're looking spooky
[Sam:] Yeah this is cool
Just gonna pre tape some gels onto these little M9's here
You never know when you want a little color
It only looks good in the close-up
First shot of the night - smoke bomb photography
So Clint is gonna volunteer here. You have a 50 and I have a 28
Let's ah, let's see how this goes
[Background music]
Dude that looks so cool. Clint you look like a wizard in the mist do you see this
[Background music]
No, it's just great. It's like everything is a set now
(Off camera)[Nick:] What are you shooting on Clint?
[Clint:] This is a Holga medium format film camera
and this is a Nikon 35 millimeter film camera
Both black and white
A7Rii, the 24-70
I'm like jugglin' cameras man
(Off camera)[Nick:] Dude, don't drop one
(Off camera)[Nick:] Go!
[Background music]
[Sam:] The second test I want to do is a video test
and I want to show you guys how the a7iii reacts in super low light conditions
I want to compare it to other Sony cameras to see if it's worth upgrading
I also want to compare it to our RED to see if, if we're on big shoot - do we want to whip this guy out?
and I also want to compare to the Canon cameras because that's the next closest competitor to this
Dude, the baby life dude
I go to bed at 8:30. Alright?
Then I wake up every two hours
[Laughs]
Until I get to work
[Background music]
(Off camera)[Nick:] What's going on man?
[Jake:] Thinking man
[Nick:] 'bout what?
[Jake:] Well mostly about Squarespace because this episode is brought to you by Squarespace
But more importantly when I come up here to think about life's most important questions, like...
...Is life more than what we think it to be?
I ask the 8-ball
"You may rely on it." Life is more than what we think it to be
Squarespace is also more than you think it to be. You don't need to take it from me
Does Squarespace have beautiful, award-winning, designer templates?
"Signs point to yes."
Does Squarespace have award-winning 24/7 customer service?
"It is decidedly so."
Does Squarespace have an all-in-one platform, so there's nothing to install, patch or upgrade ever?
"It is certain."
Is Squarespace flexible for any kind of website?
"Most likely."
If you sign up today by going to -
will you get 10% off your first purchase?
"Most likely." As in - Yes.
Will Sam and Niko let me combine the channels?
"No."?!
[8 Ball clatters along the ground]
[Sam:] We got some footage ahead of us here
let's take a look and see what is the best
We're trying to go in with a
micro minimal lighting setup to really test the low-light capabilities on a technical level
on a consistent level
let's compare the - I'm gonna call them the three and the two for now
For a7 three, the a7s two, the three and the two
All right. So I think we're getting some color shifts between these two guys here. Makes sense
In motion there is certainly noise
So you can see that the, the three definitely is sharper
If you look at the bricks. Okay so the sharpness on the three definitely better
than the sharpness on the two. Like we use the exact same lens on both cameras
So the three is definitely sharper. Okay. Good.
As far as noise is concerned
pretty similar amount of noise between the two images
You can see the wood grain much more clearly than you can up here
Let's, let's take a quick look still between this and the Canon. All right, well
there we go, the Canon. Canons imaging quality, like were at the exact same settings
The same shutter speed, the same aperture
There's just nothing
The sensor is not making anything with the light that it's being given. Like there's just no comparison right now
Last comparison is the RED
Okay. So here we go. Now we actually have a legit comparison here
Obviously there's a small color difference
but when it comes to a clarity and crispy in this standpoint. At 4k here
They look really similar, but I think the proof here is that I can take my RED footage still
[Keyboard clicks]
and blow that up quite a bit more. 100% for the RED footage and 100% for the a7
So now...
200%! Boom. All right here, here we go. Now we're seeing the difference
The RED is clearly a better camera
We already knew that, but this is proof when it comes to just sheer image quality
Now, let's make things more difficult
Let's go up in iso and really see how this footage starts falling apart
3200 ISO. a7 three, A three looks good. Compared to the a7s two
All right, boom
Now, once again, we have our sharpness difference drops off considerably
a7s two is not holding up there
You see that in that - look even in the hair right there
Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
So a7 two it's just softer. It's softer all across the board
The a7 three's video capabilities are a huge step above the other Sony mirrorless cameras.
To the Canon - God, ugh
It looks like we're in high school again making short films
That looks...so bad.
The RED, a worthy comparison, still
still maintaining a crap-load of sharpness
As far as actual visible noise here - still quite comparable.
The sharpness of the noise sustained pretty proportional. A.k.a, 8k footage has smaller grain, but
There's just as much of it across the board here
[Niko:] Hey, I'm not going to interrupt, but this looks really cool.
[Sam:] Yeah, so basically the eighth is the a7iii and this is the RED
[Niko:] Oh the RED's holding up really well
[Sam:] The RED is holding up really well
Alright, so 6400 ISO. Look how nice this looks
Wow. There is certainly noise there
Wait, did it get - wait. Does this look better!?
[Niko:] Yeah I think the noise reduction is kicking in at that point
[Sam:] Yeah, look, holy cow! Look at that
it actually looks better at 6400 than it does at 3200
So on the left is 6400 and then on the right is 3200
Whoa, okay, so that's a discovery
[Wren:] Dang!
[Sam:] We are cranking the cameras much higher settings on the left. Then we are on the right yet
it looks way better. So what the heck Sony?
so is this where your noise reduction really starts kick-
This is the high iso noise reduction that I seen the menu? Holy crap
[Niko:] It's so cool. Im really, I'm really digging this
[Sam:] So let's kick it up one more here. We are at 12800 ISO
Ohhhh...
[Laughing]
The Canon dude, that's my goth album cover
[Laughing]
Doves in Darkness
The RED is, is just a mask. It's a massacre
So now let's just go to like the crazy the crazy settings
Let's go to a hundred thousand. Alright now this is where the noise
really starts just, it creeps into everything here
[Niko:] Like the color on your shirts all fuzzy
[Sam:] Yeah
But once again the places where there is light
there's light there already, you know
So it doesn't get too noisy, and then once again - compared to the two.
In summary, the a7iii
completely kills it when it comes to low light and it also
kills it completely when it comes to comparing it to any of the other video capabilities
of Sony mirrorless cameras
I'm totally blown away
And also, the true secrets that came out of this is seeing the point at which the noise reduction
kicks in on the Sony camera
I was unaware of that. So this is super cool. And actually it gets me way more
excited to use these cameras again. But before I go out again
we still have to look at all the sweet photos we took
It's been a really busy week. We've been finishing up the PUBG video
but we finally have a chance now to look at some of these pictures we took while we were out there
because we want to see if the photographic quality the a7iii is better than all this other junk
[Nick:] Well, we already know it is
[Sam:] 'cause I'm seeing a lot of noise in here
[Nick:] It's kinda like film grain
[Sam:] This is all processed
[Nick:] Look at that wizard in the dark right there
[Sam:] But here's, here's that image with Clint unprocessed, raw
This does not look nearly as noisy. This is all raw. It's crazy
Yeah, so this is actually really smooth
There is noise and there is artifacting and like the processing I applied to it
really brought out the noise.
But like, when you're looking at the actual images here, let's say you are shooting super low light like this
Definitely don't want to be putting extreme color grades on it because the footage is very...very delicate.
It's fragile.
This is 2000 ISO because there are lights in the scene that are illuminating it
and when you take a look at this image close-up compared to the other one
[Nick:] Oh yeah.
[Sam:] It is
Very sharp. It's very crispy still.
[Clint:] It's like a bagel then you just put in a toaster for like a little too long
but, too long in a good way, you know what I mean, like the crispiness
[Sam:] The crispiness, it's the edge, the crisp edge.
[Nick:] - Soft in the middle
[Clint:] Like, crumbs we'll drop it when you bite into it.
[Sam:] Here, here's another clean one. This is not a lot of light
This is less light I would say.
Even in the super dark areas
There's grain, but it's very muted.
[Clint:] That's pretty nice and sharp though.
[Nick:] Sam. What was your favorite pic that you took out of this whole excursion?
[Sam:] Well, I like these ones because of the sheer like rigid industrial like crispiness.
I like that from a technical perspective. Just this test of how clean of an image we can get here.
[Nick:] Clint, what are your favorites?
[Sam:] Yeah, hold on. You wanna do a little intermission here?
[Laughing]
Always be prepared.
I keep a halberd under my pillow
[Laughing]
[Clint:] I was Shooting a black and white on the camera.
It was one of my, one of my color profile settings, was just black and white
I did that because noise kind of turns into grain
[Nick:] When you're in-
[Clint:] when you're a black and white. So it kind of like works off of your limitations
[Nick:] Yeah, because you don't get like the green and purple noise.
[Clint:] Yeah, it's like, its like eww
turns into, turns into like a film grain kind of look so
And you can see it's kind of crusty
[Nick:] That's cool
[Clint:] So we got before and after-
[Nick:] Ooo, that's cool
[Sam:] Kind of gives it a film look for sure. 8 mil camera
[Nick:] Yeah. Really
[Sam:] That looks clean and crispy
[Clint:] Here's a good comparison. So like when taking pictures of people
out in the wild, it's kind of awkward
So you want to be quick. So I didn't have time to change my settings
So when I took the shot, it was super blown out
[Nick:] And you were able to pull it down to that?
[Clint:] Brought it down to this, yeah
[Sam:] You're not shooting raw right?
[Clint:] I am
[Sam:] Oh you are shooting raw
[Clint:] Yeah, always
There's this guy here, which was-
[Sam:] That looks cool
[Clint:] I took, I took that, and like changed-
[Nick:] Dude, that's cool.
[Sam:] I like that actually
[Nick:] I love the grain
[Nick:] What's your favorite photo?
[Clint:] This one's cool and then...probably this one
the elevator
You have shots?
Woah!
[Nick:] So I'm getting like the same thing in the grain. This is edited in Photoshop
Kind of a good comparison. It's kinda the same thing
[Sam:] Dude, I love like the random, like cactus thing
[Nick:] [Laughs] I know like
[Sam:] So yeah green pops for sure, but...
[Nick:] This one which I liked
[Clint:] Oh, dude. That's...that's great
[Nick:] Uhm...
and this one came out really crisp
I think this was at 64-
[Sam:] That's really sharp, yeah
Super sharp. What lens was that?
[Nick:] This was uh...I believe my 28 millimeter Rokinon. Prime.
[Sam:] Neat
[Nick:] There's this one I really like
There's this chef guy
[Sam:] Spooky chef
[Clint:] Little window into the soul of a chef
[Nick:] But this guys just at work man
[Clint:] I don't know. That looks he was behind a ca- like he's behind a cage. Ooo!
[Nick:] This one's kinda cool
[Clint:] Kinda like that one a lot
[Nick:] It's like a jank shanty town
[Multiple comments]
[Clint:] Oooo. Dude, you got that subject game on point dude
That's really nice
[Sam:] Let me see the floor.
[Nick:] Right away I can see all over the image
Your image is so much sharper than this one
We also had different lenses
I was working with prime lenses and I was pretty wide open
So my my depth of field and focus is nothing almost...
the focus planes like right around here
[Clint:] It's like a potato chip
[Sam:] So what did we learn here?
[Nick:] I learned that all these cameras take amazing photos
[Sam:] They all take quite nice photos
Using auto-focus lenses
especially when it's nighttime, helps not doing manual primes using cini' lenses
Even though these are stills
the visual reference and the photo reference still
gives you a really good idea of what the video will look like
since the images are so similar
[Nick:] So the question is Sam, are you keeping the camera?
[Sam:] I'm kee- Oh, yeah. I'm keeping the camera. I want to go out again
We had a ton of fun going out and taking photos, it's really great
We're gonna definitely do it again
but we want to know which photo was your favorite
In the comments below, take a look at the photos
and leave a comment with your favorite one
and the winner is going to get a Stevens buck
[Nick:] Leave that comment
[Sam:] Leave that comment
[Background music]