Canna decide Sony a7 of Fuji X-T1 - any one had both?

[jondc]

So I sold my a6000 as I was struggling with the lack of on body controls.

I have got used to my LX100 and like being able to change the aperture and shutter speed easily. ISO access is a single menu button away, so no real hardship. I found on the a6000, having to use the D-Pad I was often entering into a menu I did not want and did not find adjusting settings the most fluent.

The other thing I like about the LX100 is being able to have the histogram on screen whilst adjusting exposure manually and also the vertical and horizontal level. The video is a bonus but not what I use it for, so does not come into the equation.

I have played with an a7 body and it has more direct access than the a6000 and seems fine but have also been considering the X-T1. The store did not have an X-T1, so I had a play with the X-T10, the menus seemed a little harder to figure and did not overly gel with it but the X-T1 is meant to have on body access to all controls.

I keep going Sony (for Full Frame) then Fuji for on body controls and (when just snapping) JPEG SOOC.

So any advise welcome.

Which has best view finder for manual use (lens, focus and exposure)?
Which has the best Dynamic Range?
Which is best handled by LR5 for RAW (I found a6000 needed a lot of PP work from RAW, lens distortion, noise ect).
Which has best JPEG SOOC (for lazy days)

I can get
new a7, with 28-70mm lens, for £750 after cash back with 2 years warranty
or
Fuji X-T1 refurbished, with a 18-135mm lens, for £850 1 year warranty

So nothing in it really.

I have been waiting for used to come up and thought which ever came first (with lens) and priced right I would go for, leaving me a bit more for another lens.

Ramble over, any body had both and which one did you keep and why?

 

[jondc]

Oh, main interests. I like architecture photography but mainly its family, days out and holidays.

 

[jondc]

Oh and Capture 1 for Sony seems cheaper.... whats the take on that?

Thanks in advance for any help, hints, tips and or advice

 

[jondc]

Just noticed, posted in wrong forum section sorry. Will see if Admin can relocate it :embarrassed:

 

[Nawty]

Go and pick them up, I used to get GAS for an XT1 / 2 all the time but then I'd go and handle one. and was immediately cured - they felt like archaic toys to me (especially the XT1).

Obviously others view this differently but the feel of the Fuji I reckon is love or hate and not something you can judge on specs or the word of others.

 

[jondc]

Go and pick them up, I used to get GAS for an XT1 / 2 all the time but then I'd go and handle one. and was immediately cured - they felt like archaic toys to me (especially the XT1).

Obviously others view this differently but the feel of the Fuji I reckon is love or hate and not something you can judge on specs or the word of others.

Thanks for the response, its not just the handling but the living with it, the images produced and the cameras interactions with PP software. I did find I did not gel with the X-T10 when handled in the shop but that could be just familiarity with the menus. I had slightly got used to the Sony's.

 

[Nawty]

Thanks for the response, its not just the handling but the living with it, the images produced and the cameras interactions with PP software. I did find I did not gel with the X-T10 when handled in the shop but that could be just familiarity with the menus. I had slightly got used to the Sony's.

For me those other things are secondary, if you don't gel with a camera you are unlikely to take good shots with it as you simply won't use it. Switching from Nikon I found Fuji to be incomprehensible yet the supposed terrible menus of Olympus were easy for me to navigate and now I'm 100% Oly.

Fuji cameras are reported to not work well with Lightroom (some are happy and some swear blind it's unusable boarding criminal) and I would definitely check that the A7 and XT1 / 2 are supported by LR5 as there's a good chance they aren't.

 

[AJQS]

I had A7R and X-T1. I now have 2 X-T1s.

To answer your question: EVF is about the same between each, both are nice and large (compared to the X-T10 which you've tried the T1 will be much, much nicer). I think focus peaking was better on the Sony, if you use that (I prefer the magnified view on the T1)

Dynamic Range: Not much in it. I feel the Fuji is slightly better, the A7 might be better than the A7R though so may be by extension better than the X-T1 slightly.

Raw: Well Both are slow in LR5, Fuji a bit faster but then you have the well known Fuji worms issue, which is basically that LR doesn't do sharpening very well on Fuji Raw files. It's not really an issue if you get the focus nailed and zero camera shake etc, it mostly affects slightly OOF areas, so as long as you have critical sharpness sorted, you'll have nothing to worry about (it is also at a pixel peeping level as well). A7R was very good for pixel peeping though! More importantly, colour etc is much better handled by Fuji. Much less work required vs Sony, which thinks grass is highlighter pen yellow for starters.

JPEGS: Fuji wins hands down. In fact it beats any other camera on the market for JPEG engine (well except maybe the old Fuji S3, that had better colour). Make sure you have the Lens modulation optimizer enabled and you will have jpegs of sharpness and detail unattainable in LR from the raws.


The main area the Fuji wins is in handling. The A7R is slow and clunky to use - especially that stupid little recessed function button between the screen and viewfinder, the stupid scroll wheel come d pad that always does the opposite of what you intended. The T1 is slightly hampered with it's external controls in that you can't necessarily fiddle with them one handed whilst keeping an eye to the finder, but at the same time there is no awkward menu to go through either.

In the hand you may prefer the grip on the Sony, but equally you may value the smaller height of the X-T1 and much more compact lenses. There is a lot to consider, but for me I wouldn't get another Sony camera, my A7R was pre ordered and on paper should have been everything I wanted, turned out what I actually needed was an X-T1.

 

[GTG]

Never tried the Sony so cant compare but had a Fuji x-t1 for a while.

The thing that really impresses me about Fuji is the bokeh on their prime lenses.

It has a very dreamy pleasant quality for lack of other words, and the first picture I had with a very affordable 35mm f2
I was quite stunned how much nicer it was than the Nikon and Canon lenses that I have owned over the years.

The menu I do find a bit annoying and it has some quirks.

Auto WB is also noticeably better than Canon and Nikons to my eye.

The main advantage of the Sony is the sensor in low light will really wipe the floor with the Fuji, there is no denying that, it is a full frame

 

[AJQS]

The main advantage of the Sony is the sensor in low light will really wipe the floor with the Fuji, there is no denying that, it is a full frame

A7S maybe, the A7R certainly doesn't.

 

[GTG]

A7S maybe, the A7R certainly doesn't.

There is one just A7. I thought he was talking about that one to be honest. It scores almost 2500 on dxo mark iso test. I would estimate the x-t1 would score around 1200 or less.

I know that test is not the be all and end all but I find it holds true to some degree

 

[jondc]

Thanks for the response guys, leaning towards the Fuji but no longer available in the Fuji refurb store with 18-135mm lens.

 

[AJQS]

Nothing wrong with the 18-55 or even the 16-50, although the latter feels like a toy it delivers excellent results. The 18-135mm is good, but does lack a little something compared to the shorter lenses (as you'd expect)