Sony a7S Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera, Part 3: Video Camera Review
In the last two articles in this 3-part series on the Sony a7S, we covered a lot of ground discussing what to look for in video lenses and lens adapters for the Sony e-mount that is native to the Sony a7S. Now it is time to take a deeper look at the Sony a7S as a video camera, with comparisons to the Canon 5D MKIII and Panasonic DMC-GH4.
There is an App for That
It used to be that if you wanted to produce a timelapse, you would have to connect an intervalometer to your DSLR, take thousands of photos, and then stitch them together on a video timeline. Now you can leave the intervalometer at home because Sony has a timelapse app for that. In addition to a few free camera apps available from the Sony PlayMemories store online--like the Smart Remote Control for your cell phone or tablet--you can also buy a few paid apps. I dropped $20 on the Star Trail, Smooth Reflection, Motion Shot, and Time-lapse apps. The first three produce photos with effects, but the Time-lapse app produces a sequence of JPGs or a 1980 30P or 24P motion JPEG video file in an AVI wrapper.
I tested both and found the 30P MJPGs AVI file suffered from aliasing that wasn’t present on the 24P MJPG AVI file. It could also be that my 1080 30P test was a longer timelapse and had higher compression than my 24P test, but needless to say, I will need to do more testing and it is possible a future app update will correct this problem. Regardless, the ability to add functionality to the α7S via an inexpensive app is an exciting proposition.
The Sony α7S TimeLapse app suffered from aliasing in the 30P Motion JPEG setting that is visible in this 4x crop but wasn’t visible on the 24P or still image settings. Sony 11-18mm f/4 lens. Click the image to see it at full size.
I do firmly believe that the Sony α7S will be remembered as a game-changer, and held in the same regard as the Canon 5D MKII. Ultimately, that will depend on how quickly Sony releases (or doesn’t release) additional camera and video camera form factor versions based on the same full-frame sensor.
Sony is finally catching up with native E-mount lenses, long a thorn in FS100 and FS700 users’ sides as they cobbled together solutions with lenses designed for different mounts. It is a pity they couldn’t add internal 4K recording but that just leaves Sony room to release yet another model in their growing E-mount lineup.
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