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

Stephen L said:
I think it’s anything but entry level. It’s designed for a particular sort of photographer who wants to travel light and with less bulk. I would say that it was (seems to be) designed specifically for prime lenses. I’m with you on the lack of auto switching between mechanical and electronic shutters.
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I thought Sony said something to the effect that it's an entry level camera in a new line?
 
robj20 said:
Just use electronic all the time I haven't needed mechanical at all yet.
Front dial is a non issue either when you have so many customized buttons plus you use mostly manual lenses or lenses like the Sony 20mm with an aperture ring.
Read on fredmiranda lots of manual shooters very happy.

I'd at least give one ago woofwoof.
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I really dislike using the rotary wheel at the back. I have given it a go with my A7 and I'd rather not do it that way. Yes, some lenses have aperture rings but most of my AF lenses don't, only the 20mm f1.8.

One way around it to make me mostly happy would be to have a toggleable top dial. My G1 had a front mounted one and pressing it toggled it between aperture and shutter. With the A7c afaik there is no one press solution.

robj20 said:
Just use electronic all the time I haven't needed mechanical at all yet.
Front dial is a non issue either when you have so many customized buttons plus you use mostly manual lenses or lenses like the Sony 20mm with an aperture ring.
Read on fredmiranda lots of manual shooters very happy.

I'd at least give one ago woofwoof.
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I occasionally take pictures at wider apertures which need shutter speeds in excess of 1/4,000 and that would mean using the electronic shutter. I also take pictures indoors under artificial lighting and that requires the mechanical shutter and I really don't want the additional faff on of switching between the two when there are other cameras that don't have this thing. Silent shooting is nice but that comes with the potential of banding under artificial lights and isn't really needed outdoors, well, not by me anyway.

I'm sure it's a lovely camera but just like the A6xxx series it's a camera I'll look at, read about and lust after but will never own. As always best wishes to those who use and love it.
 
woof woof said:
I thought Sony said something to the effect that it's an entry level camera in a new line?
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Well, I’m not an “entry level” photographer (60 years experience, though you wouldn’t know it ;) ), but I’ve bought one. I do hate being put in boxes by companies and organisations.:)
 
woof woof said:
I really dislike using the rotary wheel at the back. I have given it a go with my A7 and I'd rather not do it that way. Yes, some lenses have aperture rings but most of my AF lenses don't, only the 20mm f1.8.

One way around it to make me mostly happy would be to have a toggleable top dial. My G1 had a front mounted one and pressing it toggled it between aperture and shutter. With the A7c afaik there is no one press solution.



I occasionally take pictures at wider apertures which need shutter speeds in excess of 1/4,000 and that would mean using the electronic shutter. I also take pictures indoors under artificial lighting and that requires the mechanical shutter and I really don't want the additional faff on of switching between the two when there are other cameras that don't have this thing. Silent shooting is nice but that comes with the potential of banding under artificial lights and isn't really needed outdoors, well, not by me anyway.

I'm sure it's a lovely camera but just like the A6xxx series it's a camera I'll look at, read about and lust after but will never own. As always best wishes to those who use and love it.
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Couldn't you set something up with the c1 and c2 buttons?
C1 always uses mechanical and c2 always uses electronic?
 
woof woof said:
One for the geeks, the rumor site says the A1 is 0.5mm taller than the A9.

Size comparison: Sony A1 vs the Sony A9II | sonyalpharumors

Preorders: Sony A1 at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Focuscamera. Sony XPeria 5G PRO at BHphoto. Adorama. Amazon. Sony A1 in Europe at FotoErhardt DE. Calumet DE. Fotokoch DE. Park UK. WexUK. Join the Sony A1 Facebook group here. - Photosku made this accurate A1-A9II size comparison. For comparison...
www.sonyalpharumors.com www.sonyalpharumors.com
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That’s it, I’m out.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Couldn't you set something up with the c1 and c2 buttons?
C1 always uses mechanical and c2 always uses electronic?
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No, I think Alan is correct. All you could do is assign the ability to switch to a button. The selection would be an extra push.
 
Stephen L said:
Well, I’m not an “entry level” photographer (60 years experience, though you wouldn’t know it ;) ), but I’ve bought one. I do hate being put in boxes by companies and organisations.:)
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I don't mean it's entry level so I wont you it... I mean that if it's entry level there might be another higher end model and that may have the things I want. But in reality if it's like the A6xxx series it wont as they all afaik have no front dial and a max shutter of 1/4,000 regardless of price.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
Couldn't you set something up with the c1 and c2 buttons?
C1 always uses mechanical and c2 always uses electronic?
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Yup. You can set the shutter option to a button, press it and select the option you want but why should I do that when I could buy an A7III? If my A7 died tomorrow I'd buy a SLR style A7III. It's not RF style but no biggie.
 
woof woof said:
I really dislike using the rotary wheel at the back. I have given it a go with my A7 and I'd rather not do it that way. Yes, some lenses have aperture rings but most of my AF lenses don't, only the 20mm f1.8.

One way around it to make me mostly happy would be to have a toggleable top dial. My G1 had a front mounted one and pressing it toggled it between aperture and shutter. With the A7c afaik there is no one press solution.





I occasionally take pictures at wider apertures which need shutter speeds in excess of 1/4,000 and that would mean using the electronic shutter. I also take pictures indoors under artificial lighting and that requires the mechanical shutter and I really don't want the additional faff on of switching between the two when there are other cameras that don't have this thing. Silent shooting is nice but that comes with the potential of banding under artificial lights and isn't really needed outdoors, well, not by me anyway.

I'm sure it's a lovely camera but just like the A6xxx series it's a camera I'll look at, read about and lust after but will never own. As always best wishes to those who use and love it.
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I don't use the rotary dial at all.

And you can have a top dial customized that's what I have for manual mode. Im sure I have explained this a few times.
The one dial does both aperture and shutter, you can have it set to anything else you want as well.
Either via pressing another button or holding a button.
 
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woof woof said:
Yup. You can set the shutter option to a button, press it and select the option you want but why should I do that when I could buy an A7III? If my A7 died tomorrow I'd buy a SLR style A7III. It's not RF style but no biggie.
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But if you used the c1 and c2 on the top dial, you could just turn the dial, rather than pressing a button to bring it up and then select it?
 
Lots of interesting points which I'm absorbing thanks. I had forgotten about the lack of front dial, also I think the A7R iv can go to 1/8000th with the mechanical shutter? That would be handy.

Do they have the same af system or has the A7C improved on it? I think it has more coverage? I'm sure I heard they changed the colour science with the A7C as well. But when looking at flickr samples, the A7R iv selection do seem fantastic in comparison, or could that be down the A7C being rather new and released during a pandemic?
 
robj20 said:
I don't use the rotary dial at all.

And you can have a top dial customized that's what I have for manual mode. Im sure I have explained this a few times.
The one dial does both aperture and shutter, you can have it set to anything else you want as well.
Either via pressing another button or holding a button.
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I know, I mentioned that in one of my posts.

I'll try and stop mentioning the A7c but I doubt I can as I keep mentioning the A6xxx series and no matter how many times I have an A7c or an A6xxx in my basket, it happens all the time, I know I'll never actually buy one.

As always, best wishes to those who own and love this kit but attractive though it is I know it wont suit me and I'll be much happier with an A7III when my A7 needs replacing. No offence meant to A7c and A6xxx owners, they're great cameras just not for me.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
But if you used the c1 and c2 on the top dial, you could just turn the dial, rather than pressing a button to bring it up and then select it?
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I'd have the Cx modes set to eye/face detect in aperture and manual just as I do now.
 
gman said:
Lots of interesting points which I'm absorbing thanks. I had forgotten about the lack of front dial, also I think the A7R iv can go to 1/8000th with the mechanical shutter? That would be handy.

Do they have the same af system or has the A7C improved on it? I think it has more coverage? I'm sure I heard they changed the colour science with the A7C as well. But when looking at flickr samples, the A7R iv selection do seem fantastic in comparison, or could that be down the A7C being rather new and released during a pandemic?
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A7C - AF is better more reliable, has animal eyeAF with real time AF, larger frame coverage.
The downsides of A7C - lack of front dial, body pretty small if you want to use large lenses and no grip option, cannot turn off EFCS which can cause some unreliability for flash usage and also shooting at 1/4000s shutter speed, limited 1/4000 shutter speed, limited to 1/160s flash sync speed, small previous gen EVF, less customisable buttons on the body, IBIS not as effective (but tbh Sony's IBIS sucks in general anyway).
 
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woof woof said:
I know, I mentioned that in one of my posts.

I'll try and stop mentioning the A7c but I doubt I can as I keep mentioning the A6xxx series and no matter how many times I have an A7c or an A6xxx in my basket, it happens all the time, I know I'll never actually buy one.

As always, best wishes to those who own and love this kit but attractive though it is I know it wont suit me and I'll be much happier with an A7III when my A7 needs replacing. No offence meant to A7c and A6xxx owners, they're great cameras just not for me.
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I think right now, I might be torn just slightly towards the A7c vs A7iii!! It is a close choice though for me.
 
woof woof said:
I don't mean it's entry level so I wont you it... I mean that if it's entry level there might be another higher end model and that may have the things I want. But in reality if it's like the A6xxx series it wont as they all afaik have no front dial and a max shutter of 1/4,000 regardless of price.
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I think it’s in the laws of photography that the first of a range always begats others, which are of course better and bigger. Just like the Mini, the Fiat 500, and the Golf.
 
LeeRatters said:
I think right now, I might be torn just slightly towards the A7c vs A7iii!! It is a close choice though for me.
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I've been agonising over this myself, although it's between the A7C and the A7R iv for me and it's really down to that giant 60MP sensor which is causing the problem for me. Also, if the Canon R6 was a little bit smaller physically and didn't have that high contrast scene focus problem then it would also be in the mix.

What are your draws towards the A7C and the A7 iii which is making it difficult to decide between the two?
 
snerkler said:
How do you see how much RAM LR is using, I'd like to monitor this to see why mine runs so slowly?
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On Apple I think you be able to do a finder search and open activity monitor it should show the processes with the amount of CPU and memory they're using while in windows if you right click the task bar you can bring up task manager. I find Lightroom is a bit strange with performance as I upgraded from a 2011 hex core i7 to a 2019 12 core Ryzen 9 (twice as many cores and much faster per core) and doubled the ram from 32GB to 64GB but I find Lightroom doesn't perform as well as it did on the older machine, it's fine but just not quite as snappy. Apart from the ram during the panorama stitching it doesn't use much CPU or ram on mine.
 
A lot can depend how efficient a program is with threading. Just because it can use 12 cores doesn't mean it will be faster.
As you use more and more threads previous thread can end up effectively waiting for other threads to finish before they can start.
Then you also have memory speed and efficiency, especially true of AMD and infinity fabric, the noisy efficient speeds are multiples of your IF. 3600mhz ram is a good place to start with the base clock at 1800mhz. You always want these to be in sync 2:1.
There are loads more aspects of putting together a fast efficient machine, you can always spot people that don't know what they are doing when they just slap random fast parts together.
 
gman said:
Lots of interesting points which I'm absorbing thanks. I had forgotten about the lack of front dial, also I think the A7R iv can go to 1/8000th with the mechanical shutter? That would be handy.

Do they have the same af system or has the A7C improved on it? I think it has more coverage? I'm sure I heard they changed the colour science with the A7C as well. But when looking at flickr samples, the A7R iv selection do seem fantastic in comparison, or could that be down the A7C being rather new and released during a pandemic?
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I wouldn't get too caught up on the colour science, I always create a preset with the colours how I like them anyway. Unless you're a jpeg shooter who doesn't PP, in which case colour science is much more important
nandbytes said:
A7C - AF is better more reliable, has animal eyeAF with real time AF, larger frame coverage.
The downsides of A7C - lack of front dial, body pretty small if you want to use large lenses and no grip option, cannot turn off EFCS which can cause some unreliability for flash usage and also shooting at 1/4000s shutter speed, limited 1/4000 shutter speed, limited to 1/160s flash sync speed, small previous gen EVF, less customisable buttons on the body, IBIS not as effective (but tbh Sony's IBIS sucks in general anyway).
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I wish the A7RIV had real time tracking animal eye-AF. I was hoping they'd bring out a firmware update but I'm guessing it must be a processor thing.
nandbytes said:
Manny and Fro guy have a live streaming of A1 unboxing
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ThQAQ8aCgk
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I've never understood why people watch unboxing videos? :thinking:
JohnMcL7 said:
On Apple I think you be able to do a finder search and open activity monitor it should show the processes with the amount of CPU and memory they're using while in windows if you right click the task bar you can bring up task manager. I find Lightroom is a bit strange with performance as I upgraded from a 2011 hex core i7 to a 2019 12 core Ryzen 9 (twice as many cores and much faster per core) and doubled the ram from 32GB to 64GB but I find Lightroom doesn't perform as well as it did on the older machine, it's fine but just not quite as snappy. Apart from the ram during the panorama stitching it doesn't use much CPU or ram on mine.
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Ahh OK, I thought there was something within LR that told you. What I don't get is that even if I close all other apps etc there's still 8GB RAM being used, meaning that I only have 8GB free to run LR which isn't enough. I do want to upgrade my MBP but I'm waiting for the M1 processor to come out in the 16" version. It's not just processing that slows sometimes, just flicking through photos quickly can cause the spinning beachball, very frustrating. The max RAM you can spec on a MBP is 'only' 64GB though.
 
snerkler said:
I wish the A7RIV had real time tracking animal eye-AF. I was hoping they'd bring out a firmware update but I'm guessing it must be a processor thing.
I've never understood why people watch unboxing videos? :thinking:
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I think A7C has the same processor. But A7RIV does have more pixels.

They were unboxing live, answering questions etc. I didn't stay on too long but basically my point was people are getting their A1 for testing.
 
gman said:
I've been agonising over this myself, although it's between the A7C and the A7R iv for me and it's really down to that giant 60MP sensor which is causing the problem for me. Also, if the Canon R6 was a little bit smaller physically and didn't have that high contrast scene focus problem then it would also be in the mix.

What are your draws towards the A7C and the A7 iii which is making it difficult to decide between the two?
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Well, the A7iii was the first body that sparked any interest when it was released. I think the A7c is a very similar spec body but in a package without the view finder hump which I do like the idea of in theory but it's supposed to have a lesser evf.... Just a few little things to think over for a while yet ;) You never know, the A7cii might be out by then..... :ROFLMAO:
 
Quick question re my A9.
Can I shoot raw onto card 1 and jpeg onto card 2?
And if so, how do I do it?
Can only find raw and jpeg onto same card in the menu.
Thanks
 
Typical when im ready to order the 20mm Panamoz have none.
Found it for £679 so hopefully they price match that.
 
So I've ventured past f1.4 and noticed my sensor is absolutely filthy. What's the recommended cleaning kit these days? I don't think I've ever done it or had it done and both bodies probably over 100k clicks.
 
T_J_G said:
So I've ventured past f1.4 and noticed my sensor is absolutely filthy. What's the recommended cleaning kit these days? I don't think I've ever done it or had it done and both bodies probably over 100k clicks.
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I use Eclipse fluid and Pec pads and make my own swabs.
 
T_J_G said:
So I've ventured past f1.4 and noticed my sensor is absolutely filthy. What's the recommended cleaning kit these days? I don't think I've ever done it or had it done and both bodies probably over 100k clicks.
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Ive used visible dust kits before. But to be honest IPA and a lint free cloth works just as well. I cut a bit off and wrap it to the end of a cotton swab.
It's the way we do it at work as well.
 
T_J_G said:
So I've ventured past f1.4 and noticed my sensor is absolutely filthy. What's the recommended cleaning kit these days? I don't think I've ever done it or had it done and both bodies probably over 100k clicks.
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No wonder - even an SLR would be grubby after all that use and thats with a mirror in the way.

Cleaning wise - I'd recommend a wet clean - lots on you tube on it - be gentle though. Or just pay a pro place to do it like fixation.
 
LeeRatters said:
Well, the A7iii was the first body that sparked any interest when it was released. I think the A7c is a very similar spec body but in a package without the view finder hump which I do like the idea of in theory but it's supposed to have a lesser evf.... Just a few little things to think over for a while yet ;) You never know, the A7cii might be out by then..... :ROFLMAO:
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Yes, the EVF isn’t brilliant, but I manage to focus manual lenses OK, and see the full image. That’s with me wearing specs. You get used to it.
 
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