The a7s3 is a dream camera for most People but it's been out for a while and Might not live up to the hype in this Video I'm going to push the a7s3 to its Absolute limit to see how it compares to The newer and better cameras coming out Testing everything from 4K 120 to Incredible low light at 100 000 ISO including shooting an actual Project with it to see how it does in The real world and if you're new to the Channel my name is River and we talk About anything and everything to do with Camera gear including teaching you guys How to use your camera gear to its full Potential and if you want the best Pricing on any of the gear that we talk About today make sure to check out the Links in the description down below Alright guys let's figure out just how Good the A7 S3 is by shooting some epic Footage with it and most of you guys Watching this probably shoot weddings Interviews music videos commercials or Short films so I made sure to test this Camera out for those exact scenarios and At the very end we're going to shoot an Actual project with the a7s III the First thing that I wanted to test with This camera are the three most important Features in any camera these features Determine if your camera looks cinematic Or professional and that's dynamic range Colors and frame rates as for dynamic
Range I wanted to test this camera out In a variety of situations to see Exactly how far I could push the image In terms of dynamic range it has about 13 stops which is about three stops less Than the gold standard of a red camera Or an re Alexa for reference I shot most Of my footage in s-log 3 at base ISO of 640 and 12 800 with two stops Overexposed Sony recommends overexposing This camera for the best results when Shooting in bright outdoor conditions I Found the Highlight roll off to be Beautiful the a7s3 handles highlights Super well I cannot think of a single Instance where the highlights clipped They sort of just fade off into white Sort of like an Alexa and this is even With overexposing by two stops however Needing to overexpose by two stops in S-log 3 actually becomes a huge flaw on This camera I'll talk about this later On in the video where it makes more Sense and in low light or evening Conditions there's also plenty of Mid-tone and Shadow details basically Zero noise when shooting close to base ISO 640 or 12 800 in my case the sensor Can pick up plenty of image information Even in the dimmest of conditions and Speaking of low light wow just wow I was Able to shoot right out of a plane Window at 64 000 ISO in Pitch Black and still get a
Very good looking image I found 64 000 ISO is the upper limit for professional Use 100 000 ISO is pretty grainy but It's still insane that this camera does A hundred thousand ISO and a lot of this Is actually because of the incredible Sensor design in the a7s III alright so We might as well talk about the elephant In the room the A7 S3 has a 12 megapixel Full frame sensor I promise you it's not Low resolution for video most cameras Actually line Skip and don't use the Full sensor so the 4K from the A7 S3 Looks just as sharp and detailed as you Would from a competing camera like the Canon R5 or any other Sony camera and The low megapixel account actually Improve slow motion and rolling shutter The a7s3 can do 4K at 120 frames per Second in 10 bit 422 with zero rolling Shutter in any mode the a7s does not Crop it does not reduce quality or color Data because it has less megapixels to Read out this is a controversial thing To say but I actually think the 12 Megapixel sensor is the strength of the Sony a7s lastly let's talk about the Most important image test for any camera And that's colors and the a7s3 is Actually supposed to have the brand new Color science from Sony Cinema line of Cameras It's not that good this camera actually Doesn't have those same refined colors
That you would find in an fx6 or a Sony Venice on paper it's the same color Science But it's not the skin tones in the A7 S3 Still have a yellow and magenta Pollution and they still look kind of Dull and large patches of blue and green Look over saturated and have a really Odd plastic feel to them on any other Camera this would be an absolute deal Breaker but it's pretty easy to forgive On the a7s III for two main reasons it Has 10 bit color at 422 which is Becoming more common in mid-tier cameras But it also has the xavc codec which is Unique to Sony Now 10-bit call right 422 Will get you pretty close to the color Precision that you can get from a Professional cinema camera now this Gives you the ability to easily correct Any sort of skin tone issue but what's Really exciting is that this level of Color allows you to create a really Dense and cinematic look and the xavc Codec can record up to 600 megabits per Second which is an absolutely insane Amount of data it makes your video files Extremely resilient to color art facting Or macro blocking when you're applying a Color grade or heavily adjusting the Exposure although I should mention the A7 S3 has pretty beefy files you're Going to need a good computer I have an RTX 2080 super and I still had pretty
Long render times I recommend using xavc And leaving xavchs which is the high Compression one just out of it it's Super high compression and you need a Really strong processor to unpack those Files without making proxies and I know Everyone says the a7s3 is bad for photos But this level of flexibility in colors And dynamic range actually does carry Over to the photo sides and in my Testing I got some pretty decent results Although 12 megapixels is probably still Too low res for most Shooters so at the End of the day the a7s3 has a great Image it's definitely not on the same Level as a red camera or even an aria Alexa but I'd say it's pretty close to a Mid-tier cinema camera like the fx6 or The C70 but it's missing a lot of the More premium features that you find in a Cinema camera because there's so much More that goes into a camera than just Image quality like autofocus frame rates Stabilization and design for the Nexus I Wanted to see just how good the Autofocus was and I wanted to push it Too it's very limits to be more specific I stuck myself out of a moving card Which is super illegal and shot a Motorcycle stunt man and you might Notice most of this footage is way too Shaky to be usable but he's in Focus Okay but in all seriousness the Autofocus and Sony cameras is amazing
What stands out for me is one specific Thing the face tracking and object Tracking the camera actually knows what It's looking at a person an animal an Object even if it's a moving object like A car and the autofocus just works when Using the a7s with a gimbal I had zero Problems keeping my subject matter in Focus I could start 30 feet away go Right up close and everything would stay In Focus throughout the entire movement I also shot my friend who's an amazing Kickboxer he was throwing fast punches Left and right the camera was whipping Around and despite all of the chaos the Autofocus was quick and accurate if it Ever lost Focus the recovery was very Quick so for me this was really exciting Because I really wanted to shoot a lot Of movement for the final project and Speaking of stabilization I know the Motorcycle footage from earlier will Look like garbage but that wasn't the Camera's fault it was my fault because Using this camera is an absolute dream I Was able to get into really awkward low Angles and get shots that almost look Like I used a slider or stabilizer and On top of that it also has gyroscopic Stabilization built right in but there Is a small catch you have to use a Sony Catalyst software although it's free I Wish it was a plug-in for Premiere Pro Or Final Cut instead because otherwise
Every time you want to stabilize a clip You have to go into Catalyst browse and Stabilize it there and then re-import it Back into your main project it's a cool Feature but I don't think a lot of People will use it simply because it's Tied to the Sony editor it's unfortunate But now for the ultimate test shooting An actual project with this camera a Real world test a real client real Consequences so we're going to shoot an Actual live music video on the day of The shoot we only had three hours to do Everything and I'll be honest it was Pretty chaotic we were in a massive Studio space but with only two light Panels and these lights were absolute Garbage so it actually ended up being a Low light shoot because I shot the Entire day at 12 800 ISO and I was super Nervous because what if all the image Came back grainy and noisy because of 12 800 ISO but I was pretty shocked to see That pretty much all of it is super Clean you do lose a little bit of Dynamic range but overall it looks just As good as 640 ISO however as I Mentioned this earlier I found Constantly having to overexpose your Camera by two stops for s-log 3 which Gives you the most dynamic range is kind Of annoyance instead of focusing on Getting your image just right you're Constantly thinking about overexposing
By two stops and it's just a distraction From like the creative process I Actually recommend that most people Shoot this camera on standard you'll Lose only a tiny bit of dynamic range But for the most part you're still going To get 10 big color at 422 at a really High bit rate but the one thing that did Save the day with the a7s III was the Fact that the autofocus is amazing it's A super light camera that's really easy To balance for most of the day I was Just flying around on the Ronin trying To get as interesting of shots as I Possibly could the autofocus was Honestly the hardest thing working on Sets highly recommend it and design wise I don't really have any problems with The ergonomics or menus of the a7s III However I want to let you guys know There's also the fx3 which is the cinema Version of the a7s III it's pretty much The same camera just in a more Cinema-oriented body it's missing an Optical viewfinder but has a better Audio units all right so at the end of The day who's the a7s3 really 4 and Should you get one I tried to push this Camera as hard as I possibly could and It's a pretty unique offering there's Nothing else like this on the market Right now it has amazing low light God Level autofocus 4K at 120 without Cropping and it's super small smaller
Than any of the Canon cameras and the Level of flexibility with color and Exposure is pretty impressive there's Really nothing else like this on the Market although there is the Canon r5c Which has a 45 megapixel sensor if You're someone that definitely needs a High resolution sensor for photos that Might be the camera for you and that Camera also has 8K video I personally Would rather go with the Sony camera Because I want that extreme low light And I want that super fast autofocus but If you're someone that definitely has to Do photos and you need that high Resolution A7s3 is probably not for you and you Might want to actually look at the r5c If you guys want to see a video about The r5c up against the a7s3 let me know In the comments down below
