A GH4 in the Hand vs. Sony a7S Preorder
Friday, May 16, 2014 at 1:01AM 
I returned my GH4 and pre-ordered a Sony a7S.
It’s Not You GH4, it’s Me
After shooting very few tests with a small handful of lenses, including full-frame glass on a Metabones speedbooster, I packed up my Panasonic GH4 and sent it back to B&H. As much as I loved the controls, the form-factor, the variable frame rates and 4K sharpness, I couldn’t fall in love with the image quality.
But I came here not to bury the GH4, but to praise it. It’s a freaking awesome little camera. Here are just a few highlights:
- After years of shooting with Canon DSLRs, having an electronic viewfinder with peaking, zebras, and even functional touch-to-focus was beyond refreshing.
- I even put the little guy on my stabilizer and experimented with using autofocus. It was easy to set up an autofocus zone at a custom position and size within the frame, and the camera would quietly and smoothly focus the Vario 12–35 ƒ2.8 zoom lens on the subject, keeping up with all but the most abrupt of movements. Truly useful autofocus.
- Variable frame rates are handled in a lovely way. You do have to dig in a menu for them, but once there, you have all the funky speeds you could want, including the all-important 22. Yes, 96 fps is a bit soft. But dude. 96 fps. And you can see your slow or fast motion playing back on the sharp, highly-positionable touch LCD.
A Crushing Blow
Ultimately, what doomed the GH4 for me was (what I perceived to be) its lack of dynamic range. Even after flattening out the image with the ample picture stye controls, my GH4 footage felt like reversal, not a neg. It felt crunchier and more brittle than even the footage from my 5D Mark III.
That, combined with a noisy image that didn’t degrade well in low-light situations, made me feel like the GH4 just wasn’t quite cinematically making up for its smaller sensor. Even with a Metabones speedbooster and a fast 50, I couldn’t quite coax the sexiness out of it.
To be crystal clear: The GH4 is a great camera. It just wasn’t for me.
For real, thoughful reviews of the GH4, check out the epic, detailed review at Cameralabs and Philip Bloom’s evolving video review.
You can never get enough of what you don’t need.
It’s easy to pick a camera for a particular project. But in the ever-changing world of tiny, affordable digital cinema cameras, if you don’t have a shoot on the calendar with specific camera requirements, then no camera will seem adequate. There will always be a “next camera,” the one that gets to be perfect in your mind rather than imperfect in your hand.
For many, that camera right now is the Sony a7S. I haven’t written about this little mirrorless marvel here yet, but you’ve heard all about it, I’m sure. It’s the latest in Sony’s line of impossibly-slim full-frame mirrorless cameras. It shoots 1080p video internally at up to 60 fps, and 4K 24p to an external recorder.
But what excites me most about it is that it seems to have the most remarkable low-light capability of any camera on the market (owing, presumably, to the gigantic gapless photosites on its modestly-megapixeled, 5D-sized sensor). Yes, this is fun for the stunt of turning night into day, but in practical terms this means low noise at normal light levels. And this little deck of cards with a lens mount shoots log. Which means it wants to be graded.
I’m fully aware that I’ve caught a case of next-camera syndrome here. I’ll let you know if the a7S is the cure, or just another symptom.
The Sony a7S is $2,500 USD and available for pre-order at Amazon and B&H.
Stu
I just ordered the newly-redesigned Metabones Canon EF to Sony NEX lens adapter so I can use my Canon lenses on the a7S.
Reader Comments (15)
"It felt crunchier and more brittle than even the footage from my 5D Mark III." I have noticed the same "brittle" feel from the jgp images (can't process raw images yet) but not from the video files.
In my tests with the Natural Profile and contrast all the way down the Gh4 has more dynamic range than my 5D3. I have some dynamic range side-by-side tests that are quite striking that I will show in my review.
But since you have a much better eye for this than I do, I will need to go back and re-test!
I have feeling this is the camera for me and not the A7s because I will be too lazy to add an external 4K recorder.
Dave
I'm actually not too surprised to read that ;) I was very interested in your opinion of the GH4. I never really liked the subjective image quality of the camera, despite the impressive specs on paper.
I don't understand much of the technical aspects of meassuring image quality but to me, most of the GH4 clips I saw on the web could have been shot on any DSLR. Kinda blotchy and blown out highlights. When you listed it under the "needables", i was surprised and thought that maybe the youtube compression gave me a wrong impression.
I prefer the "cleaner" look of the Canon C series.
Then again, having the creative freedom of weird framerates is cool and might be more important than just image quality. "Getting the idea across" is maybe more beneficial than detailed shadows. The "instagram effect"...But still, so far im not really impressed by the look.
Stu,
Get an A7 or A7r right now. Not for video (which is okay) but for stills. Form factor and image quality is fantastic and tons of adapters for lenses you own today.
Dave,
If you are shooting 4K with GH4 or Sony or any and you want a to really see what you are shooting, you will want an external monitor for focus etc. Since the Atomos Shogun is both - monitor and 4K recorder, seems like a no brainer.
Isn't the A7s only 8bit internally and out? I remember that and it's lack of 4K DCI resolution being the two reasons I kind of disqualified it immediately. The rolling shutter looked utterly atrocious from Andrew's video as well. I'm hoping that got ironed out at least.
Kicker for me is that Sony have listed the dynamic range of this little devil as 15.3.
Que?
That blows all Blackmagic cams out of the water. The alexa is 14!
Dave, I know what you're saying, and the issue is something I've had a hard time putting my finger on.
I, too, plan on being too lazy to use an external recorder, even though the Atomos Shogun looks great.
Roman, if 4K is what matters to you, then the GH4 might be a great choice.
Ross, I'd take that number with a grain of salt. Let's see for ourselves.
I just preordered the a7s (following your link, of course). My first preorder ever, of any kind of product.
My reasons, in case anybody cares:
* I want FF in order to make the best out of my lens set (vintage Leica-R).
* I don't need 4K, I just want sharp and clean 1080p.
* The DR looks great. Probably not 15 stops in video mode, but Den Lennie said it's just like in his F5, and that one is two stops better than the C300, which I think is slightly better than the 5D3+RAW, which is clearly better than the 5D3+H264. If I get 10 usable stops, I'll be a very happy camper.
* Even if it is 8-bit, the internal codec seems really good, which is definitely a must if you're cramming so much DR in only 256 luminance values.
* No matter what the theoretical problems are, in practice the footage seems to look great. In particular, I haven't noticed any 8-bit-related issues.
* Rolling shutter seems just slightly worse than what I currently have in my 5N. Even though the 5N is the second slowest camera I have tested (behind the D90) this has never been an issue for me.
* 720p120 is a nice bonus.
All very, very personal, but for me this is a mini-C100, for half the money and at a fifth of the size, with a better EVF, a bigger sensor and (I hope) better DR. No internal ND filters and slower RS are the only downsides I can think of, but it shoots 4K externally if you ever need it.
Man Stu, you just confirmed what I have been feeling. A lot of users have been praising the image of the GH4 and increased dynamic range because the Cine-D picture style. For some reason, it doesn't matter what settings I have used, the image keeps coming out noisy and very thin to grade. There just isn't much latitude to grade the image like I want to. I thought it was just me and I was setting the curves and settings wrong, but I guess it's not. The camera is amazing, except for the dynamic range and noise issues. Other than that, I love the camera, but I need more DR and less noise.
For the price of the camera, and what you get, this camera is awesome. It's just not for me. I wish it was.
DJ at DSLRFilmnoob mentioned that he had talked to the Sony rep and NAB and they said that the by the time the camera shipped they were confident the rolling shutter would be under control. So I think thats something to wait for.... It was a pre-production model, after all. I'm excited about it, personally.
http://www.dslrfilmnoob.com/2014/04/12/more-sony-a7s-low-light-testing-a-hero-4-in-the-works-and-a-4k-pocket-recorder-rumor/
Den Lennie, who shot the promo video above, told me he didn't notice any issues with rolling shutter. Better to judge by his footage than by someone whipping the camera back and forth on a telephoto lens.
I am a new GH4/Sigma 18-35/Speedbooster owner. It's an exciting combo, but I know nothing is perfect.
While inconvenient, the thin/brittle image will surely be fattened/strengthened by using an external recorder, as has been mentioned.
Does the 0-255 range of the GH4 not approach Sony's SLOG in practice?
Related to the above question, it sounds like the internal codec of the Sony is superior, even though the bitrate is 1/4 of the GH4. No question here. Just admiration. Sony must be packing a lot of information into it.
Has 8 bit improved somehow? I purchased the GH4 in part for its 10 bit capability. The Canon C### cameras are 8 bit and make nice images. I suspect the A7R will be the same. Is the practical difference between 8 and 10 bit no longer what it once was?
Good 10-bit is still better than good 8-bit. And bad 10-bit is still better than bad 8-bit. But good 8-bit vs bad 10-bit, it can go either way.
Footage looks sharp and clean. I see some blown out clouds, so I would not put the dynamic range above the Canon C series cameras, unless they have improved it in the final production run.
The colors look very plastic to me. I have seen some great LUTs for the Sony F55 that help it mimic film color processing greatly. I wonder what those would do for this footage.
I am glad to hear no major rolling shutter issues.
Thanks Stu. Very helpful getting your take on this camera. I have my eye on the Sony A7s now too and I'm wondering if you've ever used the Zeiss Touit lenses. They have some crazy deals at B&H on kits with the Sony E-Mount. Thanks for your time.
The results of the riddle test are out:
Camera 1: F3 SLOG
Camera 2: F55 Slog2
Camera 3: a7S Slog2
Camera 4: FS700 Slog2
Camera 5: F55 Slog3
That means:
* The a7s has more headroom in the highlights than any other camera in the test, except the FS700 (which has way noisier shadows)
* The a7s has at least the same range into the shadows as all the others, except F55+slog3
In particular, compared with the F3 (my favorite in the blind Zacuto shootout, tied with the Alexa), it has more headroom in the highlights, and shadows that are lifted up but not cleaner (about the same noise, I would say). So, maybe slightly more DR, definitely not less.
Couple that with this and this, and it must be at least 3 or 4 stops better than the 5D3+H.264 in terms of DR, which means it is in BlackMagic RAW territory.
I already know I'll be really happy with the a7s, even if it is only 8-bit and only high-ISO, and no matter how bad the rolling shutter is, etc.
The only thing I don't know yet is if I will want an external recorder, to reduce noise in the shadows a bit.