Have I made a mistake

Damo1

Damo1

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Name
Damion
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Hi all
Almost a year ago I decided to trade my used olympus em5 and a couple of lenses in for a brand new sony A7
And bought 2 contax g lenses at the same time .
Now whilst I adore the sony and the images it produces
I don't feel it fits me very well ,and having looked back through my photo libruary I do miss the handling and the fantastic breadth of uses the mft system had !
Admitadly sdf was tricky and is now easy ( it is a love of mine ) it was possible .
Hhhhmmmm a mistake or gas ??
Any thoughts great fully recieved .
 
Damo1 said:
Hi all
Almost a year ago I decided to trade my used olympus em5 and a couple of lenses in for a brand new sony A7
And bought 2 contax g lenses at the same time .
Now whilst I adore the sony and the images it produces
I don't feel it fits me very well ,and having looked back through my photo libruary I do miss the handling and the fantastic breadth of uses the mft system had !
Admitadly sdf was tricky and is now easy ( it is a love of mine ) it was possible .
Hhhhmmmm a mistake or gas ??
Any thoughts great fully recieved .
Click to expand...

Why doesn't it fit you and what's sdf?

I bought into MFT when the GF1 first came out and it's been a love/hate relationship.

I love the compact size and weight but hate no marking no feel FBW lenses and until I got my GX7 I hated being limited to 1/4000 sec shutter speed with my G1 and having to use ND's in daylight.

I bought an A7 when they first came out intending it to replace my big fat 5D and it's big fat lenses and it's done that and it's also provided an antidote to FBW lenses as I can and do use old manual lenses on my A7 and I'm very happy with it. I'm also reasonably happy with the AF 55mm f1.8 I bought, it's FBW of course but that's just the annoying way of the world these days.

I use my MFT and A7 slightly differently. I mostly use my A7 when I want the luxury of using manual lenses and also when I want the best image quality I can get.

I use my MFT mostly when I want the most compact camera package (other than a compact or phone) and also when I'm going to slightly dodgy places where I don't want to take the A7.

I think you should have a long think about what you want and how you want to use your camera. If you want max image quality or to use manual lenses then maybe the A7 is the way forwards but if you want a slightly more compact system with fast AF then maybe MFT is a better bet, but you'll lose a bit of image quality... but unless you are printing big or shooting at the highest ISO's you might have to look closely to see any differences.

Maybe you could keep the A7 and buy a cheapo MFT setup to compliment it?
 
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twist said:
Ill go with sdf - shallow depth of field
Click to expand...

Ha excellent thank you that's what it meant , to clarify I posted from an iPhone with a severely cracked screen and didn't notice it had auto corrected me
Apologies and thank you for the reply and mild barracking .
 
Damo1 said:
Ha excellent thank you that's what it meant , to clarify I posted from an iPhone with a severely cracked screen and didn't notice it had auto corrected me
Apologies and thank you for the reply and mild barracking .
Click to expand...

If you're bored with A7 shallow DoF adjust the aperture to a smaller one and hey presto... deeper DoF :D This could well come at the cost of a reduced shutter speed and in the past that could well be an issue but these modern cameras have good higher ISO performance so upping the ISO may well fix any deeper DoF related shutter speed issues whilst still giving acceptable image quality :D
 
So reading into this it seems its not that shallow dof is the problem, it seems you're having trouble getting on with the ergonomics and system itself. Are the lenses and autofocus the issue for you?
 
Last edited:
Damo1 said:
Hi all
Almost a year ago I decided to trade my used olympus em5 and a couple of lenses in for a brand new sony A7
And bought 2 contax g lenses at the same time .
Now whilst I adore the sony and the images it produces
I don't feel it fits me very well ,and having looked back through my photo libruary I do miss the handling and the fantastic breadth of uses the mft system had !
Admitadly sdf was tricky and is now easy ( it is a love of mine ) it was possible .
Hhhhmmmm a mistake or gas ??
Any thoughts great fully recieved .
Click to expand...

Did the same, Tried to get over the quirks and irritations of the Sony but in the end they just did my nut in and I did what I should have done in the first place - got a Fuji again!
 
Brought the A7 when it first came out and some Voigtlander lenses, didn't mind MF but it gets abit tiresome at times. Great sensor but never got on with it the camera as a whole.

Jumping back to m4/3 and have an E-M1 on order.
 
As an almost very happy Sony user, what are these quirks and irritations?

Here's mine..
- Fly by wire lenses, but this is common these days and not specifically a Sony issue.
- Having to dive into the menu to turn the back screen on and off.
- Spot meter limitation, a minor irritation for me.
- and that's about it really.
Some people whinge about battery life but it's ok for me, others whinge about the lack of lenses but they are coming, the placement of the shutter button and controls may be an issue for some but it's fine for me, all pretty much minor things really and nothing that'd push me to sell and buy another brand.
And the + points...
- Compact and lightish package.
- Great image quality.
- It's easy to use manual lenses.
- Some really good AF lenses.
- Great in EVF stuff, histograme, magnified view/peaking etc...

What put me off Fuji...
- FBW lenses!!!!
- Potential raw file processing "issues."
- Repeated rumours about quality woes but this may well be internet panic.
- Question marks over AF performance.
- Base ISO of 200? or maybe the ISO's aren't accurate?
- 1/4000 coupled with question marks over ISO.
- The size of the body and lens package seems to be pushing it a bit for me
(bigger than MFT, might as well go for the A7.)
+ points.
- Good looking cameras.
- Good lenses.
- Good controls.
- APS-C = good compromise and maybe the sweet spot for me for hand held shooting.

MFT...
- FBW lenses!!!!!!
- Initial poor EVF performance in very low light, better with later Panasonic cameras.
- 1/4000 shutter speed, better with the GX7.
- Relatively limited dynamic range and higher ISO performance, a bit better with later cameras.
And the +points.
- Compact package.
- Good handling and controls.
- Good lenses and lots of them, sharp wide open.
- Fast and reliable focus.

TBH DoF doesn't really factor into it all that much for me. Back when I moved from a 20D to a 5D I struggled a bit to readjust to fighting for DoF again after over 7 years with APS-C but I became more confident in maintaining shutter speed by upping the ISO and the image quality still seems to be very good. On the shallow DoF end of things MFT is good enough for me as the lenses are good wide open and if I really want shallow DoF I can perhaps get it by altering the framing.

Looking at these three systems I can see plus points for all and maybe nothing that once in would push me completely out of any of these and into one of the others. Instead of dropping one of these I think it would be better if finances allow to run two, for example Sony for ultimate quality and MFT for compact packaging but it could just as happily be Sony for quality and Fuji for the passion or Fuji for quality and MFT for compact packaging.
 
Willo said:
Brought the A7 when it first came out and some Voigtlander lenses, didn't mind MF but it gets abit tiresome at times. Great sensor but never got on with it the camera as a whole.

Jumping back to m4/3 and have an E-M1 on order.
Click to expand...

But why? This is what I don't really get. It's just a camera :D Maybe I adjust to quirks easily :D except FBW :D
 
Willo said:
It's down to personal preference, nothing wrong with the camera I just want things to work a certain way.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's a personal thing but I'm curious as to what makes some people buy an expensive bit of kit and decide they don't like it :D

Similar to cars I suppose... but I'm just asking out of interest.
 
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