Moonlight: A7S ISO Test

Moonlight | Sony A7s ISO test from Carbon Studios on Vimeo.

Their goal was to set out and shoot a short film that was lit entirely by moonlight. They waited for the “right” full moon, and on the night of September 8th set out to explore the Northern California coast on a mission of discovery. Discover, they did. The mission to explore the limits of the A7S in low light failed, as no limit was reached. The film, on the other hand succeeds beyond belief because of it. What started out as a simple camera test shows how powerful a storytelling tool the capability featured in the new A7S can be in the right hands. Namely, filming in almost complete darkness. My own A7S experience is that the camera can film in low light conditions too low for me to see details clearly without using the rear screen or the viewfinder. Remarkable.

In Carbon Studios own words:

When we arrived at our location, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect! It was around 12:30 AM and the moon was barely lighting the beautiful beach. The entire shoot took place between 12:30 AM- 2:00 AM.

For the first two scenes were shot at a different location a few days before the moon became full. The first scene was shot at 1/25th, f/1.4, 25,600 ISO,
The second scene was shot at 1/25th, f/1.4, 32,000 ISO

Our settings for the rest of the video were around 1/30th, f/1.4, ISO 12,800. To give you a perspective of how dark it was, there are a couple photos in the behind the scenes below.

We did not add any color grading, noise reduction, or sharpness.
All of the clips are straight out of the camera shot in the PP2 setting.

You will notice some purple fringing around the left side, The Metabones adapter that we rented had a light leak issue from what it looks like.  Sony has done an amazing job in creating this camera especially after seeing the quality that has come out of this camera.

Gear used:
Sony A7s
Metabones EF to NEX Smart Adapter II
Zeiss 55mm 1.4 Otus
Zeiss 28mm 2.0

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