A7s or GH4 - which for you?

[Noa Put]

Clive; having had the possibility to shoot with a gh4 last wedding one thing that crossed my mind when using this camera is how well it would match up with my other camera as I consider that an important aspect. If I combine gh4 and gh3 footage I need to sharpen up the gh3 footage in post, in that case it can be matched though you still do see a small difference, but not in a way that I can't use both together.

I believe you have a 6d? I have seen some more a7s footage and in 1080p it's a pretty sharp camera, have you considered the problems you might get matching it with your 6d or any other camera you have? .

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Clive McLaughlin

OK, so I just emailed CVP to cancel my pre-order. Why? Digitalrev have just begun selling the A7S for immediate shipping at £1750!!!

Clive did you receive your A7s? I'm still thinking that this might be a better alternative than using my 5D for ease of focussing but I have a big investment in Canon glass so need to know of any pitfalls in using EF lenses with this camera.

Cheers

Pete

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Peter Rush

Clive did you receive your A7s? I'm still thinking that this might be a better alternative than using my 5D for ease of focussing but I have a big investment in Canon glass so need to know of any pitfalls in using EF lenses with this camera.

Cheers

Pete

I'd also like to hear about this too. I'm on the fence between the GH4 and A7s for 4K work I have coming up. I'm leaning towards the GH4 as a body simply because of in camera 4K recording rather than needing the external recorder for the Sony. OTOH I'm not ready to invest in lots of M43 glass and have lots of Canon glass for the C100 I'd love to be able to use, including the Samyang manual lenses.

[Noa Put]

One thing to consider is price, as I understand a Atomos Shogun 4K will be around 2k which brings the camera and 4K recorder to a whopping 4,5k excl lenses.

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

One thing to consider is price, as I understand a Atomos Shogun 4K will be around 2k which brings the camera and 4K recorder to a whopping 4,5k excl lenses.

That's a good point well made Noa, though I'm planning on buying a Shogun at some point anyway for general monitoring and capture of HD to ProRes from the C100.

The shogun screen is so much nicer than the Ninja I have now and also provides waveforms and vector scopes still not available in most cameras. This helps big time for exposure and white balance on set - when you have time to do it that is - though it's unlikely to be most people's idea of a run & gun wedding camera / combo.

Actually, I'm holding off until Canon announces the 7D2 which I'm hoping will also have native 1:1 4K, internal 4K recording and 4K output via HDMI. We'll see! They have the 1Dc to protect.

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Dave Partington

Actually, I'm holding off until Canon announces the 7D2 which I'm hoping will also have native 1:1 4K, internal 4K recording and 4K output via HDMI.

They won't do this. The 7D Mark II will have the same features as the 5D Mark III in APS-C form with Dual Pixel Auto Focus.

[Steve Burkett]

I'll be surprised if the 5d mark IV doesn't have 4k; like the GH4 its got the right number for it and it makes sense to introduce this feature first for that level of camera rather than the one below it. Probably got a bit of a wait mind you.

[Robert Benda]

Well, I'm guessing that we'll be staying with what we have for a bit, then, while we wait for something like the A7s, with built-in 4K recording, and a follow-focus, and my own unicorn, please, too.

Seriously, I don't want to spend $4500 per camera for the A7s' 4K (camera+Shogun), which I would have considered over the GH4 because of its' low-light ability.

Maybe now I'll wait and see what Sony does with its new curved sensor they patented.

Or if Canon does anything really useful with its announcement.

[Darren Levine]

if only canon would take a tip from sony and make all their new cameras with the EOS-M mount.....

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Gary Huff

They won't do this. The 7D Mark II will have the same features as the 5D Mark III in APS-C form with Dual Pixel Auto Focus.

Yeah, I know, but we can hope, and it's not that long to wait until september so probably worth holding off to see what else emerges around photokina. 4K is where things are headed and there have been a few times this year I could have used it to great effect. And is it so wrong to want something with a global shutter ? Arrgghh!!! (no I don't want the Black Magic 4K)

[Craig McKenna]

Originally Posted by Dave Partington

I'd also like to hear about this too. I'm on the fence between the GH4 and A7s for 4K work I have coming up. I'm leaning towards the GH4 as a body simply because of in camera 4K recording rather than needing the external recorder for the Sony. OTOH I'm not ready to invest in lots of M43 glass and have lots of Canon glass for the C100 I'd love to be able to use, including the Samyang manual lenses.

The Atomos Shogun looks incredible Dave, couldn't fault you for going the A7S route either with the low light performance that camera provides. Have you considered a Metabones speedbooster to use your Canon lenses with the Micro 4/3 mount though? I've seen Philip Bloom using them to great effect:

Metabones®

Might be a little pricey, but it would enable you (as far as I understand) to use your Canon lenses with your GH4! Of course you'd need to consider the crop factor and how that would affect the focal length of your lenses.

I just received the GH4 earlier this month and it's a stunning camera... I think for the price, it's an easy buy in comparison to the A7S... unless you're able to afford both easily and low light performance is important (as it is in the wedding world). It's easy for me to jump to the GH4 as I'm heavily invested with Micro 4/3 glass, but even without that investment, it would be a close call.

Whichever you choose, I'm sure that you'll love it! I would really love the low light performance of the A7S though. It would be a massive factor for me if I was able to choose either camera with no consequences.

[Dave Partington]

Originally Posted by Craig McKenna

The Atomos Shogun looks incredible Dave, couldn't fault you for going the A7S route either with the low light performance that camera provides.

Fortunately, outside of weddings low light is not quite so important. I'm often able to setup and use lighting when ever needed for the corporate and charity shoots I do.

As far as I can see, the GH4 doesn't suffer the same moiré & aliasing issues the A7s has, which is hugely important to me. I understand it's a 1:1 4K (more cropped too), so pixel binning is not longer an issue.

Can you confirm this with the GH4?

Also, how far are you willing to push the GH4 in low light before it gets too much (I realise this is subjective), especially when downscaling to 1080p for final output (which should help noise anyway).

[Robert Benda]

Good point, Dave, though to take it one step further.... even just having the GH4 do *better* than, say, the Canon 5d Mark iii, or at least as good, would be pretty nice. I guess we're just unfairly comparing everything to that A7s now, but in reality, just having a pretty clean image at ISO 6400 allows even f/2.8 in most situations, nevermind faster lenses.

[Noa Put]

When you downscale 4K from the gh4 on a 1080p timeline 6400 iso looks clean to my eye on a big screen, I constantly shoot with f1.4, f1.8 and f2.0 lenses wide open with a manageable dof to get your focus right. Since I can shoot brighter then what I can see with my own eyes that is all I need to shoot candlelit dinner parties as I want to show it like everyone saw it that moment. The GH4 is just fine to shoot at dark receptions, you only won't turn night into day like the a7s can but why would you do that anyway?

[Ade Towell]

I think a nice thing with having super high iso is you then have control over depth of field so you're not always having to use 1.4 aperture - it gives you more choices

Also the A7s exhibits no moire or aliaising in full frame mode, only aps-c