Now that I've had the Sony a7S III for a bit longer
and actually have the final production model, I thought
I'd append my initial review with some updates
and tips I have from using the camera.
Let's get Undone.
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening everybody? I'm Gerald Undone.
"And every breath you take,
I'll be watching you."
So, let's start off with the easy stuff.
The physical differences between this version
and the one I reviewed. First up, there's no longer
a Sony logo on the flip screen,
so you don't have to worry about being triggered
by it being upside down when flipped over.
Also, in my review I mentioned that the dials were squeaky
and the port doors were difficult to open,
and neither one of those issues exist
on any of my production versions.
However, one of my cameras did have a sticky battery door
that wouldn't spring open after unlocking.
This seems to have resolved itself just by working it in
after a day or two, and it was only an issue
on one of the three bodies that I tested. The only other difference
that I noticed wasn't physical, but an ISO setting.
Now, I covered this one quite extensively
in the picture profile and exposure guide
that I just released last week for this camera.
I recommend you watch that if you haven't yet.
But the ISO where the camera switches over
to the higher base is now at 12,800 instead of 16,000
in S-Log2 and S-Log3. I think this was a bug
in the preproduction version,
because 12,800 makes a lot more sense
because it lines up better with the other profiles
that all switch to the second Native ISO,
so at 4.33 stops above base. But, like I said,
if you want more information on this, watch my other video.
Also, in my review I mentioned that this camera
works digitally with the XLR-K3M.
And that would be an option for people that want to add
XLR inputs to this camera. But at that point,
I hadn't actually tested the quality of the K3M recordings
against my current setup. So, let's do that now.
I'll switch back and forth between the K3M,
which is sitting on my other Sony a7S III,
that's recording this very video, and my Zoom F6 over here
using the Sennheiser MKH 50
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For me, the K3M has two major advantages.
I often livestream from here, and it's so much easier
for syncing and for cabling to just run my mic
into the camera instead of into my Zoom and then
out to the camera. And when I do sync my Zoom F6 files
to the camera in post, it's nice to have a decent
scratch track to do that. And the included mic with the K3M
does that job well. I did run into a pretty big issue
with it though. When using the digital signal,
you have three options. A 16-bit, two track option,
a 24-bit, two track option, and a 24-bit four track option.
The 16-bit works fine and is the same
when you record analog. But the 24-bit options
do not work in the majority of the software
I tried them in. It either comes back with static
or no sound at all. This applies to DaVinci Resolve,
Final Cut, Audition, QuickTime, VLC,
and even Sony's own Catalyst Browse.
Apparently, these files do work
in the latest version of Premiere, however.
I reached out to Sony to get an answer,
and it seems that it has to do with the software
not accepting 24-bit MP4 files, the video container
that most Sony mirrorless cameras use.
They said that the recordings are working as intended
and the codec is fine, it's just a matter of waiting
for software to adopt compatibility for it.
I put this problem out there on Twitter and my Discord server
and some users came up with a solution
using ffmpeg to wrap it in another container,
like mov or mkv, and by doing that,
those programs I mentioned earlier
stop having issues and your audio just comes back
and works. Which explains why this isn't an issue
in their bigger, professional cameras,
because they don't use MP4, they use the mxf container.
So, for now, you have two options.
If you want to use the XLR-K3M and record internally,
put it in 16-bit or analog mode, which means
you won't be able to use four tracks, only two.
If you do record 24-bit, you'll either have to rewrap
using ffmpeg, or edit in Premiere until other software
develops compatibility for it. But according to the tech
I spoke to at Sony, there currently isn't even an ETA
on Catalyst Browse being able to read the files.
Alternatively, you can record externally
to the Atomos Ninja V
and solve all of these problems at once,
but we'll talk more about that a bit later.
In the mean time, I have mixed feelings on the K3M
for use on the a7S III.
All right, now sticking with internal recording,
let's talk about SD cards. In my review, I mentioned
that some of my Sony TOUGH cards
weren't working well. Well, they all do now.
But I'm not sure if that has to do
with the final firmware on the camera, or the fact
that all of my Sony TOUGH cards were recalled.
If you're not aware, there's a recall
on certain older Sony TOUGH SD cards.
I'll put a link to the article in the description.
But if you're affected, you can have your cards
replaced at no cost, and if you're having issues
with your cards on this camera or another camera,
I recommend you do that, because it's likely the culprit.
So, I unfortunately can't tell you what fixed the problem,
but I can tell you that the new replacement cards
work perfectly on the production version
of this camera. But I also want to give you
some card buying advice, because I've tested
several different brands of SD cards
in all the different modes on this camera,
and the results are a little complicated.
So, as you probably already know,
there's different card speeds required
for certain recording modes.
And if we start from the bottom and work our way up,
you can record 4K60 in XAVC S, or HS,
so, LongGOP H264, H265 on most of the V30 cards I tested,
including my old favourites for the a7 III, the SanDisk V30s.
However, the more expensive SanDisk UHS-II cards
which don't have a V rating, but should be faster than V30,
aren't accepted by this camera as anything higher
than V30. So, if you're using those, 4K60 with XAVC S
is unfortunately your upper limit for them as well.
But I no longer recommend buying SanDisk cards in 2020,
especially not the UHS-II versions.
Next up are V60 cards which can record up to 4K120
in XAVC S or HS, and can also use S&Q mode up to 4K60.
But V60 cards are not capable of the ALL-Intra codecs
in any mode I tested. And I'm able to confirm
that the ProGrade V60 cards work,
and so do the Sony TOUGH M V60 cards.
And Terry Warfield, who actually beat me
to publishing his SD card roundup, was able to confirm
that the Lexar V60 cards work as well
for the modes I just described.
I'll link Terry's video below. Go give him some love.
He deserves it for being first. Next up, we've got V90 cards,
which can do pretty much everything
except for one specific mode. You can record All-Intra
up to 60 frames per second and you can do S&Q at 120p
but not both All-Intra and S&Q at 60p or higher.
You can do All-Intra S&Q mode at 30p or lower though,
Just not up to 120p because that's reserved
for the CFexpress Type A cards.
Now, I have a theory about why this is.
When you do All-Intra recording,
the largest file size the camera will record
is 600Mbps for 60p. Which V90 cards can handle.
But I think the reason why they can't handle the S&Q version
is because that's actually sending 1200Mbps to the SD card
before it gets slowed down to the final frame rate
and stored at that corresponding bit rate.
So, for example, if you shoot 24p S&Q from 120fps
I think the card needs to be able to accept 1200Mbps
for the 120, but it'll slow it down and store it on the card
permanently as 240Mbps for the 24p slow-mo.
This is just a theory though, but it would explain
why you need CFexpress Type A for those modes
because V90 cards cap out at 720Mbps.
Anyway, I tested the ProGrade V90 cards
and the Sony TOUGH G V90 cards, and both work perfectly
for the modes they're fast enough for.
So, based on all that, which cards would I recommend?
Well, if you're planning on recording All-Intra
and you want a lot of runtime, the ProGrade V90 cards
are the best bang for the buck.
They're the only cards that offer 256GB variance
with two pack discounts, and they're 40% cheaper
than Sony TOUGH cards when comparing the 128GB versions.
They're very high quality and perform great,
and this coming from somebody who has
an entire collection of Sony TOUGH G cards.
Which I also think are great, but they're not as good a value
as the ProGrades. And regarding those recording times
for 24p All-Intra, you can expect just over an hour
for every 128GB. Now, if you don't need All-Intra
but you still want 4K120,
I'd still stick with the ProGrade cards.
But I'd get the V60 versions and save some money.
By the way, while we're talking codecs,
something I didn't notice for my original review
is that the XAVC HS codec doesn't have a 30p option
for NTSC or 25p option for PAL.
It does have 24p, but not 30.
The XAVC S codec has all the frame rates,
but I just thought you should be aware
about those H.265 limitations.
All right now let's talk about external recording.
First off, I want to clear something up
that I didn't articulate well in my original review.
You cannot record 4K120 on the Atomos Ninja V.
In my review I was trying to demonstrate
that while I was recording 4K120 internally in the camera
while simultaneously recording on the Ninja V,
I still had face and eye detection
with no screen blackouts.
But I didn't specify that the Ninja V
drops that 4K120 down to 4K60.
So, I apologise for any confusion that caused.
I'd also like to address all the requests
for RAW output testing. The only RAW option
supported on this camera is ProRes RAW.
But I edit in DaVinci Resolve and absolutely love it.
But it doesn't support ProRes RAW.
And I'm not going to switch to Premiere or Final Cut
just to use ProRes RAW, so it's disingenuous for me
to give an opinion on it, since there's no way
I can be anything but unenthusiastic about it.
And that'll probably be unfair to Premiere
or Final Cut users. So, you won't find any
ProRes Raw content on my channel until I can use it
in the NLE of my choice.
But when it comes to recording other formats
in the Ninja V, the experience has been great so far.
I've actually noticed slightly better image quality
when it comes to blocky noise artifacts
in certain regions of an image. Overall, I wouldn't
call this a reason to go out and buy a Ninja.
The difference is probably only, like, one to two percent better.
But I did notice it when pixel peeping.
It just seems like a slightly less processed image.
I also want to give a tip when it comes to setting up
your HDMI output, because I've been asked about this
a few times already. You'll notice there's two output
resolution options. One in the parent HDMI Settings,
and then one deeper in under HDMI Output Settings.
If you look closely at the icon beside them,
you can see that the top directory one
is for photo mode monitoring and playback.
It sets the resolution when in that mode.
Where the more nested setting is for video
and has the film strip icon next to it.
The second one is the more important one,
and depending on the device, leaving it on Auto
may cause problems, such as outputting the wrong frame rate.
So you might have to go in there and manually set it
to 2160p to get a proper 4K recording on an external device.
Now, lastly, coming full circle to the 24-bit K3M issue
I was talking about earlier. Another big advantage
to recording externally is that the Ninja V
records to MOV files, and thus doesn't have the issue
of 24-bit MP4s not being compatible,
because it doesn't use MP4.
But something else you need to be aware of
when it comes to recording externally
is there's an audio sync problem
between most Sony cameras and the Ninja V
when the camera is at it's default settings.
To fix this, you have to go into your audio settings
and change the Audio Out Timing to Lip Sync
instead of Live. This might make it sound a bit delayed
if you're monitoring with headphones,
but it'll make your audio and video recorded on the Ninja V
perfectly in sync, and will not affect the sync
of your internal recordings.
So, now I can record 24-bit audio from the K3M
directly to the Ninja V over HDMI and it works perfectly.
And the video edits very smoothly
thanks to the optimized codecs used by the Ninja.
Of course, if you have the SD card speed and capacity,
you can also record nicely optimized codecs
straight into the SD card with the internal All-Intra option,
but if you're going to use the K3M unit,
make sure you set it to 16-bit to prevent incompatibility
with a lot of the software at this time.
All right, now for the last few minutes of this video,
I'd like to field some of your frequently asked questions
on social and in the comments.
The first one was this very interesting question
I got last week asking which 1.1x crop mode
looks more stable; 60p with Active Stabilization,
or 120p with Standard Stabilization?
This was a fun test. So, for those of you that don't know,
if you turn on Active Stabilization, the camera
crops in by about 10%. It also crops in by 10%
when shooting 120p, which thus locks you out
of being able to use Active Stabilization
because you can only use that 10% crop once.
So, this commenter wanted to know
which of those two modes, with similar framing,
will give a smoother looking shot when slowed down.
I got Julie to do this test so that she could go in blind
not knowing exactly what I was testing,
just that I needed some 400mm slow-mo at 60p and 120p.
And after reviewing the footage, I found two things.
The 60 + Active mode still shows
the small back and forth shakes,
but it also tries to fight against her larger movements
which can cause these jerks and jumps
when it's unable to do so.
Where the 120p mode doesn't have this issue
with Standard Stabilization because it's not trying
to lock the shot off as much. So, you get a bit more
of a flowing movement. And when you add in the fact
that 120p can be slowed down to 20%
instead of the mere 40% of 60p,
you get a smoother shot overall.
Where I think Active Stabilisation shines better
is in vlogging situations, and dealing with more
of that walking bounce from follow shots,
and when doing locked off shots up to the 105
to 135mm range. For longer focal lengths than that,
you need to be careful that your more exaggerated movements
don't cause the Active Stabilization to jump.
All right, now let's answer some questions from Twitter.
Something I'm noticing from scrolling through Twitter
is that a lot of the questions here have already been answered
by earlier portions of this video. So, that's great.
To those of you who asked those questions,
thanks for submitting them. Hopefully the answers
I gave earlier were sufficient.
But I'm seeing one here from Thomas Haynes that says:
[reading tweet]
So, yes, you can. So, for those of you that don't know,
there's no APS-C crop mode in 4K on this camera
because there just isn't enough megapixels,
but in 1080p you can use the APS-C crop mode,
and yes, it does come out of the HDMI port
and you can record it externally
or live stream with it. Good question.
I'm also seeing a lot of questions
about different picture profiles,
and settings for low light,
and outside, and stuff like that.
For all those questions, I made a 49 minute answer to you
and uploaded it last week. Make sure you check out
the previous video on, basically, exposing
and picture profiles and stuff for this camera
that I already posted. Akhil Patel says: [reading tweet].
So, the quality thing... I can't really speak to that.
A lot of people think Clear Image Zoom is magic, you know,
but it also depends on the lens differences.
If you had a full frame lens vs APS-C lens comparison.
But, what I can tell you is that Clear Image Zoom
does work on this camera in 4K even though
the APS-C mode doesn't, you can still use Clear Image Zoom.
But, of course, when you put Clear Image Zoom on,
there are some restrictions in what you can do and can't do
with the camera, so I probably wouldn't want
to operate the camera like that full time.
I probably wouldn't recommend that,
but if you need to use it in a pinch
for, you know, punching in, or with a particular lens,
it does work. Miles asks: [reading tweet]
Absolutely not. Question here from Luke that says
[reading tweet]
I would say that the major decision there would be
lenses and autofocus. If you need good autofocus,
there's a huge difference in the a7S III
and the Panasonic cameras. And the amount of lenses
that you can do that with.
If you're not autofocusing at all,
then you have a ton of lens options for Panasonic,
because you can just manually focus,
and you're not really restricted in that way.
Because I still think the image coming out of
the Panasonic S1 and S5 and those cameras is fantastic.
So, if you're just looking for a great image,
I don't know that you're going to get a huge improvement
going to the a7S III. Maybe a small one.
But the big thing is going to be stuff like auto-focus
and solo shooting ergonomics, and stuff like that.
So, I guess you gotta, you gotta think what you need most
and is anything on the Panasonic holding you back
that the Sony has. If not, you're still getting
a great image on the Panasonic.
Mei Williams, or maybe Mei Williams;
apologies for the mispronunciation, asks
[reading tweet]
Yes, there is. There's sort of two modes, if you will.
When it comes to photo time-lapse, it's in there.
I'll put an overlay on the screen now
showing you where it is in the menu.
And then also S&Q mode...
I don't know if a lot of people know this,
but you can go the opposite direction with S&Q,
that's why it's called S&Q for Slow and Quick.
Rather than just using higher frame rates
and slowing them down, you can actually use lower frame rates
and speed them up, to, sort of, make, sort of, like,
a faster-- faster video that's, like, quick video, if you will.
So, that can work for, like, a time lapse purpose.
And it has the photo mode one as well.
See one here from Kevin - Basic Filmmaker.
"Is it a7SIII, a7s--" Oh.
He's got the different ways of formatting and says,
"Just want to see my name in lights."
Well, there you go, Kevin. And the correct formatting
is lowercase a, capital seven-- Capital seven?!
There's no upper-- there's no uppercase numbers!
What are we doing here?
But that's gonna be it for me. I hope you found
this video entertaining, or at least helpful.
And if you did, make sure you leave it the old thumbs up
and consider subscribing if you haven't already.
But if you did not find this video helpful or entertaining,
try setting the playback speed to 75%.
Alright... I'm done.