Advice wanted: A7R IV landscape photographer jumping into A1 4K video

[Interceptor121 765]

On 12/14/2022 at 6:29 AM, jplaurel said:

Hi Matt- I made the jump from stills to video some years back. First, with the GH4, then GH5. I never was satisfied with the results until now, that I'm using the A1 and A7SIII. I have made a lot of mistakes and it has cost no small amount of money. Here's my two cents:
 

• The A1 is a great camera, but save it for stills. It overheats pretty easily inside a housing, so you have to be diligent about shutting it off when you're not shooting so that when something cool comes along, you don't find your camera in thermal shutdown. The A7SIII is much better in this regard, but it too can be provoked into thermal shutdown in warm water.
• On paper, A7SIII and A1 have similar capabilities, but I do find it easier to get good video results from the A7SIII. The color seems better to me, but that could be perception. I haven't done a proper shootout.
• I struggled with lighting for a long time until I started using cyan lights. At first, it was the Keldan Luna 8 lights with the cyan heads, but now I am using the 4x with the AF12 cyan filters intended for 10-18 meter depths. However, I find that this filter is a good compromise that works well from about 25 feet or so to almost 100. The advantage of the filter approach is that you can remove them underwater and have daylight balanced lights, if you need them. I think the Luna 8s with the cyan heads might offer a little more output (because you're not losing light due to the filter), but the disadvantage is that you're stuck with cyan until you can get topside to change out the head. But dealing with the mixed light problem is tricky when using daylight balanced lights.
• Unless you're shooting a big budget piece for commercial purposes, I'd avoid shooting in a log format. It's a real PITA to color grade all your footage. At the Digital Shootout last this year, the consensus was to shoot in standard profile and NAIL the white balance. Get the Keldan grey card/color checker, put it on a retract attached to your BC, and be absolutely religious about white balance whenever you move up or down in the water column.
• Set the shutter to 180 degrees (1/120th sec at 60p), set the aperture where you want it, set the ISO to auto, set the exposure compensation to -2/3 stop, and nail the white balance every time. You'd be amazed at how good the A7SIII is in this mode. I used it all the time this way and it made it easy to do things like pans from below all the  way up to the surface with a sunball without either underexposing the darker areas below or blowing the sunball when it comes into frame. Auto ISO with the A7SIII is so good, you really don't see it working in the final result.
• With the A7SIII and A1, forget about using things like the Keldan spectrum filters over your lens. Those cameras have such good white balance capability that it's just not necessary. And they suck up so much light, that you really have to start thinking about being at one of the two base ISOs to keep the noise within reason.
• Use the Sony 28-60 with the WWL-1B. You are unlikely to match the image quality of that combination with any lens/dome combination, and it's even less likely that you will match the quality of the 28-60 plus the WACP with any lens behind any dome.
• Bring two of the 28-60 lenses with you at all times, especially on a live aboard. The 28-60 is fragile. Drop it on its nose from 1 foot and it can be irreparably damaged. So search around for a used one and keep it in your kit. They're small and cheap, especially used.

I disagree with almost all statements here but that should not be a surprise

1. I have put the A1 in 4K50p mode at 25 C it ran out of battery before overheating. It does run hot on 8K apparently but I do not shoot 8k

2. The color of the A7S3 and A1 is almost identical but depends on how you shoot video. Only cinetone and slog3.cine are acceptable picture profiles the others are pretty bad. Color variations are average to bad

3. You should not use filters on lights less than 15000 lumens as they take out more than one stop as those are used for wide angle once you are at 5000 lumens left there is no point using the filter as that is really only useful for closer shots. Cyan 60 have 50% transmission that is one stop loss making your 15000 lights 7500 this is still acceptable

4. Log format on the A1/A7S3 is the best way forward and preserves better image quality if you shoot on card

5. Spectrum filter on full frame cameras work well in terms of light they take 2 or 4 stops but shooting in log this is not an issue as the second gain is 4000/12800 on the A1/A7S3 respectively

6. I agree on 28-60 WWL-1 no need for more in video

7. Any lens you drop from 1 foot may get damaged this is a plastic construction so to be expected. Just take care of your equipment period. If you drop your camera it will also not be helpful

 

[jplaurel 46]

On 12/26/2022 at 6:31 AM, Interceptor121 said:

I disagree with almost all statements here but that should not be a surprise

1. I have put the A1 in 4K50p mode at 25 C it ran out of battery before overheating. It does run hot on 8K apparently but I do not shoot 8k

2. The color of the A7S3 and A1 is almost identical but depends on how you shoot video. Only cinetone and slog3.cine are acceptable picture profiles the others are pretty bad. Color variations are average to bad

3. You should not use filters on lights less than 15000 lumens as they take out more than one stop as those are used for wide angle once you are at 5000 lumens left there is no point using the filter as that is really only useful for closer shots. Cyan 60 have 50% transmission that is one stop loss making your 15000 lights 7500 this is still acceptable

4. Log format on the A1/A7S3 is the best way forward and preserves better image quality if you shoot on card

5. Spectrum filter on full frame cameras work well in terms of light they take 2 or 4 stops but shooting in log this is not an issue as the second gain is 4000/12800 on the A1/A7S3 respectively

6. I agree on 28-60 WWL-1 no need for more in video

7. Any lens you drop from 1 foot may get damaged this is a plastic construction so to be expected. Just take care of your equipment period. If you drop your camera it will also not be helpful

 

1. Don't know what to tell you, brother. Here is my first-hand experience: Around the Midriff Islands last year, we had water temps around 25c. In my Nauticam housing, the A1 would run for about ~20 min before overheating. We can quibble about the exact runtime, but for sure there was no way to let the camera run (in standby) until the battery ran out. It would always overheat. From that point, I had to manage it by turning it off after shooting a clip to let it cool. Not really a huge problem, but I had to manage it. On Bonaire at the Digital Shootout this summer, we had water temps around 27c, and the A1 would overheat after around 10 min in standby. It was only marginally workable. In the Midriff Islands, I was shooting 4k60p XAVC-SI (10-bit 4:2:2, 600mbps) in sLog3. I tried to use it as a B camera in Cuba in November while we were shooting out pilot for the new series (topside, not in a housing), and due to the ambient temperature, the A1 was not really usable. In one case, I could net get through shooting a band playing just 2 songs, because the camera overheated so quickly. Neither the A7SIII nor the FX3 had any trouble at all. Again, this was running XAVC-SI in slog3.

2. slog3 certainly gives you the most flexibility in post, but you end up having to grade every single clip. Good LUTs get you most of the way there, but it's still a time suck. We've found that it takes alot of grading time to get colors as natural and correct as just using standard profile, but you have to absolutely nail the white balance every time. However, even if you're a little off, 10-bit 4:2:2, underexposed by 2/3 stop still has a surprising amount of flexibility. It's a compromise.

3. There is no such rule that a light must be 15k lumens to be suitable/acceptable for use with filters. The Keldan 4x lights are 10k lumens and work just fine with the 12b ambient filters. But it all depends on what kind of look you're after. In my case, I'm after a natural look in which you can hardly tell there is additional light. So the 4x with filters and the Luna 8s with cyan heads work fine for my purposes. You may be going for a different look.

4. As I said above, I agree that slog3 gives the best results possible. But there's no getting around the amount of work in post that's required to even get an acceptable image. With my method, you can practically just drop the footage on the timeline and it already looks pretty good. Just a little tweak here and there setting white and black points usually takes care of it. Again, it's a compromise. Later this year, I'll have to shoot sharks and crocs in the Gardens of the Queen for our series pilot, and I'll be shooting slog3. But then again, the footage will be going to a professional colorist.

5. I have spent a few weeks in Socorro shooting both with and without the SF-2 Spectrum filter. My take is that you do indeed achieve better color with the filter than without. The problem is that it consumes quite a bit of light, to the point that at 90 feet in the Canyon, you're shooting at pretty high ISOs. Brighter lights aren't the solution if you're like me and going after a natural look. If you're shooting in sLog3, you'll just go to the second native ISO of 12.8k and there's no problem. But as you ascend, and the light gets brighter, you have to manage when you switch to the first native ISO of 640. Again, not really a problem, but you've got to do the work. If you find yourself at, say,  3200 or 6400, you're going to be applying quite a lot of de-noising and that really slows things down in post, so I've learned that those higher ISOs between the two base ISOs really must be avoided.

6. I own WWL-1b and love it. Great image quality for its size. But when you try the WACP, you'll see that it is noticeably better. Not worlds better, but you can see the difference for sure. Once again, there's a compromise to be made. Is it worthwhile for you to carry a 10lb wet lens vs the very compact WWL-1b?

7. I've been dealing with photo equipment since I was 12, and believe me, that 28-60 is unusually fragile. Sure, "just take care of your equipment", as you say. But that is no consolation when you have an accident on a liveaboard, the lens gets damaged, and you're out of action. The same can be said about dive gear. We service our Atomic regs religiously, at about half the recommended intervals. We "take care of our equipment". But that didn't help when steel tank landed on my wife's T3x in the panga...

Of course, we can all sit around and argue about what is the absolute best quality, best seeings, etc. For me, it boils down to developing a way of working that gives the results we need and allows flexibility and ease of use in a marine environment, while filming large pelagics in light conditions that change moment to moment. One of the nice things about working in standard profile without a spectrum filter is that you tend to be working at pretty low ISOs, and with the A1/A7S3, noise is just never a problem. And best of all, you can allow the camera to range ISO up and down on its own. So, for example, when shooting animals where you're panning through a sunball, you can set f11 and 1/125 (for 60fps shooting), and just let the camera do auto ISO. It's a wonderful thing, being able to point your camera toward the bottom one moment, and then up at the bottom of animals and not blow the exposure without having to mess with settings at all.

The attached clip is straight out of the camera. Shot in 4K60P, fixed aperture, 1/125sec shutter speed, auto ISO, standard profile. The A7SIII ramps ISO up and down so smoothly that you really can't tell. Autofocus is nearly flawless with this camera. I have not graded it at all. Could it be better? Sure. Is it worth my time? Not really, if I'm shooting for fun. And again, even with no log profile, there's still some room to work in 10-bit 4:2:2.

Edited January 11 by jplaurel

[ChrisRoss 150]

56 minutes ago, jplaurel said:

. Don't know what to tell you, brother. Here is my first-hand experience: Around the Midriff Islands last year, we had water temps around 25c. In my Nauticam housing, the A1 would run for about ~20 min before overheating. We can quibble about the exact runtime, but for sure there was no way to let the camera run (in standby) until the battery ran out. It would always overheat. From that point, I had to manage it by turning it off after shooting a clip to let it cool. Not really a huge problem, but I had to manage it. On Bonaire at the Digital Shootout this summer, we had water temps around 27c, and the A1 would overheat after around 10 min in standby. It was only marginally workable. In the Midriff Islands, I was shooting 4k60p XAVC-SI (10-bit 4:2:2, 600mbps) in sLog3. I tried to use it as a B camera in Cuba in November while we were shooting out pilot for the new series (topside, not in a housing), and due to the ambient temperature, the A1 was not really usable. In one case, I could net get through shooting a band playing just 2 songs, because the camera overheated so quickly. Neither the A7SIII nor the FX3 had any trouble at all. Again, this was running XAVC-SI in slog3.


 

If one camera is overheating and another isn't it could be a difference in settings like sleep time or it could be a firmware issue that keeps some process going.  I don't recall the exact details now, it was a few years ago now, when I first got my EM-1 MkII  it suddenly started chewing through batteries very quickly, upgrading to next version of firmware fixed the problem.  It might be worth going down the burrow to compare settings you are using and possibly upgrade firmware.  You could look at the various sleep and standby settings to see if changing them makes any difference.

[Interceptor121 765]

1 hour ago, ChrisRoss said:

If one camera is overheating and another isn't it could be a difference in settings like sleep time or it could be a firmware issue that keeps some process going.  I don't recall the exact details now, it was a few years ago now, when I first got my EM-1 MkII  it suddenly started chewing through batteries very quickly, upgrading to next version of firmware fixed the problem.  It might be worth going down the burrow to compare settings you are using and possibly upgrade firmware.  You could look at the various sleep and standby settings to see if changing them makes any difference.

The A1 overheats differently depending on which format you choose and the power settings. If the LCD is going all the time it will warm up relatively fast

Another issue is the compression and write to card. As the data rate goes up heat goes up

XAVC-SI is a 600mbps all intra implementation Sony wanted to keep compatibility with SD Cards so did not push it further but as a codec is probably the worst of the lot but it does get the camera hotter

Shooting with an external monitor with the LCD off I would get the camera to fill 2 CF A cards 160 GB each however there is a lag of 130ms from reality that bugs me so I will need to see if this is a necessity to avoid overheating

Other people that shoot the A1 in 4K in hotter climate have reported no issue so power settings and codec would be a likely problem here.

[Interceptor121 765]

2 hours ago, jplaurel said:

1. Don't know what to tell you, brother. Here is my first-hand experience: Around the Midriff Islands last year, we had water temps around 25c. In my Nauticam housing, the A1 would run for about ~20 min before overheating. We can quibble about the exact runtime, but for sure there was no way to let the camera run (in standby) until the battery ran out. It would always overheat. From that point, I had to manage it by turning it off after shooting a clip to let it cool. Not really a huge problem, but I had to manage it. On Bonaire at the Digital Shootout this summer, we had water temps around 27c, and the A1 would overheat after around 10 min in standby. It was only marginally workable. In the Midriff Islands, I was shooting 4k60p XAVC-SI (10-bit 4:2:2, 600mbps) in sLog3. I tried to use it as a B camera in Cuba in November while we were shooting out pilot for the new series (topside, not in a housing), and due to the ambient temperature, the A1 was not really usable. In one case, I could net get through shooting a band playing just 2 songs, because the camera overheated so quickly. Neither the A7SIII nor the FX3 had any trouble at all. Again, this was running XAVC-SI in slog3.

2. slog3 certainly gives you the most flexibility in post, but you end up having to grade every single clip. Good LUTs get you most of the way there, but it's still a time suck. We've found that it takes alot of grading time to get colors as natural and correct as just using standard profile, but you have to absolutely nail the white balance every time. However, even if you're a little off, 10-bit 4:2:2, underexposed by 2/3 stop still has a surprising amount of flexibility. It's a compromise.

3. There is no such rule that a light must be 15k lumens to be suitable/acceptable for use with filters. The Keldan 4x lights are 10k lumens and work just fine with the 12b ambient filters. But it all depends on what kind of look you're after. In my case, I'm after a natural look in which you can hardly tell there is additional light. So the 4x with filters and the Luna 8s with cyan heads work fine for my purposes. You may be going for a different look.

4. As I said above, I agree that slog3 gives the best results possible. But there's no getting around the amount of work in post that's required to even get an acceptable image. With my method, you can practically just drop the footage on the timeline and it already looks pretty good. Just a little tweak here and there setting white and black points usually takes care of it. Again, it's a compromise. Later this year, I'll have to shoot sharks and crocs in the Gardens of the Queen for our series pilot, and I'll be shooting slog3. But then again, the footage will be going to a professional colorist.

5. I have spent a few weeks in Socorro shooting both with and without the SF-2 Spectrum filter. My take is that you do indeed achieve better color with the filter than without. The problem is that it consumes quite a bit of light, to the point that at 90 feet in the Canyon, you're shooting at pretty high ISOs. Brighter lights aren't the solution if you're like me and going after a natural look. If you're shooting in sLog3, you'll just go to the second native ISO of 12.8k and there's no problem. But as you ascend, and the light gets brighter, you have to manage when you switch to the first native ISO of 640. Again, not really a problem, but you've got to do the work. If you find yourself at, say,  3200 or 6400, you're going to be applying quite a lot of de-noising and that really slows things down in post, so I've learned that those higher ISOs between the two base ISOs really must be avoided.

6. I own WWL-1b and love it. Great image quality for its size. But when you try the WACP, you'll see that it is noticeably better. Not worlds better, but you can see the difference for sure. Once again, there's a compromise to be made. Is it worthwhile for you to carry a 10lb wet lens vs the very compact WWL-1b?

7. I've been dealing with photo equipment since I was 12, and believe me, that 28-60 is unusually fragile. Sure, "just take care of your equipment", as you say. But that is no consolation when you have an accident on a liveaboard, the lens gets damaged, and you're out of action. The same can be said about dive gear. We service our Atomic regs religiously, at about half the recommended intervals. We "take care of our equipment". But that didn't help when steel tank landed on my wife's T3x in the panga...

Of course, we can all sit around and argue about what is the absolute best quality, best seeings, etc. For me, it boils down to developing a way of working that gives the results we need and allows flexibility and ease of use in a marine environment, while filming large pelagics in light conditions that change moment to moment. One of the nice things about working in standard profile without a spectrum filter is that you tend to be working at pretty low ISOs, and with the A1/A7S3, noise is just never a problem. And best of all, you can allow the camera to range ISO up and down on its own. So, for example, when shooting animals where you're panning through a sunball, you can set f11 and 1/125 (for 60fps shooting), and just let the camera do auto ISO. It's a wonderful thing, being able to point your camera toward the bottom one moment, and then up at the bottom of animals and not blow the exposure without having to mess with settings at all.

The attached clip is straight out of the camera. Shot in 4K60P, fixed aperture, 1/125sec shutter speed, auto ISO, standard profile. The A7SIII ramps ISO up and down so smoothly that you really can't tell. Autofocus is nearly flawless with this camera. I have not graded it at all. Could it be better? Sure. Is it worth my time? Not really, if I'm shooting for fun. And again, even with no log profile, there's still some room to work in 10-bit 4:2:2.

 

It is very subjective for sure

I have a question for you. Do you shoot with a monitor or using the LCD? Did you set your power setting to turn off the LCD? I make it rturn off practically immediately as it make the battery go and the camera run hot

XAVC-SI is not a good codec on this camera the bitrate is too low. I find that both XAVC-S and XAVC-HS work sensibily better at 24/25/30 and at 60fps the gap closes a bit but is still there. So unless you need it because your computer can't process the files am skipping it entirely. 600mbps will also heat up the memory card and the camera. Do you use SD cards? Those also run hotter as they are just plastic

[jplaurel 46]

11 hours ago, Interceptor121 said:

It is very subjective for sure

I have a question for you. Do you shoot with a monitor or using the LCD? Did you set your power setting to turn off the LCD? I make it rturn off practically immediately as it make the battery go and the camera run hot

XAVC-SI is not a good codec on this camera the bitrate is too low. I find that both XAVC-S and XAVC-HS work sensibily better at 24/25/30 and at 60fps the gap closes a bit but is still there. So unless you need it because your computer can't process the files am skipping it entirely. 600mbps will also heat up the memory card and the camera. Do you use SD cards? Those also run hotter as they are just plastic

In the Midriff Islands, I was using the A1 with its internal LCD only and the camera overheating was pretty easy to manage by shutting off the power between shooting. I found that It would overheat in standby. That was an unusual case, as I normally use a monitor - either the Atmos Ninja V or my old SmallHD 502. As I recall, with the Ninja, I had the camera’s LCD on at the same time. This was so I could have a “clean” feed to the monitor (as I was trying out ProRes RAW, at that time), so I had to use the camera display in order to see camera settings.

Last week in Socorro, I was using the SmallHD 502 with the A7SIII, so I had the camera monitor turned off. The camera never threw a high temp warning in 25c water, and I was able to just leave it in standby the entire dive. And as a bonus, the camera battery would generally last for two dives. I will try your suggestion to do this with the A1 as well. I suspect you’re right that it will make a big difference in heat build-up. The internal LCD undoubtedly adds to the heat problem, and outputting to HDMI also generates heat. Maybe that simple change will alleviate my A1 heat problem altogether.

When I had topside overheating problems with the A1 in Cuba last month, I thought it may have something  to do with using the SI codec, so I tried the others to no avail. Perhaps if I had been using an external monitor and turned off the LCD, it would have made a difference. Not really a workable solution for gimbal use, though.

Isn’t XAVC-SI is the highest bitrate codec for 4k at 600mbps? It’s also the least compressed, so should be easier to work with. But maybe it doesn’t make a difference as long as you are editing on a fast machine. I am using a 16” MBP M1 with 64 gb ram and 8tb of ssd storage. The truth is that I struggle to see any quality difference between the camera’s internal codecs, though SI seems to have a little less noise.

In answer to your question, I’m never using SD cards except for stills. CF Express only. In fact, the camera won’t record SI to any SD card.

Thanks for your comments and engagement in this thread. This is a useful discussion.

Edited January 11 by jplaurel

[Interceptor121 765]

No worries
Am doing extensive tests on heat after you reported your issues
With regards to XAVC-SI i confirm it has less noise however it is also more soft.
I have analysed the codec and net of any motion prediction the other options have higher quality
In addition you can shoot 120 fps without changing it
On my M1Max I can edit 120fps
Without proxies so check how yours does
The hdmi port has a lag so am struggling at present with justifying an investment
Using a recorder or monitor with lcd off improves battery not as much as you would think it helps
More with heat management


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jplaurel 46]

15 hours ago, ChrisRoss said:

If one camera is overheating and another isn't it could be a difference in settings like sleep time or it could be a firmware issue that keeps some process going.  I don't recall the exact details now, it was a few years ago now, when I first got my EM-1 MkII  it suddenly started chewing through batteries very quickly, upgrading to next version of firmware fixed the problem.  It might be worth going down the burrow to compare settings you are using and possibly upgrade firmware.  You could look at the various sleep and standby settings to see if changing them makes any difference.

Thanks, Chris. Yes, I’m going to experiment with different settings and see if it makes a difference.

[jplaurel 46]

1 hour ago, Interceptor121 said:

No worries
Am doing extensive tests on heat after you reported your issues
With regards to XAVC-SI i confirm it has less noise however it is also more soft.
I have analysed the codec and net of any motion prediction the other options have higher quality
In addition you can shoot 120 fps without changing it
On my M1Max I can edit 120fps
Without proxies so check how yours does
The hdmi port has a lag so am struggling at present with justifying an investment
Using a recorder or monitor with lcd off improves battery not as much as you would think it helps
More with heat management


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for doing the heat tests, Interceptor. I will be very interested in anything you learn.

I’ll play around with the other codecs. 4k 120p would be a useful option. With XAVC-SI, 60p is the limit.

Agree on the M1 Max. I don’t expect that mine would have trouble with any of the compressed codecs.

A monitor is a wonderful thing, especially because it makes it so easy to shoot straight ahead when you’re in a streamlined horizontal position with less neck stress. Angling the monitor back 25-30 degrees makes for a much more comfortable experience. Shooting directly upwards, as in the sample I uploaded earlier, is significantly less comfortable without the monitor. With the monitor, more comfort, you’re more apt to shoot up, less stress in general, which contributes to safety and better diving judgement.

If you’re not shooting ProRes RAW, a 5” SmallHD monitor is smaller overall than a Ninja. It never overheats, and it’ll run for 2 dives with dual Canon batteries. If you’re recording internal, this is a good option. Smaller, less drag, easier to transport, less costly.

The only real downside is the additional hydrodynamic drag of any monitor. Lately, I find that tucking the camera under my arm, so it falls at the hip, and keeping it close to the body, helps reduce the drag when I’m just trying to transit quickly.

Edited January 11 by jplaurel

[Interceptor121 765]

10 hours ago, jplaurel said:

Thanks for doing the heat tests, Interceptor. I will be very interested in anything you learn.

I’ll play around with the other codecs. 4k 120p would be a useful option. With XAVC-SI, 60p is the limit.

Agree on the M1 Max. I don’t expect that mine would have trouble with any of the compressed codecs.

A monitor is a wonderful thing, especially because it makes it so easy to shoot straight ahead when you’re in a streamlined horizontal position with less neck stress. Angling the monitor back 25-30 degrees makes for a much more comfortable experience. Shooting directly upwards, as in the sample I uploaded earlier, is significantly less comfortable without the monitor. With the monitor, more comfort, you’re more apt to shoot up, less stress in general, which contributes to safety and better diving judgement.

If you’re not shooting ProRes RAW, a 5” SmallHD monitor is smaller overall than a Ninja. It never overheats, and it’ll run for 2 dives with dual Canon batteries. If you’re recording internal, this is a good option. Smaller, less drag, easier to transport, less costly.

The only real downside is the additional hydrodynamic drag of any monitor. Lately, I find that tucking the camera under my arm, so it falls at the hip, and keeping it close to the body, helps reduce the drag when I’m just trying to transit quickly.

I have a Shinobi and a Ninja. From what I can see other than the overheating there is minimum benefit recording ProRes 422 HQ as opposed to saving to card. The Shinobi goes a long way with the battery

The issue that I have is the HDMI lag. Apparently all Sony cameras have a lag of c100ms between the LCD and the HDMI and the LCD itself is 30ms behind reality. This additional 100ms really bugs me as I was hoping to use the monitor for photos and this is just not going to be practical.

With the Panasonic GH5M2 and GH6 I can have a lag as low as 30ms with HDMI by scaling down the output (the ,monitor does not display 4K anyway) and setting the audio to off. On Sony there is no way to make this quicker

When it comes to power you need to set temperature management to High or the camera will be too protective about heat. The other part is to lift the LCD from the body this is a challenge in the housing as there is just as much you can go and best of all to turn off the LCD entirely by hitting the display button until it is off.

I am disappointed about the HDMI lag I thought this camera was going to be much more responsive than my GH5M2 clearly not the case when using a monitor.

[jplaurel 46]

In response to your earlier question about temp settings, my A1 is set to "standard". No mount the difference in our overheating experience is due to this setting.

[Interceptor121 765]

In response to your earlier question about temp settings, my A1 is set to "standard". No mount the difference in our overheating experience is due to this setting.

Standard is for handlheld not suitable for professional use


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Whipauee 13]

Just catching up with this thread.

I too have the a7s3 and a1. I am using a nauticam a7s3 housing that I got when the a7s3 came out. Then I picked up the a1 when it was first released and happily it works quite nicely in the as73 housing. That may be a variant to your overheating problems of the a1. Also I have the Auto power OFF temp setting set to High, not standard. Really on both cameras. I also only use the LCD underwater (Have to), I don’t want even more gear lugging around airports or underwater, but my neck hates me! I shoot XAVC HS 4K and recently XAVC HS 8K, writing to the internal 160GB CFExpress A card, (700MB/s write speed) The picture profile I prefer is S-Log3, S-Gamut3, Typically overexposed at 1 to 1.3 stops. I shoot mostly in the Caribbean where it is warm. I could go on about my keldans and filters, lenses, ports and post production but they are irrelevant to the overheating issue.

The only time my a1 has over heated was on the last live aboard trip where I decided to shoot XAVC HS 8K.  Surprised me, It only happened when I was doing a long take looking for that moment!  But I shut the camera down for just a couple of minutes then power up into standby and then just shot no more than one minute clips (Which is my normal strategy) I was all good then, even in 8K.

So possible causes 1) difference in nauticam housings if you have an nauticam a1 housing (Maybe some other housing?), 2- and more likely, the temp setting set to normal. I never saw a downside to the high temp setting  unless its camera wear. And I felt the downside to normal temp setting was to possibly miss the shot because of the camera shutting down due to heat.

To look at some of my underwater pieces you can go to https://www.youtube.com/@prayers4theplanet

 

[Interceptor121 765]

Just catching up with this thread.

I too have the a7s3 and a1. I am using a nauticam a7s3 housing that I got when the a7s3 came out. Then I picked up the a1 when it was first released and happily it works quite nicely in the as73 housing. That may be a variant to your overheating problems of the a1. Also I have the Auto power OFF temp setting set to High, not standard. Really on both cameras. I also only use the LCD underwater (Have to), I don’t want even more gear lugging around airports or underwater, but my neck hates me! I shoot XAVC HS 4K and recently XAVC HS 8K, writing to the internal 160GB CFExpress A card, (700MB/s write speed) The picture profile I prefer is S-Log3, S-Gamut3, Typically overexposed at 1 to 1.3 stops. I shoot mostly in the Caribbean where it is warm. I could go on about my keldans and filters, lenses, ports and post production but they are irrelevant to the overheating issue.

The only time my a1 has over heated was on the last live aboard trip where I decided to shoot XAVC HS 8K.  Surprised me, It only happened when I was doing a long take looking for that moment!  But I shut the camera down for just a couple of minutes then power up into standby and then just shot no more than one minute clips (Which is my normal strategy) I was all good then, even in 8K.

So possible causes 1) difference in nauticam housings if you have an nauticam a1 housing (Maybe some other housing?), 2- and more likely, the temp setting set to normal. I never saw a downside to the high temp setting  unless its camera wear. And I felt the downside to normal temp setting was to possibly miss the shot because of the camera shutting down due to heat.

To look at some of my underwater pieces you can go to https://www.youtube.com/@prayers4theplanet

 

It can overheat in 8K that’s true

The fact is that other than cropping 8K at present has no traction there are only 3 manufacturers that released a Tv set at CES there are more projectors on the market

The two camera bodies are identical the A7S3 has no heat management the A1 lacks so unless the sensor gets less hot in 4K I would say the difference on the rest of the pipeline is zero


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[jplaurel 46]

On 1/14/2023 at 1:50 PM, Interceptor121 said:

Standard is for handlheld not suitable for professional use


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Oh? I'll be sure to mention that to our film crew this summer when we shoot the remainder of our series pilot.

Professionals use whatever gets the job done. It's worth noting that the A7S3 and FX3 do not overheat in the housing, even in 27c water temps when set to "standard". A1 may require the "high" setting to get the job done without overheating. So be it.

[Interceptor121 765]

What I meant is that standard shuts off the camera when the surface gets hot not when the internals get hot
The idea is that you don’t get slow burns handholding and put the camera on a tripod or cage
Nobody would shoot long videos with this camera handheld especially as the stabilisation is quite average


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[Interceptor121 765]

What I meant is that standard shuts off the camera when the surface gets hot not when the internals get hot

The idea is that you don’t get slow burns handholding and put the camera on a tripod or cage

Nobody would shoot long videos with this camera handheld especially as the stabilisation is quite average

 

 

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The guy that is confused always make me laugh

This camera (if you don't have it you won't understand) has two temperature management settings. Standard and High. 

When the camera is set to standard it monitors the surface not to go above a certain temperature that may create slow burns in your hands

When it is set to High it is meant to be used in a tripod in this scenario it will stop when the internal temperature has reached 45C from my measurements

No professional user would handhold this camera for 10 minutes becasue the IBIS is really average and the result would be shaky. A professional user or someone who has an idea about video will either have the camera on a tripod or in a housing (underwater case) or on a gimbal or in a cage and therefore the hands will not be in touch with the camera

Hopefully you are less confused and I had to make the effort of explaining myself that did not add any value to me but hopefully added value to you

[bill1946 16]

On 11/29/2022 at 5:35 AM, nomadadv said:

Quite interested at what Sony cam you got in a gates housing...

 

 

Sony FDR-AX100 Video camera. Here is the newer version of the housing. AX700 / Z90 - Gates Underwater ProductsGates Underwater Products (gateshousings.com)

 

[Interceptor121 765]

1 hour ago, bill1946 said:

Sony FDR-AX100 Video camera. Here is the newer version of the housing. AX700 / Z90 - Gates Underwater ProductsGates Underwater Products (gateshousings.com)

 

Bill this camcorder that I know well is a 1" sensor like a Sony RX100 we are not in the same league