For what it's worth, the Sony A7s is now available at B&H Photo. Body only is $2,498, then add another $500 to $1,500 for a lens.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1044728-REG/sony_ilce7s_b_alpha_a7s_mirrorless_digital.html

I'll see it when I believe it, as they say...

I have an HV20 and an HV30. Once I upgraded the kit lens on the t2i,, there was just no comparison. It wasn't even close. The DSLR won hands down.

My HV cams are only around as backups or to hand someone who doesn't understand the exposure triangle.

New A7S arrived. Some first impressions:

The low light performance is stunning. The way I think of it is the camera can see in the dark. This may or may not seem useful in the abstract, but seeing it firsthand, it doesn't take long to seem like a very, very compelling feature.

Stills look great. One reviewer has said the big pixels give the A7S a "Medium Format" look. I don't know if I'd go that far, but you're unquestionably getting a big 35mm sensor look, and it tends to make any shot look more expensive compared to smaller sensors, especially if you're used to small sensor cameras.

Regarding stills again: the resolution drop is for real. There's no way to get around it; 12MP is a lot less than 36.

I haven't shot 4K myself, but it appears to be fantastic based on other's samples. Philip Bloom has a downloadable sample on his site.

UPDATE: what follows applies to 60P FF ONLY:

HD is a disappointment. Not nearly as clean or detailed as off the RX100M3 or RX10. The picture shows considerable moire and aliasing in 35mm mode.

I'm using two lenses, the 24-70 FE, which involves a lot of unswitchable distortion correction, and a 28mm prime. Moire is worse on the zoom, esp the wide end, but still present with the prime.

HD in-camera shot with the APS-C crop is much cleaner with both lenses. This strongly suggests the math just isn't favorable going from the 12MP read to an HD picture--at least for the Bionz X processor.

Given that the A7S forces you to use an external recorder for 4K, people who just want a terrific no-hassle HD picture will find the A7S more than a little vexing.

You can switch to the APS-C E series lenses, but then you're really compromising resolution for stills.

None of this is going to matter to people who have the gear and patience to shoot 4K, but the diminished HD performance certainly impacts the camera's appeal to docu and run-and-gun shooters: its small size and light weight.

For video going 4K (or perhaps APS-C) with the A7S seems almost mandatory...

UPDATE: stop the presses, it looks like the moire and aliasing issues go away in HD if you switch to 24P. I was shooting 60P for all my tests. Very interesting...

>>>>DP of the highly regarded "House of Cards" series on Netflix, for example. One is no longer limited to "normal lighting conditions", it is now possible to get clean, nicely lit, low light shots with good contrast. What the A7s brings to the table is being able to do this with 15.3-stops of dynamic range<<<<

Don't be ridiculous. House of cards or any other TV show with any kind of a budget will never be shot with A7s or any other DSLR.

They use Red epic cameras to shoot that show and it still looks like $hit. I mean it's passable, but it has that sterile digital look + ( maybe lighting you speak of ) dull lifeless color. Looks like somebody smeared greenish monkey excrement over lenses for some special effect only they understood.

Get a blu-ray of this movie http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/A-Dangerous-Method-Blu-ray/36115/ then you'll see what good cinematography looks like.

I didn't say that House of Cards was shot with a DSLR. As for other TV shows and movies with a "large budget", some scenes, if not the entire movie or TV show, have been shot with them. In fact, the entire series finale of "House M.D." was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. While not "large budget", Anthony Bourdain's series, "No Reservations", is shot entirely with a Canon 5D Mark II.

Given the A7s' 4K and ultra-low-light capabilities, it is entirely plausible that someone might choose to use it for certain shots on a big budget movie. It's not nearly as "ridiculous" as you claim.

Partial list of movies and TV shows shot with DSLR cameras.

Deusx, you're just being obstinate.

anyone know what the original danish 'bridge' was shot on? the night shots look absolutely gorgeous...

My personal Quick-Dirty-Unscientific(Maybe) Low Light test ability of A7s:

Quite impressive.
There's a pre full review review on RedShark here.

I agree there's something different about low light shots. I was quite interested in the results one can get with the f0.9 lenses on the Sony NEX 5/7, the camera seems to capture something quite unexpected. With the A7s one doesn't need such specialised lenses to get the same result.

Bob.

Just a quick followup on my notes: 60P HD looks very similar to D800 video. Not particularly clean, with lots of moire and aliasing issues esp if you move the camera. I suspect some kind of pixel bining/line skipping is happening w/60P.

Switch to 24P/HD and all is forgiven. Gorgeous, clean, detailed image. 30P very good also.

Andy, have you tried using the sensor crop mode? Is the quality of the video as good as in full crop sensor mode and any issues with moire or aliasing in crop mode?

Rob