There is something I have seen for a long time, since the Technicolor Cinestyle Canon DSLR footage on Vimeo, and now this same thing shows up in Sony S-Log2 footage.

When people do the grading in computer, most of times the highlights are not preserved, also the shadows goes too much deep... It seems to be very difficult to grade the flat image, to recover the correct gamma and contrast, and keep the shadows and highlights without crush/clip.

If you take a look at these links and compare before/after grading you will perceive that the highlights could be more preserved in the graded images. So, why shoot Cinestyle in Canon or S-Log in Sony if you cannot do a perfect grading in post to preserve all dynamic range? Is this a matter of grading skill? Or it is just impossible to preserve all the dynamic range in highlights and shadows after grading? See:

http://www.hingsberg.com/index.php/2013/03/f55-slog2-s-gamut-mode-test/

Downloaded the clip and the xavc codec used in the original capture seems quite solid. Grading it was also much better than a capture with similar flat style on Canon dslr. But it will be a pain to preserve nice skin tones shooting this flat in such a compressed codec and noise is quite present at the native ISO. The noise is admittedly not the ugliest I've seen. My enthusiasm is a bit muted.

Don't forget that a 10 stop ND. or even 6 stop, when shot in sunlight will create IR pollution unless you use and IR filter, or an ND with IR filter, such as Hoya ProNDs. The best is a mattbox with TrueND IR filters, but few can afford them. IR pollution creates a magenta tone that is almost impossible to remove in post, especially from faces.

Available at:

• http://www.adorama.com/ISOA7S.html
• http://www.ebay.com/itm/291179394972
• http://www.ebay.com/itm/201118573653

Now also in stock at:

• http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Compact-Interchangeable-Digital-Camera/dp/B00JIWXTXG/
• http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1044728-REG/sony_ilce7s_b_alpha_a7s_mirrorless_digital.html

@kevin_kirchman

LOL, fixed.

The U.S. English manual and help guide have been posted:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=ILCE7S&LOC=3&session_id=a68777273e7e83fffb985d827f199136#/manualsTab

The manual is missing a lot of information - you should refer to the help guide also. There are still a few things in the Japanese manual that are not in the English documents, like 12-bit raw precision when silent shooting is enabled.

Colour in stills is best I've seen in a digital camera.

@last_SHIFT you are correct. I should add "full frame digital camera" - There are some medium format cameras that I've liked the colour more. But this one definitely has nicer colour to me than what Nikon and especially Canon have put out in their popular models.

Btw, here's a great example of what I'm talking about. http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/DSC01276.jpg Incredible balance with the reds, blues and greens. Look very natural yet the colours are strong and saturated

Your display is capable of something like 7 or 8 stops of dynamic range. If you want to display high dynamic range images (13 or more stops) on a normal display and have it appear correctly, with a normal amount of contrast, you must compress or throw out a lot of those 13 stops. It doesn't matter whether you convert to a display-referenced format inside the camera, or in post when editing log footage - the process is essentially the same. Typically you'll have 6 or 7 stops in the middle with normal contrast, and then some stops on the bottom and the top compressed into a small range with very low contrast: that's your shadow and highlight roll-offs.

If you try to display high dynamic range images without performing the proper conversion, it will appear with an unnaturally low level of contrast. That's what happens, for example, when you view log footage directly on a rec.709 or sRGB display. You're seeing the full range of the camera's recorded image, but compressed to a much smaller range in the display.

@joethepro, what you call luminance is actually luma. Luminance is the brightness of the light. Luma is the value of the encoding.

Damn you, Sony. I was about to pull the trigger on a GH4 in the next couple of months - and now you release this FF lowlight video monster. And I'm back to having to debate pros and cons again...

Gah. ;)

I'm not invested enough in m4/3 glass for it to make a difference; in fact, I've been putting off buying more of it just in case something like this happened, and have been renting it when needed instead. E-mount glass looks a bit less expensive, as well, when comparing overall specs.