Sony a7S III vs a7R V - Northern Lights Astrophotography / Video Comparison
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- Опубликовано: 2 янв 2025
- Chasing the aurora borealis, or northern lights, has been a challenging endeavor, but the geomagnetic storm of 2024 brought colorful waves in the night sky to what seems to have been the majority of North America. While working on another project entirely, I was able to capture some amazing photos and videos of the light show and determine some interesting differences between some of the top camera models released by Sony. Were any of you lucky enough to be looking up when it happened?
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Cameras in this video:
Sony a6500, Sony a7R V, Sony a7S III
Music by Hidden URL:
/ hiddenurl
I was up in Mt Rainier Washington State on May 12th. We had a KP of 9. This was not my first time capturing the Northern Lights but it was my best. I used a Canon EOS Ra, Stony a7 ll, Pentax k1 Mk 2. I will never forget this night of the Northern Light at Mt Rainier Paradise. ❤
That's awesome! I was just at Rainier two weeks ago, but it was nothing but clouds 😅
hello ! Would you mind sharing your video settings to capture the northern lights? (White balance, Picture profile, shutter speed , iso...) Thanks !
With the a7S III, I keep the shutter at 1/60 when shooting at 30fps to avoid smearing. With this camera, you can safely shoot video at ISO 12800, and depending on the intensity of your aurora, you may need it. It's always best to set your lens to its widest possible aperture when shooting at night (in this video, I used a lens that can do f1.4). You can shoot in log, but color grading night shots is not as easy as daylight shots, so I typically don't. I would otherwise avoid picture profiles and stick to standard shooting mode. White balance can be a bit tricky sometimes, but I usually keep it somewhere around 4000K. You might find that you like going even lower than that, so definitely play around with the setting. Best of luck on your shoot!
I shoot the aurora at 24fps instead of 30 or 60. 1/24 of a second comparted to 1/60 a second gives you brighter auroras and you can use a lower ISO. I still believe the Sony A7S3 is tops. As you stated many other cameras can do a good job as well. Amazing what our cell phones can do for still images at night. I did test the Sony A1 for video and it surprised me. A7S3 ( still the King)
On one of my other RUclips channels that deals with low light scenarios, we always shoot at 24fps and 1/48, but for most social media sites, 30p is treated better during compression, so as a studio policy, I have always tried to stick with that.
I have not had the pleasure of the testing out the A1, so that's pretty cool that you did. Great info as well, thanks!
what do you think of purchasing the ZV-E1 for these type of night lapse shots (video and photo lapse).... i like the compact form factor and it comes with the same sensor if im not mistaken.
Yes, I actually mentioned in my latest video that the ZV-E1 is the same sensor. There are some drawbacks, but for everything I did in this video, the differences would not matter. The ZV-E1 should perform exactly the same for low light video and photos as the a7S III at normal recording settings. I think there are a lot of good reasons for amateur photographers to go with the more stripped down model, and price is definitely one of them. Thanks for asking this question!
@@DesmondButler thanks for the incite... sony really makes it hard to choose since they have such a wide range of sensor/body combinations. I will head over to watch that video!
I don't know if you did buy one but yes do it, I own both a7s iii and zve1 and honestly in many ways the zve1 is better
@deanlowe2580 i did! It has been great
Hi, my camera Sony PXW-FS7M2 can do 1/3" of Shutter speed and max 8000EI (native 2000EI). With an Laowa Argus 33mm F0.95 it's possible take a video like yours in Interval Rec mode? I don't have a Sony camera yet (I have a Canon 600D) but I need to get one, I think a 6600 or 6700 (I only have APS-C lenses). Thanks
I have been impressed with the APS-C cameras from Sony. I haven't tested either yet, but of the two you mentioned, I would recommend the a6700. It is the newer model, but it also features many important upgrades, particularly the inclusion of a backside-illuminated sensor, which some have said provides an extra stop of low light performance.
How come the aurora Timelapse’s are flickering? I wonder if it’s the fps
Some flickering is normal with aurora timelapses, but this was the most unusual storm we've ever seen in North America, so the frequency may have been elevated. That said, flickering in timelapses in general is still quite common. One thing you can do is buy the DEFlicker plugin made by RE:Vision Effects. I mentioned in my timelapse tutorial video how the plugin has a setting specifically designed for timelapses. I used it this weekend for some flickering I was seeing in one of my Milky Way timelapses, and it did a great job.
@@DesmondButler well yea but I mean the flickering is in blocks. I’ve done Timelapse’s before years ago and had the flickering problem
@@jasonmordecai8212 Oh, I get what you're saying. I'm not seeing it on my end, but it would make sense that RUclips compression is turning it into quadrant noise. It's a lot of color data to reproduce for these stripped down codecs.
@@DesmondButler I also think YT is at fault here by compressing the data but nonetheless nice work
@@jasonmordecai8212 Thanks man!
I don't know if my Lumix S1 shoots low-light video that is close to the A7S III, but I certainly find that it one of the best low-light timelapse cameras ever made. I'm able to easily bring the images up 4-4.5 stops with minimal impact on the image quality. As such, I'm able to use a bunch of f/4.0 lenses at night and get a picture that never fails to amaze me. Too bad their autofocus is trash so I've been watching your videos to see if I might add a Sony camera to my kit for my wildlife hobby.
I have not had the pleasure of shooting with a Panasonic model yet, but I definitely need to. I'll have to keep my eye out for the S1. You've made it sound pretty impressive. I can't speak for all brands, but I will confidently assert that Sony autofocus is still generations ahead of Canon. I have yet to have a focus failure using the a7S III at my full-time job.
amazing channel! not sure whether you have the ability to get your hands on some Sonys a7 IV/a7C 2 and a7R III. I'd be stoked to see an astrophotography showdown between Sony's older 42.4MP sensor and the newer 33 & 61MP ones! I'm looking to get the best of the best of these higher-res cameras when it comes to lowlight - you're the only channel that does the comparison I care about!
Glad to hear you're finding the info useful! I was always curious about these type of comparisons, and now that I've done them, I have a much better understanding of how many of these systems work, and I'm glad that sharing it has been informative for others. Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't ever played with the a7R III, but my next video is very Sony heavy, so be on the look out for that 👍
Wow, this is super insightful. I'll be photographing the Northern Lights in Lapland and have been conflicted which body to rent since I prefer to use only one for both photos & videos. a7siii is a given for video, but the photos/timelapses looked great too.
Sounds like you're the exact type of photographer this video was made for! I'm sure you'll capture some fantastic shots!
Great Aurora CAMERA Shots - WOW! Can you share links to these videos? For me (maybe for us) on Mac ScreenSaver.
Why did you not show any graded video with the A7R V?
I'm not sure what you mean. All video examples are straight out of camera, no log profiles, just standard 4K video for comparison. Is your question pertaining to something else?
Is the Star-Eater a problem, still? It looks like only the brightest stars are visible in your a7S III footage... Even in the comparison between the Sony and Canon R6, there are noticeably fewer stars in the brighter Sony shot! Avid astrophotographer here, I have been searching for a second camera body to shoot video of my adventures, but it doesn't seem like the Sony is it since it seems to erase smaller stars to reduce noise...
Great question, and I can totally see what you're saying. While I have spoken about the definitions of "star eating" on this channel, I am admittedly not much of an expert on the "Sony star eater algorithm" . But let me add some context if I can. What you saw between the EOS R6 and the A7R V was a clip from a previous video, and in that video I described how the Sony model is simply capturing more light at every level. It does appear in that raw example (albeit compressed on this video) that stars are missing, but if you were to apply some contrasting to the digital negative, you would find that the Sony model does in fact capture a greater number of stars. This isn't just me eyeballing it either, as I have taken images from both cameras into stacking software which counts the number of detectable stars in a frame. The result is never close, the a7R V always comes up with significantly more star matches than any other camera I've ever tested. As to the algorithm that Sony has historically used in camera firmware, I have been told by members of the community that the a7R V was the first to effectively remove the problem. However, I have not personally gone out to test for that exact thing, so I cannot say with certainty. I wish I could have been more helpful, but hopefully that does at least shed some light on the question. Thanks for the comment.
@@DesmondButler Sounds promising! The Nikon Zf has suddenly popped into my feed, but I haven't been able to find any reviews that show how it handles night skies yet...
@@Orozco_PNW I have also started to see a lot of people talking about the Zf for low light. It would be really interesting to test out a camera with such a throwback body style.
Awesome vid!
What you think you know vs what other people know 🤯. Nice video
Honestly if the CME creating the Aurora have great density the show is more than visible by the naked eye and any camera will give great result. you simply need to be away from the city, and a little more up north in canada!
The video starts by showing that this is talking about the lower 48. It goes without saying that the aurora is brilliant in northern latitudes. If you're in Alaska or Norway, an iPhone will do, but I'd still prefer the Sony.
I think I finally understand how ISO works. Thanks
Glad it helped!
It's gain.
It would be great to see a comparison with the R6 mkII for video.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to get my hands on one.
r6 II is a monster in night photo, not in video mode
i just taken a sony s2 yes s2 is better of s3 in night mode
@@maxru5591 but it must be at least as good as the R6 mk 1, right? I have the R6 mk 1 and it does pretty well also with film at night.
@@MartinFransson i think its much better with more red sensitivity I shoot at 12,800 with no noise in the next days i hope to post a timelapse in kitt peak
why did you not use a 1,8 ora fast lens? using a 2,8 its a huge mistake
Several of the shots featured in this video were shot at f1.4 and are marked accordingly. It would have been cool to shoot the timelapses with a wider aperture, but I'm still working on getting a wide angle lens that opens up to that width. Someday soon hopefully.
Qualité vidéo le Sony a7s3 très bonne que qualité le Sony a7r5 mais en photos le Sony a7r5 bien 😊
The ZV-E1 is 1/2 the cost.
That's a very valid point. Honestly, if I wasn't always doing longer shoots for work, I'd get the ZV-E1. For the kind of travel shooting I typically do, it keeps the things I need and loses the things I don't.
You should learn dual base iso🎉
Haha, maybe you meant "teach" ? If so, thank you, I hoped the graphics were helpful. Maybe in the future I will have to do a video about the elements of current camera tech that some find confusing, such as dual native/base ISO. Thanks for the comment!
Nothing special, pixel size matters. Any camera with 4x pixel size of the size a7r5 would produce the same results. S3 is good until you want to crop. Personally I used a6600 with sigma 14/1.4, the diameter matters
On the contrary, I've tested many cameras on this channel with significantly larger pixels than the a7R V, and very few have shown better low light performance. In the case of the a7S III, it definitely comes down to that very high second native ISO. No other camera that I've tested has proven to be so specifically developed for low light performance. I did just complete some side by side tests with the a6700, and that video with all the results will be releasing soon, so stay tuned to see how the top model in the Sony APS-C line compares.
It's not magic, it's big pixels.
Haha, there's definitely some of that going on, but there is also something happening on the video side of things that dramatically reduces noise at high ISO in a way that other Sony cameras don't. I just haven't dug very deeply into what they're doing there.
@@DesmondButler In fact high ISO noise is NOT caused by ISO setting itself but rather by lack of light. When you have great sensitivity where A7s is a king among all camera models and brands then you have more available light to increase signal to noise ratio.
@@DesmondButler I'm not sure about the Sony A7S3, but the ZV-E1 (same sensor) - you can pump that up to 409,000ISO in video.. pretty cool to see in the dark.
@@z352kdaf8324 In my most recent video, I show more of that, but yeah, that sensor is just insane.