Sony A7S III & FX3 Video Formats EXPLAINED: Best Quality & Smallest File Size

[@maruwaanmoses]

I don't shoot Sony nor wedding videos. I'm just here to listen to Matt explain things 🙂

[@CRISSBLAZINY]

CAn you record 25fps or 50fps? Thank u

[@towermedia5940]

Some examples would be nice imo, like how big a 3 minute clip in XAVC S 24 and 120 fps is approximately, just to get a practical understanding!

[@SamMasghati]

Just do your math. 100Mbit/sec is appr. 12 MB/sec. Thus 200Mbit are appr. 24MB/sec. So filming 3 min footage should take up 180 x 12 when filming 100Mbit, and 180 x 24 when filming in 200Mbit/s. Its usually a little bit more, but still a good referance

[@RealWorldReview]

@@SamMasghati That's nothing then. Prores 422 4K doesn't go over 500Mbps on my BM 6K Pro, which would be 62.5MBps. A 5400rpm hard drive could handle that. So this video is essentially saying that a hard drive I bought 10 years ago could handle TWO STREAMS OF XAVC S-I 240Mbps 422 10 bit, and that's supposed to be an uncompressed format. This is why we need actual samples. Heck, a micro SD card can handle that on a bad day lol

[@ramonbannister9498]

Good info! Thanks, Matt. This is at least my 2nd time watching this video, because I finally got my a7s iii. Depending on whom you ask, you'll get different recommendations. Well, I like Matt's the best as I even checked on my camera for total record time available. For 128 GB card: 1h 8m @XAVC S-I 24p; and 2h 40m @ XAVC S 24p 100M 4:2:2 10 bit. That's more than twice the amount of time. I also like Matt's explanation of WHEN to use S-I...Before today, I was an advocate of ALL I all of the time. But w/ this camera being 4:2:2 10bit you don't need that. If you're filming w/ lots of movement and intricate detail in the shot, that's when to use ALL I. As they say, use sparingly.

[@HealthNut-Zaidi]

I am a beginner at Alpha 7Siii. I agree with Matt. Too many options with no clear explanation. After following Matt's recommendation, I set my file format to XAVC S 4k but my PC video player - Windows 11- could not play it, nether did Adobe 2022 premier pro.. Rather frustrating. Tried different settings with same frustrating results. Finally the setting that worked for me is as follows: XAVC HS with record setting 100 M 4:2:0. I am happy with the results.

[@TheOfficialiGuy]

Can you make a video on “filming with your A7siii when your pre-order shipment is no where in sight…” Thanks Matt!

[@davidconnors4908]

Thank you so much for this video - the fact the codecs are ordered really helps. My understanding is that H.265 is hardware accelerated on Apple Silicon so that is an option if you own a Mac.

[@LetsPlayThru]

Can’t tell you how helpful this was. Thank you for breaking it down so well.

[@DailyDrivenDeathTraps]

Coffee on me m8, thanks for the help with my new A7SIII

[@BradCarpluk]

Thank you for giving the answer up front and also talking about proxies

[@MahbubAhsan]

best video by far for those who had no effing clue what these codecs are and what settings are for what ? that's a giant thank you so very much :)

[@noahthecubeguy]

Wow, very well explained. Love your videos man, keep up the great work!

[@DannyPops]

thank you for the public service here! I had forgotten all about what file format meant what after I changed it to HD a year ago and now am back to 4k!

[@Louie-ty6bh]

Just want to say that you can explain things really well. It's actually a skill. Thanks for this vid =)

[@JayPBangz]

Should I Record in XAVC S-I 4k for sports football? I know you mentioned if things were moving faster you would change it to that option?

[@8notes_]

I love you videos bro! This one for example is the best explanation on this topic for me. The part u explained how the codecs stop reading non moving parts of the video answers all the questions!

[@FlorenceRobbiano]

VERY HELPFUL! I am a total beginner and this is exactly what I was looking for. THANK YOU!

[@nelsonpun]

any reason to not use the built in proxy setting in the a7s iii when shooting HS?

[@lowdownix]

Thanks, Matt! Just got the Sony A7iv and was really confused about movie file formats.

[@a.z2972]

Please keep making these about absolutely everything to do with the a7siii. They’re so helpful thank you so much

[@misterkitab]

أنت شخص رائع ومثقف في مجال عالم التصوير والكاميرات👏👏👍👍

[@karlnotyourbusiness4429]

The best explanation on KZbin. Loved it!

[@gochannel55]

I have watched several videos about a7s3. but your one is way better than them. Thank you so much. It is really a big help.

[@runebuddyBFH]

Thanks for delivering on the title right away. It made me more curious to watch the rest of the video the " WHEN ARE THEY GONNA SAY WHAT THEY USE."

[@AndyChantu]

This guy has the crispiest audio on KZbin. My best part of his videos ❤️

[@EverythingFilmmaking]

Andy Chantu Gerald undone has him beat👀

[@AndyChantu]

@@EverythingFilmmaking haha. Lemme check

[@akirahman235]

Unbelievable. Love your videos man. Just bought a a7siii after procrastinating for years about making a film. Thanks for the info

[@flyingdroneinperu3681]

This video opened a whole new world to me! Thanks so much, greetings from Perú my friend!

[@paultaylorcomedy]

Mate! I've been waiting for a video like this for 2 weeks since I got my a7siii. I'm in Europe and it's weird how PAL offers different options in record mode and frame rates than NTSC. For example, in XAVC HS, in PAL, there's no option for 25p but only 50p or 100p so the file size isn't actually smaller than XAVC S 25p. Anyway, great explanation and thanks 👍🏻

[@picasary]

Baahh ... it depends Paul Télor 😂Just kidding

[@millmountain]

Me too, really don't understand why we don't get 25p In that mode

[@theothervalentin]

I was also hoping they would provide 25p in h.265...maybe they will add it in future firmware updates

[@andugo]

alot things is missing like pal xavc s no 4:2:0 etc

[@badger-productions]

I just got the camera today, and I was going crazy thinking I was doing something wrong.

[@JaHm3sZ]

Straight forward video. I don't take time to respond to helpful videos but this deserves a 10/10 review. Thank you

[@CrackaLackTV]

You're my go to guy on camera stuff. Thanks.

[@Bigboytravel]

Great video, can you include file size per 60 of video for people that are new to sony. Would help them realize the size difference you mentioned between s and i

[@sim12384]

Brilliant. Just bought an A7S and the options scared the pants off me.

[@saracenrush2010]

Quick answer right away, more detailed to follow. Perfect format. KZbinrs need to take notes from you.

[@InternetCity]

HEY MATT! Great video but now I have a question. I bought the fx3 and I'm trying to edit XAVC S I but premiere pro literally can't handle the footage. Is there something I should look to turn on in settings? My pc specs are AMD 3900 XT, RTX 3080, 64GB RAM, 2x 2tb SSD.

[@jelmerbraad1595]

Are you sure you have hardware acceleration enabled? I have a 3060 and I spose S I just works fine. Maybe the 3900 XT is ur bottleneck. I have a 5900 x and experience no problem

[@InternetCity]

@@jelmerbraad1595 it was my version of premiere

[@AlexeiGeidys]

@@InternetCity are you using proxies for the editing? is the best look it up.

[@TheBrowneTown]

If h.264 and the h.265 (HEVC) in 4:2:2 are both shooting 100Mb/s then I think the file sizes will be identical. The difference will be that theoretically the h.265/HEVC will capture more data within those 100Mb/s and be slightly higher quality, but harder to edit if your computer doesn't have hardware acceleration.

[@justaross]

Looks like most popular NVidia cards will not support hardware encoding/decoding for 264 10-bit 4:2:2, but will support this for 265. Please correct if I'm mistaken here.

[@ronneabat]

But can’t you use proxy internally and not have to working about it?

[@EmileModesitt]

Some great info, thank you! I think you might be a bit confused on codecs and compression, however. Whether you're shooting XAVC-S 100mb/s (H.264) or XAVC-HS 100mb/s (H.265), they're both recording at the same bitrate, so file sizes should be the same. In fact, since H.265 is a more efficient codec, XAVC-HS should yield higher quality results at the same bitrate. So 100mb/s H.265 should technically be higher quality (i.e. have more information) than 100mb/s H.264 with the exact same file sizes. That's the whole point of H.265; more image information in smaller package. Whether or not they ACTUALLY look different in the real world, I don't know, but TECHNICALLY that's how it works.

[@ryansulak]

i know this is an old comment, but do you know how to film using the .mov codec with the FX3? I'm filming with the settings he suggested in the video, but all my files are mp4. And I prefer not to have footage that compressed

[@EmileModesitt]

@@ryansulak MP4 and MOV are just wrappers - they don’t indicate compression levels. I’m other words, MOV is not more compressed than MP4 (all other settings being equal). Some cameras use MOV, others (like Sony) use MP4. It’s the codec and bitrate settings that will affect the quality of your image, not the wrapper.

[@bc_views]

THANK YOU! ..... (Crying Happy Tears) Now I can purchase the a7siii without the confusion of the file sizes.

[@attiladezso8508]

Thank you very much, it's the easiest to understand so far on the topic I found!

[@nVuFilms]

I agree..You get a chance to test low light noise in the different codecs?

[@whoismatt]

Hey Vu! Still so much testing to do 😭😂 been enjoying your videos man

[@nVuFilms]

@@whoismatt yea definitely a lot more testing and thanks man! ,🤙🤙

[@zakariaabed3593]

Unlike others you get straight to the point with an easy way in short videos.

[@brianrudolph2456]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I love that you put the answer up front and explained, rather than burying it at minute 9.25. Very helpful explanation of file types, organization and functionality.

[@chrisriggi1885]

Annndddd the answers to my questions are always in the beginning of the video. Legend status.

[@BarkandJack]

Super helpful. Thanks for explaining this stuff so a noob like me can understand it.

[@EnforcerMan]

This was a banger! Thanks for that! I just unboxed my A7S iii and it’s very overwhelming

[@whoismatt]

Glad to help!

[@kahanisaaz]

Dear Matt plz educate me... in 2024 what recording file format shall i choose for Sony FX3? XAVC S-I 4 K or XAVC S--I DCI 4 ? plz guide?

[@Mike-hj7gg]

your doing the lords work sir..

[@stevenlear6439]

Thanks Matt for getting to the recommendation first and then fleshing it out, great vid.

[@KerriRusnak]

Thank you! This camera is a massive upgrade from my last camera. There are so many config options 😜

[@NONE2NONE]

Why would you want to use H265 over H264? Is it just to save size?

[@MegaWeitzel]

I don't know if you are reading comments this late, but there are a few corrections Regarding editing speed you got the basics right H.264 is easier to decode than H.265. But there is a huge asterisk. Modern GPUs by Nvidia, Intel, AMD or the apple T2 chip have native decoders for some video formats which makes them much faster to edit. And most modern NLEs use those. But not all video formats are supported. For H.264 only 8bit 4:2:0 and for H.265 only 8/10/12bit 4:2:0 are supported. So regarding decoding speed on most systems the list is as follows from fast to slow: XAVC-S 8bit 4:2:0 XAVC-HS 8bit or 10bit 4:2:0 XAVC-S-I 10bit 4:2:2 XAVC-S 10bit 4:2:2 XAVC-HS 10bit 4:2:2 {very slow} So for most the best option is actually HS 10bit 4:2:0. It has better compression or quality than H.264, edits faster than the 10bit variant of H.264 and the difference in color subsampling is not noticeable.

[@paulfairchild8942]

I thought XAVC-HS was a nightmare for most editing rigs given its H.265? Using Prem Pro on PC with 16 core chip and GTX 2070 GPU. I know Resolve is much better optimised than Prem Pro.

[@MegaWeitzel]

@@paulfairchild8942 well as long as you don't use 4:2:2 color subsampling your rig should easily edit it. Your rtx 2070 has a very fast H.265 decoder

[@paulfairchild8942]

@@MegaWeitzel Interesting. Thanks for that info.

[@dr.revenue3636]

Just picked up the A7Siii and this was extremely helpful, thanks Matt!

[@Jayquel]

Great explaination Matt, I just rented a a7s3 and I literally had no idea what a format even was... lol

[@nitishaukhajah8955]

Hello can you please tell me which one is better? A7Siii or A7R IV? Which one shall i buy?

[@bringoutthegold]

THE most helpful / succinct video I've seen on this. Thank you!

[@karosieben360]

thank you so much, just unboxed my new A7S III. Do you know why there is no 30 FPS option when using XAVC HS 4K?

[@whoismatt]

Not sure why, wish it existed! 😭

[@joshmuuo]

the way you explain things is so simple i like it

[@YalonSchori]

Your audio recording for your videos is superb! what microphone do you use?

[@whoismatt]

Deity S-Mic 2 😊

[@Perrylayne105]

I noticed right off the bat as well!

[@YalonSchori]

@@whoismatt many thanks! keep up the great content, already helped me a bunch

[@srinathm3836]

this is so good! I am a photographer but starting to learn videography to up my game and recently for a A7IV. I was struggling to understand coz everybody says XAVC S is better and 10 bit is the choice but fail to explain WHY!! Thank you!!

[@63MacGuy]

I just watched your video again. So much information. Will a v60 card handle 4K60 in XAVC S?

[@whoismatt]

Yes

[@tsehgal1]

Matt, great video. Can you mix XAVC S-I and XAVC S in the same timeline and still get the benefits of each format?

[@whoismatt]

Yes

[@we.visuals]

Thank you for a pretty smooth explanation of this.

[@LIJ]

You rock. This is the right video at the right time. Canon sure blew it by not doing it this way for the R5!

[@jennifertilly9743]

what do i look for when buying a laptop that can handle editing XAVC 4K VIDEOS? which laptop would you recommend? i hear macbook pro is the one everyone uses.

[@ndcendee]

Very good explanation, best discussion of these formats I've found. Thanks!

[@WesleyJamesOfficial]

so just to be clear I can still shoot 4k 120fps in XAVC-S but not in XAVC S-I?

[@whoismatt]

Yes

[@WesleyJamesOfficial]

@@whoismatt Thanks G. Subbed for life ahah

[@eggytunez3296]

@@whoismatt just FYI, there is no 120p when shooting in XAVC S-I, only up to 60p.

[@CarloTimothy]

wow i am EARLY on this one! Matt I love you so much! nobody will see this anyway. thank you for all your work Matt.

[@whoismatt]

Thanks so much Carlo! Love you too

[@madsdesilva]

what would you recommend for weddings? 4:2:2 or 4:2:0?

[@srirajk2318]

I don't even have this camera but I still watched the entire video 🤷🏻‍♂️....although nice information dude❤️ so much I have learned in your videos keep going🔥❤️

[@mrpowers4667]

What do you recommend for matching FX3 to a Canon C300 BT709 color profile? Mind you, we are in a faster shooting/editing workflow. Not quite as fast as news, but still somewhat fast. I find our Sony shoots very gray, and the highlights/whites are off the charts. It does extremely well in lower light, but any form of natural light/contrast is harsh. I also find the Canons to handle mixed light so much better and the overall color profile comes out more golden/warm/vibrant. This is still relatively easy to match the Sony in post, but I’d like to get as close to the C300 as possible in order to save some time. Side note: I believe our color profile for the Sony is currently PP3.

[@henrik_thyselius]

Great video. Just wondering, I shoot in ProRes all the time with my Atoms Ninja. But, which one ist the best? ProRes LT or XAVC S-I? Would be a much smaller rig without my Ninja attached all the time.

[@adamleatherbarrow4229]

I own the fx3 and I discovered something recently. Since I bought the camera I’ve been recording straight to my ninja v in prores and I’ve been super unhappy and frustrated with the footage. It always needs to be de-noised in post which is unbelievably taxing on my computer. I just couldn’t get clean footage no matter what I did. I’ve recently started recording to a v90 in camera and the difference is absolutely amazing. I just can’t see any reason to record to a ninja unless you have an absolute beast of a computer and you are a post/ Color grading expert, which I’m not. It took me sooo many hours of research and no one on KZbin mentioned it. Hopefully this helps anyone else struggling with this camera.

[@johannes3530]

coming back to this video every time I forget the difference between those formats on my fx3 :D

[@RichardsWorld]

You actually recommend the opposite of Max Yuryev. Up to you. But if you actually look at the menu in the camera the H.265 files are not smaller. They have the same bit rates, and in 120P the H.264 is actually bigger. But 200MBs in H.265 is better quality than than H.264 at 200MBs. You are getting better quality with the H.265 option with the disadvantage of editing and rendering speeds. Some other cameras do what you said though, they give you smaller file size. But in this camera they aren't doing that.

[@paulfairchild8942]

Helpful.

[@A2KMedia]

we got the a7s3 and the problem we are facing with is that 422 is not supported by the nvidia NVENC encoder making our RTX3090 useless and footage slow as it is being processed on the CPU, this is frustrating so being forced to record 10bit 420.

[@tomirwinphoto]

Thanks for simplifying this for a new a7IV shooter.

[@littletheatrefilms5825]

Excellent video and you are always great at explaining things. I just uploaded my clips and they are all mp4. Is that all the Sony fx3 records to? I’m coming from canon so please forgive me. Thank you

[@matrixxhunter]

Out of all the cameras that are coming out this year this is the one that I want the most!

[@MaxwellAdventuress]

I have seen about four or five of your videos, and I have to say. You kill it on presentation, knowledge, relatability, and explanation. Thank you have officially subscribe and will be looking forward to more videos utilizing your expertise and experience. Thank you. Nate

[@CliftonCinematics]

Thank you Matt for simplifying the formats! In Singapore, the camera launched on first week of October. Will have mine in December!

[@alf5617]

Super super helpful. I don’t like many videos, but for how helpful this was and how good a job you did explaining this, I truly tip my hat to you sir! 👍🏻

[@TatyanaHarkoff]

Hi Matt, what format would you recommend if I shoot my videos for KZbin only? MP4?

[@BrentRivers]

Matt my understanding and my initial tests are S and HS create the same file sizes when using all equal variables, but with a potential quality increase (marginal) in HS given the efficiencies in the 265 codec. More info folded in. But given the marginal differences in quality even with all-I, it makes total sense to just use S at highest bit and color depth. Am I wrong in my understanding?

[@DJaysParadise]

100% correct. XAVC-S and XAVC-HS use the exact same bitrates in this camera so the filesize is not smaller when using HS. As you said due to the efficiency of HEVC there should be a theoretical quality difference but i tested the codecs against each other and did not find a visual difference

[@ExploringwithRickBekah]

Thanks for the video - any idea what kind of requirements are needed for smoother editing of the HS 4K option? I have a Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core 24 thread CPU, 32GB ram, Radeon 5700XT and would be using an SSD or external HDD.

[@mattxlr21]

Exact same set up I have! Except I have 64gb of RAM. I have edited this codec and it's not to taxing on my computer. Jumps to different parts of the clips pretty quickly.

[@evadavis-boermans3129]

Thankyou SO MUCH this video is so well explained and really helpful. Love that you just delivered the critical info upfront and then went back and explained it! legend, I'm subscribed :)

[@talonsix]

For the five FCPX users on here, all frame rates of HS edit quite smoothly on the 2017 iMac Pro.

[@nobit3000]

that‘s kind of funny: I have a 2017 i7 imac and downloaded several different clips shot with the the SonyA7sIII, and NONE of the play smoothly! actually most of them don‘t even open with quicktime player. only vlc can open them, but still, playback is very choppy. any help or advice would be apreciated!

[@stevenuseda6317]

nobit it's probably just the processing power of the computer lagging. I have a 2019 MacBook Pro and it plays well in premiere with Xavcs I although it's still slower than BRAW when I was on blackmagic

[@nobit3000]

@@stevenuseda6317 hmmm I have a i7 4,2GHz with the Radeon Pro 580 with 8 GB ram, but quicktime player wouldn´t even open a H264 4K 24p file (error message: file not compatible) ....

[@Nekojitablog]

@@nobit3000 Same here! We're watching every single video about this camera on KZbin. We have a 2015 MacBook Pro full specs and our videos are shot in 1080p anyways but nobody is talking about 1080p and how files are. This 4K 120fps hype is going crazy😩

[@nobit3000]

@@Nekojitablog I went to a local camera store and recorded some test clips: the problem is 422! neither h264 (XAVC S) nor h265 (XAVC HS) 10bit 422 files would open in quicktime player or davinci resolve free (studio version will open those). whereas 10bit 420 will open and play easy. the only problem is that only h265 (XAVC HS) offers 10bit 420, which is only available in 4k (not in HD) plus if you live in a PAL country, you only get 100p and 50p, NO 25p or 24p.... unfortunate

[@movimox]

Why not proxies recorded IN camera in 720p ? I am surprised you did not mention this as it saves some much time compared to proxy rendering in Premiere.

[@rsstnnr76]

The camera records proxies?

[@匆匆-e6o]

Most detailed explanation. Thank you👍🏻

[@giganticlovestory]

Bro. your Amazing. Best and most clear vids ever.

[@sam-no5qb]

ITS TIIIIIIMMMMMEEEE for another budget PC build, end of 2020, lets GO!

[@whoismatt]

Just waiting on these new AMD CPUs to launch in early November :)

[@sam-no5qb]

@@whoismatt appreciate you and all you do!

[@DianaMarchenaGarcia]

Thank you so much, really great video and explanation, I’ve just watched it 3 times and I’m definitely gonna watch it couple of times more!

[@indago1]

Hey Matt, Love you content :) But may i suggest one thing - its better to choose XAVC HC 4:2:0 10 bit for editing. It works fast and when you color grade you wont see much difference, even more its really small files.. but XAVC S actually is a bit worse, like, if you have to lift up shadows, it has more noise and artifacts than XAVC HS in my tests

[@benzovisual]

you saved me thanks bro

[@426Studios]

If you color grade heavily then 4:2:0 is very bad since you wont have leeway on grading. Thats why many content creators back then were craving for 4:2:2. You wont see any difference on the colors because we humans are less visually perceptive to color differences, but when you grade, especially if you rotate some hues to have a consistent color scheme, then 4:2:0 can easily cause artifacting on your image because your image only contains little information because of the 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.

[@clinicalconnectionsenrichm6634]

just got mine. so thankful for this breakdown!

[@8Stream]

Matt, thank you so much! You’re the best at explaining complicated things in simple terms! Much appreciated!

[@bartlaw1074]

Thanks for getting straight to the point bro .... with the option to get more details afterwards 💪🏾🔥

[@RileySorensen]

Well done Matt! I watched a different video when I first got my camera and my file sizes were MASSIVE! I thought "Matt is the guy to watch" and I was right. This saved me! Thank you! I look forward to more of your Sony A7Siii videos. This camera is a BEAST!

[@BenReeve]

thanks for the description, this was super useful!

[@inabag]

Matt, whenever I look something up and there is one of your videos, I always click on it and without fail, you solve my problems every time! cheers! :)

[@mindfulmissionarywdankoen5486]

Awesome awesome video. This video explained a confusing topic clearly and concisely. Much thanks.

[@youareawesome8]

Thanks Matt. Question- All sony camera have proxy recording. I was wondering do you ever use that. if so, how do you bring in to Final Cut Pro and use that as proxy without creating proxy again in Final Cut. I search every way and no one has make this tutorial. if you would be kindly make a video tutorial showing us how to make use of Sony own proxy if you know how. BIG THANKS. always love your content.

[@carlkim2577]

I was going to make this comment as well. I've used the in camera proxy files (720p) and they worked very well in Resolve. What I do is give files in both sets the same names. Then I edit on the proxy, and then point Resolve to the full size when exporting.

[@paulfairchild8942]

He did this video on proxies... kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5Obh6eQjZtljqM

[@EtheriumSky]

I'm curious - aside from XAVC-HS being a major pain in the ass due to h265 editing - is the image quality actually superior to XAVC-S? Or if my record settings are the same with either than there would be no quality difference?