slog2 file handling for a7s

[Prismo87]

Hello all, I'm new to the forum as well as the Sony Alpha world.

Recently I purchased an a7s and more recently, had my first run shooting in slog2.

Once I got to my computer, my first instinct was to import my files to Premiere CC. Once imported, I noticed the files were .mp4, not .mov which seems odd. Upon review of the footage, the picture is pretty noisy and overall the quality seems off. I'm not sure if I'm missing a step in handling these files, or if something is just wrong altogether. Again, this is all new to me. I was expecting the picture to be flat and rather dull before color correction- which it is- but the overall quality seems rather poor to be from slog2. I've included a screen grab of the folder and contents from the card I shot on if this helps.

Thanks! 

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[boojoo007]

I gave up shooting slog2 just because it is hard to properly expose my footage, especially for daytime shots. 

Your slog footage will look much better after color correction!

 

I think your filetype should be .mov. Check your camera settings that you are using the highest quality. Also check your memory card supports the higher quality. You need the SDXC

[busterbboy]

I gave up shooting slog2 just because it is hard to properly expose my footage, especially for daytime shots. 

Your slog footage will look much better after color correction!

 

I think your filetype should be .mov. Check your camera settings that you are using the highest quality. Also check your memory card supports the higher quality. You need the SDXC

 

What are the correct camera settings? I have a Sony A7S mkii, set to XAVC S 4K, and use a Lexar Professional 128gb 150mbs 1000x SDXC, and I get the mp4 files.

[Snowfun]

(Copied from the original post elsewhere)

 

MP4 is simply the container - the codec is xavcs (or avchd if you selected that - don't!)

A .mov container is more usually seen with, for example, a prores codec (eg Sony A7 plus Atomos Shogun).

 

What iso are you using? Base 3200 will not be noisy. I used 25/40,000 for a recent aurora trip (linked in the video showcase section below - please view!) and noise is handled ok. This assumes you exposed correctly - worth hunting out Philip Bloom's A7s tutorial at this point. Slog footage exposed incorrectly will look horrid. Promise.

 

Are you familiar with slog and colour grading?

If 'yes' then I'm not sure what to tell you other than to try the other neutral profiles to see if they are better. Not knowing your tolerance level nor your expectations it is difficult to know what you mean by "poor quality".

If 'no' then... Now the fun really starts! I use RedGiant log/lut to start grading the footage in FCP or fiddle (I wouldn't claim to know what I'm doing...) in Resolve. Slog will look poor unless and until it is graded with considerable skill. On eoshd.com it seems to be accepted that Sony colours are very poor out of camera when compated with Canon for example. I have no experience to make the comparison however.

 

Slog from the A7S can be excellent. But it does need care when exposing and TLC in post...

 

Have fun,

Tim

[loganhelps]

You really need to expose 2 stops to the right for the best performance with Slog2 for low noise performance. Bump up the ISO and the results will look great after you colour correct.  

[busterbboy]

(Copied from the original post elsewhere)

 

MP4 is simply the container - the codec is xavcs (or avchd if you selected that - don't!)

A .mov container is more usually seen with, for example, a prores codec (eg Sony A7 plus Atomos Shogun).

 

What iso are you using? Base 3200 will not be noisy. I used 25/40,000 for a recent aurora trip (linked in the video showcase section below - please view!) and noise is handled ok. This assumes you exposed correctly - worth hunting out Philip Bloom's A7s tutorial at this point. Slog footage exposed incorrectly will look horrid. Promise.

 

Are you familiar with slog and colour grading?

If 'yes' then I'm not sure what to tell you other than to try the other neutral profiles to see if they are better. Not knowing your tolerance level nor your expectations it is difficult to know what you mean by "poor quality".

If 'no' then... Now the fun really starts! I use RedGiant log/lut to start grading the footage in FCP or fiddle (I wouldn't claim to know what I'm doing...) in Resolve. Slog will look poor unless and until it is graded with considerable skill. On eoshd.com it seems to be accepted that Sony colours are very poor out of camera when compated with Canon for example. I have no experience to make the comparison however.

 

Slog from the A7S can be excellent. But it does need care when exposing and TLC in post...

 

Have fun,

Tim

 

Hi - this is a really embarrassing question, but could you tell me how to 'expose two stops to the right' on my brand new and very unfamiliar A7s mkii?

I've tried slog3 and yes it does look horrible compared to Canon c300 footage, or even 5d mkiii.

[Snowfun]

Expose so that the camera tells you its correct and open up by two stops. But be careful not to blow the highlights - don't let the histogram move too far to the right of the graph. It is the movement of the histogram "to the right" as you "over-expose" which gives it its name: ETTR (expose to the right). Blown highlights cannot be recovered as the sensor has been saturated and the only information it contains is 100% white (I think that sort of makes sense).

 

Ideally, you need to do your own test. Set your zebras to 100% and expose so that nothing important has zebras showing. Shoot for a few seconds. Now try deliberately putting key parts into zebra mide (over-exposed and saturated sensor) and under-exposing. Put the footage into FCP or whatever you use and try recovering the shadows and highlights - look out for blocking and noise.

 

When you say the slog3 footage looks "horrible" do you mean after grading? It shouldn't - although obviously exteme grading shows the flaws with 8 bit codecs (true for any 8 bit not just Sony).

 

I should add that I use a shogun (better focus peaking, histogrames & prores codecs!) with my A7S so I'm not familiar with your A7Sii.

 

Key thing is to test, test, test to find, not what is objectively correct but the look you want for the project you have set yourself.

Tim