The Complete Guide to Sony’s Alpha 7 II - Supplement A COMPANION TO THE ORIGINAL A7 / A7R EBOOK by Gary L. Friedman Version 1.01 Published By The Friedman Archives Press Copyright © 2015 Gary L. Friedman All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced either in print or in any digital format without express written permission. iii ABOUT THIS SUPPLEMENT This is designed to accompany The Complete Guide to Sony’s Alpha 7 and 7r ebook by Gary L. Friedman version 1.01, available at http://friedmanarchives.com/A7r Because the cameras are so similar, this supplement covers just the new features that don’t appear on the original A7. When making references to the original ebook, page numbers will be given. When referring to sections within this supplement, Section numbers will be used. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 MAJOR DIFFERENCES ..............................................................7 1.1 IN-BODY STABILIZATION .................................................................... 9 1.2 XAVC-S VIDEO .............................................................................. 11 1.3 TIME CODE ................................................................................... 12 1.4 LOTS OF CURVES ............................................................................. 12 1.5 A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT MEMORY FUNCTION ........................................ 13 1.6 LOCK-ON AF.................................................................................. 13 CHAPTER 2 MY PERSONAL CAMERA SETTINGS ........................................ 15 CHAPTER 3 NEW FEATURES EXPLAINED................................................... 33 3.1 DUAL VIDEO REC ............................................................................ 33 3.2 PICTURE PROFILE ............................................................................ 34 3.2.1 The Gamma Curves .................................................................... 35 3.2.2 Gamma Curve Nomenclature .................................................... 37 3.2.3 HDTVs have Much Less Dynamic Range .................................... 37 3.2.4 S-Log2 ........................................................................................ 38 3.2.5 Grading ...................................................................................... 41 3.2.6 The Seven Profiles ...................................................................... 42 3.2.7 Gamma Options ......................................................................... 45 3.3 STEADYSHOT SETTINGS .................................................................... 48 3.4 MEMORY RECALL ........................................................................... 49 3.5 MARKER DISPLAY / MARKER SETTINGS ............................................... 50 3.6 DISP. CONT. AF AREA ..................................................................... 52 3.7 ZOOM RING ROTATE ....................................................................... 53 3.8 TC/UB SETTINGS ........................................................................... 54 3.9 HDMI SETTINGS ............................................................................ 60 3.9.1 HDMI Resolution ........................................................................ 60 3.9.2 HDMI Info. Display ..................................................................... 60 3.9.3 CTRL FOR HDMI ......................................................................... 61 3.10 UPLOAD SETTINGS (EYE-FI CARD ONLY) ............................................. 62 3.11 FOCUSING ESSENTIALS ..................................................................... 63 3.11.1 Other Focus Area Choices ...................................................... 66 3.11.2 Focusing Modes ..................................................................... 67 EPILOGUE 71 Chapter 1 MAJOR DIFFERENCES Sony introduced the very first E-mount cameras back in 2010 – a lifetime ago in terms of today’s intense product-cycle half-life. And although I have no official knowledge of Sony’s inner-workings, I can tell you that at the time nobody, and I mean NOBODY at Sony ever thought to themselves “Gee, maybe this new camera system will cause legions of professional phototographers and videographers to jump ship from other, more established camera brands.” How do I know this? Let’s look at the evidence. The E-mount platform (specifically the original NEX 3 and 5 cameras) was originally targeted at Figure 1-1: Lots of megapixels and in-body stabilization means I can get a great crop shot of this rare Swallow-tailed Kite bird using a legacy lens (Minolta 80-200 f/2.8 G) and LA-EA4 adapter). 8 Major Differences mobile phone users who wanted to upgrade, but thought that DSLRs were too large, expensive, or intimidating. So the bodies were intended to be as small as possible. Image stabilization was done in the lens (rather than in the body, as in all previous Sony interchangeable-lens cameras) to keep the body tiny and because Sony’s original SLT camera, the Alpha 55, taught them that moving sensor stabilization gets HOT when shooting long movies. Focus motors had to be in the lens (quieter for movies) and the user interface was designed for a person who grew up shooting pictures on their phone (which irritated experienced photographers). And there’s one additional characteristic which I don’t believe was intentional: the distance between the front of the lens mount to the sensor, officially known as the “flange distance”, was small. Really small. It was so small, in fact, that you could mount pretty much any interchangeable lens ever made to it, with plenty of inches left over for the physical adapter. By the time the NEX-7 was introduced, third-party manufacturers were starting to make E-mount adapters for every lens brand known, and Sony helped in this regard by releasing the mount and interface specifications for free to any manufacturer who cared to make an accessory. (That’s another first. Usually third parties have to pay a licensing fee to get the official specifications.) The E-mount cameras started to become popular because it suddenly offered new life to legacy glass – Everything from WWII-era Leicas, and Voigtlanders to Contax lenses suddenly had a digital body they could strut their stuff with. Adapters for modern-day Nikon and Canon lenses – some even supporting autofocus – came into being as well. “Gee, we certainly weren’t expecting this demographic!”, said a Sony manager after looking at the market research. “These are the serious shooters we have been trying (and failing) to court with the A-mount system we acquired from Minolta. What else can we do to cater to them?” “How about making the user interface more in-line with a DSLR? That certainly worked for the RX-series of Cybershots!” “Okay!” ordered the manager. “What else? Can we stick a full-frame sensor in there?” Contents of this book Copyright © 2015 Gary L. Friedman. All rights reserved. In-Body Stabilization 9 “I’m not sure about that!” said one of the engineers. “The mount was really optimized for APS-C sensors. Putting a full-frame in there would be a tight fit. The light hitting the extreme corners would come in at a steep angle and not register well, resulting in some vignetting and possibly some color fringing with older lenses.” “Do it anyway!” barked the manager. And so the A7 was born. And there was considerable industry buzz followed by considerable industry sales. Two more models followed – one offering the same sensor Sony made for the Nikon D800e, the other including a Sony sensor made for one of their professional camcorders – a 12-megapixel full-frame which excelled at video and, as a result of the very large pixel size, exhibited extremely low noise at high ISO. Professionals with online followings were starting to switch brands very vocally – these new cameras had all of the image quality of the big cameras, but none of the bulk or weight. More focus groups followed. “The body design is kind of quirky” said some. “And I wish you hadn’t specified lens-based stabilization back in 2010 because if you went back to sensor-based SteadyShot, all of my old lenses would be stabilized and then this platform would be REALLY compelling.” Enter the A7 II, which addresses these desires. The first thing you’ll notice is that the body is more intelligently designed – the buttons are more intelligently placed and the shutter release button is positioned where God meant it to be. The grip is also of a more reasonable size, making it more usable when long lenses are attached. But… 1.1 IN-BODY STABILIZATION But the In-Body Stabilization (IBIS) is this camera’s most impressive engineering feature (and that’s saying a LOT! Any idea how much computing horsepower is in there? Where did they put it? How can such a tiny battery power it for as long as it does?) 10 Major Differences Here’s what makes IBIS so difficult: When shooting movies, a lot of data moves off the sensor, creating a lot of heat. Normally you bind a chunky heat sink to the back of the sensor to solve this problem, but that would make the sensor significantly heavier, making it that much more difficult to move quickly when stabilizing. Also, the stabilizing actuators can generate a lot of heat too when doing their thing for a long time, making this a perfect storm for heat buildup. This is one reason the original NEX engineers opted for in-lens stabilization – less heat buildup and smaller bodies resulted – and I’m really glad I wasn’t on the design team which managed