Today I'm gonna show you when full-frame isn't actually full-frame in the Sony a7iii
this is specific to the video mode but it's well worth knowing about if you do
use the a7 3 especially in NTSC mode
Now one of my subscribers from Lithuania
bought my attention to this and it's really quite interesting and really
quite surprising the guys at the YouTube page global shop LT asked this question
why is NTSC not full-frame when power is full-frame first of all I thought you
guys may have had it in the actual crop mode by mistake so I checked it on my
own a 73 and sure enough NTSC and 30p crops when you're in the full-frame mode
and I'll show you exactly what I mean now if you're not sure what NTSC and PAL
modes are I've already done a video showing the differences between these
two and why you would choose one over the other so if you want to see that
video click on the I in the corner or the link in the description so I have my
camera on the tripod and I've set it up next to this table I've got these two
old batteries right at the edges of the frame and I'm in NTSC mode at the moment
I'm going to switch it from ntsc to pal this is in tab 5 page 2 of 7 NTSC pal
selector I'll select this and then press Enter the camera will switch itself off
and on again if you do have an SD card in it will ask you if you want to format
it but if you've got some information on that card that you want to keep make
sure you say no and if you're using the a7 r2 s or the a7 s to make sure you do
this without the SD card in because it formats it automatically and now look at
the frame those batteries are a little bit further into the frame showing that
the power setting is actually using the full sensor whereas the ntsc mode is not
using the full frame sensor first of all I thought it may just default to the
crop mode when you switch to ntsc but I switched both different modes into super
35 crop mode and this is not the case so as you can see the super
35-millimeter crop mode is exactly the same from ntsc to pal in pal mode if you
switch to HD it still has the same frame as it has in 4k 25p and even when you
switch it to a hundred frames a second it'll still have the same crop so then I
decided to try the same thing in NTSC mode and this is when it all made sense
when the camera is in X a VCS 4k at 30 frames a second or 30 P for short this
is when it crops and quite significantly in 24 frames a second or 24 P it uses
the full frame again and also in 120 PhD interestingly in 30 frames a second and
60 frames a second HD it also uses the full frame thinking about it the only
reason that Sony has had to make this crop is probably because of those extra
frames from 24 to 30 in that 4k mode they've probably had to crop in on that
full frame just a little bit to cope with this extra data now if you shoot in
pal only or if you just use the 24 frames a second and maybe the 120 frames
or the 60 frames a second in the HD mode this shouldn't matter too much and you
probably haven't noticed it but if he shoots in 30 frames a second this may be
a bit of a problem especially when you frame up your shot and then switch over
to slow motion at 120 frames a second or vice-versa one thing I found really
interesting is when I put it alongside my a7r 2 I found that the a7r 2 doesn't
crop in so that's a full frame so it's only on the a7 3 that both 30 frames a
second that both in ntsc and as you can see the a 73 is cropped in quite a bit
now have you noticed this cropping in 30p 4k full frame filming if you have
let me know in the comments below it'll be great to hear your experiences with
it also if you have the a7 r3 and the a7 r4 will be interesting to see if these
crop in on it or not also if you've noticed any other strain
things when you change between settings let me know in the comments below
I remember when the a 73 first came out caleb pike over on DSLR shooter noticed
a slight change in the framing between 4k full-frame and 4k super 35 millimeter
crop what he found was that he actually stretched the image just slightly now
what we found is slightly different to this but it's interesting nevertheless
and if you're shooting at 30 frames a second 4k in ntsc and if you're
switching across to the slow-mo mode you may notice this change in framing it's a
little bit weird and it's a little bit off-putting and also it's a little bit
strange that they've had to crop in on this but like I've already said I think
it's because of that extra data that these extra frames are gonna produce
thanks once again to you guys over at global shop LT in Lithuania I really
appreciate you guys pointing this out to me
so I can make this video making sure everyone is aware of this issue so thank
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also head over to my youtube channel where I have a growing library of
photography and videography tutorials I'll see you next time