What does Sony A7 III output at HDMI?

[foobuntu]

What exactly does the A7 III output at the HDMI port.
I was thinking about getting myself an external recorder, but somewhere I heard that you can't output 120fps, just 1080p60. Is that correct and what exactly comes out of the HDMI port, in terms of bit depth, fps, etc.

Edited January 29, 2019 by foobuntu

[Chrissie]

31 minutes ago, foobuntu said:

What exactly does the A7 III output at the HDMI port.

This is what Sony claims on their "Full Specifications and Features" page:
 

Quote

 

Clean HDMI output :

3840 x 2160 (25p), 1920 x 1080 (50p), 1920 x 1080 (50i), 1920 x 1080 (24p), 1920 x 1080 (60p), 1920 x 1080 (60i), 3840 x 2160 (30p), 3840 x 2160 (24p), YCbCr 4:2:2 8-bit / RGB 8-bit

 

So, in terms of frame rate, the HDMI output indeed seems to not go beyond 60p.

That said: if the camera can record at 120fps, then there must be a file sitting on your memory card afterwards, which holds all 120 frames per second for the duration of the clip.

Regarding the playback at 120 fps, you would at least need a computer whose video ouput (including monitor) is capable of refreshing 120 times per second. Expect a considerable load on the rest of the system (CPU, sustained data rate from disk etc.) as well.

[foobuntu]

Ah, I was looking at the "Interface" section and there it only says HDMI micro connector 4k. But in the "Clean HDMI output" section I see it's 8-bit either way, which renders the external recorder pointless. I was hoping to find a way to record 10-bit.

[VTC]

10 hours ago, foobuntu said:

Ah, I was looking at the "Interface" section and there it only says HDMI micro connector 4k. But in the "Clean HDMI output" section I see it's 8-bit either way, which renders the external recorder pointless. I was hoping to find a way to record 10-bit.

Even if it's not precisely what you're looking for there's still a benefit of using an external recorder. Here's the specs of internal vs. external recording at 1080 on a shoot and a comparison frame of the results. By itself I resigned myself to accept whatever I got internally on most assignments but the colors from the ProRes 442 files did justice to the colors on this one. Though satisfied with the final edit I'm curious what notching it up to ProRes 442 HQ would have turned out.

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Edited January 30, 2019 by VTC

[foobuntu]

Well, nice to know and thanks for that info but without the bitdepth the highest bitrates are meaningless since you still can't use the full potential of the s-log profiles.