A7s vs A7ii rolling shutter test? (please help)

[Justin LeBlanc]

Hi everyone,

1st post!

 

Blah Blah Blah:

After studying the gh4, a7s, bmpc, bm ursa mini, sony fs7, and 5d mkiii over the past month or so I have come to realize that I am chasing a feature set that can only be described as a unicorn. I realize that the ergonomics are never going to be ideal within this price range but I am willing to compromise because i have no intention of using this in a professional capacity. So ive narrowed down my potential choices to these, taking lenses and accessories into consideration.

 

I am unsatisfied with the frame rate limitations of the ursa mini but the global shutter is appealing and I am curious to see some test footage of the low light capabilities of it's sensor once someone gets their hands on one.

 

The rolling shutter delay in the a7s is pretty significant but the low light performance, ability to use slog 2 and slog 3 , and the xavc s codec are features that I would love to be able to have access to.

 

Just get on with it Im busy :

I havent seen a rolling shutter test or been able to find a rolling shutter lag time for the A7ii. Has anyone reading this had an opportunity to shoot with both the a7s and the a7ii? If so, does the cmos stabalizer mitigate rolling shutter lag and if so do you miss the low light capabilities of the a7ii?

 

Thanks for reading :)

 

[Tyler Purcell]

Hey Justin,

 

It's a huge debate and I've done a lot of research/testing because I've been hired to shoot stuff on the 7AS.

 

The rolling shutter is the worst of all the cameras, far worse then my blackmagic pocket, which is unfortunate.

 

The A7II doesn't appear to be any better, but even worse, it does all sorts of things to stabilize the image. I mean, that's nice and all, but I can't imagine it being good because it's doing it sensor side. So either the sensor is mounted on a magnetic plate or it's actively cropping pixels, which never works right.

 

The A7S and A7II only shoot 60FPS @ 1080p and 120fps @ 720p. The Ursa Mini shoots 60FPS @ 4k RAW internally and shoots 150fps @ 1080p RAW internally. Plus, the A7S and A7II only shoot 8 bit 4:2:0 MPEG files, even in S-Log mode. The only way to get 4:2:2 out of it is by using an external recorder and IT'S STILL 8 BIT! So good luck color grading, you'll be missing a lot of pixels in this 12 bit world we live in today.

 

The A7S has great low light, it's amazing, stunning, fantastic. But god help you if the camera moves, or something moves fast in front of the camera, it's just a blur.

 

In contrast the Ursa Mini shoots 4:4:4 12 bit raw files in 4k. Same as the top cinema cameras. Sure, it won't ever have that low light capability, but buy a A7S for that one or two times you need it and shoot with a real cinema camera every other time.

[Robert Houllahan]

A7s in APS-C mode rolling shutter is tolerable IMO in FF mode (why would anyone want to shoot in Vista Vision with f1.2 lenses???) it's terrible.

[Justin LeBlanc]

Thanks for the help !

[David Peterson]

Yeah, just use the A7s as normal, and then if you notice rolling shutter is becoming too much of an issue in a shoot just switch over to APS-C mode and it will be "solved" (or at least back down to "normal level", same as most other DSLR/MILC)

[Dan Finlayson]

I have an a7s and usually opt for APS-C because I like super35 over vista vision for most things I shoot. Also, I highly recommend a stabilized lens. I have the 24-70 zeiss zoom and the stabilization completely eliminates the shaky handheld jello effect of the rolling shutter. Make sure to shut it off if you're on sticks though, as it will try to eliminate subtle pans and tilts.