Sony A7s Shoots Using Only Moonlight and the Results Are Amazing

The Sony A7s is one of those cameras that can easily inspire creativity. After the A7 and A7R, Sony added the A7s to its family of compact full frame cameras.

For those of you who are not familiar with the device, the “s” is there to highlight a very important aspect  – the fact that the Sony camera will perform exceptionally well in low-lighting conditions. The Sony A7s has already been put through a bunch of tests to determine whether the product is afraid of the dark or not. One of them, dubbed “Into the darkness,” tested the A7s using ISO values between 8,000 and 40,000. The results can be viewed in one of our earlier articles, and as you can see, they are quite capable.

A video shot entirely in moonlight

Anyway, the folks over at Carbon Studio wanted to devise a low-light conditions test of their own. So they though that they could shoot a video using moonlight only. That means that the team didn’t utilize any lightning enhancements whatsoever and only relied on what was provided by nature at night. The video was shot during the late hours of the night, between 12:30 am to 2:00 am, during a full-moon night on the coast of California. And the result is quite stunning – it actually looks like the film was shot as the sun was rising. The first two scenes were shot at an alternative location, a few days before the moon was full. The first scene utilized the parameters: 1/25 th, f/1.4, 25,600 ISO, while the second made use of 1/25 th, 32,000 ISO. For the rest of the video, the team used 1/ 30 th, f/1.4, and ISO 12,800.

No extra effects were added to the overall result

The team claims that it has not added any color grading, noise reduction or sharpness, and that all the clips came right out of the camera shot in PP2 setting. Some of you who have a more sensitive eye might notice a purple fringing around the left side, but this was caused by the Metabones EF to NEX Smart Adapter II used in the process, which had a light leak issue. The conclusion is that Sony has done a magnificent job with the camera. Also important to consider is the fact that the team only used the camera’s ISO to go as far as 32,000, but the A7s can go as far as 409,600. Definitely a lot of creative potential left to tap into.

The imagery in the video is beautifully complemented by Adam’s Taylor wonderful melody “Clouds over hills.” Go check it out.

Sony A7s in moonlight

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