Caleb Pike – SONY A7 III VIDEO GUIDE

According to Caleb’s tests, the issue only pops up if you’re shooting full frame 4K video at 24 frames per second. But that’s probably the most common setting that many people will use – it’s the format I’d use if I were shooting an A7III.

Caleb Pike – SONY A7 III VIDEO GUIDE

If you’ve been shooting 4K video with your Sony A7III and thought things looked a little off, you might just be right. When shooting footage for a video Caleb Pike over at DSLR Video Shooter noticed that footage shot at different resolutions on the A7III wasn’t quite lining up. It turned out that 4K 24fps full-frame video was being stretched vertically.

The above images of full frame and super 35 crop mode show that the images horizontally line up. However, vertically the full frame image appears stretched.

According to Caleb’s tests, the issue only pops up if you’re shooting full frame 4K video at 24 frames per second. But that’s probably the most common setting that many people will use – it’s the format I’d use if I were shooting an A7III.

Caleb’s video goes pretty in-depth into his testing method to reproduce the issue, so if you’re interested in seeing exactly what’s going on, it’s worth a watch. And it’s not just a random glitch with Caleb’s camera. He asked several people to help him reproduce the issue.

Download it immediately Caleb Pike – SONY A7 III VIDEO GUIDE

The stretch looks quite minimal, but it’s definitely there. You may or may not notice it in your final footage in the real world, but even if you don’t notice it, others may. It may seem small, but it is important. Caleb suggests fixing by scaling the X axis of your shot up by 1%, it’s a pretty big problem. If you’re mixing different formats footage, it may be difficult to keep track of exactly which shots you need to correct.

Caleb’s theory about what’s going on is how Sony’s resizing the images from the A7III’s 6K sensor. He believes that Sony might’ve messed up the aspect ratio calculation and it’s simply not scaling the vertical down quite as much as it needs to vs the horizontal.

If that’s the case, then it’s likely just a firmware issue and an update can fix it. Hopefully, they’ll do that soon and the Sony A7III will shoot as it should.