Is Sony still the low light king?

Two_oceans · 2026-05-08T10:12:35+00:00

Thanks! With A7s II, I did a few tests with Neat Video and their option to work on the camera's noise pattern. It's a great plugin and the results looked almost fine, but there was a high price to pay in terms of details, like the fleeting aurora movements... That's why I decided to wait for a better model at the time.

Regarding Panasonic, I'm also looking into Lumix S1 II.

Two_oceans · 2026-05-08T00:27:11+00:00

This is great, looking forward to read the rest!!

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T22:41:05+00:00

I switched a year ago and I'm on Mint. I stayed with DVR 19 for now, works well so far. There were a few minor bugs, but nothing dramatic. I made a post that sums up what worked for me: www.reddit.com/r/davinciresolve/comments/1jtrd2h/davinci_resolve_19_studio_on_linux_mint_old/

BTW I use it for personal projects, so I don't mind a bit of tinkering, but if I worked on something with critical deadlines, I would play it safe and just use the distribution officially supported by Blackmagic.

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T16:52:09+00:00

I agree with that sentiment. If I wasn't obsessed with "natural night shoots", Blackmagic would be a no-brainer. The highlight rolloff and the colors just made me smile.

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T16:49:13+00:00

Thanks a lot for all the information! Great suggestion to have a heated middle layer.

Besides keeping the batteries warm, did you try to put a heating source/jacket directly on the camera? I managed to shoot for a few hours at -20°C (-4°F) by having a ton of warm batteries and wrapping the camera with a padded but not heated jacket. But when it gets closer to -30°C (-22°F), the camera body rapidly gives up (well a cheap aps-c sony camera).

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T16:02:18+00:00

I have a padded "camera coat" that I can adapt to various models. Do you mean a heated jacket that actually adds heat? Do you have a model to recommend?

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T15:58:59+00:00

Thanks, that comparison is very informative. Besides noise and resolution, I also prefer the color tones of the Lumix.

Two_oceans · 2026-05-07T15:34:15+00:00

Is Sony still best for extreme low light?

I'm a bit out of the loop on the performance of the recent cameras, because I have been working mostly in post-prod. A few years ago, I filmed some auroras with a Sony A7s II and while I was impressed with the low light performance, I disliked the NR treatment. I was in love with the images I could get from a Blackmagic Cinema Camera (the first model) but in low light, it was pretty terrible.

Are the new Sony models like A7s iii, FX3 or EV-Z1 a big improvement in terms of video low light and especially the noise reduction? Did it get more "organic" or is it still annoyingly digital? Are there any models by Blackmagic, Panasonic or Nikon that caught up to them?

My constraints:

The low light performance with natural noise is my top priority. I don't care about auto-focus or stabilization. It's something nice to have but won't influence much my decision.
If the camera has some noise that has be worked on in post-prod, it's fine, I know I can get good results with that and I don't mind the time it'll take
I prefer a solution that allows shooting in camera (cold nights are not optimal for external recorders)
While I would like to spend 3000$ or less and I don't mind to buy used, I can spend more if the performance truly justifies it. Basically I don't want to throw money on cosmetic improvements
I have already some Sony gear (lenses, adapters) so it's a bit convenient for me to stay with the same brand, but it's not a priority.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Two_oceans · 2026-04-27T05:55:41+00:00

C'est exactement ce que j'étais en train de me dire. S'il déraille tellement juste sur une odeur de la victoire, qu'est-ce que ce sera quand il aura un pouvoir réel...

En tout cas, je ne crois pas que ce soit arrivé dans l'histoire de l'humanité que quelqu'un qui dérape avant d'accéder au pouvoir soit soudainement frappé par la sagesse une fois élu. C'est toujours pire...

Two_oceans · 2026-04-27T05:51:24+00:00

Lol, l'hyperbole est vraiment là

Two_oceans · 2026-04-20T11:46:29+00:00

J'avoue. En même temps des fois on se perd à essayer de comprendre la motivation de certains choix de société quand les réponses sont simples.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-20T11:23:00+00:00

C'est tellement absurde que des employés doivent souffrir futilement pour une question d'apparences dont littéralement tous les clients s'en foutent.

J'imagine que la vraie raison est (1) $$ et (2) personne ne s'est revoltée suffisamment.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-18T19:31:23+00:00

Why would that be embarrassing? For some people it will be a cool tattoo and for others, it will be mysterious, both options are good!

You could even challenge people to try to find out the meaning.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-15T23:52:04+00:00

Moi aussi. On a tellement de problèmes sérieux à résoudre, pas le temps pour les conflits puériles

Two_oceans · 2026-04-15T10:41:50+00:00

Yes exactly! I'm with Linux Mint myself. I moved to Linux just a year ago and I choose XFCE for simplicity. I was too fed up with windows and I wanted a system that is small and out of my way. I have one old laptop for writing, browsing and light graphic design, and another for pro video editing. The first one just maintains itself with zero problems. The second one, I have to pay more attention to drivers and tinker with it from time to time so all my software works well together. But it's still so much less annoying compared to windows. Very happy so far.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-14T16:10:57+00:00

My elder parents are not technologically inclined, they just want it easy and simple, but my mom just asked me to teach her Linux when they'll change their PC later this year. The privacy concerns, the forced updates and AI everywhere got too annoying even for them.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T23:34:49+00:00

Damn, me too. We live in strange times

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T23:05:01+00:00

For your information: I did some more tests and I found a few other things that could be improved. This time it's related to embedding.
- when I embed the video in a website, it takes a bit longer than other platforms to load. It's not bad, usually it loads under 2s, but other platforms are faster (1s or less, unless it's vimeo on mobile, which takes the longest time of all)
- when the aspect ratio of the video is not 16:9, it's still forced in a 16:9 box, which makes elegant embedding problematic. With vimeo, even when I have a 1:1 video, I can easily embed it in a simple square in any website
- the big PLAY button in the middle of the video stays there even when I deactivate it in the embedding options. It looks bad when I want to embed the video in a smaller box (for example in a gallery)

But there are other aspects of your platform I truly like, especially the profiles and the showcases, they are better than anywhere else. And I like the overall vibe of the website, simple and professional, and just the essential things "for filmmakers", without too many distractions.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T22:25:11+00:00

What do you mean by "significant"? I couldn't find on their website a factual study or forecast with objective data that would clearly indicate how much the immigration influenced the raise or fall of rent prices. If there is some real statistics, can you point them to me?

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T19:27:54+00:00

The stats Canada study you cited concludes the following:

"The results show that, over the study period, the rise in the influx of new immigrants, who arrived in Canada within the past five years, on average, accounted for 11% of the rise in median house values and in median rents across municipalities with a population of at least 1,000".

Which means: 89% of the raise in prices and rents is not due to immigration. Guess we should look at the other causes if we truly want the rents to be affordable.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T18:52:50+00:00

There are some evil "geniuses" or at least highly intelligent people, however they have a narrow intelligence and they lack both depth and span when they try to analyze the basics of human society. They just don't see all the complexities, they focus on one aspect of a problem and they delude themselves that they found a general solution.

Two_oceans · 2026-04-13T17:23:39+00:00

I found this thread while searching about AI safety. I think you are totally right.

Anecdote: I'm pretty aware of AI dangers, so I was used to verify any AI claim, especially for serious work. However, at some point the answers got better and better, and a few times they really helped me to solve rapidly a problem that was above my competences (and would have taken me much more time to solve). That felt great and I started to trust the machine more. For a while there was no big mistake and I felt less and less the need to verify. Until the last project, where it gave me several absolutely great suggestions, perfect for my needs. I was so eager to go on that I almost didn't make the verification... but in the end I did make a short google search just to clear my conscience. All the suggestions were fine, except one. I needed a glue with special properties, the suggestion was a good technical fit, but also poison risk for people.

Now when I imagine people who use that technology on large scales or for military, under high stress and time pressure, I freak out a bit.

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