Recently evaluated cameras for an upcoming video project. My first choice? A Sony A7R2. But why?

Recently evaluated cameras for an upcoming video project. My first choice? A Sony A7R2. But why?

Sony A7R2.

Video production is a weird thing. You have a lot of people who came up through traditional video production pathways. For them the over the shoulder camcorder, with all the right connections, is the preferred equipment combination for just about any project. And it makes perfect sense. You have a package that combines good video codecs with all the things traditionalists want: Zebras for exposure control, focus peaking for accurate focusing, XLR connectors for balanced microphones, as well as power zooms, and a camera body that can be balanced over one shoulder. Sounds cool, right?

But not to me. I like the idea of shooting to a form factor that's familiar to me. I came up through a different set of gear traditions. To me, something like a DSLR or mirrorless camera seems more practical and familiar. And a camera on a tripod is even more familiar.

I've been watching the maturation of the Sony A7 series for a couple of years now and that's a form factor that I'm more comfortable with. But it was only with the upgrade to the recent firmware 3.x  for the A7r2 (reduces overheat incidents) that made me feel more confident about using the camera for my clients' projects. The cameras have finally come together in relatively robust packages that make sense, and in a build quality tha
t inspires confidence.

I'm about to embark on a video project that has multiple parts. I'll be shooting in a few rain storms this week but then doing controlled interviews and fair weather b-roll in the weeks after that. I'll hew to the still photographer motif of using multiple cameras for the project. Here's what I have in mind:

The Sony RX10ii is a great camera for run and gun exploits; like shooting in the driving rain at twilight. (The RX10ii is supposed to be weather resistant).  The camera is equipped with UHD 4K and the files look really good. If we're shooting foul weather, with rain and hail and grey, ominous skies I'm happy shooting video with this camera up to ISO 1600. I'm pretty sure I won't need to nurse my dynamic range along by using S-Log, but it is available. The real benefits are that the RX10ii is compact and all inclusive, focuses well and has built in image stabilization. It's the perfect camera for what I have in mind: riding around on a big, utility bucket truck, videotaping emergency electrical restoration teams working in bad weather. I'll try to keep it under a rain cover but if the camera goes south at the end of the project I won't cry too hard. I can get another one. They aren't so expensive.

That covers one part of the project for me but I'd like something with less noise and more IQ for the interviews. We'll be doing these right. That means controlling the environment, controlling available light, and providing the right lighting design to make the content shine; visually. I need a camera with interchangeable lenses so I can choose the right lens for the looks my client wants. And I wanted a Sony that was big enough to stick a multi-function microphone pre-amp system on without looking just plain silly.

I tested a number of their cameras and settled on the Sony A7R2. I liked this camera for its really good 4K video when used in the Super35 crop mode. It crops to APS-C but it looks very detailed and has low noise. To supplement the camera I looked for a two good lenses that were constant aperture and covered a wide and useful range. I ended up with the Zeiss 24-70mm and the Sony 70-200mm f4.0 G lens. I've been shooting tests all day today and I'm more than happy with them.

I didn't consider cameras from Nikon, Canon or Olympus because all are limited to 1080p video and my client has woken up to the practicalities of shooting in 4K but editing in 2K...

We may start production tomorrow, if the weather gets bad enough... But the bulk of the production will probably start in early May. We still have budgets and a final script to hammer out. I'm making this production a test run for three different Sony products which can also cross over from stills to video, and back again. The RX10ii will be the "go-to" nasty weather camera. I'll also do things with it that I don't want to do with a pricier camera, like attaching it to the exterior of a truck as we barrel down a highway on our journey to the next outage... If it dies a premature death we've got a classic RX10 waiting to take its place, along with a couple of Panasonic fz 1000's which would be willing to sacrifice their existence to ensure the success of the project.

The Sony A7R2 will be our fair weather, studio and controlled location camera and we'll try to squeeze the maximum quality out of it, using the XLR shoe, great lenses and careful lighting.

Pinch-hitting for the two bookend cameras of the production we'll use the Sony a6300 and the 18-105mm constant aperture, G lens. It's also 4K enabled and I think will come in quite handy for a second angle camera during our interviews. It's also going to be sitting in the bag as "completion insurance" just in case...

The addition of the Sony A7R2 camera to our tool box puts all the other brands we use in possible jeopardy. If it's reliable, lives up to DXO's praise as their top rated camera/sensor system and does convenient stills then it's not hard to imagine that everything else will go to back into the market. Based to some extent on the EVF alone.  I'm taking some time to test the new cameras under pressure. But one thing is for sure, a camera from another (here un-named) brand is not inspiring great confidence with its third RECALL in less than 18 months.....


Could be the change of an era.

source 
http://visualsciencelab.blogspot.co.id/2016/04/recently-evaluated-cameras-for-upcoming.html

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A quick look at one lens that fits into a popular mould. The Sony 70-200mm f4.0 G.

A quick look at one lens that fits into a popular mould. 
The Sony 70-200mm f4.0 G.

Sony's answer to Nikon and Canon's 70-200mm f4.0 lenses.

I bought a new camera on Friday but you know that no one really buys into a new camera system without grabbing some new lenses to go along for the ride. I bought two. In this blog I will write about the one that makes me most happy; the 70-200mm f4.0 G zoom. It actually has more letters in its name but I can't keep up with all the abbreviated garble.

For the last two years I have been using one of Nikon's 80-200mm f2.8 zooms. It's an earlier, push-pull design and I have absolutely no complaints about the optical performance I got from it. It's really sharp! Even though we now require lenses to be sharp from corner to corner, wide open to consider them passable, that lens from the 1990's was a very competent optical system for use in the real world.

The thing that bothered me about the lens was the weight and the lack of a tripod collar. Given the design and the operational target of that lens there's really not much Nikon could have done about the weight. Their reasoning for not including a tripod collar was a bit disingenuous though. They suggested that the lens was aimed at photojournalists who would rarely ever want to use a tripod and who needed fast, handheld operation. The time spent removing a collar might mean precious seconds that could spell the difference between winning that Pulitzer or not....

But it was a disaster for a studio/tripod shooter. I liked the
look of the lens, on sensor, but when I mounted the lens on a DSLR body and attached the body to a tripod not even the stoutest tripod head in my inventory would keep the body and lens in the right spot for a vertical, portrait orientation. The three or four pounds of metal and glass, supported by friction and a quarter inch screw, would immediately capitulate to gravity and start to arc down toward the floor. It's probably what led me to: A. Start shooting horizontal portraits, and B. Start buying much lighter prime lenses within the same focal length range.

All history with Nikon aside the 70-200mm and 80-200mm range of zoom lenses is extremely popular with most photographers and represents one of the first or second lenses most of us buy when we dive into a new system. I am no different, but this time I was adamant that any long zoom I bought to replace the aging Nikon needed to have an included tripod collar. I so missed my previous Sony Alpha 70-200mm f2.8 lens and the ability to loosen its collar locking knob and swing the camera into a vertical orientation that put next to no strain on the camera, and even less on the tripod head itself.

When I decided to purchase the Sony A7R2 camera I researched all the lenses available for it and decided that the lens I really, really wanted was the ultra-cool looking Sony cinema lens, the 28-135mm f4.0. It has a hard stop, manual focusing ring which you can slide forward or backward to engage or disengage the autofocus. This lens is parfocal which means it does not change focus as you change focal lengths. It's very impressive to look at and seems to be built like a tank. Wow! I thought I hit the jackpot and could buy one lens to handle all my photography and videography needs in one swell package. I called my sales guy, Ian, at Precision Camera and asked him if they had one in stock. Yay! They did.

My enthusiasm was short-lived. When I got to the store Ian grabbed the demonstrator 28-135mm f4.0 off the front of an FS7 video camera (talk about a well stocked photo/candy store!!!) and put it on the front of an A72 body. When I lifted the camera and lens combination up off the counter my fantasy balloon of owning a single, perfect lens popped. The damn thing weighed a ton. Massive. A 92mm front filter element which would require a $500 variable neutral density filter. And the lens itself cost $2500.

After I got over my initial disappointment I consulted my notes and looked at my "second choices." These were: the lens at the top of the article, along with a 24-70mm f4.0 Zeiss zoom lens. By making this choice I'd end up with more focal length range on either end and two lenses that, together, weighed less, and took up less space than the cinema behemoth (which I still want to use some day). These two lenses were much more practical and perhaps even better performers, as far as imaging is concerned.  Where the 28-135mm would need to spend its life on a stout tripod both the 24/70 and the 70/200 are eminently hand-holdable. While the tripod collar on the longer zoom means it's a practical vertical portrait lens when used on a tripod.

I have had the 70-200mm f4.0 G lens since Friday afternoon and I've been testing it. It's at least as good as the version I owned from Canon and, in a bright spurt of innovation, Sony has integrated the in body stabilization of the A7R2 with the in-lens stabilization of the lens. The camera controls the several axis that are most effective for a sensor shift technology to handle while the bigger movements of vertical and horizontal yaw are handled, in concert, by the lens. It's a remarkably smart implementation.

I've shot the lens using my usual tests and also find that it's at least as good as the faster Nikon lens it will be replacing.

Will I miss the extra stop? Not likely. I'll mostly shoot it wide open at the theater where it might be even sharper than the Nikon was at f4.0. The added in-body and in-lens image stabilization will also be a big factor in actually increasing the overall image quality. Finally, the A7R2 seems to be a bit better than the D810 when it comes to higher ISO performance. Something to do, I think, with the new BSI technology of the sensor; which represents the most current technology. With that in mind I won't hesitate to use ISO 3200 as a reasonable standard theater setting and maybe 6400 as an more than adequate if needed setting.

An additional benefit of the lens is my ability to use it on Sony's APS-C body, the a6300 where it emulates a 105-300mm f4.0 lens in full frame-speak, for those times when I crave just a bit more reach...

Finally, the 70/200 G is optimized for AF with video and seems to do a really great job both locking focus and tracking focus while the camera is shooting video. No hunting in decent light (so far) and a nice ability to keep optimizing focus on an interview subject who moves front to back and side to side just enough to make one crazy if trying to manually pull focus.

Just thought I'd let you know my thoughts on an addition to the inventory.

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