Tech Column

Small is the New Big

Good things do come in small packages, and the Sony a7R II and a7S II are prime examples. The line has advanced quickly in a short time frame: the a7 and a7R were announced in fall 2013, quickly followed by the a7S six months later. The a7 II was announced in fall 2014, followed by the a7R II in June 2014, and then, just to confuse things, the a7S II in September 2015. In either of the latest two formats, it’s a mirrorless camera with a magnesium alloy body, though the 7R II has a massive 42.4 MP CMOS sensor, while the 7S II has a 12.1 Mp sensor. And while Sony has long partnered with Carl Zeiss and has a great range of superb lenses, the genius of this little box (127 x 96 x 60 mm and 582 grams) is that it will take pretty well any lens you want with the right adaptor. We asked a couple of Toronto DPs, James Klopko csc and CSC associate Scott McClellan, both of whom have worked with the a7S II and a7R II respectively to offer their insights. Klopko (jamesklopko.com) bought the a7S II, noting it’s more video friendly: “Still shooters go for the big sensor, but at 12.1 MP there’s less noise in the A7S II, which is what I want.” The a7R IIc locks in with a base ISO of 100 to 12,800 but can expand to 102,400 from 50, while the a7S II has a 100 to 102,000 ISO, which can expand to 409,600 from 50. “It really is beautifully sensitive,” Klopko said, noting he used that feature to shoot a documentary segment at night, adding Sony’s tweaking tool, Zebra, which overlays stripes to indicate fine

exposure levels that was a decided plus. “We also did a time lapse and downloaded the app, which did a great job for us,” he said. “You boot into it, set the intervals, exposure, and then it does the rest. It even produces a 1080p video file, which saves you having to stitch it all together in post. I think it cost $10 or something like that.” Having already invested in Canon mount glass for his Canon 5D Mark III, it was also a relief to be able to buy an adapter which allowed a seamless switch. “The good adapters work with the exposure and focus so it’s really helpful,” said Klopko, whose most recent notable works include the multi award-winning Sleeping Giant (City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film, TIFF 2015). DSLR form factors aren’t just about stills anymore and the video capture features don’t skimp, which is why both Klopko and McClellan (aascottmcclellan.com), who won Best Cinematography at the 2014 Atlantic Film festival with his debut feature Cast No Shadow, are warming to the intimacy it allows. “I have a Sony FS-7, and what I like about the a7R II is that the colour lutz match up easily,” McClellan said. “So whether I’m working on a reality show or a documentary or an interview, I can use both cameras and they’ll work together. The menu on the a7R II isn’t the same, but the Sony logic is there so it’s intuitive.” The small form factor is both a plus and a negative, Klopko adds: “There are so many buttons it’s hard not to touch on one when setting up a rig. But you get used to them and they are programmable, so we used that feature with the rig when shooting. The small size, however, means people don’t notice it as much, which is good.” As for the specs, video capture is up to 4K with MPEG-4, AVCHD (28 Mbits/s) and XAVC (50 Mbit/s) on board at 3840 x 2160p and 30 or 24 fps with XAVC S format up to 100 Mbps using the Super 35 crop mode. HD 1920 x 1080p runs up to 60 fps and HD 1280 x 720p up to 120 fps. There’s the option of an external monitor, of course, or you can view through the 0.5” 2.36M-dot XGA OLED electronic viewfinder or more comfortably with the 3” 1,228.8k-dot tilting LCD monitor. There’s also on-board WiFi connectivity with NFC and on-board S-Log2 Gamma and S-Gamut settings with fully customizable picture profiles. Finally, there’s a five-axis stabilization system built in, which McClellan says he also found to be a useful feature. “I was shooting a commercial and it involved following a hockey player around and we were in a dressing room scene and there were a lot of people around and space was tight, so I used the a7R II without a gimbal and just shot,” he said. “That was a big plus over having to take my FS-7 in there. It was really unobtrusive and people aren’t as intimidated by the camera because they can relate more to it because of the size. The tilts screen monitor was good too.” The only thing missing, he can see, is an HD SDI in and out connection, but overall he’s impressed with the unit.

Ian Harvey is a Toronto-based journalist who writes for a va riety of publications and covers the technology sector. He welcomes feedback and eagerly solicits ideas at ian@pitbullmedia.ca