Sony’s video file organization is a mess, to put it kindly. The following video will help you locate your videos (why did it have to be so hard??):
Note: This was created with the a7R II though it applies to the a7S II as well.
Now let’s take a quick look at the video formats and what you get (Both full frame and APS-C modes give you all codecs, click to enlarge):
The last row gives us the most ‘robust’ codec. What this means is, how much data is there per pixel? The value Mb/f/p translates to ‘Mega bits per frame per pixel’ to the power 10^-7 (it’s that small!). We’ll go into more detail about this in the lesson on comparing codecs, but a few things to note:
- 4K XAVC S is only as good as 1080p AVCHD.
- XAVC S HD is the best mode for 1080p footage.
- XAVC S HD is the best codec of the lot, period.
Notes
Unfortunately, video organization is almost nil in camera. You can make folders for MP4, but I can’t really think of any reason to shoot in that mode, as the data rates are abysmal. I still click the wrong folder once in a while when accessing the SD card.
