Live Field Test 2! Sony A7S III and Xperia Pro By Philip Bloom

Press the button here: no there we go. Isn't that a big difference, nice, how beautiful and soft I could do the diffusion filter to make it look really dreamy right, and I'm really hoping that we have a smooth frame rate today. I think I've nailed it. I think I'll just kick the tripod should we get the tripods, but I think this is the best one. So far I was going to make it even better. I had a really fancy plan of using two cameras and a HDMI switcher, which is a physical switcher, but it just freezes the camera, so it freezes the YouTube lights.

It doesn't matter, so you need something like an a10 mini electric electronic type, um switch type thing um, you could hi dave, you could get. You know like an a10 mini type thing, but you now and then the whole point not it's a miniature show gotten seven, but the whole point is to try and keep it as small as possible. Let me just get that shutter speed down a bit. It's got a bit darker than before and there we go yeah so perfect, so yeah so needed a mindful. No I'm in a field.

This is a field test. I'm in a field come on. I's not even on a proper tripod, so I don't even know if I can actually pan with this. Furthermore, I can try. Let me see oh see it's a field.

That was really looks good. Doesn't it. Why did I do that? Because this is not a video tripod, this one video tripods with the other camera? Why did I do that? You're in my beautiful framing so yeah? So I had this all set up to do as I fall off my bag, two cameras, but yeah it just freezes which is such a shame. So I need to find some sort of portable electronic HDMI switcher, that's not powered by USB or something so yeah, I'm I'm looking, I'm really my bag is my bag is squishy there you go composition's better now, so I've got some really lovely stuff anyway, because the light's been wonderful. I've been shooting with the hey.

I came into this field because yesterday the cows were in oh the cows, all right, how am I going to show you the cows? Furthermore, I can change lenses, so the cows are a little over more. This is when I should put a zoom lens on those are cows, so I do have another camera. So I what I want to try and do is switch it over. That's that was the whole goal of this was to switch it over, but I don't know if it's going to work focus on me. It might do, but it might be a bit scrappy.

Do you mind it being a bit scrappy? If I, you might lose the image for a bit, but I'm going to switch to the other camera and yeah. You should get a really nice shot. I think it's going to be worth it, so you and the audio won't be as good, because I will be going off of the other camera and not this one. So I think it's worth it. This is all right.

It's working, I'm boring to look at this is going to be nicer to look at, so I am going to uh. What am I going to do I need to. I need to plug into it my brain's, not working. Oh yeah, let's plug this into input, so this is going to be the output. It's all right.

My brain is not working. So if I can try thinking how to get that, so that's going to go into the output and then input I got it all right bear with me. This is this. Is it my brain is all right switching over to the right camera again, so it needs me to do this. Not me go back! No! It's because the camera was turned off so any second! Now no! This is why I need a proper switcher there we go, so that's the proper camera.

So let me just get some shots. I'll show you the beautiful light. Better live shootings, it's always nice. Let's go a little lower there. We go.

Let's pull focus onto the cows. You've got this Philip. You know what to do there we go. I pulled focus onto the cows, so I should still be able to see the chat. Can you still hear me? Hopefully you can still hear me because there is audio um.

How nice is that hey? How nice is that, let's come back out, do like a live, live shooting, so I'm going to change frame rate because I'm I'm at normal speed, which is really boring, see what happens if I jump go to 122. It's just cropped in slightly, which is fine. I'm fine with that, and now rack focus nice. Let's lock onto the cow nice composition, let's try, let's frame out those people, probably again, yes, no they're going to have to be in it. It shouldn't be making any difference to the output, because it's still outputting 30p.

So it's weird, I'm at f 5.6. So I'm going to drop down to 60p something else. We have the sun there. She is chamber, don't have a ND on a bit of sun for you. So over there is the river.

You can't really slip. You can see people along the towpath uh. There should be some cyclists coming through in a second now there we go. I feel like it's, not quite as nice as it was a little earlier, but there you go I'll, come back on camera in a second as well just grab a couple more shots. If anything vaguely interesting, not really.

I've got some nice shots and I put that in my video I'll just do one more shot here. Actually what I'm going to do is show you my setup very quickly. So what I'm going to do is just change. Take this lens off. I can find another lens that isn't super wide.

I've got one here, so I'm just going to change lenses bear with me. Oh my god. What's he doing live? How could he do this? I know who does this? Not many people do this on a live right here we go nice. So now you'll see my setup there. She is hello, it's a bit bright! There we go so got the um, so that's the Xperia pro, and I've got 24 mil gm on there.

I've got this arm and let me stop my um. Take it off all the focus, so just next to my in this is just uh to keep it top, and it's a bit on the quiff. Isn't it really? Let me just straighten up it's going to make. It looks, makes me look a bit queasy looking at that there it goes and help that this is all squiffy there. We go very nice.

If I could. Actually, oh, you can see our chat. How like inception is that I could actually show you the chat there. You go. That's really meta to do that.

So anyway, that's uh, there's the setup anyway. In case you wanted no. I should probably record a bit of that shouldn't. If that autofocus ain't good, whoever said that can go, do one. The autofocus is magnificent.

It's in manual focus right now, it's untouched focus, little known fact: autofocus doesn't work very well on reflective surfaces. Oh, that looks pretty over there now. So, let's get a bit. Get nice and low nice lower this tripod's a bit stiff. I can't do it.

Okay, there we go so just for a shot. That's about to there happen, go all right! I'll be the last one I'm going to come back into frame. Leave that rolling. This is manual, focus all right, you're going to lose the image shortly, as I re-plug in again. Remember how I do that.

How do I do that again? Oh, yeah say goodbye for a few seconds. That's my experience pro camera any second. There you'll get me back in when I press the button again come on there. We go. Let's just move this back into frame there we go, so I think it's some terrible colors for live-streaming.

Why do always people just want to complain about something? If it's, if it's terrible, then up the saturation on your phone or your TV? Go get your own one, sorry guys, but I'm watching live, recording whilst live-streaming, because I want to be able to use it later, and I need some good dynamic range god. There's so much simply wind just stop winching, it's so much easier, just to say nothing! That's like nitrates bit low yeah, I'm going to give you some ultra cool saturation, say goodbye to dynamic range, though. Actually, I don't even think I can be bothered. No, I said it I'm going to leave it as it is wind in mike colors. Aren't enough, oh my god, what an absolute bunch of wingers, I think it looks beautiful, I'm wearing green to blend in with the field.

That's why I chose it, and I think this is by far definitely the best. Looking live stream. I've done on location, um, that's good! I mean yeah. The whole switching cameras is incredibly clunky, so I do need something like a pocket that might need to make a pocket a10 mini. So you cash, the USB powered thing that you can have like two or three cameras plugged into HDMI sources and flick between them.

Otherwise, I'm going to bring out um my azimuth shogun 7 and then have that takes SDI, so you need SDI converters for HDMI and it is the whole point of this is to be really, really minimal, and I think it is. I think it's worth it uh. I just don't think you can do two cameras with it, which is kind of obvious really but still um. Furthermore, I did try. Furthermore, I can't, you can say I can't say I haven't tried.

I have done this is probably about my seventh or eighth live over the past six days to try and get a great looking live stream, and I think I have, and I'm going to pull focus onto people walking behind me. Are you happy now, I'm out of focus, or would you prefer me to be in focus? Tell me in the comments whether you want me to be in focus or not, and I'm back beautiful rack focus. It's good that autofocus uh, oh in here, so let me see if I missed any so yeah. If anybody does complain, I it annoy me, and then I will be I'll, you'll see how annoyed I get with people who complain for no other reason, um. So yeah I mean it's the sun's over there.

So let me just tweak the frame slightly to make the most of that lovely sun just going down to try and get level there. We go composition's a mess now yeah. That's all right, maybe a little more! This way, um white balance. What we on here seven look see if we can warm it up there. Maybe that's what the problem is: yeah, I'm in daylight.

Let me give you a nice shade balance there. Well, I'm gonna fall over there. We go. That's nice! Isn't that yeah, so 1.4 24 mil that's a nice shot. I quite like that.

I record on it now lucky I didn't actually fall over. That would have been really embarrassing but yeah, I think um as shots go. This is nice um. I was basically just searching on the phone because it's got like uh. It tells you how strong the 5g is as you're walking around on the Xperia pro.

So I was looking for the best I looked on the EE website. Oh yeah, I switched sim cards, so before I had the three sim card it now put. My EE sim card in we've just got better 5g look for the best area, and this is the best field for a field test out of all the fields. I was looking around. This had the prettiest background for the field and the strongest 5g in the field.

So this is why I'm here, whereas yesterday I was just up in a field that way which didn't have as good um 5g yeah. Ah, so, if I miss anything, should you get rid of your live view? So the live view so things with the live view? Um, that's the trade one um. I have that and you think the downside with the trade one is you need to have dedicated sim cards for it, and they need, and then you have to buy data from them. I believe so, if you're going to use it out in location which isn't so good really so, but what I found really useful today, that frame rate seemed to drop a little there. What I found really useful today about using this as a monitor, as you can see, I do like a lot of dirty shots and just creeping you know stuff in in in the foreground, which makes it difficult to autofocus.

If your subject is half behind it, so I've been doing a lot of manual focusing which is a nightmare with the 70 to 200. On a two times extender I mean its absolute hell I mean you're talking, like micro amount to get it in focus, but because you get it's a 4k panel on the Xperia pro, and I'm sending 4k into it, double tap in the monitor app, and it punches in up six times quickly, and then you can pinch more so, and you can, and it's crystal it's pin sharp, and it looks fantastic. So I was able to actually get focus. It was on the rear screen of Sony, not hope at all and um all my yeah. All my other monitors are 1080p panels.

So that's been really useful. I just wish it was brighter. You know uh, uh, so right can this be done? No, it can definitely be done on 4g um. I think you're, probably better off, not using this uh using the direct app from I'm going to just change. My exposure.

Excuse me: oh wait back to front look, I'm gonna fall over again. There we go um. The Streamlabs is probably the best one to use, because you can limit the exact nitrate that you want to so it at all the max bit rate. So I think what happened for YouTube. I think if it's basically just a free-for-all.

Depending on what's going on, but yeah um, I should bring a stall out next time. I do this yeah, so basically the sunset was the thing that made me want to come out again tonight, because the one in the field yesterday was really jerky, and I didn't like it and I didn't know why it was jerky, but most of them a lot of them have been jerky. And yet my one of the operating the camera, the sunset was smooth, and it's very simple. I was in 30p. I was in NTSC mode, sorry shooting at 60p on the live and that it needs it doesn't like a 25p signal doesn't like it.

Furthermore, I haven't tried a 24p signal but didn't like 25p, and that was what was causing all this jittering and stuff and which is there you go, so I'm glad I actually found it out so yeah. So the monitor app um yeah, but you the the thing is about what this does are its the 4k input and the 4k panel, so you can use um, dongles and stuff like that, and that will work um. You need to obviously get a 4k one um and I did try to use yeah you're trying to think I did try and use the actual a dongle with the Montreal and I couldn't get it to work uh anyway. I could only get it to work with the HDMI. If I knew that um there's too many thingies there to actually read something anything too technical is like over my head.

Look at that sun! Isn't that, just like absolutely perfect beautiful shot. Apart from the bloke in the frame, though um uh? How am I live in the middle of the field? It's a field test! It's what you do! Look at that nice backlight! So if you are going to tip with basic tip with lighting, if you are going to have the sun as a hair lights, try to keep your head below the bright bit um. Otherwise, it looks weird. You know you leave it like that. Doesn't look anywhere near this, pretty you lose that nice rim uh have I tested in low light yeah I did um.

I don't leave these lives up. I did do a life by the riverside three nights ago for night Saturday night, and I was at twenty-five thousand six hundred ISO. It's an a7s3, it's fine, um camera fee does not work with the HDMI input. There you go. I was told about it before I downloaded it, and it does not see um the HDMI input.

It's not programmed for it uh, so yeah, the only so the software that dot CDD. My input on from this Xperia pro is YouTube stream, labs and stream yard website. I think, but app wise, very, very few. So I think and what I said, the Sony's you need to figure out. You need to get your software on the phone to have the HDMI input as another camera, so it sees it as another camera um, because that's basically, I think this is what it's doing with YouTube anyway, because you cycle through the different cameras.

If I press this, that's one of the phone cameras and then this front one and eventually get back to me, so it cycles through the cameras so yeah I mean it's I'd like to get this. It might age in my input to work with everything, but I've just not had um much luck with most things, just the two main ones. I don't know if there's anyone who knows this, but I mean I tried to use yeah, the audio is going through the camera. So every time you cannot like without mini pro, you can set an input to be audio sports you're, going to get a bit of wind by the way because it is windier. And then, if you change cameras, it will still maintain the audio source, but there's no way of telling the YouTube app to stick with this source.

Now stream labs, whatever it's called. That does let you maintain the source, I think, but not here. If you change the thing the camera keeps changing, but then again I'm never going to want to use the other cameras. So I'm just gonna who's going to want to use the other cameras when you've got this so yeah. So let me you know, let me compose this shot better for the front, the selfie camera, not quite so, so off the camera a7s3.

This is why this is why I've been going to the effort of this because look how much different it looks. It looks wonderful and this cons this ability to go live with a proper camera without any faffing of dongles, with a straight input is going to be so useful for broadcast just making things as simple as possible. You know, obviously you know for YouTubers and stuff, like that. You know a lot of people are going to get on the cheapest option, but for broadcast tall a reliable broadcast tool. That's the key is to be able to go in just very simply, and that is what is important about this.

This is called a pro, and it's the first pro phone that deserves a pro, because it really is a broadcast tool, uh, it's more than a phone. That makes sense, because you know it's just. I just can't believe the quality I can get from just one cable straight in there. Oh, I was recording on the other camera whoopsie. I have to go through that yeah because you know I've no I've spent.

This is my 30-second year now in the business and when we first did live satellite truck just check the battery on the camera hold on I'm good um. That was before that was terrestrial link, um very limited places. You could do it. We had one truck the sky, and then we had a satellite truck and obviously that could do lives in more places but hugely expensive things um, and then you know it's its taken a long time. You know we.

The most convenient way to go live is, of course, through a phone that the quality is poor and that sort of thing is fine. If you're in a know in a war zone and type stuff and blah blah blah. But if you want, if you want to go, live with, you know, doing live interviews with people and things there's so too much skype and there's too much of that stuff on there, and this is such a know how much better would it be if this would? This is all you need, because you know you don't have to obviously go with 5g. You can connect up to Wi-Fi, and you've got a mobile way of connecting, which is great so yeah I mean this is for me the coolest thing about it. By far this, it's the thing that I've just fascinated me the most about the Xperia pro um yeah.

So yeah I mean you know you can always drop to with Streamlabs. You can drop to uh standard definition, and then you're going to have a lower bit rate, and then you could easily use 4g and stuff. It's just having that control. Isn't if I mean I have searched on the EE website and using the app to find a field which had good 5g, and I'm in it gives me a smooth signal. A smooth input make sure I'm in 30p, which is a bit annoying um, but it definitely seems to work now.

Would I use? Would I use this phone as a main backup device? I don't understand about the backup device. I wouldn't use it for a backup device, because it's its not a backup device anyway, yeah so um. You can change your profile whatever, and you can make it look like whatever you wanted to, but because I had the sun behind me. Nice flattering soft profile. I don't you know.

If you want to have contrasting stuff, you can do um, you know and because you want it because I'm such a pain in the ass, I am going to do exactly the opposite of that for you, because that's the sort of person that I am but, as I said yesterday, we're now in s log three, so you can put a rec 709 LUT over this live stream. By simply going up to the go to the quality settings, um and then the settings go to quality, select, LUT, select, s-log, three bang you'll get rec709 there you go um, I'm going to put it on to that was a lie by the way I was completely lying, I'm going to go into a non-video profile, it's a bit of a fiddle. Let me see I have to go to color tone and I need to go to picture profile off, and I'm going to go to vivid because no black and white- oh, oh, oh now, we're talking! This is what we wanted. It's a bit too. I like my black and white, to be a bit contrasted than this, but still I quite like it, though.

Don't you look how nice that is! All life should be in black and white. Really now we do need to drop the frame rate to make it look more realistic, um, but yeah we've got some other. I've got some! Oh, vivid! Is this what you wanted? Is that really what you wanted? I don't think it is what you wanted. Um, let's try it we'll see what else we've got uh. This is, I don't know what that's called, but it's wishy-washy.

Oh my god. That's very um Instagram! I don't know what that one's called it's standard, hello, we're going, live! Welcome to the BBC. How was that one called? I don't know what any these names mean. Anything to me! God, look at the saturation on that. It's a bit! Much! Isn't it wow you wanted saturation.

Now we got it yeah! Is that too saturated? Now I think it probably is, but it's punchier for sure. If that's what you want um, I if I was recording this I've made to record some of this. If I was recording this um for use in an edit. No, thanks way too much um. I can of course, make it more saturated if you really want me to, but I'm not going to right now, so I can do anything you want because the camera is outputting clean, so I can fiddle with the menus as much as I want so um.

Let's not talk about anything, that's not connected to this thing, or we can talk about that. I mean other cameras and stuff um. I've got so many videos to make, and I never get around to doing them. Oh actually, there are some other ones. Hey I've never used the other fancy profiles.

Let's give it a try, so I think they're called what they called. I think this has got it, I'm not sure if it has- or maybe it's a different camera. No, I don't think it has really the old. No, I think it's the uh, the older cameras have that I don't know what any of these are. They just got strange names disgusting, so I think we'll just stick with portraits there we go.

I think that was worth doing sun's going. Um, I'm happy now that I've got a live. That actually does work and that's been the absolute key um and that's been something I've been trying a live that looks smooth because if it's not smooth, then I'm not going to use it. You know, and it's smooth, so am I going to stay in sunset. No I'm going back because I've done that too many nights in a row.

Now I need to get home to the cats I need to eat at a normal time, because you'll be too late. I can never sleep so yeah. I don't think there's anything else. Stop talking about the c70. I've got so many cameras to review.

I didn't know if I'll ever get around to doing it. Furthermore, I've shot loads of stuff for it. It's just I just not. I don't really have much time and there's lots of things which aren't so good going on right now, which do stop me doing things. So in a way me doing.

All these lives is a way of avoiding a bit of doing other stuff, but yeah, so um, Bertie's doing better in case he's been ill, but he's doing better, which is good so and there's a bit for you know, talk about having some foreground information. So always you know one of the know if you, if you're new to this um, always look for something not always, but it's always nice to have something in the frame. That's not as much as this, but something which adds depth in the foreground. It looks as nice as when you have shallow depth filled. So try and you know a dirty frame.

Have you known it's nice, and it's like you know, sometimes you're doing interviews you sometimes want to have a dirty frame have an edge of an interviewer, but on shots like this you'll see when I make the video for of this phone um that all the shots that I've done um pretty much most of them have got dirty frames in it? It's just something that I like to do. I like it dirty there. You go. Ah, oh workshops, no there are no workshops in Europe because we can't travel it's nothing like that at all. Can't really travel anywhere really properly, but I have just been um booked, and it's been announced yesterday, Austin Texas, the United States of America, 27th of September 29th, uh sculpting with lights, a filmmaking event.

I will be speaking at so head over to them. I've got a link on my Facebook page, so I will be at that which is great, because I've not been to America for a couple of years. Furthermore, I'm looking forward to that um, but uh. You know, nobody else is really. You know it's so up in the air.

We can't, I mean. Even then you know if if in the same situation I will have to self-isolate for 10 days when I get back, which sucks really so um. I don't think there's going to be much happening at all this year. It's going to be next year. Yeah, yeah Texas may be fully open, but England is the issue.

That's the problem, so um it's. We are they're trying to keep things they're, trying to stop things getting worse because they're at a good point now- and so I mean it- was crazy on Saturday night it was just like people everywhere. I haven't seen it like that for a long time, so cool uh, uh, oh yeah. No, I fully vaccinate but being vaccinated. Doesn't stop you transmitting it? Stop you getting sick.

I think well, should stop you getting safely. It won't stop you transmitting it. So yeah uh yeah I've been fully vaccinated for about three weeks now I believe yeah. So I'm just using the rode video mic NRG. That's all it is it's not that close for me, it would do um, oh loom, you're you're, a boy for my surname, but you keep talking about canon cameras.

I can't be bothered with talk about other cameras. That means to be religious that um, it's not about other stuff anyway. I've been waffling on for now, so I am going to say good night, and thank you for watching these live tests. These live field tests because I think they've been useful for me and I will be taking everything and putting it into a video which will be done by early next week. I think so.

Yeah, there you go uh then look at this train. Isn't this so nice? Shame about the bloke in it. There's only one way to solve this. You.

Source : Philip Bloom