New Camera Advice - Sony a6700 for Macro?

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_astralis

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Hi there,

I'm looking some advice on upgrading my camera. I mostly do macro photography of butterflies and use the Canon 7D with the Canon 100mm L 2.8 macro lens. The results are stunning and I've always been very happy with what I've been able to capture. However, I'm now looking for upgraded features and a new camera for travel etc, and id love to combine the two if possible. I also dabble with landscape photography so if i can find a camera that does all 3 very well, I'll be made up!

I've been gravitating towards the Sony alpha series due to their smaller size and weight and impressive features. The a6700 stands out to me (i might struggle to afford the full frame options and lenses as well) and i don't mind the crop sensor.

For now, ill be looking for a dedicated macro lens around 100mm and something like a 16-55mm lens for travel. I do like a good wide angle! So if there are any recommendations on these too, that would be great. I'm after the best quality in the lenses so am willing to pay more for the top end of the range.

A few things I'm looking for in my new kit:

- Excellent, sharp images, the same or better quality than what i can achieve with the 7D/6D and 100mm f/2.8 L, 17-40mm f/4 L and 24-105mm f/4 L
- Lenses f/2.8 or faster
- Focal lengths around 100mm for macro, and 16-55mm-ish for general photography
- Smaller camera and more lightweight
- Good grip for holding the camera steady with one hand which i sometimes have to do for macro work
- Focus bracketing - this will be a game changer for me, i hope
- Camera body price range up to £1500, absolutely no more than £2000
- Great at wide angle astrophotography (i have the Rokinon 24mm 1.4) - this one not essential as i always have my full frame 6D i can use instead
- Easy to use interface
- Great autofocus
- Self timer for selfies
- Vari angle screen
- Connection for remote shutter release
- Decent video quality/features
- Reasonable battery life
- Great for travel photography in general
- Built in image stabilization

I've read about some issues with the a6700 and selecting focal points manually. There is no joystick to manually select? How is this achieved if your're shooting through the viewfinder and not using the liveview screen on the back where you can touch to focus? I'm also wondering how you select focal points if you're doing long exposure photography with a 10 stop ND filter and therefore cannot see what you're shooting through either the liveview screen or the EV. I presume this would have to be selected before you put the filter in place?

If there are any examples of close up macro photos so i can see the quality and sharpness, that would be really useful.

Thanks in advance for any advice! :)

Gill
 
Hello and welcome :D

If you have no joystick you can still move the focus point around the frame using the buttons around the wheel on the back of the camera. I do this all the time as none of my cameras have a joystick.

On filters, you can normally set the camera to show you the scene in a couple of different ways, either at the aperture you've set or wide open. I don't use filters much but I can say that when I have focusing and framing haven't been killer issues. It should be possible and in the extreme instances when you can't focus or even frame accurately with a filter fitted you can default to fitting it after these things are done. I think evf's have long since surpassed ovf's and have for a long time allowed framing and focusing in low light at which an ovf wouldn't.
 
I wouldn't worry about the smaller sensor size for Macro, in fact it can be a benefit with the additional depth of field it provides.

At the moment I see a lot of Macro photographers buying into the OM camera line up due to the Macro-centric features like in-camera stacking etc and that's a Micro Four Thirds system.

Might be worth investigating that line as an option. They definitely tick a lot of your boxes.
 
Adamcski said:
As Adam says above, most macro togs use the OM system and as a macro fan myself it's actually something I am looking at currently.
Click to expand...

Same. If I was more Macro focused instead of dabbling occasionally as part of my Jack Of All Trades routine, I'd definitely treat myself to an OM Systems camera for Macro.
 
My suggestion for an allrounder like that would be the Fuji X-S20 (or X-T50 if you want 40MP) with the new 16-50mm kit lens and the 80mm macro lens. Another option could be the Canon R7 and use your existing macro lens.

Both Canon and Fuji to free 48 hour test drives, which I find really helps with getting the feel for a camera/lens before buying.
 
_astralis said:
.....I'm also wondering how you select focal points if you're doing long exposure photography with a 10 stop ND filter and therefore cannot see what you're shooting through either the liveview screen or the EV. I presume this would have to be selected before you put the filter in place?
Click to expand...
With mirrorless and their EVF's, they will 'simulate' the effect of the long exposure in the evf, so you should be able to actually see the scene with the filter in place (it may be a bit grainy, as the camera will be having to push things a bit to cover 10 stops).
I'm not sure how this works if you are over 30s exposure, and into bulb mode, I suspect they just shows the 30s version.
Of course, you can simply use the old focus, switch to MF then add the filter method that was needed with DSLR.
 
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