Sony US just announced the new 12 Megapixel Full Frame E-mount A7s camera. In short these are the bad and good news:
Bad:
– Unlike the Gh4 it doesn’t record 4K on SD cards. You have to buy and sue an external recorder to record 4K 4:2:2 video.
– Autofocus hasn’t been improved (why not add the amazing A6000 hybrid AF?).
Good:
– Low resolution sensor allows amazing 409,600 ISO.
– Sony says this si the FF sensor with the highest dynamic range and color fidelity
– Costs just like the Panasonic GH4 ($1699)
Full specs and details and image/video samples at SonyAlphaRumors.
18 Responses
There are a lot of questions: Rolling shutter performance?, moiré? bit-rate? how much for the external recorder? Also, you don´t have a variety of native cheap lenses and I much doubt that pricing to be true. Let´s wait reviews.
It sounds as though they’re using the Nikon D4/Df sensor as a base. I hope they upgraded their processor since I’ve seen so many comments about the A7/A7R being slow.
Nikon D4/Df sensor has 16 MPx, this is 12 Mpx, so it cannot be it.
Its got to be from old canon 5d or nikon d700 haha
The D3/D3s/D4 all use sensors by aptina, 12/12/16 mp respectively.
While the A7s is 12mp, some have guessed it is the D3s sensor repackaged, yet Sony says it is an Exmor CMOS- though it may be a tweaked version of the sensor design in the D3s as Sony and Aptina openly collaborate on imaging sensor technology as of 2013 and share their sensor patent portfolios.
Unlike many other critisizing external gear to record 4K video, I applaud for that. For those who need it, it is there, and for those who don´t the camera remains small and gives advantage of supposedly fantastic DR of huge pixels (12 MPx on FF sounds fantastic as regards the lihgt sensitivity and DR).
I don´t need 4K (probably very few people needs this resolution), and so I´d shoot all the time at HD. One important question related to image quality is the processor algorithm used to reduce resolution from 4K to HD. I applaud the relative low pixel count, but a good video camera needs a lot more about external controls, compression, bit-rate and overall processing. A fully articulated screen and earphone socket are a must have.
According to dxo, a7 has a worse high iso performance than a7r, comparable dr, and less bits of color depth. But a7r has 50% more mp than a7.
So why sometimes less mp is better and sometimes it is not?
You mixing up real life results with the numbers from DxO.
Essentially, DxO numbers are useless to compare cameras which differ in MP count and ISO range. More MP and wider ISO range (esp lower ISOs) boost the DxO numbers, *regardless* of the actual performance.
And even if the camera sensor match up, from my observations of the numbers of the cameras with the same sensor, the error margin of their numbers is at least 5%.
Things are not always as clear-cut as that. The more photons hit a particular pixel, the better its signal-to-noise ratio. But the remaining (although lower) noise occupies lower frequencies which are visually more disturbing. On the other hand, noise-reduction algorithms benefit more from higher resolution (but this must not be taken to the extreme). So, the actual real-world performance is a very delicate balance of all the factors involved. As for DxO numbers, this is a question of methodology – I personally don’t find DxO ratings to be much correlated to the real-world shooting experience.
Is the “no internal 4K” info at all true? Yes, you need an “external recorder to record 4K 4:2:2 video” at 50 Mbps, which is the best quality setting possible, but isn’t there still 4K 4:2:0 which actually *can* be recorded internally?
No, 4K always requires an external recorder, unlike the GH4. According to Imaging Resource, Sony claims that internal 4K requires more powerful processing, which in turn requires more effective heat dissipation, which wouldn’t be possible in the small form-factor that Sony has chosen for the A7 series.
Unfortunately, the need for an external recorder makes the small size of the camera pointless. Why not make it slightly bigger, and remove the need for an external recorder?
1. To make it bigger with built in recorder/ssd would make it a different class and tier of product, effectively putting it out of the reach of those only able to step into the bottom end of 4k.
2. Real 4k at 4:2:2 or better yet 4:4:4 will always need an outboard solution. People working at this level demand modular setups, which also makes downtime or service easier on the workflow and less likely to put a full camera out of service as opposed to swapping drives.
3. The a7s will do full pixel readout, which is very very different from the cropped line skipping minuscule m43 sensor in the gh4. The gh3 before it was great and the gh4 will be a good tool for some, but its no full frame sensor…
4. Forget video for a moment, this will be a low light shooting dream for stills at less than the d3/d4 price, and packing in the extra video bits vs using external options further alienates non video users who may want this camera for its giant pixels for lower noise stills.
4k @ 4:2:0 isn’t really gonna give you the benefits of 4k – there is so much color information missing it can’t really be true considered 4k, certainly not at 8 bit resolution.
BUT… 4:2:0 down sampled to 10 bit 4:2:2 will yield much more color information to work with at 1080p offering better Full HD output with finer steps in gradation.
4k at this level will never be the best quality, but it offers an interesting toolset and workflow for much better rendering of 1080p.
The “S-Log2 gamma” feature looks very interesting.
What is IQ at 40600? m43 APC or FF no one is using these high ISO settings
So I feel Sony is using this as a marketing trick more than a real valuable thing
With lower MP count they should obtain good low light ability but interestingly High MP is something they have been pushing as a marketing hype like the small sensor 20MP RX100m2 for awhile so a very odd move. So. 3 versions of the same camera body.
Even though most won’t utilize Sony’s extreme ISO settings, a 12mp FF sensor does have the potential to have extremely clean images at say 6,400 ISO which is something I can’t say for my Oly EM10.
ISO settings will yield tonnes of noise in the images at the maximum settings
… BUT 409,600 ISO setting using Sony’s Multi-Frame Noise Reduction will be stellar, as it already s up to over 100,000 ISO in some models.
Many people won’t get this as they ave never used MFNR – think astrophotogaphy techniques, pushing the sensitivity of the sensor like crazy, capture multiple exposures to establish a nose print to then average out the noise while retaining subject detail.
This camera will shoot in the dark. My D3s is going bye bye very soon…