Another Canon blog says, "It's time to move on and say goodbye to the Mark III"

In the course of his terrific short review of the new $2498 Sony A7s, Johnnie Behiri of cinema5d joins the chorus of Canon bloggers who are either leaving Canon themselves - or explicitly recommending that shooters "move on" from the 5D Mark III.

I happen to agree with Johnnie (and Dave Dugdale and Caleb Pike) on this. The $3000+ 5D Mark III is not a very good value for money for video shooters at this point - especially now that it has lost its competitive advantage as the only moire-resistant full frame video-capable camera in the marketplace.

Like the GH4, the full-frame A7s meets or beats the 5D Mark III's image quality without forcing shooters to deal with a on old-fashioned fixed LCD, lack of video viewfinder, poor codec selection and soft 1080p.

Johnnie also prefers the A7s' full-frame look to the GH4's at 1080p - even though the Sony is a 30 minute, region-locked camera with no internal 4K recording (and its external 4K ouput is 8-bit).

As you can tell from this list, I differ a little from Johnnie here. I need a video camera with hours of continuous recording, a battery that will last me all day and internal 4K for future-proofing.  The full-frame look doesn't make up for the A7s' lack of these basics, in my view.

But for Canon shooters who are hesitant to move to a micro 4/3 sensor - especially those who want a smart adapter for their EF lenses- the best full-frame video-capable camera on the market right now is the Sony A7s (and I haven't even mentioned its amazing low light capabilities).

To underline how good this camera is (and how good Johnnie is), here's the video that accompanied his review:



Pretty much the only way for Canon to beat the A7s among full-frame afficionados would be to introduce a "1D C lite" 5D Mark IV with internal 4K recording to a decent codec. Or, as Dave Dugdale suggested the other day, they could just lower the price on the 1D C.

It will be very interesting to see what Canon does here.

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Sony Builds Anticipation for A7s with "Detailed Hands On" Video!

In the video below, Sony builds anticipation for the world's first full-frame camera with UHD ("4K") output. This camera records internally at up to 1080/60p and 720/120p compressed to 50mbps - a relatively low bit rate by modern standards. What really sets it apart, however, is the ability to record video at up to ISO 409600 (!). With this kind of light-gathering capability and external UHD recording, this camera should be the low-light/high resolution king. Here's the video:



I went to NAB very excited to see this camera - especially since I wasn't able to be there until Day 2 of the show. I watched the big Sony press event online on Day 1 and couldn't wait to get over to the Sony booth and get my hands on the camera. When I arrived, I was fortunate enough to get a chance to handle it and talk to a couple of Sony reps who had flown in from Japan. The high ISO sensitivity is real - and it produced great output on the show floor - but we'll have to see what the footage looks like once it's in the hands of shooters who don't work for Sony.

For those who need extreme low light sensitivity and the full-frame "look", but don't mind buying or renting an external recorder for UHD and don't need: 4096x2160 4K; 1080p slow motion; or 1080p bit rates beyond 50mbps, this may be the camera you've been waiting for. If it is, you can pre-order it for $2498 at Amazon or Adorama.

On the other hand, if you don't make movies in the dark, want to record 4K internally, and want 1080/96p slow motion and 1080p bit rates at up to 200mbps, you might be better off saving yoursefl $800 and ordering a $1698 Panasonic GH4.

And you'll probably have your camera sooner.