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

[Rosedale]

I moved over from Fuji this year - sold a lot of fuji cameras and lenses and decided that I just wanted one camera and one lens. I bought a Sony A7Cii and 28-60 zoom and so far I've been very happy with just that. It captures most of the images I want and is easy to carry around. So, yes I use just a standard kit zoom. I'm used to film cameras and to be honest, I just don't want many of the bells and whistles of modern digital cameras. However, I agree that the A7Cii floppy screen is irritating and wish it was just a normal up/down sscreen

 

[pmac]

All the other reviews I watched (not many granted) only use Sony lenses.
I like Kai if for no other reason he isn't afraid to say what he thinks. You can tell so many of the others are just yes men. Not a camera I'm slightly interested in as a camera but the sensors of the standards A7 range trickle down into the C range so this might be the Ciii eventually.
Increased DR and improvements to the IBIS are nice to have. I feel like I'm in the minority where I really don't care about the EVF and screen image quality as long as they're good enough to frame the shot I'm happy. I don't use the camera very often so millions of buttons just means I forget what more of them do.

He is one of my favourite for this reason also, may not be the best technical reviewer but is always funny and doesn’t hold back.

 

[snerkler]

He is one of my favourite for this reason also, may not be the best technical reviewer but is always funny and doesn’t hold back.

He can be funny sometimes. I think I'm getting old and grumpy though as I find most reviewers annoying these days, even those I used to like

 

[LeeRatters]

He can be funny sometimes. I think I'm getting old and grumpy though as I find most reviewers annoying these days, even those I used to like

As a general comment, I don't tend to watch much in the way of review stuff tbh Certainly not sat at a desk talking about it. I might be tempted with the occasional lens or body 'review' if it has a location in the title ie "I took the new A7r? to Italy" or something.

 

[f/1.2]

He can be funny sometimes. I think I'm getting old and grumpy though as I find most reviewers annoying these days, even those I used to like

I found out donkeys years ago that all of them are pretty much useless. I can see why people watch them to be fair but for me they all regurgitate the same nonsense. Their is no in depth technical analysis at all and they all pretty much say the same thing. They very rarely say anything negative and when they do its always with a caveat.

I have mentioned this on here before but many years ago I knew a guy who was a Fuji X photographer. I knew him before all of that we live in the same town. He was very popular at the time and I would run into him regularly when I was out working. I bumped into him one time while shooting a wedding and chatted to him for a few minutes while he was out testing a pre production Fuji. I put somewhere online might have been twitter, that I had ran into him while he was out testing some fuji gear and even though I didn't mention that it was an unreleased model (I can't remember but i think it may have been the O.G X100) he got into so much trouble from them and asked me to remove it. He told me himself many times that while his website and social media content was only about Fuji, as that was his agreement with them. For anything he shot for himself he used his Canon gear. He shot a lot of gig photography and at the time Fuji was just pants for that. Over the years he built up a good sized following. It all came to ahead with one Fuji model I can't remember which, but it wasn't good at all and he couldn't just be 100% percent positive about it. He downplayed all of the issues with the camera and only really mentioned one in his review. Fuji came down hard on him threatened to pull his Fuji X status etc. In the end he decided he was fed up with it and told them to stick it and he deleted his blog etc. In return for the reviews he was doing, Fuji paid all of his online costs for his website and adverts etc. on social media. They provided him with every new camera, lens and accessory free of charge, and paid him "expenses" to travel to locations to test. I can clearly remember other Fuji X photographers saying at the time that they received nothing from Fuji, complete nonsense.

While I have never been contacted by any of the big players, I have over the years been contacted by Neewer, Meike and a few of the other non entity brands asking me to review equipment in exchange for free gear and with some, a payment as well. I don't even have that many followers on social media just over 20k on instagram, 10k on Facebook so small potatoes. While it was tempting some wanted me to do talking head videos etc. which i would never be comfortable with. Also I am not the sort of person that could just outright lie or bend the truth just to get a free cheap lens. I don't trust any of the reviewers at all. I would never buy something based on a review on YouTube etc. A few years back a Chinese lighting company contacted us and wanted us to review an RGB LED light, I said no but they sent us one anyway and then took a massive hump when I wouldn't provide a review.

 

[woof woof]

I just can not imagine selling my integrity so cheaply. Just goes to show how little some people have.

I like reviews as there are no camera shops within easy distance so good ones are a source of information. I do find though that they very often miss the more basic information I'd like which if provided could save me a wasted day.

 

[woof woof]

I moved over from Fuji this year - sold a lot of fuji cameras and lenses and decided that I just wanted one camera and one lens. I bought a Sony A7Cii and 28-60 zoom and so far I've been very happy with just that. It captures most of the images I want and is easy to carry around. So, yes I use just a standard kit zoom. I'm used to film cameras and to be honest, I just don't want many of the bells and whistles of modern digital cameras. However, I agree that the A7Cii floppy screen is irritating and wish it was just a normal up/down sscreen

I keep trying to manage with a zoom but I think I've got stuck in a groove.

 

[pmac]

I just can not imagine selling my integrity so cheaply. Just goes to show how little some people have.

I like reviews as there are no camera shops within easy distance so good ones are a source of information. I do find though that they very often miss the more basic information I'd like which if provided could save me a wasted day.

That’s just the social media life now, they are now all selling worse than their integrity

The two I prefer to watch are Gerald for the actual technical stuff and I do like Pierre T lambert. Though not really reviews he just goes out and shoots a lot of street stuff using the gear.

 

[woof woof]

That’s just the social media life now, they are now all selling worse than their integrity

The two I prefer to watch are Gerald for the actual technical stuff and I do like Pierre T lambert. Though not really reviews he just goes out and shoots a lot of street stuff using the gear.

I like Gerald and Manny too but I often find that it's the little things that matter to me that aren't covered.

I do like the reviews on Phillip Reeve but my confidence in them was shaken by their reviews of some lenes which I've had which clearly had significant issues which they failed to identify including the Artralabs and their fantasy aperture markings. How anyone can "review" kit like that and not mention serious issues is beyond me unless of course they happy to take the money and keep their mouths shut.

 

[xibinim]

just got my wife to check the Chinese retailer she uses . 17000 yen/£1700
as expected shockingly over priced here

Any details ?

I'm on a A7iii, still got plenty of years left in it but I definitely have the upgrade itch.

 

[woof woof]

A while back there were stories about foreign bought cameras not having an English language option. Does that still happen?

 

[xibinim]

Under £2k on grey far more reasonable and tempting, let's hope it will come true.

 

[pmac]

Under £2k on grey far more reasonable and tempting, let's hope it will come true.

Sry that price was slightly wrong, it was £1955 roughly, I was using the older exchange.
its also mainland china using the Jing dong (JD) app which is only in Chinese and you need Chinese payment methods.. though they do ship to the UK.
cotswold are £2240 which will have a warranty

 

[nandbytes]

He can be funny sometimes. I think I'm getting old and grumpy though as I find most reviewers annoying these days, even those I used to like

Same here, I have mostly stopped watching camera reviews.
I haven't watched many even for A7V, the only one I have watched fully is the petapixel one.

I still watch the lens reviews for ones I am interested in. I like Sigma lenses in general these days. Even ones I wouldn't buy like 200mm f2.
But I am mostly watching reviews to see some samples more than sharpness tests.

 

[xibinim]

Sry that price was slightly wrong, it was £1955 roughly, I was using the older exchange.
its also mainland china using the Jing dong (JD) app which is only in Chinese and you need Chinese payment methods.. though they do ship to the UK.
cotswold are £2240 which will have a warranty

Thank you. Think the £250 more would be worth it for peace of mind, less faff. Selling my A7iii could then drop it to £1600-£1750. The temptation meter is sky high.

 

[snerkler]

I just can not imagine selling my integrity so cheaply. Just goes to show how little some people have.

I like reviews as there are no camera shops within easy distance so good ones are a source of information. I do find though that they very often miss the more basic information I'd like which if provided could save me a wasted day.

I always say that I wouldn't sell my integrity but I guess it depends on how much and to what extent you're losing your integrity. For example I dabble in producing music and I'd sell myself to the devil and produce Gangnam Style 2 if it made me millions

I like Gerald and Manny too but I often find that it's the little things that matter to me that aren't covered.

I do like the reviews on Phillip Reeve but my confidence in them was shaken by their reviews of some lenes which I've had which clearly had significant issues which they failed to identify including the Artralabs and their fantasy aperture markings. How anyone can "review" kit like that and not mention serious issues is beyond me unless of course they happy to take the money and keep their mouths shut.

I've really gone off Manny tbh, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is but he comes across overly sincere to the point it feels false if that makes sense.

Same here, I have mostly stopped watching camera reviews.
I haven't watched many even for A7V, the only one I have watched fully is the petapixel one.

I still watch the lens reviews for ones I am interested in. I like Sigma lenses in general these days. Even ones I wouldn't buy like 200mm f2.
But I am mostly watching reviews to see some samples more than sharpness tests.

The petapixle ones are some of the better ones to be fair, and I don't mind listening to him.

 

[nandbytes]

I've really gone off Manny tbh, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is but he comes across overly sincere to the point it feels false if that makes sense.

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

 

[snerkler]

I wonder when we'll hear about the new 100-400mm's. It's a shame that the variable aperture version is predicted to be a G lens rather than GM lens, seems a step backwards.

 

[pmac]

I wonder when we'll hear about the new 100-400mm's. It's a shame that the variable aperture version is predicted to be a G lens rather than GM lens, seems a step backwards.

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

 

[f/1.2]

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

Wouldn't be too sure about that.

 

[woof woof]

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

Models? Meh.

I may be wrong but I like him and he has had issues and is trying to deal with them.

 

[snerkler]

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

Some do in terms of sharpness (I've never seen any surpass), however the GM's have better more reliable AF (from my experience), better coatings and more pleasing bokeh. The 100-400mm GM was around £2300 at launch IIRC, I'm guessing the 100-400mm f4 GM will be £5k minimum meaning a 100-400mm f4-5.6 GM II would be a viable cheaper alternative imo.

Of course the original 100-400mm still stands up well so maybe Sony don't feel that they can upgrade it enough to warrant bringing a new one out and so looking at a more budget friendly version. I'd love a 100-400mm with the form factor of the 70-200mm f2.8 GM II but I think that's pie in the sky stuff

 

[xibinim]

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

Hahaha that thumbnail is insane, definitely knew what he was doing.

 

[LeeRatters]

24GM vertical panorama


*** by Lee, on Flickr

 

[addicknchips]

Morning. I think I recall reading here at some point about af issues with the a7r4 paired to the 200-600? If so, is this still the case, or have there been any FW updates to fix it? TIA

 

[nandbytes]

Morning. I think I recall reading here at some point about af issues with the a7r4 paired to the 200-600? If so, is this still the case, or have there been any FW updates to fix it? TIA

yeah this was long time ago, i am sure if it was ever proven, at least when i owned the combination the exact nature of the issue was inconclusive.
I had two A7Riv bodies in tandem (and been through 3 of them in total). they all performed/behaved in the same way.

 

[noneforit]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

 

[LeeRatters]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

The 20G is a lovely lens

 

[pmac]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

It’s a stellar lens. You won’t be disappointed.
I bought it due having the 28-75 also

 

[pmac]

How does pre capture actually work?
Does it eat into the fps/ buffer?
If with the a7v I have it set at 30fps pre capture does that mean I only get the remaining 2/3rds of a second at 30fps before it slows to 10fps(25 shots if the buffer is 55 raw)
Or is this not included in the 30fps/ buffer count?

 

[snerkler]

How does pre capture actually work?
Does it eat into the fps/ buffer?
If with the a7v I have it set at 30fps pre capture does that mean I only get the remaining 2/3rds of a second at 30fps before it slows to 10fps(25 shots if the buffer is 55 raw)
Or is this not included in the 30fps/ buffer count?

That's a very good question, and not something I've thought about. Pre-capture does use the buffer so I can only assume that using pre-capture will reduce the time you can shoot at 30fps before the buffer fills. My understanding is that the A7V can shoot 30-35 frames at 30fps before the buffer fills. This would suggest that if you set precapture to 1s you've already filled the buffer and so it would shoot at the slower frame rate straight away. Seems a bit daft to me

Edit: There seems to be a lot of conflicting info online regarding the number of shots before the buffer fills, however the majority say 30-35 frames with lossless compressed and around 95 with compressed raw. That's really interesting as the A1 can only shoot 30fps with compressed raw, if you use lossless compressed or uncompressed it drops to 20fps.

If I had the A7V and wanted to use 30fps I'd use compressed raw so you can get around 95 shots, so 30 precapture and 65 'normal'.

Edit 2: Even the A1 II can only shoot compressed raw at 30fps. I'm guessing the extra megapixels is the main culprit because the the A9 III can shoot lossless at 30fps, and I believe even at 120fps.

 

[pmac]

That's a very good question, and not something I've thought about. Pre-capture does use the buffer so I can only assume that using pre-capture will reduce the time you can shoot at 30fps before the buffer fills. My understanding is that the A7V can shoot 30-35 frames at 30fps before the buffer fills. This would suggest that if you set precapture to 1s you've already filled the buffer and so it would shoot at the slower frame rate straight away. Seems a bit daft to me

Edit: There seems to be a lot of conflicting info online regarding the number of shots before the buffer fills, however the majority say 30-35 frames with lossless compressed and around 95 with compressed raw. That's really interesting as the A1 can only shoot 30fps with compressed raw, if you use lossless compressed or uncompressed it drops to 20fps.

If I had the A7V and wanted to use 30fps I'd use compressed raw so you can get around 95 shots, so 30 precapture and 65 'normal'.

Yeah that’s what confused me . I wasn’t sure if that was most the buffer used already just on pre capture.
It is 35 frames also not 55, I did think I had read and said before 1.1sec continuous so that would be it pretty much used up before even taking a shot and then your at 10fps until the buffer clears. Seems kind of pointless in a way.
Is it Also locked at 10fps for third party or slightly higher?

 

[snerkler]

Yeah that’s what confused me . I wasn’t sure if that was most the buffer used already just on pre capture.
It is 35 frames also not 55, I did think I had read and said before 1.1sec continuous so that would be it pretty much used up before even taking a shot and then your at 10fps until the buffer clears. Seems kind of pointless in a way.
Is it Also locked at 10fps for third party or slightly higher?

It does seem pointless using pre-capture if you want to shoot at 30fps lossless, but as I said I'd use compressed anyway. I experimented with the A1 between lossless compressed and compressed for motorsports and wildlife and I couldn't see any difference in all honesty. Maybe if you completely messed up the exposure you'd be able to recover it better with lossless, but with an EVF you shouldn't be getting the expsure that wrong You do see a tiny difference between the two when shooting high DR landscapes though.

I would imagine 3rd party lenses are restricted to 15fps like they are on the other Sony bodies.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

 

[trevorbray]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

That’d be my thought. It’d always be saving the time you’ve programmed for.

 

[snerkler]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

But then you won't get the precatpure images so what's the point of having precapture in the first place?

 

[snerkler]

That’d be my thought. It’d always be saving the time you’ve programmed for.

As I understand things it only keeps them in the buffer, they're not written to the card until you press the shutter which means that at 30fps lossless compressed the buffer would already be full at the time of pressing the shutter

 

[snerkler]

I've sent the following question to Sony, I'll update when I get a reply.

"I have a question regarding the pre-capture, buffer and frames per second.

As I understand it the A7V can shoot lossless compressed raw at 30fps, and in this setting you will get approximately 1 second (30 frames) worth of shooting before the buffer is full and the frame rate slows.

If I set precapture to 1 second at 30fps in lossless raw I assume this would mean that the buffer is full as soon as I press the shutter button and so you will immediately get a slower frame rate, is this correct please?"

 

[snerkler]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

 

[nandbytes]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I don't read it as such at all.
Sony is ahead in most aspects apart from video which it isn't bad but it just doesn't shoot RAW. But canon supposedly overheats doing it.

With Sony you have full 14-bit RAW, better image quality, better pre-burst, you can use matched SD cards.

The battery ratings are CIPA rating and it's accurate to CIPA standards.

But I do wish they'd upgrade that mechanical shutter from last decade to shoot more than 10fps.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

Lower demand higher price.