Video with Sony A7R5 and Sony 90mm macro lens.

Here is one of my first videos I produced with my new Sony A7R5 camera and Sony 90mm macro. Mostly done via point and shoot (using a WeeFine 3400 focus lamp at a depth of approx. 15m; Auto WB). My video skills are limited at the moment and so are my skills of video postprocessing (done with DaVinci resolve). In another tread on Sony FF macro lens options, Riley was interested to see an example video of this combo and here it is:

https://youtu.be/nofqMIWI0-0

Wolfgang

Thanks for the video, I was just looking for some video samples with the A7RV. Could you please just tell me what kind of video mode did you use? What do you think about the video modes in general? Its not a rolling shutter wonder but maybe its good enough for chill underwater?

1 hour ago, JYk said:

Thanks for the video, I was just looking for some video samples with the A7RV. Could you please just tell me what kind of video mode did you use? What do you think about the video modes in general? Its not a rolling shutter wonder but maybe its good enough for chill underwater?

According to DPReview good settings would be, (i) 4k, 25/30 fps, 10 bit (4:2:2) with  18.6 ms rolling shutter at full with or (ii)  4k 60fps with 15 ms rolling shutter at 1,24x crop: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-a7rv-review#VP

I am still working/experimenting on settings for still photos, no time yet to go into the video modes in detail. The settings for this video were some default presets, far suboptimal:

1920x1080, 8 bit (4:2:0), 50 fps, Full Auto Exposure (setting shutter speed, f-number and ISO automatically), Auto Focus Area Setting, shutter 1/100s, IS enabled, ISO 160, Auto White Balance,  f-number 2.81

The A7R5 is certainly not for a video enthusiast, but I think it can produce very good quality, when in the right hands. When I once will manage to adjust the settings right and also know how to manually adjust the aperture for video (to get more DOF), the quality will certainly be better. The camera is much better in video than I am...

Wolfgang

Good job Wolfgang!

The shallow depth of field nicely detaches the subject from the background and highlights it.

From a narrative point of view, in order to smoothly edit a video you must remember to always shoot at least 2 clips of the same subject from different angles or distances.
This way you can edit them later by alternating between them.

There are definite rules about shooting angles (search for 180° rule) but let's say that in your case, the moray eel being shot frontally, you should have edited it with a detail clip of the mouth, or had it preceded in the opening by a wide-field clip showing it in its environment and then tightened with detail. From the point of view of editing and language, cutting to 49" is considered a mistake since the scene seems to stop but nothing changes in perspective and the viewer perceives it as a "jump" a glitch.

It sounds difficult but really you would just have to remember it underwater: film ALWAYS two or more clips of the same subject at different angles/distance and then you will have a buttery editing experience

5 hours ago, Davide DB said:

Good job Wolfgang!

The shallow depth of field nicely detaches the subject from the background and highlights it.

From a narrative point of view, in order to smoothly edit a video you must remember to always shoot at least 2 clips of the same subject from different angles or distances.
This way you can edit them later by alternating between them.

There are definite rules about shooting angles (search for 180° rule) but let's say that in your case, the moray eel being shot frontally, you should have edited it with a detail clip of the mouth, or had it preceded in the opening by a wide-field clip showing it in its environment and then tightened with detail. From the point of view of editing and language, cutting to 49" is considered a mistake since the scene seems to stop but nothing changes in perspective and the viewer perceives it as a "jump" a glitch.

It sounds difficult but really you would just have to remember it underwater: film ALWAYS two or more clips of the same subject at different angles/distance and then you will have a buttery editing experience

 

 

Actually the point you make is very valid

Traditionally you always took a wide medium and close shot so 3x subject this was good to understand the environment around it before you get on it

Now there is a tendency for single shots as we are in go pro times or on the other hand you jump in with a macro lens so cant do a wide shot but yet this gets really boring very soon for me

4 minutes ago, Interceptor121 said:

Now there is a tendency for single shots as we are in go pro times or on the other hand you jump in with a macro lens so cant do a wide shot but yet this gets really boring very soon for me

In fact in my ingenuousness this was the reason for buying the CMC-2 and the flip mount: to be able to do in the same dive a medium field shot and then the macro to the same subject.
However, I had underestimated how limiting the use of a macro add-on was compared to a true macro lens.

In fact in my ingenuousness this was the reason for buying the CMC-2 and the flip mount: to be able to do in the same dive a medium field shot and then the macro to the same subject.
However, I had underestimated how limiting the use of a macro add-on was compared to a true macro lens.

1 minute ago, Interceptor121 said:

I used subsee 5 and cmc-1 on a dual flip adapter that covered everything on mft


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, we already covered this topic. i was referring to the the fact that with a CMC you have very narrow working distance regardless of the enlargment. With a regular/real macro lens you don't have this problem. If your subject is shy you can always film it from a greater distance.

Maybe the Subsee +5 is a sort of exception: it's so weak that it have a greater working distance. 

Reviewing the video, some questions from one who by necessity shoots in AF-S or manual... I know nothing about the Sony AF.

The camera always keeps in focus the snout of the moray eel i.e. the closest part and in some cases the eyes are not in focus and also the shrimp fluttering back and forth, coming in and out of focus. Provided that it is already a miracle that the focus chases a single point, if I wanted to, could I have intervened by blocking the focus on the eyes or by blocking it on a shrimp?

58 minutes ago, Davide DB said:

Reviewing the video, some questions from one who by necessity shoots in AF-S or manual... I know nothing about the Sony AF.

The camera always keeps in focus the snout of the moray eel i.e. the closest part and in some cases the eyes are not in focus and also the shrimp fluttering back and forth, coming in and out of focus. Provided that it is already a miracle that the focus chases a single point, if I wanted to, could I have intervened by blocking the focus on the eyes or by blocking it on a shrimp?

The Sony Catalyst Browser says that the camera was in "Full Screen Autofocus". I do not remember whether I had switched on Animal/Eye recognition or not, but by looking at the video I would say it was clearly switched OFF (Maybe Massimo knows how to recover this information from the original clip and can tell me)...

In this mode the camera is expected to focus always on the nearest object that is depicted on an AF pixel. Now, having more practice with the camera, I would say that animal/Eye recognition ON would have been much better (at least for stills this works very good, even when I use the Sony 90 macro with SMC-1 (what gives a similar magnification relative to the frame, as 1:1 with a MFT macro lens)...

I remember you use a GH5, that has contrast based AF. I never used this camera, but Oly EM5II, that focuses in a similar way. My personal experience was, that S-AF and MF was the way to go for everything, not just macro (Pana 45mm macro worked nice, but Zuiko 60mm was hunting a lot; CMC-1, more or less, only manually). Later, with EM1II (that has also phase contrast based AF), C-AF, even with Zuiko 60mm, worked well, but tracking only to some extend (sometimes even with CMC-1 on). Now, with A7R5, C-AF works even a little better, tracking is much more sticky and in addition there are the recognition algorithms, that work very well, when properly adjusted...

=> I guess with Animal/Eye detection on, the focus would always be on the murray eel. One even may have been able to switch to a shrimp, but this would require a lot of experience with the AF system and the knowledge how to adjust and use it...

Wolfgang

The way to do it with the A7R5 is to use tracking that can be triggered in video with a button.

However a moray eel is not small and generally does not need a macro lens, you just shoot at f/11 at close range or smaller and have more in focus

You can also use single area and keep it on the eye if this is what you want but generally half blurry fishes don't get lots of praise