Sony has announced the Alpha 7S, a 12MP full-frame mirrorless camera designed for both stills and video. The camera can read out its entire sensor fast enough to output 8-bit 4:2:2 4k video over HDMI at up to 30p, without the need for line skipping or pixel binning. This also promises higher quality for the 1080p video (at up to 60p) it can record internally. Unlike the a7 and a7R, the latest model is not constrained by the AVCHD standard, also offering the XAVC S system, with bitrates of up to 50Mbps.
The camera records at up to 1080/60p internally with 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling. The higher quality footage is only available over HDMI - to ensure the camera could be kept to a small size. It also offers a 'Dual Record' feature that records both low bitrate 720p and XAVCS 1080p footage simultaneously.
The 'S' in the camera's name denotes 'sensitivity.' In movie shooting, it offers an ISO 200 - 102,400, with extension to 409,600. In stills it offers ISO 100 - 102,400, extendable to an ISO 50 - 409,600 range. The company also says the camera's large pixels will offer good dynamic range, gradation and color fidelity for stills shooters.
The company has also said it is developing a movie-focused 28-135mm F5 Powerzoom lens. Pricing has not yet been announced for either product.
The Alpha 7S will include time code with userbit (user-applied metadata to help at the editing stage). It also includes a range of movie-centric S-Log2 gamma, along with several Picture Profiles previously found in Sony's FS range of high-end camcorders.