Basic A7S II Questions

[kat.hayes]

I am fairly new to photography and am considering an A7S II.

 

1.) I tried one last night and took some photos in a restaurant using Auto and they were pretty grainy. It was lowly lit though not dark, and there was light coming from a window to camera left. I thought this camera got rave reviews for performing well in low light? If I boosted the ISO and shot in Aperture mode, at f4 would the grain still be there? OR does the camera perform well in little to no light but just have lots of grain/noise?

 

2.) Is there a way to zoom in to check focus and see depth of field before taking a shot?

 

3.) When choosing a Drive Mode, and I want to be able to fire off lots of photos quickly, do I just select Cont. Shooting Spd? Is there a downside to just keeping it on all the time?

 

Thank you!

[JCC]

Without seeing the shot, and exif, not much we can do but guess.   Maybe shutter speed was way too high forcing high ISO.

 

F4 is not a low light lens. 

 

Turn on focus peaking, and use the zoom button, once to set, twice to zoom, and 3rd time for high zoom.  4th click or half press of shutter resets zoom.

 

There is continuous high, and low.  Low attempts to refocus each shot, and adjust any setting not set to auto.  High just continues with focus and data from first shot of the string. 

 

JCC

[VTC]

It's like someone handing me the stick to a 747 and expecting me to fly the beast. Had my 7SII for 8 months now and STILL trying various configurations so don't expect to make a magazine cover after shooting with it for an hour. If there's a depth of field preview hidden somewhere in the camera I have yet to stumble across it yet and I use the sucker daily. Rent one. Take tons o pics writing down the configuration and time the image was taken so you can reference it later. Something like 135 menu settings and you'll never remember what you did to get that perfect shot.

[Gilgenberg]

JCC wrote a good answer to your problem!

 

you should use a lens with minimum F 1.8 better 1.2 or 1.4

 

in post you could use a noise reduction software so you will get very good results with A7S and RAW files

 

even a A7S can not do miracles, so you have to prepare your shot, looking to get as much light to the sensor as possible !

 

the curve will show you how much light you lose at F4!

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[Zé De Boni]

I am fairly new to photography and am considering an A7S II.

 

1.) I tried one last night and took some photos in a restaurant using Auto and they were pretty grainy. It was lowly lit though not dark, and there was light coming from a window to camera left. I thought this camera got rave reviews for performing well in low light? If I boosted the ISO and shot in Aperture mode, at f4 would the grain still be there? OR does the camera perform well in little to no light but just have lots of grain/noise?

 

I had the same problem in clear sun light at the beach. My images were grainy and the problem increased as I focused closer on the sand!

Worst, when I shoot movies underground, there is too much noise, specially when the subway train is speeding by the station.

Apart of that, there is no answer I can find to your questions.

I still need to learn what difference does light coming from the left or right, up or down. I missed my Relativity classes at school.

I also could not get the point about the Mode being decisive in the grainy result. I mean, is there a mode that you may choose that you get less grain without needing to decide about the other controls?

Also, I am dearly waiting for the day that cameras that can perform well in no light are available comercially. I've just known of heat sensitive scientific cameras, but those do not produce conventional images as you are expecting.

Maybe I still need to learn a lot. I guess you too!

[JCC]

F/stop is roughly inverse square(area is Pi*R squared)  So if you square F/stop numbers you get an idea of light gathering comparison.

 

JCC