Detailed Guide to Autofocus for Stills and Video

This is my detailed guide to all the settings relating to autofocus on the Sony a7R II, for both stills and video: Download Video Notes: Phase Detection AF doesn’t work for f/9.0 and beyond. The area isn’t displayed for APS-C mode and Video mode, though it works for both. I missed Eye AF. This works similar … Read more

How to use Image Stabilization

In this lesson we’ll go over the image stabilization options with the Sony a7R II and a7S II. First, here are all the permutations and combinations of stabilization possible (don’t worry if you don’t understand it, the video will clarify everything): SteadyShot On/Off* Auto Manual Lens stabilization Sony lenses with Optical Steady Shot (OSS) On Preferable … Read more

Is the AF performance on the a7S II better than the a7S?

In Sony’s press release for the launch for the a7S II, they claim: When shooting video, the AF performance is twice as fast as the predecessor model.[x] [x]Compared to the ?7S, when shooting Full HD movies. Let’s see if this is true: Download Video Takeaways As far as continuous AF is concerned, even if there’s … Read more

What’s the best way to record and monitor 4K and 1080p?

To record and monitor 4K (or 1080p), you need to connect an HDMI recorder/monitor that can read the incoming signal. This shouldn’t be an issue, because the signal from the a7R II and a7S II is standard HDMI, no special flavors. To know what you get with HDMI, click here. In this lesson, I’ll list … Read more

Comparison of XAVC S vs Prores vs DNxHR

In this lesson we’ll compare the quality of the internal XAVC S codec against Prores HQ, 422 and LT, and DNxHR HQ, SQ and LB to understand when to choose which. We’ll be comparing 4K but the same holds true for XAVC S as well. Here are the things we’re going to test: Resolution Noise … Read more

Should you shoot Prores/DNxHD/DNxHR over XAVC S?

Here are my recommendations on the Prores/DNxHR(HD) vs XAVC S problem. First, the differences between Prores and DNxHR/HD: On Macs, choose Prores, period. If you are handed DNxHR/HD, you can work with it if you download the Avid codecs for QT pack (free). On PCs, DNxHD/HR is preferable. Prores will play if you have QT, … Read more