Sony A7 IV Video Settings Guide. What video settings does the Sony A7 IV have? A7 IV file formats

the sony a74 has quite a few video codec frame rate and bitrate combinations which gives tons of flexibility but can be a little confusing today i'll be explaining what video settings the sony a74 offers and what the differences are between all the options the sony a74 has so many different video settings there's 10 bit 8-bit 422 420 h264 h265 24 and 120 frames per second as well as long gop and intra intra-frame compression supplemental to the regular shooting modes the a74 also has a video setting called snq which is in camera time lapses and slow motion snq has all the same options that regular movie mode does but it does not record audio so here in file formats are the codecs there is xavc hs s and si in 4k as well as 1080 versions for s and si xavc-hs is sony's h.265 codec it is more efficient and has higher compression without any loss in quality when compared to h.264 xavc-s is h.264 and it's a very standard codec that has been around for a very long time and most cameras use it lastly is xavc-si and it's also h.264 however it uses intra-frame compression when compared to the long gop compression that both xavc-hs and s use put simply inter-frame compression saves every frame individually when you're recording a video while long gop which stands for group of pictures saves parts of your image that are similar between each frame and groups them together reducing file size pros and cons for these codecs are that xavc-hs has small file sizes with the highest quality bit rates for hs and s are the exact same but being hs is compressing more data more information is being stored the downside is due to its high compression some computers have a difficult time editing the files and there might be some issues with playback as well xavc-s is middle ground it's not insanely compressed and it's not the highest quality your computer will be able to edit it fairly well and the file sizes are the same as xavc-hs lastly there is xavc-si the highest bit rate lowest compression option intra frame compression is used instead of long gop which is very easy to edit for your computer because it doesn't need to decode the compressed information and as each frame is saved individually the quality between each frame should theoretically be greater this option is the best for videos where there is a lot of movement throughout the entire frame if you want your machine to be able to edit the footage fast without transcoding and i've read that it's the best option for color grading as each frame is saved at its highest quality instead of as a group of images that is compressed together the downside is the insanely massive file sizes that are generated in a very short period of time moving on to movie settings this is where you can change the bit and frame rate color depth of 8 bit or 10 bit as well as chroma sub sampling of 422 or 420 as you increase the frame rate bitrate will naturally go up as you capture more frames per second 10bit saves 64 times more color information than 8-bit which has color grading benefits while 4-2-2 has less compression than 4-2-0 but some argue that the quality difference between 4-2-2 and 4-0 is minor while creating problems for editing and playback generally speaking the higher bit rate and higher chroma sub sampling gives you the most latitude when you're color grading which will let you shift the colors more before your footage starts to fall apart the trade-off is the large file sizes footage that is more taxing on your machine and potential issues with playback here's a list of all the frame rates and bit depths for each codec and their corresponding bit rates as you can see the achievable bit rates in regular movie mode range from 16 to 600. each codec has 10 and 8-bit options but xavc-hs offers the most combinations with it being the only one that lets you pick 10-bit 422 or 10-bit 420. all the other options lock you in at 10 bit 422 and drops you down to 8bit if you want 420 there is three tiers of bitrate options all in 10 bit for xavc-hs high medium and low it's worth noting though that this codec only allows you to record 24 and 60 frames per second with no option for 30. next is the standard xavcs 4k and 1080 which offers 10 bit 422 and a high and low 8bit 420 with 24 30 and 60 frames per second as well as 120 frames per second in 1080. last is xavc si 4k or 1080 which automatically locks you in at the highest bit rate of 10 bit 422 moving on to s and q it has a separate tab in the a74 but you still need to pick a codec from the file format tab it actually has almost all the exact same bit and frame rates that regular movie mode does with the exception of unlocking xavc-si fps and 1080. as i mentioned already all the bitrates in s and q are the same as in the regular movie modes however they act a little differently depending on the frame rate you choose in this option you have to pick the frame rate that you want the camera to record the video and the frame rate that you want the output to process in for instance you can shoot 120fps in 1080 pick a 24fps output and slow down your footage right away by 5 times or you can choose to shoot 1fps in a 24fps output and have a time lapse that is sped up 24 times all right in camera this is where things get a little bit confusing using a 24fps output since that's the most standard we can see that the bitrates for s and q are listed the same as the regular movie mode however this is not the true bit rate output because you need to apply a multiplier for slow motion options you have to multiply the bitrate by how much the footage is being slowed down or divide the bitrate by how much it is being sped up in a time lapse for instance a 120 fps video slowed down to 24fps output is being slowed down by five times meaning you need to multiply this bitrate of 89 megabits per second by 5 which gives you 445 megabits per second for the final video conversely for a 1 fps video the footage needs to be sped up 24 times so you need to divide 89 by 24 giving you a tiny bit rate of 3.7 megabits per second here is a graph for all the true bitrates for each recording frame rate and a 24fps output one last strange thing i want to touch on is memory card options the sony a74 can accept v30 60 and v90 cards which will allow for sustained write speeds of 240 480 and 720 megabits per second the a74 can also use the fast cf express type a cards that can sustain write speeds of 3 200 megabits per second while running tests i noticed that a v30 card would not record any of the time lapses for any codec even though some of the bit rates are single digits i noticed a lot of these inconsistencies with snq modes and a couple in the regular movie mode because of this i created a separate video linked here and down below testing every single memory card the a74 can use to find out which cards are needed for which video modes thank you so much for watching and i hope you have a fantastic day take care

Channel: Tymek Stolarz

Views: 98,587

Keywords: A7 IV Video Format Guide, sony a7 IV video format guide, What video settings does the Sony A7 IV have, A7 IV file formats, sony a7 IV file formats, a7IV file formats explained, a7IV file format guide, sony a7 IV, sony a7IV, sony a7 IV video format, sony a7 IV video quality, sony a7 IV video settings, sony a7 IV video modes, sony a7 IV best video settings, sony a7 IV best settings, a7 IV, sony a74, sony a7IV codecs, sony a7 IV codecs, a7IV, Sony A74, Sony A74 video settings

Id: D_eX-l44Ijc

Length: 7min 11sec (431 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 12 2022