Being an amateur photographer for many years, I've zero experience with video.Bought the A7S II to try video for the first time. Need some practical advice regarding video settings.Please tell me what do you use and why:- XAVC S HD or 4K?- Which record setting?I understand there's no "what's better overall for any situation". Just looking to understand what do you use from a practical standpoint and for what purpose.Thanks. Pedro

what will you be filming?what is your post work software? imovie, final cut?how good is your computer?are you interested in doing color grading or do you just want to use straight out of camera?do you have ND filters?

Mirakaski wrote:what will you be filming?what is your post work software? imovie, final cut?how good is your computer?are you interested in doing color grading or do you just want to use straight out of camera?do you have ND filters?I'll be filming: travel, family and will do some interviews. Keep most of it as my memory for the future. Maybe use some of it for YouTube and other social media (I've one idea I would like to try on that field).I'll do post work on Final Cut Pro.My computer is a MacBook Pro mid 2014, 3 GHz Intel Core i7, 16Gb of RAM.Not sure I'm ready to do any color grading. As I've mentioned, I've zero experience with video.I don't have ND filters. But can get them if necessary.

ok. sorry if I'm too basic and your knowledge level is already beyond this.Sounds like your mac will handle 4k well. You can always transcode to proxy if needed and export full rezso, shoot in 4k, 100mbps 24p for normal stuff. if you want slo motion then HD 120pyou want to keep your shutter at 1/60 for 24p and 1/240 for 120p. at the same time, you want to keep your aperture open. say f4 to f8. anymore than f5.6 any you start to loose that nice shallow depth of field. i general shoot at f2.8.Thus the need for Nd filter. preferable a variable Nd. this will allow you to shoot at wide apertures and keep the shutter speed static.set your iso to auto and white balance to auto makes things simple.the picture profiles i use all are meant for grading. i will see if i can fide a good "baked in profile".dvxusers.com is a good place to look.

Mirakaski wrote:(...)you want to keep your shutter at 1/60 for 24p(...)Thanks for the comprehensive answer.Another question: for photography shutter speed is a clear concept.For video I'm not getting it: given e.g. 24p, that I get as 24 frames per second, what's the role of the shutter there and why is it important to keep its speed at 1/60?Thanks again, Pedro

Mirakaski wrote:(...)you want to keep your shutter at 1/60 for 24p(...)Thanks for the comprehensive answer.Another question: for photography shutter speed is a clear concept.For video I'm not getting it: given e.g. 24p, that I get as 24 frames per second, what's the role of the shutter there and why is it important to keep its speed at 1/60?Thanks again, PedroThe general rule is to use about half the reciprocal, so 1/60 for 24p, 1/120 for 60p and 1/240 for 120p.It provides the ideal amount of blur so the video is smooth to the human brain. It's worth experimenting with but definitely a good rule to shoot by. Cinematographers occasionally break this rule for artistic purposes but it can be painful, if overdone. -- https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielwharton

For video starters, I would recommend stock PP5, Cine 1.  It will look a little flat, colorless, and your black levels will be pretty high.  In FCPX, go ahead and select a clip and press Command 6 to bring up your color controls.  Go to saturation and bring that up 25-50%, then go to exposure and bring the left shadow puck low as you want to make your blacks look nice.  PP4 REC709 looks a little cartoonish if you ask me.Paul

Hipólito wrote:...I've zero experience with video...Bought the A7S II to try video for the first time. Need some practical advice regarding video settings...XAVC S HD or 4K?...Which record setting?I'm a professional videographer and we use several 4k cameras for documentaries, including the A7RII. Suggestions:- Shoot in full manual mode, not aperture priority or programmed mode. Reason: in video your shutter speed must be about 1/2 the frame rate. E.g, 1/50th (not 1/60th) for 24 fps, 1/60th for 30 fps (29.97), etc. This is the 180 degree shutter rule:http://cameradojo.com/2014/03/28/why-shutter-speed-matters-with-dslr-video/- Since your shutter speed is fixed and your aperture is often wide open (or nearly so), the only way to balance the exposure is ISO and a neutral density filter for outside shots. A variable ND is very handy but most of the time they don't allow fitting a lens hood. Some of Sony's lenses allow this if you pick the right ND filter. You'll have to investigate the specifics.- You can edit 4k on your 2014 MacBook but you may need to use proxy files. Using proxies is mandatory for multicam due to performance issues. Fortunately FCP X has seamless proxy workflow.- HD may be adequate for some material and takes less space. However 4k has production advantages even if you will never distribute in 4k. This includes the ability to frame wide then recompose in post without loss of resolution, imparting "Ken Burns" camera motions in post without loss of resolution, etc. Also each 4k video frame is an 8 megapixel still, which can be used various ways.- 4k takes a lot of space and you'll need external hard drives for this. I suggest not using slow 5400 rpm USB bus-powered drives. One of the fastest single-platter USB 3 bus-powered drives is the 7200 rpm 1TB HGST Touro S:http://www.touropro.com/en/product/touro-s/The 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Fast may be the fastest USB 3 bus-powered drive:http://www.seagate.com/external-hard-drives/portable-hard-drives/performance/backup-plus-fast-hdd/- Color correction is very important, even for casual videos. Not doing this would be like shooting stills and not processing them. Basic color correction is easy. Here is a good video by Larry Jordan:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX45Yi1spY4- Re frame rate, a common industry practice is use 24 fps for long-form material (feature films, major documentaries, etc) and 30 (29.97) fps for shorter-form material. It's best to not intermix 24 and 30 fps material, so decide ahead of time and shoot everything for a given production in the same frame rate.- Camera color profiles: in general I'd suggest not using these until you are much more experienced. I have seen countless videos degraded by people trying to use use a trendy "flat" profile, without understanding the various tradeoffs.- For human subjects and interviews, learn to use exposure zebras to get the right exposure on their face.http://www.ritzpixlive.com/video/film-school-101-zebra-stripes-in-your-camera/- Don't try to hand hold everything. Even with IBIS and lens-based stabilization this can be shaky. If nothing else use a monopod. Zacuto has a small foldable rig which is very handy:http://store.zacuto.com/marauder/A good instruction web site is Learning DSLR Video:http://www.learningvideo.com/

Wow!Thank you all very much for the superb advice to get me started.This has saved me a lot of time and mistakes.You've clearly surpassed my expectations.Thanks again, Pedro

Just a general observation after a week with the S II, I would not shoot 4k unless you are stabilized or on a tripod. Like a high resolution sensor, you tend to expose your unsteady hands with it quite readily.For versatility, I would lean on the 120fps 1080p mode for the 2.2x crop if you need another focal length, e.g., bring the 35mm f2.8, shoot that in 1080p 60p or 4k 30p handheld, then quickly switch to 120p mode for 66mm FOV without pixel bining, or so they say.Also, general warning, if you have never graded before, do not use SLOG2/3 until you have practiced with it in all light.  Overcast, sunny, mixed, night, city night, indoor. If you have never dealt with frame rates, I'd honestly just use Aperture priority mode for video as well.

Some solid advice above from joema1.  Got a few weeks to commit to understanding more than the basics?Here's a fantastic resourcethat can help you become a better videographer.  It's very lengthy but very comprehensive and very useful if you plan to get a bit more serious

Arizona Sunset wrote:(...) I would not shoot 4k unless you are stabilized or on a tripod. (...)How is higher definition correlated with lower stability?Thanks.

Hipólito wrote:Arizona Sunset wrote:(...) I would not shoot 4k unless you are stabilized or on a tripod. (...)How is higher definition correlated with lower stability?Thanks.I notice camera shake a lot more with it, that's all.  It's patently obvious on the RX10 II, and I see it on the S II a bit less.

Wow you bought this $3000 camera for that. You should have just bought a Panasonic G series. More native lenses that are lighter and cheaper. 4K also with the awesome 4K burst mode.

Arizona Sunset wrote:...If you have never dealt with frame rates, I'd honestly just use Aperture priority mode for video as well.I strongly recommend against this. Using aperture priority for video results in a fluctuating shutter speed which will often cause various problems: strobing motion effects on moving objects, interference bands from fluorescent lighting, etc. These things are difficult or impossible to fix in post.It would be better to use shutter priority with shutter speed set at 2x the frame rate and let aperture vary. Of course best of all (for video) is manual mode.

joema1 wrote:Amen to that.

auto iso is a tool you can use as well if you are uncomfortabe using all manual.set your shutter and aperture, fade in a little ND if needed when outdoors, and let the camera pick the iso. if at minimum iso and your still over exposed, then either fade on some more nd, or stop down.you can actually find a "sweet spot" with ND and aperture that will allow the camera enough range without bottoming out on iso.but as others have said, manual is the way to go if possible.

Auto ISO in video? Never.

how is auto iso any different than shutter priority in terms of usabilty? i dont use auto iso, but others were mentioning shutter priority...

Mirakaski wrote:how is auto iso any different than shutter priority in terms of usabilty? i dont use auto iso, but others were mentioning shutter priority...I'll let others chime in, but for one, when you use anything other than the native base ISO with your Log profiles (S-Log2, S-Log3) you're loosing some DR and can no longer take full advantage of these modes.  This is probably going way over the head of the OP (plz don't get offended... but this topic is probably going waaaay overboard, lol), but that's one important thing to note for anyone planning on heavy grading.