Industry News: Sony Alpha a7s III images leak ahead of tomorrow’s announcement

[richperson]

Also the dual sd/cfe cardslot is awesome!! The R5 should have this too!

I would have liked dual CFExpress slots in the R5, but note that the Sony has CFExpress type A, which is much smaller and half the speed of type B, which is in the R5. It would not have been nearly fast enough for 8k.

 

[Quarkcharmed]

I would have liked dual CFExpress slots in the R5

I wouldn't. The cost of 2 CFexpress cards would approach and may go beyond a $1000.

 

[richperson]

I wouldn't. The cost of 2 CFexpress cards would approach and may go beyond a $1000.

Have you compared CFExpress to SD type II?

CFExpress 128GB 1700/1200 read/write $199
SDXC UHS-II 128GB 300/260 read/write $199

Both Sandisk Pro

Which one is more expensive or the better deal?

 

[Sporgon]

Big pixels + 16-bit sensor. It's very important it's 16-bit sensor. 14 bits wouldn't have given it a big advantage.

The difference between 16 bit and 14 bit will be negligible as it will be even less than going from 12 to 14. I bet there's no difference in highlight headroom.

 

[adigoks]

Maybe it won't have a completely ridiculous, unpredictable, laughable overheating problem?

im pretty sure you are going to upgrade your iphone with A7SIII , right?

 

[Baron_Karza]

im pretty sure you are going to upgrade your iphone with A7SIII , right?

Actually, I think I am going to stick with my iPhone 11 Pro. (psss...it don't overheat )

 

[Quarkcharmed]

Have you compared CFExpress to SD type II?

Sorry. I was thinking in Australian dollars. 256Gb card is 500-600 AUD.

 

[marathonman]

Maybe it won't have a completely ridiculous, unpredictable, laughable overheating problem?

Who'd have thought that the YouTubers would be living in such a miserable time where there is such a shortage of affordable options for shooting cat videos. Hopefully Covid "magically disappears" so that the clickbait / faux outrage articles reduce to only 32.751 million per day and the "gurus" can get back to shooting cat videos in far off places instead of competing for YouTube clicks.... ;-)

 

[DBounce]

First footage is out. This is from the guy that leaked the images of the A7S3:

 

[Quarkcharmed]

The difference between 16 bit and 14 bit will be negligible as it will be even less than going from 12 to 14. I bet there's no difference in highlight headroom.

The difference is actually noticeable if you compare 16-bit medium-format raw files against 14-bit at pixel level, 4ex GFX100 vs GFX50.

I bet there's no difference in highlight headroom.

Noise is measured in the shadows. When you're trying to untilise all the DR of your camera, you normally expose to the right.

 

[NorskHest]

The EVF MP count is crazy! This is what makes the camera a 4k$ model I think?

Never thought that we will have this fast more then the high end 5,7MP currently!

Also the dual sd/cfe cardslot is awesome!! The R5 should have this too!

But I think this camera is a bit late.... no RAW internal... and really expensive for a 12MP small video camera with FE mount?
Maybe they could give it a new name like A7v (v for video)?!^^
Astrophotographer will not switch I think.

This camera is not late, for the video crowd this could be the almost perfect tool. As long as they keep hevc codec out of this it will be fantastic. If this really does have no record limit, an even better sensor than the old one, that crazy duel card slot creation, 4K 120, their Cinetone color science I’ll start selling off my canon gear. Raw video really isn’t anything to be excited about, if you’ve never edited and stored raw video footage then you don’t get what I’m saying. A lot of people have complained about motion JPEG but don’t understand that codec allowed cameras to capture beautiful imagery and not over heat. All these new codecs are going to make all of our editing lives a living hell.

 

[agarabaghi]

Hmm how exactly is it going record externally 4k120? Like to a usb c drive like z cams?

If sony doesnt have 4k120 internet thats kinda missed option.

 

[bsbeamer]

CF Express type A is a odd choice. It is by far better than SD cards, but it is kinda the black sheep of the CF Express world and I would assume SD Express, while not as durable, would still be used there.

There was a rumor that Sony had been ramping up production CF Express Type A cards, so this might be at least part of the reason. Still think those cards are a poor fit, but they also went with Memory Stick for longer than most would have recommended.

 

[richperson]

Sorry. I was thinking in Australian dollars. 256Gb card is 500-600 AUD.

I wasn't really talking about the dollar amount as much as that an SD card fast enough to run full 45MP bursts or record 4k will cost the same as a CFExpress card, but will be much slower. I think. CFExpress cards seem to be a bargain compared to SD UHS-II cards. Of course UHS-I cards are cheap, but their write speeds are very slow.

 

[agarabaghi]

There was a rumor that Sony had been ramping up production CF Express Type A cards, so this might be at least part of the reason. Still think those cards are a poor fit, but they also went with Memory Stick for longer than most would have recommended.

Depends on the codec used. ALL-I will prob require CFExpress but IPB (from the R5 sheet) could record to v60 / v90 SD cards.

 

[privatebydesign]

Big pixels + 16-bit sensor. It's very important it's 16-bit sensor. 14 bits wouldn't have given it a big advantage.

All sensors are 16 bit capable until you get to the ADC, they use 14bit files because all the relevant information available can be contained in a 14 bit file. The output that we have seen so far from 16bit files has not been reflected in the DR measurements but mainly from the area advantage 'medium format' digital sensors have. There is no measurable difference between the GFX100 14 bit and 16 bit RAW files until you do stupid things like under expose by six stops.

I've already preordered the R5, and the preliminary DR measurements on the R5 are very very promising btw. I expect it to be on par with A7RIV.
But this beast in question will likely beat them all.

It should do, but only by an incremental amount. The GFX100 bests the 1DX III (same sensor as the R6 so current tech) by one stop of DR at full sensor readout, when it is normalized for per area performance that DR advantage drops to less than half a stop at low iso, at high iso the GFX100 cooks the RAW file.

Photographic Dynamic Range versus ISO Setting

www.photonstophotos.net

 

[Quarkcharmed]

I wasn't really talking about the dollar amount as much as that an SD card fast enough to run full 45MP bursts or record 4k will cost the same as a CFExpress card, but will be much slower. I think. CFExpress cards seem to be a bargain compared to SD UHS-II cards. Of course UHS-I cards are cheap, but their write speeds are very slow.

Yeah right, probably you're right.
For the R5 however I was thinking about a 128Gb UHS-II card + 256 Gb CFexpress. 64Gb is usually enough for all my photo needs on 5DIV for many days of photo trips, so 128Gb will be more than enough, and I'd write stills to both cards. Extra 128Gb on CFexpress will leave some room for videos.

So in my setup a CFexpress card will have 2 times capacity of an SD card and will cost 2x more.

 

[privatebydesign]

The difference is actually noticeable if you compare 16-bit medium-format raw files against 14-bit at pixel level, 4ex GFX100 vs GFX50.

No it isn't, the differences between the GFX50 and GFX100 are down to the fact that they are different generation sensors.

Compare the 14 and 16 bit RAW files from the GFX100 and I haven't seen a difference until you go to stupid extremes of six stop underexposure.

 

[Deleted member 381342]

Yeah right, probably you're right.
For the R5 however I was thinking about a 128Gb UHS-II card + 256 Gb CFexpress. 64Gb is usually enough for all my photo needs on 5DIV for many days of photo trips, so 128Gb will be more than enough, and I'd write stills to both cards. Extra 128Gb on CFexpress will leave some room for videos.

So in my setup a CFexpress card will have 2 times capacity of an SD card and will cost 2x more.

You might want to consider a bigger CF Express card for video. 256GB isn't a lot of minutes of footage. Also consider saving some money and just using CF Express(perhaps even a bigger card), it is not some fragile SD card.

 

[Quarkcharmed]

All sensors are 16 bit capable until you get to the ADC

Not exactly - in order to be 16-bit capable, each pixel should be able to accommodate at least 65535 electrons. I don't know the well capacity of GFX100 sensors tbh. I suppose they are 16-bit capable. The 12Mp sensor in question will have a much greater well capacity, I suppose.
Now one-electron noise level will be four times less significant on a 16-bit sensor than on a 14-bit sensor, roughly speaking.

it is normalized for per area performance that DR advantage drops to less than half a stop.

But it's still better