Camera 2 Settings - Sony A7III Manual

Camera 2 Settings:

Movie 1:
Exposure Mode:
Choose Manual for best control.
Can also choose from: Program Auto / Aperture Priority / Shutter Priority
File Format:
XAVC S 4K - 3840 x 2160
XAVC S HD – 1920 x 1080
AVCHD (50i 17M(FH) or 50i 24M(FX) – 1920 x 1080
XAVC S 4K or HD are best. Remember you can always downscale to HD,
whereas you cannot upscale HD to 4K, due to the pixels being increased in
size, the resolution will be poor. That said, 4K is a vastly more intensive
process to work with in post-production and requires extra work in order to
utilise properly.
If you do shoot in 4K, remember the file sizes are very large, and due to the
codec used - (H.264), you would need proxy files to edit with. Although one
thing to note; Due to the vast amount of data being uncompressed, Proxy
files are generally bigger in size than the original files. You will need a large
amount of hard drive space; at least 1.5 to 2 times the size of the original files
at a minimum, by the time you have the original files and proxy. That is with a
proxy resolution of roughly 960x540, down from 3840x2160, which is fine to
edit with, but if you go bigger on the proxy resolution, your hard drive will
need to be 4 to 5 times bigger.
XAVC S is recorded in H.264 which uses 'Long GOP compression' to compress
a high amount of data in to a small space. Which is why it being very
processor intensive is difficult to work with due to the high amount of
information being uncompressed. Hence, the best way to edit this type of
file, is to transcode it or create proxy files in another file format such as
CineForm or ProRes.
A good option is set the A7 to create its own proxy files whilst shooting. As
creating proxy files can take a lot of time depending on how much footage
you have. So, unless you have a very high spec computer, you will be waiting
for it to finish before you can begin editing. The only drawback with this; is
when shooting at 4K; you can get 40 minutes of footage on each card in the
A7. So, backing up footage and re-using the cards on set may be required.
One more thing, if you do create proxies afterwards, make sure the aspect
ratio is the same. Otherwise you'll get framing issues when editing.
Remember, Ultra-High Definition 4k has a different aspect ratio to full scale
4K.
Creative Media Centre
David Turner
8 Sony A7 III Settings Guide
October 2019