The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

christurbo said:
I would like the idea of covering that focal length due to the varied photos i take. However I would be mainly in the lower regions but would like to take some wildlife and portraits. Not a huge prime user in the past however I have been checking what focal length I have been using and it varies from 35 or 50.

Is the 24-70 that bad?

Thanks
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From what I've seen you may as well get the 28-70 and add the 70-200. Buy the 55 for portraits.
 
Well I had quite an expensive "black Friday"..... ordered an A7ii, Loxia 50mm and a Samyang 14mm for an UWA.... also ordered a couple of Nikon lenses (Sigma 35/50) but I those will be going back (was too late to cancel them!).

I've currently just got the Nikon 24mm f2.8 in Nikon native mount so its time the D750 went, as I said earlier its just not leaving the house and while I feel the lens options are better on Nikon I can't justify the amount of cash thats sitting in it when its not left the house, so this time I'm committing to giving the A7ii a proper go over the next few months.

If I don't like it then no harm done and I can accept that its a DSLR for me... if I do like it I'll probably add a second body at some point as I feel at the moment primes are offering a much better performance than most of the zoom lenses, I didn't give the last one (or the Loxia) any proper length of time for me to get used to the smaller body and exactly how the A7ii operates but it also co-incided with me losing some interest in evening taking a photo! I feel that I finally have some motivation for photography again so I'm looking forward to getting out with it this weekend.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Well I had quite an expensive "black Friday"..... ordered an A7ii, Loxia 50mm and a Samyang 14mm for an UWA.... also ordered a couple of Nikon lenses (Sigma 35/50) but I those will be going back (was too late to cancel them!).

I've currently just got the Nikon 24mm f2.8 in Nikon native mount so its time the D750 went, as I said earlier its just not leaving the house and while I feel the lens options are better on Nikon I can't justify the amount of cash thats sitting in it when its not left the house, so this time I'm committing to giving the A7ii a proper go over the next few months.

If I don't like it then no harm done and I can accept that its a DSLR for me... if I do like it I'll probably add a second body at some point as I feel at the moment primes are offering a much better performance than most of the zoom lenses, I didn't give the last one (or the Loxia) any proper length of time for me to get used to the smaller body and exactly how the A7ii operates but it also co-incided with me losing some interest in evening taking a photo! I feel that I finally have some motivation for photography again so I'm looking forward to getting out with it this weekend.
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Lol, again! I like your style.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Well I had quite an expensive "black Friday"..... ordered an A7ii, Loxia 50mm and a Samyang 14mm for an UWA.... also ordered a couple of Nikon lenses (Sigma 35/50) but I those will be going back (was too late to cancel them!).

I've currently just got the Nikon 24mm f2.8 in Nikon native mount so its time the D750 went, as I said earlier its just not leaving the house and while I feel the lens options are better on Nikon I can't justify the amount of cash thats sitting in it when its not left the house, so this time I'm committing to giving the A7ii a proper go over the next few months.

If I don't like it then no harm done and I can accept that its a DSLR for me... if I do like it I'll probably add a second body at some point as I feel at the moment primes are offering a much better performance than most of the zoom lenses, I didn't give the last one (or the Loxia) any proper length of time for me to get used to the smaller body and exactly how the A7ii operates but it also co-incided with me losing some interest in evening taking a photo! I feel that I finally have some motivation for photography again so I'm looking forward to getting out with it this weekend.
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If you can last til March time, you could probably switch to an X-Pro II next :D
 
manualfocus-g said:
If you can last til March time, you could probably switch to an X-Pro II next :D
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By March the A7rII will be £20 and the A7rXV will be the next hot camera.

And on the subject of lasting and GAS.

I did a little audit earlier and I think I've decided that enough is enough. I have the A7, 28-70mm which I never use and the 35mm f2.8 and 55mm f1.8. Other than those I have manual lenses covering the focal lengths I rarely use from 24 to 135mm. I also have the G1 and GX7 with 14, 17, 20, 25 and 45mm primes and 9-18, 14-42 and 45-200mm zooms and adapters for the manual lenses the most used of which on MFT is a 50mm macro.

I think I've decided that I don't need anything else. Maybe my GAS and buying days are over until something breaks.
 
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woof woof said:
By March the A7rII will be £20 and the A7rXV will be the next hot camera.

And on the subject of lasting and GAS.

I did a little audit earlier and I think I've decided that enough is enough. I have the A7, 28-70mm which I never use and the 35mm f2.8 and 55mm f1.8. Other than those I have manual lenses covering the focal lengths I rarely use from 24 to 135mm. I also have the G1 and GX7 with 14, 17, 20, 25 and 45mm primes and 9-18, 14-42 and 45-200mm zooms and adapters for the manual lenses the most used of which on MFT is a 50mm macro.

I think I've decided that I don't need anything else. Maybe my GAS and buying days are over until something breaks.
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Same here. I've just marked 8 lenses I'm going to sell in the new year, which will leave me with just an X-E2, X-T1, 6D and 48 lenses :D
 
The test will be when you have the money from the lens sales... will you be able to resist the temptation to buy something shiny?
 
woof woof said:
The test will be when you have the money from the lens sales... will you be able to resist the temptation to buy something shiny?
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My camera room has been turned into a nursery :o There's nowhere to hide new shiny things now lol
 
I'm waiting for Generation 3 of the A7 line-up before I get back to my GAS roots, or the A9 if Sony release it ;)
 
chrism_scotland said:
Well I had quite an expensive "black Friday"..... ordered an A7ii, Loxia 50mm and a Samyang 14mm for an UWA.... also ordered a couple of Nikon lenses (Sigma 35/50) but I those will be going back (was too late to cancel them!).

I've currently just got the Nikon 24mm f2.8 in Nikon native mount so its time the D750 went, as I said earlier its just not leaving the house and while I feel the lens options are better on Nikon I can't justify the amount of cash thats sitting in it when its not left the house, so this time I'm committing to giving the A7ii a proper go over the next few months.

If I don't like it then no harm done and I can accept that its a DSLR for me... if I do like it I'll probably add a second body at some point as I feel at the moment primes are offering a much better performance than most of the zoom lenses, I didn't give the last one (or the Loxia) any proper length of time for me to get used to the smaller body and exactly how the A7ii operates but it also co-incided with me losing some interest in evening taking a photo! I feel that I finally have some motivation for photography again so I'm looking forward to getting out with it this weekend.
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Didn't you buy an A7ii like a month back? Why sell it to purchase it again? Slightly confused by that.
 
ohms12 said:
Didn't you buy an A7ii like a month back? Why sell it to purchase it again? Slightly confused by that.
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In the past I have owned a Nex-3, Nex-5, Nex-5n, Nex-3, Nex-7, a7 and a7r. I didn't like any of them, but I kept going back just to check :D
 
Hi Guys, hoping for a little help from A7 owners.

I've been trying to decide on a new camera set-up (from scratch this time) and think I've decided on an A7. But not which one and not which lenses so could do with some advice.

I shoot almost just landscape and seascape (live in Cornwall) and I prefer wider lenses. As it's mainly landscape I have no use for super fast glass.

Body wise my choices are either the A7 II or the A7r I. Lens choice I'm unsure whether to use the native FE lenses or Canon. The advantage of Canon would be my Missus uses a Canon DSLR so could use these as well. I would want something in the 16-35ish range and something in the 24-70ish range. Probably F4+ as I don't need fast glass so would prefer to save some money and weight.

So for mainly landscape (and mainly tripod) shots, which model would you recommend?

I've also read a few reviews on the A7r where it's reliability seems to be a question. Has anyone here had issues with the A7r?

Thanks.
 
what are the macro options like for the a7rII?

I'm in two minds about either the Sony or a Nikon 810 at the moment. I do mainly macro shots with the odd bit of landscaping thrown in and general snapping. I know how good the nikon macro lens's are but sony gear is a total unknown for me. I had a D800 and miss it a lot although i appreciate the bulk of it all put me off simply walking around with it which brings me to the Sony. Does sony have a good macro lens or would the way go be a canon adapter and that mad 5:1 lens that canon have?
 
Danones said:
Its really expensive, I thought there was going to be good deals today but 2.4k isnt a good deal for a body only
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Danones said:
I am exploring the market of mirrorless..

My concern if I got to full frame or crop frame...
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£2.4k is expensive if viewed in isolation but isn't it pretty much par for the course when you look at similar resolution bodies? Personally I'm quite happy with a much cheaper 1st generation 24mp body :D

Just on mirrorless FF v crop, I mostly use primes and an A7 series body + 35mm f2.8 or 55mm f1.8 isn't really all that significantly larger than any many other quality CSC + lens packages which would struggle to match the A7 package for image quality.
 
AshleyC said:
what are the macro options like for the a7rII?

I'm in two minds about either the Sony or a Nikon 810 at the moment. I do mainly macro shots with the odd bit of landscaping thrown in and general snapping. I know how good the nikon macro lens's are but sony gear is a total unknown for me. I had a D800 and miss it a lot although i appreciate the bulk of it all put me off simply walking around with it which brings me to the Sony. Does sony have a good macro lens or would the way go be a canon adapter and that mad 5:1 lens that canon have?
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I think that the FE 90mm f2.8 gets very good reviews, worth looking at?

I used to love my Sigma 150mm f2.8 and although it's a big fat lump it might be worth a look especially as I guess you'll be focusing manually and therefore may not be too worried if the auto focus via an adapter is slower than it would be on a Nikon or Canon body. I don't know if it would be, just guessing that it could be :D
 
woof woof said:
£2.4k is expensive if viewed in isolation but isn't it pretty much par for the course when you look at similar resolution bodies? Personally I'm quite happy with a much cheaper 1st generation 24mp body :D

Just on mirrorless FF v crop, I mostly use primes and an A7 series body + 35mm f2.8 or 55mm f1.8 isn't really all that significantly larger than any many other quality CSC + lens packages which would struggle to match the A7 package for image quality.
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Hum so do you think that is it worth it to upgrade to full frame?

the sensor is better, and i know for a fact that fuji is not planning on launching anything full frame soon
 
If you don't see a clear need for 42MP I would just save yourself some money an get an A7 or A7ii instead of the R

After all 24MP works fine for Nikon D750 users and Canon 5D3 users seem to cope fine with 22MP
 
Danones said:
Hum so do you think that is it worth it to upgrade to full frame?

the sensor is better, and i know for a fact that fuji is not planning on launching anything full frame soon
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Depends. ISO 3200 and over the Sony a7 cameras will be better. The margin is not great though, and I swapped my a7 for a Fuji as it handled better and looked far cooler lol
 
Danones said:
Hum so do you think that is it worth it to upgrade to full frame?

the sensor is better, and i know for a fact that fuji is not planning on launching anything full frame soon
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I couldn't really be much happier with the A7 and it's the best camera I've owned. There are a couple of little niggles but nothing that makes me want to throw the camera over a hedge and I'm very happy with the image quality in comparison to what I got from any of my previous admittedly old tech cameras including the 5D. I think that the Sony files are just gorgeous. I do often look at shots taken with my other cameras and think that they too are gorgeous and they are to me :D but although they may look gorgeous on screen and in print there are occasions when the Sony A7 files show a clear lead in gorgeousness and for me they are...

- At the higher ISO's.
- When boosting the shadows, and I'm not talking about the extreme +5 boosts that some reviewers talk about, I'm just talking more normal real world boosts :D
- When looking closely and especially at high magnification on screen.

If you can avoid these things I think that any camera from MFT and upwards through APS-C will produce lovely results but maybe FF adds a bit extra if you are going to look closely, use higher ISO's or print very large or indeed crop like crazy. I wouldn't go so far as to gush about full frame goodness as many do on line but I do think that there's something to that view. Maybe the dynamic range, colour depth and everything else that folk talk about just adds up to a better whole.

I can see the attraction of the Fuji's but a couple of things put me off including the relatively low maximum ISO for shooting raw and the allegedly mushy files when processing with some packages.

The former would bug me as one thing I'm come to appreciate with the A7 is the ability to shoot raw at high ISO's and get good enough results. I don't tend to shoot in very low light too often these days but in northern England with our often dull flat weak light I'll often want to shoot at f4 to f8 to get decent DoF and use shutter speeds exceeding 1/100 to freeze action or prevent shake and even outdoors during daylight hours this can mean shooting at higher ISO's, for example when under shade in a park or side street. With my old Canon kit I could be stuck at wider apertures and ISO 3200 to get a decent shutter speed and that'd mean shallow DoF but with the Sony I can shoot at reasonable apertures and shutter speeds and still get a useable end shot. With the Fuji it'd be like being stuck with the old Canon's again and shooting at wider apertures unless I was happy to shoot JPEG at the higher ISO's. That would bug me. The mushy file issue would bug me too but I hate the idea of having to learn another processing package to get the best out of my shots. The old style shutter and aperture dials are very attractive but the low max ISO and potential mushy file issue (even if only when pixel peeping) put me off. Also, I've tried downloading Fuji raw files and I have to say that I haven't seen anything that would leave my MFT shots for dead and nothing to match my A7 files. Yes, there are some very nice Fuji shots on line taken by competent photographers but for actual file gorgeousness that I've processed and viewed on my pc I'll take my A7 :D

Besides the lovely files a couple of things I really like about my A7 are the ability to use auto ISO in aperture, shutter or manual modes with the ability to dial in exposure compensation (and I do wish that my MFT cameras could do this) and also the constant DoF and exposure preview which I think are very lovely and I'd hate to lose these abilities.

I use my A7 with the FE 35mm f2.8 and 55mm f1.8 and old manual lenses via an adapter and I'm very happy.

Hope that helps.
 
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chrism_scotland said:
Its probably more money than sense some of the time.....
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I know the feeling. Bought a new iPad & Apple Watch this month, add a new set of winter tyres for the car and I haven't even started the Christmas shop yet.

Probably could have bought a new lens for that. :/
 
woof woof said:
I couldn't really be much happier with the A7 and it's the best camera I've owned. There are a couple of little niggles but nothing that makes me want to throw the camera over a hedge and I'm very happy with the image quality in comparison to what I got from any of my previous admittedly old tech cameras including the 5D. I think that the Sony files are just gorgeous. I do often look at shots taken with my other cameras and think that they too are gorgeous and they are to me :D but although they may look gorgeous on screen and in print there are occasions when the Sony A7 files show a clear lead in gorgeousness and for me they are...

- At the higher ISO's.
- When boosting the shadows, and I'm not talking about the extreme +5 boosts that some reviewers talk about, I'm just talking more normal real world boosts :D
- When looking closely and especially at high magnification on screen.

If you can avoid these things I think that any camera from MFT and upwards through APS-C will produce lovely results but maybe FF adds a bit extra if you are going to look closely, use higher ISO's or print very large or indeed crop like crazy. I wouldn't go so far as to gush about full frame goodness as many do on line but I do think that there's something to that view. Maybe the dynamic range, colour depth and everything else that folk talk about just adds up to a better whole.

I can see the attraction of the Fuji's but a couple of things put me off including the relatively low maximum ISO for shooting raw and the allegedly mushy files when processing with some packages.

The former would bug me as one thing I'm come to appreciate with the A7 is the ability to shoot raw at high ISO's and get good enough results. I don't tend to shoot in very low light too often these days but in northern England with our often dull flat weak light I'll often want to shoot at f4 to f8 to get decent DoF and use shutter speeds exceeding 1/100 to freeze action or prevent shake and even outdoors during daylight hours this can mean shooting at higher ISO's, for example when under shade in a park or side street. With my old Canon kit I could be stuck at wider apertures and ISO 3200 to get a decent shutter speed and that'd mean shallow DoF but with the Sony I can shoot at reasonable apertures and shutter speeds and still get a useable end shot. With the Fuji it'd be like being stuck with the old Canon's again and shooting at wider apertures unless I was happy to shoot JPEG at the higher ISO's. That would bug me. The mushy file issue would bug me too but I hate the idea of having to learn another processing package to get the best out of my shots. The old style shutter and aperture dials are very attractive but the low max ISO and potential mushy file issue (even if only when pixel peeping) put me off. Also, I've tried downloading Fuji raw files and I have to say that I haven't seen anything that would leave my MFT shots for dead and nothing to match my A7 files. Yes, there are some very nice Fuji shots on line taken by competent photographers but for actual file gorgeousness that I've processed and viewed on my pc I'll take my A7 :D

Besides the lovely files a couple of things I really like about my A7 are the ability to use auto ISO in aperture, shutter or manual modes with the ability to dial in exposure compensation (and I do wish that my MFT cameras could do this) and also the constant DoF and exposure preview which I think are very lovely and I'd hate to lose these abilities.

I use my A7 with the FE 35mm f2.8 and 55mm f1.8 and old manual lenses via an adapter and I'm very happy.

Hope that helps.
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Thank you so much for you answer and explanation!

I actually agree with you when we talk about stretching our pictures with lightroom for eg.

I have at the moment a Nikon D3300 and When I shoot raw in low light I find it very difficult to get anything decent from 3200 iso above.

That is why I thought about moving to full frame like a sony body.

The A7rII looks amazing however, handling with 80mb Raw files, I can only imagine how my computer would scream... With my nikon d3300 (24mp) it already has files with 40mb... lol

So I might consider moving to Fuji to be honest. Crop sensor still does the job, 16mp is quite big enough i think, even for printings and things like that.
 
Danones said:
So I might consider moving to Fuji to be honest. Crop sensor still does the job, 16mp is quite big enough i think, even for printings and things like that.
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Yup, but don't forget that you don't have to have 80mp files, you can go with the 24mp A7 and the files are manageable :D
 
That's a silly reason, sorry. You simply can't compare the two, especially if your reason is high ISO shooting.
 
Well I didn't think that would work!

I posted earlier about a heads up on any BFriday deals on a Sony 70-200 f4 OSS G but I was just dreaming as usual...

Thinking about this lens's focal length and the direction which led me to move to the ILCE-7RM2, I started looking at the Batis 85mm 1.8.
I couldn't just order it and try to explain it away to my wife why I had spent so much, so, this evening I just came out with the following:-
"Do you think I could spend 800 quid on a new lens as a graduation present"?
I graduated in May from the OU after many years of effort.
Her reply was "don't you think you could learn to take a good picture first" ? With a huge grin on her face.
She went on." I don't remember getting an £800 present on my graduation". Bearing in mind she graduated 25 years ago (also with the OU), I surprised myself and quick as a flash said "well with inflation £800 seems reasonable"
She said yes!
So the Batis 85mm 1.8 is on order with LCE with their BFriday discount.
Yippee!
 
shoshone said:
Well I didn't think that would work!

I posted earlier about a heads up on any BFriday deals on a Sony 70-200 f4 OSS G but I was just dreaming as usual...

Thinking about this lens's focal length and the direction which led me to move to the ILCE-7RM2, I started looking at the Batis 85mm 1.8.
I couldn't just order it and try to explain it away to my wife why I had spent so much, so, this evening I just came out with the following:-
"Do you think I could spend 800 quid on a new lens as a graduation present"?
I graduated in May from the OU after many years of effort.
Her reply was "don't you think you could learn to take a good picture first" ? With a huge grin on her face.
She went on." I don't remember getting an £800 present on my graduation". Bearing in mind she graduated 25 years ago (also with the OU), I surprised myself and quick as a flash said "well with inflation £800 seems reasonable"
She said yes!
So the Batis 85mm 1.8 is on order with LCE with their BFriday discount.
Yippee!
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Nice. Mine arrived Friday - no discount though. It's a mighty fine lens
 
ok this might not be the right place to ask this question but here goes, I have just bought a new a7 mk1 to try out the full frame route, I have a sony a77 mk2 and plenty of sony g and Minolta a mount lens, so the question is do I buy a couple of e -mount lens or do I buy the a mount adaptor and use my a mount lens also is there any down side to the a-mount adaptor thanks in advance
 
Depends, are your A-mount lenses full frame or designed for the APS-C sensor?
 
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