Is an upgrade going to be worth it ?

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Andrew
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Hi all, I’m new here.

Some questions I guess you have all seen all too often. I’ve got a Sony A350? from way back, I’m looking at a possible upgrade for mainly product photography along with macro. My questions are : 1) would I notice an improvement between say the Sony 6600 or 6500 over my A350? What camera is recommended for high quality product photo and also maybe some vlogging on the side ?

Any thoughts would be gratefully received
 
Hi all, I’m new here.

Some questions I guess you have all seen all too often. I’ve got a Sony A350? from way back, I’m looking at a possible upgrade for mainly product photography along with macro. My questions are : 1) would I notice an improvement between say the Sony 6600 or 6500 over my A350? What camera is recommended for high quality product photo and also maybe some vlogging on the side ?

Any thoughts would be gratefully received


Depends on your budget fella- I have a Sony a7Riii and a Sony a7Riv both very capable camera's - if you upgrade from an ancient Sony A mount @14.2mp to a newer e mount, with a larger sensor like 42.4mp etc, you will notice the difference in image quality- also get a decent Macro lens - I use a Sigma 105mm f2.8 and get shots like this one

rSuHrKV.jpg




Les :)
 
I'm not a Sony shooter but your camera came out around 2008, thats 12 years ago, cameras have improved a lot in that time, the 6500 and 6600 are I think both around the 24mp mark and probably way better in low light.
The a350 is from memory around the same age as the one you have so personally I'd not bother with that one.
 
Thanks so far guys! Love the ant image Lez. I think my budget is around the £1k ish for the body then lenses. I would really like to go for the a7riii but my budget won’t stretch that far.
 
Generally product photography is much more about the lighting than the camera. What do you do with the photos, print. web? Unless you are printing very large the resolution of an riii is mainly going to be wasted and you might was well go for an A7iii at most. If you are not heavily invested in Sony lenses etc. you might get a lot more for your money on the second hand market from one of the other brands.
 
I suppose it really comes down to why you want/need to upgrade and what you can afford. If you're a pro, it's a business decision. If you're an amateur, it's more of a personal decision.

Wayne Clarke pointed out that cameras have come a long way in the last 12 years. That's very true, but I'm still using my 30D which came on the market about the same time. It does everything I want and expect from a camera, and I've no desire to replace or upgrade it. Others will have completely different opinions about this.
 
The A350 is now very dated, in camera terms, so you should certainly see an improvement by upgrading to a current model.

The Sony A6xxx range is the current equivalent to the A200/300/350, however they are not quite a direct replacement as Sony have changed both the lens mount and the hot shoe.

You can get adaptors for both - but it does depend on what lenses or flash you have as to the viability of doing so, as working via adaptors is never as good as native.
As Chris (sirch) mentioned, lighting is potentially important, so you may find going for a cheaper camera (EG the Sony A6400, which is currently £699 new) and use the extra £300 towards lighting.

What lenses do you have for the A350, and what sort of product photography and macro are you thinking of (EG Sports Cars and Dragonflies will have different needs to Jewelry and Watches)?
 
I’m more into the small crawly things really like greenfly, bees, flowers etc. The product photography is for my own website and I don’t want to be ‘left behind’ with other sites having photos with newer rigs. I already have got a mediocre ‘studio lighting’ rig that’s always been fine. Thanks again for all the advice
 
Hmm, I normally use my 8yr old 14MP 1" sensor camera (Nikon1) for most macro/product photography. Usually attached to a Sigma 150mm macro. Lighting is used for both situations when needed/beneficial.
I almost never use my D850 for that kind of work... technically, I could probably do better with it; but it would be a lot more work (focus stacking) and involve much larger files... which I just don't need.


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