CMA Video’s production manager gives his thoughts on the latest camera from Sony.

Sony has announced its latest development in its video camera range with the launch of the  A7R Mark II as the electronics giant attempts to stay ahead of its competitors, particularly in light of rumours and news coming out of Canon.   Sony are doing some weird but amazing things and the Japanese company is becoming the Behringher of the video/film industry with affordable cameras but with top spec features.

The only negative I can see with the A7R MKII that might be an issue is its massive 42MP sensor, however Sony claim that there is actually no pixel binning.  The annoying native ISO3200 may still be there, that is found in the A7s. It does mean great low light but hard work when it comes to daylight. Sony may have lowered it ISO800 but that’s only in the pre-production model. Sony should allow you to shoot lower ISO in S-Log but they should just recommend that you use ISO3200, they could do this in firmware surely. A lot of ND is needed because of this, even if it stays at ISO800. Which means no tiny camera set-ups because you will need to rig your kit.

This camera features S-LOG 2 which is uber flat and gives a more rounded filmic look than the FS7 because its sensor is huge, even though super 35 is the industry standard this goes past that and the imagery is stunning. Another amazing thing is that it shoots 4K internally with the X-AVC codec from Sony which is pretty robust.

I have not tested any of the sensor image stabilisation yet, but it does sound exciting if it works and means no more DJi Ronin’s or Octo-copters.