a7s III Shoots Some Stunning HDR!

At long last, we’ve got a bunch of models lined up! The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN is one spectacular lens and the autofocus performed nearly flawlessly this morning (speed and sensitivity both set to 5). What’s amazing is how tenacious eye detect AF is, even when overexposing S-log3 by a couple of stops. I’d suggest owners engage the aperture lock on the lens, as the ring turns too easily from automatic to manual. I’ve written at length about my issues with the ergonomics of the a7s III, and one of them happens to be the ridiculous shutter speed dial, which seems expressly designed to interfere with the camera’s operation and which I managed to inadvertently change not once, but several times during the day. On the plus side, custom white balance, which I perform as often as a dozen times during a shoot, just got a whole lot easier – and I’m convinced it’s more accurate than the a7 III. The a7s III is capable of some stunning looking video – which really makes me regret not being better at color correction and grading! I accidentally turned off the IBIS for a bunch of shots and to make matters worse, the Sigma is precariously close to the limit of the diminutive Zhiyun Crane Plus, so there are definitely some jittery moments. On that note, I believe that it’s time to start recording at 60 frames per second, because the instantaneous response time of OLED results in atrocious stutter during panning shots at 24p, which unforgiving HDR doesn’t exactly help to alleviate. Apologies to Martin Scorsese! I recalibrated the gimbal, set the motor strength to strong in the stabilizer settings of the Zhiyun Assistant app, attached the lens support and balanced it more carefully now and am ready to go out and see if that helps. As for the video, I did no grading whatsoever: I just reduced luminance and boosted saturation a tiny touch using the color wheels in Final Cut Pro X.