Sony (Finally) Embraces 4K October 08 2015, 0 Comments

We've long been fans of Sony cameras all the way back to the Betacam days (yeah, we're old), but in our humble opinion they have been a bit slow to embrace 4K video recording - specifically internal 4K recording - in their more affordable cameras (like the a7S or FS700). 

Their cameras have had the ability to record 4K, but only to external recorders. While external recorders can be great for getting higher-quality footage from a clean SDI or HDMI signal (for compositing, etc.), they also can be a pain - especially for run & gun style shooting.

But, that's no longer an issue starting with the full-frame mirrorless a7RII and the recent (but more expensive) FS7 camera. 

Sweet.

Check out this in-depth a7RII  review from Dave Duggdale:

We're actually very interested in the recently announced a7SII and the FS5 (we're really excited about this one). Both of these are also affordable 4K options (that record internally).

What we really like about these cameras, besides the price, is they will work on a variety of jobs including indie film work, corporate, commercial and weddings - depending on your area of interest and/or expertise.

In other words, they are versatile cameras.  

Cameras come and go and change very often, so when you're going to invest $3K or $5K or $10K on a rig then you want it to be be versatile. What do we mean by versatile?

Primarily the ability to shoot in both film-style and ENG-style configurations.

Often times small cameras (like DSLRs) are not very good for ENG work (like shooting events or news and the like). While they're small and light (which can be good and bad), they're often hard to focus (using photo lenses)... typically not very stabilized (at least without a cage or stabilizing rig)... not good for audio (no XLR inputs)... etc.

Of course the a7RII still has a few of these issues (although there are accessories available), but the FS5 does not (along with it's big brother the FS7). That's one reason we're really excited about the FS5. Did we mention that already? Yeah, we did.

All in all though we're happy to see Sony and pretty much every other camera manufacturer embrace 4K... we guess the next question is though, do we really need it? :)

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.