Need help choosing system. Sony vs Fuji £5K Budget

opticwondering

opticwondering

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Nathan
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Hi All,

So I've recently got back into the photography game. I do it for work full time with a company as part of a larger role but also love it personally and have saved some money to spend on a nice setup for myself for personal and work use. I shoot a wide range of event shots outdoors/indoors i sometimes can be close up but then sometimes have to be a distance away.

Work wise we have a Fuji XT-4 with a 18-55mm and thats been decent for what I need it for. I know this is full frame vs crop sensor I just need some extra help deciding which system to go for.

Option 1: Fuji XT-4
Since i shoot already on a Fuji system logically in my head and for cross use I thought i'd setup a kit with another Fuji XT-4 so I could use two different lenses while i shoot instead of changing the lens. I've paired that with some primes.

23mm f1.4R (35mm)
35mm f1.4 R (50mm)
50mm f1 R WR (85mm)

I've also added in two zoom lenses for flexability.
50-140mm f2.8 LM OIS WR and a wide 8-16mm f2.8

For this kit I think i've covered all the ranges, I could of got the 24-70 equivalent version but I liked the idea of having some primes in that range with the lower apreture.

Slightly over £5K the bonus with this kit is i already have a XT-4 so can swap between cameras quickly and easily and everything will work well together.


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Option 2: Sony A7 III
The second option is to invest in a Sony setup. I've always liked the sony cameras and watched a lot of videos on them. I could of choose the newest Sony A7 IV but then that would reduce my lenses. For this setup...

Sony A7 III - I think still going to be great for the work I need. Its nice to have the newest equiptment but I think these modern cameras hold up really well.
I've kitted that out with a trinity of zooms (almost)

Sony 12-24 f4 ( I dont mind f4 with the sony as the low light capabilitys will be fine for anything i need I hope)
Sigma 24-70 f2.8 - Native glass is out of my price range but seen some good reviews on this lens.
Tamron 70-180 f2.8 - Same as above.

I've also then added in a Samyang 85mm f1.4 as I photograph a lot of people and the lower apreture on this would be nice to have since most of the rest are f2.8/f4

Screenshot-2022-04-22-at-11-07-54.png


I am open to sugguestions and thoughts, I know its a lot of money to drop all at once I may not even get everything at once but I can't decide between the two at the moment. Theres a lot of benefits to the Fuji system however I would love a full frame system.

If people want to sugguest their own £5K setup ideas and reasoning then thats great also.

Cheers in advanced look forward to discussing hopefully :)
 
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Full frame is always nicer so surely Sony then. Now do you really need 12mm which is absolutely crazy and unusable or could you do with cheaper and better sigma 14-24? Or perhaps 16-35 (thats a useful range that can take cpl). And maybe that frees up just enough to get a much much much much better mk iv
 
Well, in terms of out and out image quality, I'd say the Sony has it, going by the comparison tool on dpreview. That said, the difference isn't staggering. The Fuji has its weird X-Trans artefacts etc., and is inferior at high ISO by perhaps just shy of a stop. Much as one would expect, based on sensor sizes.

That said, Fujis are really nice to shoot and are usually very well made. Also, I don't know, but would suspect, that Sony's AF is better. I don't worry about it too much personally, because I normally just use AF-S: I'm not a sport or wildlife photographer, If you are then that'll matter,

So yeah, I'd probably lean towards the Sony.
 
Although I'm a Fuji shooter, but if I wanted to go FF (and had £5K), I would probably go Canon R6 - which on AF speed and high ISO capability will be better than the Sony A7III - also has high burst speed rates. Although RF glass can be expensive, there is a world of EF glass out there at all budgets which works fine with no limitations using teh RF-EF adapter. That way you can buy a posh lens for your most used focal length range and fill the rest of the bag with older (but good) EF glass.
 
Both are good options - but just a word of caution on using a mix of personal and work gear while at work, in the event that something did happen to the gear you were using, check what the situation would be regarding insurance / damage - personal insurance on your gear may not cover loss / damage while using for work, and work insurance is unlikely to cover your personal gear.
Worth checking, rather than have something happen and discover you're not covered.
 
saltireblue said:
I know nothing about Sony, but if you are already using Fuji, why not wait until the 31st May when the new X-H2 will be officially launched? Rumours have it that it will be priced around £1900 - 2000.
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I didn't realise Fuji had a new camera releasing so might be worth waiting a month to see what that brings to the table.
 
I moved from Sony A7iii to Fuji (X-pro3) and will probably get a XT-4 soon. I never gelled with the Sony but am loving the Fuji. More compact, particularly the lenses and for me a much more enjoyable experience particularly with the dials and aperture rings.
 
Craig1912 said:
I moved from Sony A7iii to Fuji (X-pro3) and will probably get a XT-4 soon. I never gelled with the Sony but am loving the Fuji. More compact, particularly the lenses and for me a much more enjoyable experience particularly with the dials and aperture rings.
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This is what I'm loving about using the fuji system i want full frame but the compactness and the sense of enjoyment when you use it is great. I'm going to try and test some of them over the weekend.
 
opticwondering said:
This is what I'm loving about using the fuji system i want full frame but the compactness and the sense of enjoyment when you use it is great. I'm going to try and test some of them over the weekend.
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I think you check out some of your lens choices on the Fuji as well, some of them are not small/leightweight, and the overall FF package may weigh in around the same (esp 8-16mm and 50mm F1 and 50-140mm)
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Full frame is always nicer so surely Sony then. Now do you really need 12mm which is absolutely crazy and unusable or could you do with cheaper and better sigma 14-24? Or perhaps 16-35 (thats a useful range that can take cpl). And maybe that frees up just enough to get a much much much much better mk iv
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Agree - the 16-35 f4 is a wonderful little lens and crucially takes filters. Personally I prefer primes in the mid range and there are some brilliant f1.8s from Sony (35mm, 85mm and 135mm, the latter being the lens that's on my camera most often). They're all compact and light and relatively attractively priced (the 135 being the exception, but it's worth the outlay).

For the body though I'd look on classified section on here and maybe Facebook marketplace, they crop up for under a grand these days with little use and will save some money for lenses
 
I have a Sony A7 and also MFT gear.

Bulk and weight matter to me but some of the APS-C and even MFT cameras are about the same size as FF cameras although lenses can make a difference here with bulk, weight and costs.

So, bulk and costs would interest me and if there isn't much difference I'd go for FF as I grew up with 35mm and still think in those terms. There may also be a boost in image quality with FF too. If there's a significant advantage in bulk and weight for the APS-C set up maybe that could be tempting if you wouldn't notice any increase in image quality that FF could offer.
 
I have a love hate relationship with Fuji, but I think I love the idea of them more than using them. What I mean is that I like the idea of the retro styling and manual controls, but in reality I find the manual controls more of a chore. Also, Fuji images can look stunning but occasionally there are some things that I don't like, therefore I prefer to shoot with other brands to have more consistency.

I fairly recently moved to the Sony ecosystem and have to say on the whole it's great, but for me it has to be gen 4 bodies onwards for the ergonomics. Since I have customised all of the buttons I now have the most usable camera I've ever owned, I love that all the features I use are one press away.

Weight wise will depend on lenses, for example the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 is lighter than the Fuji 50-140mm f2.8.
 
If possible, have a(n extended) play with a Sony system and see if a) you like the way it feels and works and b) you like the images it gives you.
 
If going FF then Sony but forget the Samyang 85mm f1.4 and grab the 85mm f1,8 Sony, its as good as the Zeiss Batis version. Also you seem to have dropped the 35mm & 50mm primes from the Sony list, the 55mm Sony/Zeiss is a cracking lens and the 35mm Sony/Zeiss f2.8 makes a fantastic walk around lens due to its small size.

If going for Fuji then you do realise the 50mm is going to give you a 75mm equivalent and not 85mm, the nearest lens would be the 60mm which gives you 90mm. Some say its to slow as its a macro and so has a long focusing throw and only an f2.4 but the lens is incredibly sharp edge to edge even wide open. Aside from a Zeiss Planar ZM its the nearest lens in sharpness I have ever found to my Leica Summicron 50mm.
 
For me, it’s all about the user experience, which is why I ended up with the Fuji system. I was originally a Canon user but when it came time to change/upgrade I evaluated the other brands including Sony and Fuji. The Sony’s are wonderful cameras and their AF system is undeniably better than Fujifilm but at the end of day I just didn’t gel with the Sony system. I found the Sony menu system to be annoying and counterintuitive and any gains from them being FF vs. APSC were negligible in most cases. The Fuji colour rendition is better in many peoples eyes.

But at the end of the day, it was the tactile feel of the Fuji system and having physical buttons or dials for functions that would otherwise have you diving into the menu system made the decision for me. Having said that, I recently acquired a Fuji X-S10 to go with my X-T4, X-T3 and X-H1. The X-S10 departs from the normal Fuji system with its PASM system that replaces a number of dials and buttons and I still find it an incredibly nice camera to use. I guess that its custom functions and intuitive menu system makes the difference.

Of course, we are all different so I suggest that as you are familiar with the Fuji cameras, you hire or borrow a Sony camera for an extended trial to see if you gel with it.

The X-H2 that is to be announced in May looks to be an excellent camera if the rumours are to be believed but it is unlikely to be available for a few months (at best) because of the prevailing supply issues that are affecting the industry at the moment.

I’m not anti-Sony, I have an RX100 VI as a small pocketable camera and love it, although I still find the menu system annoying and unintuitive, but it takes pretty acceptable pictures for its compact size and category.

One other thing: the Fuji 50-140mm lens is pretty big and unwieldy but it is a wonderful lens. I use it in conjunction with the 16-55 mostly and find the image quality incredibly good but you might consider the 70-300 as an alternative if the size bothers you. Its not red-badge lens but is cheaper, smaller, lighter and has a longer range. The image quality is very good too.
 
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MMmm well tough one maybe Fuji is going to be handy in terms of having access to another body etc.

Anyway if you decided to go Sony don't rule out buying grey market as an example for not much over 5k you could have these all brand new from e-infin rather than the used quote you have from MPB.

Would take you over budget but that includes getting an A7IV over the A7III and the Sigma 85 f/1.4 over the Samyang (The Samyang has very poor a.f reliability)

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Could get below the 5k by swopping out the Sony wide for the Tamron 17-28 f/2.8 and swopping out the Sigma 24-70 for the new Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 V2.

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I have owned most of the Fuji cameras and I love the user experience and how little post processing I have to do with Fuji. The colours are wonderful.

My own experiences with Sony have been less positive both from a user perspective as I found the menu system less than user friendly and I personally never got on with the Sony look from the files. I found they required a lot of work to get the look I wanted. Not something I enjoyed.

For the eighteen months or so I have been using a Canon R5. I held onto my XT-4 for a while to be sure I was happy with the R5 and then sold all my Fuji gear. To my eye the Canon colours are not as good as Fuji but there not bad and require minimal post processing for my taste. However, the user experience and focus speed are fantastic.

I would therefore suggest checking out Sony colour profiles before jumping from Fuji. possibly hiring a Sony if you can.

Im not a Sony bashed by any means but I could not get on with the look the files produced. Maybe my eyesight is worse than I thought!!!

Spending this sort of money Canon R6/5 are worth looking at. However, one of the posts above commented on the advantage of using same gear at work and play and the new Fuji due soon is an excellent point.
 
There was a piece on one of the blogger/review sites a while back about colour preferences and AFAIR when they did a blind test Sony came top but when people knew what gear took what picture peoples preferences changed. Maybe someone remembers this and has a link? What this could mean, if that test is anywhere near credible, is that perhaps peoples preferences are heavily influenced by their own brand loyalties. Or maybe these issues can be resolved by setting the WB?
 
Wait. Fuji releasing XH2s on May 31st. 26mp stacked sensor camera. Releasing XH2 later. 40mp camera.
 
Another happy Fuji owner here, and another one that's didn't know the X-H2 was finally about to materialise...
My take on this is that how the camera feels is the most important thing and image quality these days is so high that few non photographers would be able to tell the difference between brands by looking at photos in the real world.
Given that you use Fuji for work, having the same brand makes a huge amount of sense to me..
 
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GAS rules!
opticwondering said:
Cheers in advanced look forward to discussing hopefully :)
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Another serious case of GAS, methinks.

I wouldn't change from one system to another entirely - it's virtually guaranteed that you'll regret it. Instead, if there's something you haven't got that you think you want, I'd buy one item at a time (counting a camera + lens from a different system as one) and see how well that fits your needs. I'd also make it a strict rule to buy second hand if at all possible, which will limit your loss if the choice turns out to be the wrong one.
 
Iiyama said:
I have owned most of the Fuji cameras and I love the user experience and how little post processing I have to do with Fuji. The colours are wonderful.

My own experiences with Sony have been less positive both from a user perspective as I found the menu system less than user friendly and I personally never got on with the Sony look from the files. I found they required a lot of work to get the look I wanted. Not something I enjoyed.

For the eighteen months or so I have been using a Canon R5. I held onto my XT-4 for a while to be sure I was happy with the R5 and then sold all my Fuji gear. To my eye the Canon colours are not as good as Fuji but there not bad and require minimal post processing for my taste. However, the user experience and focus speed are fantastic.

I would therefore suggest checking out Sony colour profiles before jumping from Fuji. possibly hiring a Sony if you can.

Im not a Sony bashed by any means but I could not get on with the look the files produced. Maybe my eyesight is worse than I thought!!!

Spending this sort of money Canon R6/5 are worth looking at. However, one of the posts above commented on the advantage of using same gear at work and play and the new Fuji due soon is an excellent point.
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Sony have really sorted their colour profiles over the years and the latest gen are great. That being said no matter what system I've used (Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus) I've always created my own profiles to suit my preferences. However, I've fairly recently discovered the Color Fidelity profiles and these are to my taste 'straight out of the box'.
 
snerkler said:
Sony have really sorted their colour profiles over the years and the latest gen are great. That being said no matter what system I've used (Sony, Nikon, Fuji, Olympus) I've always created my own profiles to suit my preferences. However, I've fairly recently discovered the Color Fidelity profiles and these are to my taste 'straight out of the box'.
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Sony colours have definitely got better over the years. I do more video recently and for me, colour accuracy etc is Panasonic/Blackmagic first and then Fuji, Sony and the rest.
 
FujiMatt said:
Sony colours have definitely got better over the years. I do more video recently and for me, colour accuracy etc is Panasonic/Blackmagic first and then Fuji, Sony and the rest.
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That's surprising as I've always considered Fuji colours more visually appealing than accurate per se, not that this is a bad thing of course. That being said I don't shoot video (y)
 
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