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

I have given the A7RIV plenty of abuse in this thread for its short comings, even though I have owned one myself previously and now have the A7RIVa.

I had a bit of a gap of weddings there over Jan/Feb, we purposely didn't book any as it's been a bit soul destroying over the last couple of years with all the Covid cancellations. As it turned out we should have just booked away as there wouldn't of been any cancellations but in the end it worked out well as we needed the break. It also gave me a bit of a chance to shoot some stuff just for myself and I have often found myself reaching for the A7RIV. Just purely because I can use a prime lens like a zoom with the ability to crop till the cows come home.

Weddings are back on again for us and we have shot 3 since the start of the month and now with a new found love for the A7RIV, I have been using it a lot more that I had last year were we just basically used it for macro and very occasionally with the 135mm when we needed a long lens. Over the last 3 weddings I have used it a lot more. I have been using it during getting ready with the 24mm GM, which basically as well as letting me shoot at 24mm, I can just crop to 35mm and 50mm points of view and it has been working great for that as there isn't anything too fast paced. I have also still been using it with the macro for details during getting ready. I have also been using it a lot during the speeches with the 85mm G.M and it's been working great for that as well. Often find myself having to crop images from the speeches heavily as I like to stay out of the way and there is often a lot of unwanted distractions on the tables. Using the A7RIV with the 85mm lets me do just that and I can crop away distractions without any major loss of I.Q.

Just thought I would mention as it's often easy to rip something to pieces because it isn't good in some areas and I have been guilty of that. The A7RIV major issues being not as good a.f as the A9 etc. but using it in a different way for different things has made me really like the camera now and I never really thought I would hear myself say that, Don't get me wrong I still don't think its a great camera for everything at a wedding as the A9's do a much better job for the rest of the day but it does excel and have an advantage in some areas.

Yeah I guess you could say I could just use one of the other bodies with a zoom lens, but that would mean changing lenses regularly so I could still use the primes when I wanted them and I rarely have the time to do that.
 
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snerkler said:
If anyone finds any sample images of the new 70-200mm f2.8 GM II of full length portraits along the lines of these please can you share them on here? I'd like to gauge the 'superimposed' look of the new lens (y)
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my 70-200 II has just been dispatched! along with 50mm 1.2 GM

My 70-200 Mark I is still faulty.. focal plane diagonal near right to far left, so I decided to get the Mark II so I can get on with it for work
 
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f/2.8 said:
I have given the A7RIV plenty of abuse in this thread for its short comings, even though I have owned one myself previously and now have the A7RIVa.

I had a bit of a gap of weddings there over Jan/Feb, we purposely didn't book any as it's been a bit soul destroying over the last couple of years with all the Covid cancellations. As it turned out we should have just booked away as there wouldn't of been any cancellations but in the end it worked out well as we needed the break. It also gave me a bit of a chance to shoot some stuff just for myself and I have often found myself reaching for the A7RIV. Just purely because I can use a prime lens like a zoom with the ability to crop till the cows come home.

Weddings are back on again for us and we have shot 3 since the start of the month and now with a new found love for the A7RIV, I have been using it a lot more that I had last year were we just basically used it for macro and very occasionally with the 135mm when we needed a long lens. Over the last 3 weddings I have used it a lot more. I have been using it during getting ready with the 24mm GM, which basically as well as letting me shoot at 24mm, I can just crop to 35mm and 50mm points of view and it has been working great for that as there isn't anything too fast paced. I have also still been using it with the macro for details during getting ready. I have also been using it a lot during the speeches with the 85mm G.M and it's been working great for that as well. Often find myself having to crop images from the speeches heavily as I like to stay out of the way and there is often a lot of unwanted distractions on the tables. Using the A7RIV with the 85mm lets me do just that and I can crop away distractions without any major loss of I.Q.

Just thought I would mention as it's often easy to rip something to pieces because it isn't good in some areas and I have been guilty of that. The A7RIV major issues being not as good a.f as the A9 etc. but using it in a different way for different things has made me really like the camera now and I never really thought I would hear myself say that, Don't get me wrong I still don't think its a great camera for everything at a wedding as the A9's do a much better job for the rest of the day but it does excel and have an advantage in some areas.

Yeah I guess you could say I could just use one of the other bodies with a zoom lens, but that would mean changing lenses regularly so I could still use the primes when I wanted them and I rarely have the time to do that.
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Is the A7Riv AF poor, or just it more a case that it seems like that when benchmarking against something like the A9?

I've always prioritised AF over everything else, pretty much because you can't fix a photo out of focus but a lot of other failings could be overcome through use of artistic licence lol. But maybe I was being a little unreasonable in discarding the A7Riv due to comparing the AF to the A9 when could it be possible that the A7Riv AF is still very good and a lot better than many other cameras which I've used without any problems? (Canon 5d, Nikon D3, D750, Sony A6000 etc).

There is still that itch for the resolution and dynamic range of the A7Riv and since I've hardly picked up my A9 for months now I'm wondering if now is a good time to look at one again?
 
gman said:
Is the A7Riv AF poor, or just it more a case that it seems like that when benchmarking against something like the A9?

I've always prioritised AF over everything else, pretty much because you can't fix a photo out of focus but a lot of other failings could be overcome through use of artistic licence lol. But maybe I was being a little unreasonable in discarding the A7Riv due to comparing the AF to the A9 when could it be possible that the A7Riv AF is still very good and a lot better than many other cameras which I've used without any problems? (Canon 5d, Nikon D3, D750, Sony A6000 etc).

There is still that itch for the resolution and dynamic range of the A7Riv and since I've hardly picked up my A9 for months now I'm wondering if now is a good time to look at one again?
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No, it isn't it just isn't as fast or as reliable as the A1, A9 OR A9II.

It also isn't as fast or as reliable as the A6400, A7III, or the A7IV.

The A.F to be fair is better than the Nikon Z7 / Z7II which is probably its closest competition and it's better than the cameras you mentioned you have used previously.

It is probably unfair to compare to it to the A9 etc. like I have done previously. There is probably an argument for saying the A1 is the A7RIV with the a,f fixed.

I would buy A1's but I would need at least 4 and realistically that would be mental money, It would also be a real ball ache to deal with the file sizes, even with a mental spec computer which I have..

At the moment A9/A9II is still the best all round choice for wedding photography. An A9III with a 33/35 million pixel sensor would be absolutely perfect.

For my purposes using a mixture of A9/A7RIV works better than swopping out to A1 as I get the best of both without the drawbacks of the A1 in terms of file sizes and cost.
 
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f/2.8 said:
I have given the A7RIV plenty of abuse in this thread for its short comings, even though I have owned one myself previously and now have the A7RIVa.

I had a bit of a gap of weddings there over Jan/Feb, we purposely didn't book any as it's been a bit soul destroying over the last couple of years with all the Covid cancellations. As it turned out we should have just booked away as there wouldn't of been any cancellations but in the end it worked out well as we needed the break. It also gave me a bit of a chance to shoot some stuff just for myself and I have often found myself reaching for the A7RIV. Just purely because I can use a prime lens like a zoom with the ability to crop till the cows come home.

Weddings are back on again for us and we have shot 3 since the start of the month and now with a new found love for the A7RIV, I have been using it a lot more that I had last year were we just basically used it for macro and very occasionally with the 135mm when we needed a long lens. Over the last 3 weddings I have used it a lot more. I have been using it during getting ready with the 24mm GM, which basically as well as letting me shoot at 24mm, I can just crop to 35mm and 50mm points of view and it has been working great for that as there isn't anything too fast paced. I have also still been using it with the macro for details during getting ready. I have also been using it a lot during the speeches with the 85mm G.M and it's been working great for that as well. Often find myself having to crop images from the speeches heavily as I like to stay out of the way and there is often a lot of unwanted distractions on the tables. Using the A7RIV with the 85mm lets me do just that and I can crop away distractions without any major loss of I.Q.

Just thought I would mention as it's often easy to rip something to pieces because it isn't good in some areas and I have been guilty of that. The A7RIV major issues being not as good a.f as the A9 etc. but using it in a different way for different things has made me really like the camera now and I never really thought I would hear myself say that, Don't get me wrong I still don't think its a great camera for everything at a wedding as the A9's do a much better job for the rest of the day but it does excel and have an advantage in some areas.

Yeah I guess you could say I could just use one of the other bodies with a zoom lens, but that would mean changing lenses regularly so I could still use the primes when I wanted them and I rarely have the time to do that.
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Great reflection. You're right it's all to easy to criticise these days (y)
dancook said:
my 70-200 II has just been dispatched! along with 50mm 1.2 GM

My 70-200 Mark I is still faulty.. focal plane diagonal near right to far left, so I decided to get the Mark II so I can get on with it for work
Click to expand...
I look forward to seeing some pics (y). I've made some enquiries about the 70-200mm II over the past couple of days but it's still a bit out of my price range. Apparently the pound is weak at the moment which is not helping.
gman said:
Is the A7Riv AF poor, or just it more a case that it seems like that when benchmarking against something like the A9?

I've always prioritised AF over everything else, pretty much because you can't fix a photo out of focus but a lot of other failings could be overcome through use of artistic licence lol. But maybe I was being a little unreasonable in discarding the A7Riv due to comparing the AF to the A9 when could it be possible that the A7Riv AF is still very good and a lot better than many other cameras which I've used without any problems? (Canon 5d, Nikon D3, D750, Sony A6000 etc).

There is still that itch for the resolution and dynamic range of the A7Riv and since I've hardly picked up my A9 for months now I'm wondering if now is a good time to look at one again?
Click to expand...
From my experience the A7RIV was a great camera but did struggle in certain areas, one being an area where a lot of cameras struggle and that's something moving towards the camera at quite a pace. That being said, I found the A7RIV sub par when compared to the Z7 and D850 I'd had previously. For everything else I had no issue with AF, but I never tried BIF with it.

One area that the A7RIV did infuriate me is how slow it is to start up (mind you the A9-II isn't great either), how sluggish it was in things like image review and zooming in 1:1 to check focus, and then how many functions are locked whilst writing to the memory card, which at times seemed to take an age. Whilst not perfect the A9-II is much better in this regard and hasn't caused any spike in blood pressure yet ;) I also missed the drive and focus mode dial on the A7RIV, I couldn't go back to a camera without this again now.
 
snerkler said:
One area that the A7RIV did infuriate me is how slow it is to start up (mind you the A9-II isn't great either), how sluggish it was in things like image review and zooming in 1:1 to check focus, and then how many functions are locked whilst writing to the memory card, which at times seemed to take an age. Whilst not perfect the A9-II is much better in this regard and hasn't caused any spike in blood pressure yet ;) I also missed the drive and focus mode dial on the A7RIV, I couldn't go back to a camera without this again now.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's definitely not a camera for speed.

Image review and zooming in 1-1 is very snappy for me though, I wonder If card speed makes a difference, I am using super quick cards in mine.
 
snerkler said:
Great reflection. You're right it's all to easy to criticise these days (y)

I look forward to seeing some pics (y). I've made some enquiries about the 70-200mm II over the past couple of days but it's still a bit out of my price range. Apparently the pound is weak at the moment which is not helping.

From my experience the A7RIV was a great camera but did struggle in certain areas, one being an area where a lot of cameras struggle and that's something moving towards the camera at quite a pace. That being said, I found the A7RIV sub par when compared to the Z7 and D850 I'd had previously. For everything else I had no issue with AF, but I never tried BIF with it.

One area that the A7RIV did infuriate me is how slow it is to start up (mind you the A9-II isn't great either), how sluggish it was in things like image review and zooming in 1:1 to check focus, and then how many functions are locked whilst writing to the memory card, which at times seemed to take an age. Whilst not perfect the A9-II is much better in this regard and hasn't caused any spike in blood pressure yet ;) I also missed the drive and focus mode dial on the A7RIV, I couldn't go back to a camera without this again now.
Click to expand...

I actually found A7RIV to be fairly good tbh. Have shot BiF, airshows and motor sport with it no problem.
Les still shoots BiF with his and posts plenty of pictures here.
for shooting people especially with fast lenses I'd say its better than D850 also.

but I think A7RIV is a half-baked body. Sony seems to have got it out in a hurry to make sure they still have the highest res body in the market and didn't seem like they were lagging behind competition. But they didn't update the processor or the algorithms much because it still uses the older processor. So its having to deal with more data but with an older slower processor.
 
Tommy, just out of interest as we were talking wedding shots at home recently, what final prduct do people go for these days? We have a small printed album, I don't know what size it is but I think it's a touch smaller than A4 and of course we have those and more pictures on the pc's and tablets etc so I wonder what other people have. Also again just for interest how often would high mp count cameras be needed?
 
f/2.8 said:
Yeah it's definitely not a camera for speed.

Image review and zooming in 1-1 is very snappy for me though, I wonder If card speed makes a difference, I am using super quick cards in mine.
Click to expand...
On the R4 there was a delay viewing 1:1 for me, and writing was slow but I do shoot bursts a lot. This was all shooting uncompressed 14bit raw using 280/250mbs cards
nandbytes said:
I actually found A7RIV to be fairly good tbh. Have shot BiF, airshows and motor sport with it no problem.
Les still shoots BiF with his and posts plenty of pictures here.
for shooting people especially with fast lenses I'd say its better than D850 also.

but I think A7RIV is a half-baked body. Sony seems to have got it out in a hurry to make sure they still have the highest res body in the market and didn't seem like they were lagging behind competition. But they didn't update the processor or the algorithms much because it still uses the older processor. So its having to deal with more data but with an older slower processor.
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Strange that, the D850 rarely missed for me.
 
snerkler said:
On the R4 there was a delay viewing 1:1 for me, and writing was slow but I do shoot bursts a lot. This was all shooting uncompressed 14bit raw using 280/250mbs cards

Strange that, the D850 rarely missed for me.
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I don’t shoot bursts a lot with the A7RIV. Writing isn’t quick but I wouldn’t say it’s slow.

I am using the Kingston cards that are supposed to be the quickest write speed in the A7RIV. No noticeable delay viewing 1:1.
 
nandbytes said:
It wasn't as smooth as using real time tracking with eyeAF for people though.
Especially children that move around a bit and using f1.4 lenses.
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Well eye AF was none existent ;) I guess we all have different experiences and depending on what we shoot will get different results (y)
 
snerkler said:
Well eye AF was none existent ;) I guess we all have different experiences and depending on what we shoot will get different results (y)
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Eye a.f works sort of okay for me. It isn’t as fast or as reliable as the A9.

On a subject that isn’t moving fast it’s pretty much perfect.
 
snerkler said:
Well eye AF was none existent ;) I guess we all have different experiences and depending on what we shoot will get different results (y)
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indeed. A7RII is the body I really enjoyed using in part due to the playmemories apps that let you do majority of things you get on other brands like focus bracketing, live ND, composite exposures, star trails etc.

Sony in their infinite wisdom deprecated it and didn't even think to provide the features :(
 
nandbytes said:
indeed. A7RII is the body I really enjoyed using in part due to the playmemories apps that let you do majority of things you get on other brands like focus bracketing, live ND, composite exposures, star trails etc.

Sony in their infinite wisdom deprecated it and didn't even think to provide the features :(
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I still don't get why Sony continue to omit such features.
 
nandbytes said:
Its not like they need to develop it now since they have already done it in the past!
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Yep, very odd. As I've said before, sweep panorama is one thing I miss. Sure if you want to do it 'properly' you can, but sometimes it's nice just to do a quick no fuss panorama.
 
A new lens or two?

RUMOR: Sony might announce new lens(es) on March 22! | sonyalpharumors

On October 21 Sony announced the latest E-mount product, the new A7IV. Now, nearly five months after we might finally get something new! One usually reliable source told me that: the first release of a new Sony product in 2022 will be on March 22nd. This is coming from one reliable source only...
www.sonyalpharumors.com www.sonyalpharumors.com

Could one be a higher end 28mm? It does seem odd that they haven't done a higher end one yet and all they have is the f2. It's not something I'd be too interested in but on other sites people do seem to want one.
 
woof woof said:
A new lens or two?

RUMOR: Sony might announce new lens(es) on March 22! | sonyalpharumors

On October 21 Sony announced the latest E-mount product, the new A7IV. Now, nearly five months after we might finally get something new! One usually reliable source told me that: the first release of a new Sony product in 2022 will be on March 22nd. This is coming from one reliable source only...
www.sonyalpharumors.com www.sonyalpharumors.com

Could one be a higher end 28mm? It does seem odd that they haven't done a higher end one yet and all they have is the f2. It's not something I'd be too interested in but on other sites people do seem to want one.
Click to expand...

Maybe it’s the 85 f/1.2 wasn’t it supposed to launch first quarter?
 
So we are getting a new wide angle zoom on the 22nd of March.

Meh we already some very good options there.
 
f/2.8 said:
So we are getting a new wide angle zoom on the 22nd of March.

Meh we already some very good options there.
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I'm struggling to know what they could offer here, unless it's just a gen 2 of a previous lens?

It does baffle me why the 50mm f1.8 hasn't been updated yet.
 
snerkler said:
I'm struggling to know what they could offer here, unless it's just a gen 2 of a previous lens?

It does baffle me why the 50mm f1.8 hasn't been updated yet.
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Would like to see that one get a make over as well.

I guess they can’t decide what route to go down with that. Go like Canon with a very cheap and awful lens agai. Or go like Nikon with a decent lens at a higher price.

Not sure why they are doing another wide angle the 16-35 GM is newer than the 24-79 for example. Maybe they are gonna replace the Zeiss 16-35 f/4 which is a much older design.
 
f/2.8 said:
Would like to see that one get a make over as well.

I guess they can’t decide what route to go down with that. Go like Canon with a very cheap and awful lens agai. Or go like Nikon with a decent lens at a higher price.

Not sure why they are doing another wide angle the 16-35 GM is newer than the 24-79 for example. Maybe they are gonna replace the Zeiss 16-35 f/4 which is a much older design.
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If they do update the 50mm I hope it’s not as big as Nikon’s.
 
I wish Sony would look at more interesting lens ranges like canon and to some extent Nikon. A 14-30 or 14-35mm could be interesting instead of yet another 16-35mm.

Also hoping for a 85mm f1.2 and a DO/PF type Tele lens.
 
nandbytes said:
I wish Sony would look at more interesting lens ranges like canon and to some extent Nikon. A 14-30 or 14-35mm could be interesting instead of yet another 16-35mm.

Also hoping for a 85mm f1.2 and a DO/PF type Tele lens.
Click to expand...

I guess maybe an updated Sony 16-35 f/4 might make sense for Sony as they lost a lot of people to the Tamron 17-28 f/2.8.

Who knows maybe they will do something more interesting. Should find out soon enough with the launch only being 12 days away.
 
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nandbytes said:
I wish Sony would look at more interesting lens ranges like canon and to some extent Nikon. A 14-30 or 14-35mm could be interesting instead of yet another 16-35mm.

Also hoping for a 85mm f1.2 and a DO/PF type Tele lens.
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A 16-50mm or even 18-50mm would be a great addition imo.
 
f/2.8 said:
Has there ever been one for a full frame camera?

Not sure that is possible. It would need to be about the size of a 70-200.
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No there hasn’t as far as I’m aware.

Would it need to be that big? The 16-35mm f4 is relatively small, if they did an 18-50mm f4-5.6 I’m not sure it would need to be any bigger as it wouldn’t be as wide, and then a stop slower at the long end? Of course, I’ve never designed a lens so it’s purely guesswork on my behalf ;)
 
Was really sorry to read earlier in another part of the forum that @nandbytes has an infected bag.

Several years ago after a trip to Amsterdam I had the same issue myself thankfully a trip to the doctors for some antibiotics and a cream worked wonders. :)
 
Having been mainly a zoom man since forever, I have splashed out on the 20mm F1.8 and 85mm F1.8
Really nice test results already, from e-infinity about £1000 for both.
The increased ability in low light is actually quite shocking as nearly all my others are f4
I did already have the 28mm F2 though
I know it's another thread but e-infinity have been Ok - but after sending a picture of it ready to be despatched I heard nothing else until they just arrived by Hermes (they are Ok here good local lass)
 
4wd said:
Having been mainly a zoom man since forever, I have splashed out on the 20mm F1.8 and 85mm F1.8
Really nice test results already, from e-infinity about £1000 for both.
The increased ability in low light is actually quite shocking as nearly all my others are f4
I did already have the 28mm F2 though
I know it's another thread but e-infinity have been Ok - but after sending a picture of it ready to be despatched I heard nothing else until they just arrived by Hermes (they are Ok here good local lass)
Click to expand...
I quite fancy the 20mm f1.8 myself.
I have the 85mm f1.8 and it's a great lens for the money....
 
LeeRatters said:
Both really nice lenses for the cost.

I've sent a few old things off to be sold so I'm now at.....

20G
35GM/CV40/1.2
FE85
Tamron 70-180

With the 35 and 70-180 my general kit.
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I still keep hankering after the 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS II but I do wonder if I'll regret swapping the 70-180mm for it as the Tamron is considerably smaller and more portable. The ability to accept TC's is a big pull towards the 70-200mm though :facepalm:
 
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