Chris from TheCameraStore tested the new A7s and to learn what he thinks about the camera just watch the video I posted here on top!
The A7s is shipping in US and Canada according to mails I got from SAR readers.
Lee: “Got my a7s today at my local camera store in san diego. open box link if you don’t already have one. https://www.flickr.com/photos/canonmonster/14492680316/”
Thodoris: “Yesterday I got my hands on the Sony A7s – I covered Ejekt Festival 2014 with it. Ejekt is a festival in Athens, Greece, and the big names this year were Editors and Kasabian. Here are the results: http://thodorismarkou.com/blog/2014/06/ejekt-festival-2014-editors-kasabian/
I used the new Carl Zeiss 24-70mm/f4 and the 1993 Minolta 85mm/f1.4 with the LA-EA4 adapter. The autofocus was amazing with both lenses. I was expecting the contrast-detection system to show a bit of lagging, but no, it was focusing on the ever-moving musicians quite easily. It was lightning-fast as my A99 but it was very accurate and did not hinder me at any point.
All of the Kasabian images were shot on ISO 6400, and some of them were shot in even higher ISO values. I found that I could easily shoot ISO 12800 and match the performance of the Sony A99 at ISO 4000-5000. The last (setlist) image, for example, is ISO 20000. I’ve left the EXIF information on the files.
I gave the camera here and there to professional Nikon and Canon guys, and there was a lot of jaw-dropping with the high-ISO performance of the Sony A7s – they could not believe that this camera can shoot ISO 51200 and produce such clean results.”
Anonymous: “Sony Store in Toronto Canada just called. My A7S is in. I’m going to pick it up today.”
Sony A7s store links:
Sony A7s preorder in USA/CA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA, Sony Canada.
Sony A7s EU pages: Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PL. And Wex UK.
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Great review by thecamerastore as usual, but I think he is underestimating the interest for stills photography.
While it is good have choices with the same mount, I will pass on the cam despite the low light capability that I would love to have. Sony are way optimistic with the pricing.
I may reconsider if they issue a FW update for the A7r with EFCS. 🙂
OTOH, if they issue an A7r II with EFCS (a new model) then it will be crystal clear that I should NEVER EVER buy a first generation camera from Sony, however “revolutionary” it might be touted as.
So like Nikon then with D800 to D810?
Exactly! Only, I am not bothered what goes on in Nikon land.
Yeah except the A7R sensor likely doesn’t support EFCS… thus why it wasn’t included in the first place (considering just about all other Sony’s have it). The D800 didn’t support it either, so ‘expecting’ to get it in a firmware update is a bit off the mark I suspect.
You have crystallized my feelings about SOny. 🙂
EFCS on the a7r sensor may be more of a processing issue. Given the thermal constraints of the a7 series, the Nikon SLR bodies would be far less affected and could clock up their processor. It may take a more efficient processor to handle adding the EFCS next time around if it is somehow related to the larger data generated by the 36mp sensor.
Or the D600 and D610?
I am thinking it could serve very well for some very specific situations and also it seems that rangefinder glass works quite fine with it. That should make a lot of people happy. The price is high for me too, but that is because I would only consider it as a second body.
As to first generation, it’s the usual, you either risk it or wait. Though it seems that in these last years nothing is really reliable or refined, first generation or not. Most annoying for me is the software interface, where so much can be done for so cheap, yet it isn’t. This is either done on purpose or they are really that stupid.
Seriously, who is designing Sony’s camera user interfaces? They seem as though they are designed as a joke. Like satirical UI design.
It is Sony. They have brilliant people but the coherence is lacking. Every time there is a “new” sensor they spit out a camera with it after having given “exclusive rights” to Nikon for 2 years. Some day they will understand that there is more to a camera than just a sensor.
While talking about ports, the A7S comes with a cable brace / protector… guess they left that one in the box. Also while on video, how could one forget the XLR adapter? It’s kind of a big feature for video… one that the GH4 does very poorly.
Someone pointed that out in one “review/preview” I read. Yes, the cable protector stuff to keep the mini/micro HDMI cable from falling off.
What is the XLR adapter? Sounds like something big. With that the A7s, is it still “palm sized”?
The XLR adapter is very light, there are no batteries or power supply it is powered solely through the multi interface shoe. The current XLR adapter, designed for video cameras and SLT cameras requires a bracket – it does not mount on the camera shoe. Plus XLR microphones / audio accessories tend to not be compact anyway so if you are going that route than quality is the chief consideration not how small it is when shooting.
It can still all be a very small, light package when broken down in the bag and traveling to / fro a shoot. What used to be two medium to one large sizzled bags of much heavier gear can now be downsized to one medium, low weight bag.
There’s a new XLR adaptor and it mounts to the hotshot now! We should see it soon hopefully.
I’m looking forward to it. A mountable XLR adapter with an optional multi interface connector (for those that wish to bracket it) would have been ideal from the start.
Here’s my workaround with the FE 24-70. That’s the white foot off the FE 70-200 with a Wooden Camera cold-shoe mounted to the 1/4 20 hole.
Excuse the multiple images, computers, I’m over 20……..(:-)
Nice, great idea!
Thodoris, if you read here, could you comment whether you were shooting RAW or JPEG and what NR did you use?
I was shooting RAW, I opened them with the latest ACR (Adobe Photoshop CC 2014), applied NR through ACR, no external plugins. In the 6400 shots, 5 luminance (0 is default), 25 color (25 is default). In higher ISO shots, I increased the luminance NR. Not sure if I needed NR on 6400 ISO, but I kinda always do it and they turn out okay. The pictures look clean enough right from the start.
Thanks! And what sharpening settings did you use? Esp. the detail slider?
in higher ISOs I tend to lower the sharpening amount from 25 to 15 (because the photos mainly go to web, and they get sharpened again when downsizing them), and leave the rest of the sliders at default.
Thanks! Usually for 6400 ISO concert shoots (on A99) I use sharpening 80 with detail set to 5 and radius to 1.2 and masking to 15. Default detail setting (25) seems absurdly high and emphasizes the noise even on low ISO shoots 🙂
I will have to test this one – never really looked into the sharpening tab (web-rez is too small anyway and when pinting most of the noise goes away, and the printer operator knows how much sharpening to apply)
Looks quite good for its size. Using Alphas 700 and 900 I never go over ISO 1600 for concert shooting to maintain high quality. But anyway I won’t buy A7s for its low noise, waiting for such sensor in A-mount DSLR body.
Agree! I want this sensor in A-Mount too!
I agree. Just give us an A77 style body with A7s sensor and A77 speed and I’ll buy it today.
Chris, you made a terrible mistake in the low light photo situation…. you live the ND Filter ON the camera; of course gonna be a little softer and no so bright… next time for low ligh you must take off the camera the ND Filter or you are loosing about 2 point of light there and adding about a 20% softness
Any of you guys know if the Canadian A7S is a world camera?
No, our sample was NTSC only, unfortunately.
Thanks mate! Bloom was saying that Digital Rev in Hong Kong have world cameras at $2700 (ish) US with free shipping.
Enjoy your reviews BTW.
TheCameraStoreTV review ALWAYS are 2.5 stops better than digitalRev! In presenter comparison , Chris Niccolls is pawned Kai Wong by 2.5 stops too!
True.
I think Kai needs to change his formula for reviews. The act can get a bit stale at times. He usually comes back down, changes the pace last minute and attempts to offer up serious insight at the end. I really don’t think they are meant to be technical. However, it would be nice to see him dig a little bit deeper and offer up a more compelling technical review from time to time.
Na. Kais all about the fun of photography, which is refreshing and important. Theres plenty of sites with graphs of sharpness falloff, CA comparrisons and all that other waffle for those that need it.
I can really write a book on Kai from DigitalRev, In my opinion he’s quite bored nowadays hence the low rate of good videos.
The Camerastore TV may be a good channel, but it isn’t funny at all. DigitalRev TV is about fun, but it becomes routine for them, it seems. Time for a DigitalRevolution!
ZzzZZzzz…..RX2 rumor please……
Oh boy! this camera suck big time! past tense sensor, video format, etc; http://www.dailytech.com/Nikon+Announces+the+D800s+Successor+the+D810+HDSLR/article36126.htm
We can see your pain, Nikon fanboy!
Your trolling suck man!
Reviewer forgot the mention one thing; Sony and their stupid A E I O U mounts all suck based on intensive scientific and well supported tests and surveys.
What happened after you woke up? It seems you forgot to take your pills. Take this scientific conclusion and don’t make a fool of yourself next time around. How cheap and desperate can someone go, it’s unbelievable.
These videos are good I admit. I just wish they’d back the freaking camera a bit away from Chris’s face. Any closer and we’d be floss.
You do have to question the technical prowess of a reviewer when they express an opinion over noise in a picture just looking at the LCD screen!
Also, I don’t like this, “Another great feature of the camera…”, which is often repeated here and sounds more like sales pitch than a review. By all means show a feature and measure how well it performs, but don’t praise it first.
To be honest, it might be a fair review, but the manner and style of t turned me off and I stopped watching after a quarter of the way.
I completely agree with you Peter. I know this guy is good on TV and does smooth reviews but to look at the LCD and make comparisons to files from other cameras was ridiculous. I know we have all seen things on LCDs that look completely different (for better or worse) when we actually see them on a good monitor.
ALso with all that “breakthrough” business when will Sony Canon Nikon etc tackle the rolling shutter problem which is the 800 pound gorilla in the room?
Oh and how do I get hair like that guy? Damn
I’m pretty sure their shows are scripted and so I would guess it goes something like this: 1) take comparison photos and video in the shop, 2) write the script, 3) go outside and take photos/video that go with the script.
I was very tempted to get it for video usage… but the amount of rolling shutter in that review was scary bad. Guess I’ll wait till Sony comes out with a global shutter.
They have. It’s called the F55. It’s 35 grand. But seriously, all the 5Ds have very similar amounts of rolling shutter and they have been used for some very high end work. This camera (on paper) outstrips those in every other aspect. I wouldn’t let it worry you.
This. I used 5D II and III before and its very similar to this. I do a lot of run and gun type of filming for my work and the rolling shutter is only noticeable in a few seconds (if that) every now and then when panning. I would at least rig this cam to a run-n-gun type of rig (no shoulder, just the handles) and with an OSS lens it will be very smooth without any rolling shutter noticeable (or at all) unless you pan fast enough or film a train/car/bus perfectly perpendicular to it as it arrives/leaves/moves.
My former NEX 7 and 5n had less of this…but still had it. What amazing cameras they continue to be today, though…if not because of the bloody AVCHD codec.
All this rave about A7s only proves to me how well rounded and solid A7 is.
Someone who owns the a7s told me that bulb mode is missing on this camera. It’s not there in M mode. He also owns the a7 so he knows how to access bulb mode.
Maybe they are confident you will get your exposure in less than 30 seconds 😉
Bulb mode is there for me on the a7s – manual mode, silent shooting off
Switch to manual mode.
Keep scrolling speed wheel to slow down exposure. When you go past 30 sec, it will say BULB.
Why does everything have to be so complex? With better software design, the A7s could have been a knockout.
Not sure what makes this complicated…its the same as the other A7’s. If you need bulb, you should be in manual any, and just keep choosing going up in shutter time until you see bulb…I guess since it doesn’t have a specific button, it’s complicated
I don’t see any complexity here. I find the software on the A7 series and other Alpha cameras generally very good.
Yea.. That’s what he thought.. Its the same as his a7..but he tried a few times and confirmed that there was no bulb in his a7s
It is there I have used it on my A7s
New Videos demonstrate the S-Log 2 Feature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9O29EMHiEhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S131_OyHkIg (impressive!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_ChFZpz08k (with post processing)
Thanks Cheryll, those are very helpful.
The coolest feature that will bring A LOT of pro’s to this camera is the silent shutter. The sound blimp industry is dust.
Yeah it is very very cool to be silent at a concert.
I got it in last week in Japan and love it. But I love Chris and Jordan more than any camera I own.
Glad SONY go in the oposite drection other companies went.
Canikon give you 1 camera to everything, the top model and make you believe that it fits everybody, and if somehow it does not fit you, you are the problem.
Sony making 3 bodies, with almost all the same but the sensor, its great, fulling the market with options instead of forcing one camera to all of us, its better in my opinion, i thinks thats the reason why 35mm was the defacto option last century.
You got a lot of bodies from diferent manufacters, if you were seeking your dream camera, you should find it, one brand or another, sony with their 3 options should fit perfectly some niches better than 1 camera.
Filling the market with a tons of cameras were their main difference in their number model name, its a recipe to boring upgrading cycle and probably bankrupcy, filling the market with unique different models that perfectly fit extremely demanding niches its great, you get happy loyal customers that “chose” their camera from options, not forzed into 1 model.
Now , dreaming i little, i hope sony release at photokina the A5 series, that should be the the 3 A7 cameras minus the EVF bump, hopefully a couple of hundreads dollars cheaper, i know almost everybody old photographer grow up shoting with an OVF, but in sony OVF its history, why almost everyone favor a tiny screen behind lenses when they had that big clean lcd, its hard to me to understand, but again… options its good, if some look for a good EVF, fine, they had the A7, some of use almost never use it and will favor a more tiny body, R&D should cost nothing, and can give you a few more sales, sony job its to fill the market with E mount bodies, i believe its more easy increasing sales with specialized cameras than with just 1 model, no matter the price
In referring to stills shooters he says that the camera will let you down because of low megapixels.. Is this guy even a photographer? I sold my a7 for 1100 and bought this for 2700 for stills. The sensor handles light way better and it can focus in any condition. Try using the a7 for low light work. The eve gains way up and the af doesn’t work. This cam is a light vampire and it is PERFECT for wedding/event work where the a7/a7r will let you down.
I think he said that he thinks people will pass on the camera because of the low MP, but not that they should. He seems all for it for stills.
Help Guide for in-depth instructions on the many functions of the A7s is online:
http://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/1420/v1/h_zz/index.html
Noise comparison between a7s and Nikon D4s
Result: Sony match the D4s distinct
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0bK1xqcYZI
Does anyone know if anybody has stock of it in Toronto? Vistek and Henry’s do not. Does the Sony store itself have stock?