RESEARCH

In early 2018 I decided to purchase a Sony A7S Mk II mirrorless camera, as I was doing a lot of live music photography and videography work and my Canon 700D wasn’t giving me the results I wanted. I chose this camera for it’s low light sensitivity, as I’d often be shooting with ISOs greater than 6400 at shows, and getting near unusable results. The A7S Mk II goes up to 102400 ISO (409600 extended), and I can get relatively clean video files up until about 25600 ISO, which has often been a lifesaver in some of the harsher shooting environments. The camera is also very light weight and lends itself nicely to run-and-gun shooting. I have enjoyed being able to carry it around all day at a music festival without getting tired.

Sony A7S Mk II

I’ve spent 3 years shooting with the camera, and I have gotten pretty familiar with it’s settings. I have access to numerous frame rate options, ranging from 24fps to 120fps, however, at 120fps there is a significant crop on the sensor (which I tend to avoid). I do have the ability to zoom, anywhere from 28mm to 200mm with the lenses I own. I mostly use manual focus when filming, as the camera’s autofocus isn’t really useable for video.  The built in microphone is useable, but I nearly always record audio externally and only use the camera’s internal recording for sync.

A sequence I shot in 120fps in order to use speed ramps for motion effects

For any work that I have the time to colour grade, I am able to film in S-Log2, which gives me greater dynamic range and a more freedom in the grading process than the standard picture profile. Learning how to correctly expose my image for this workflow has taken a while, as you have to over-expose by around 2 stops to get good looking skin tones.

S-Log2 graded with Davinci Resolve

One downside of the camera, however, is the sensor isn’t very high resolution. At only 12.2MP, I am sometimes limited with how much I can crop my images. However, this doesn’t really cause any issues with video, as the resolution ends up being 4K precisely. Another restriction is the lack of a flip out screen, which means I am unable to see myself if I have to be in front of the camera for some reason. This makes it hard to check my framing and focus on any ‘self recordings’.

I hadn’t shot 4K with my camera until this year. I never really saw the point, assuming that there would be no visible difference if my footage was only ever shown on a 1080p monitor. However, since trying it out for a shoot in January, I’ve never looked back. The image it produces is far sharper than the standard 1080p footage, even when viewed on a 1080p screen. The extra resolution is also useful for more accurate camera tracking when doing VFX work, which is an area I am hoping to develop my skills in the future.

The camera still has many settings and features which I have never touched. Every once in while I will come across something useful and think to myself “how have I not known about this for the past two years?!”. I feel very comfortable with my camera, and am not planning on upgrading soon. While it does have some technical limitations when compared with newer options, I believe I am better off focusing my efforts into learning other areas of filmmaking than spending time worrying about specs.