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

si019 said:
How does the a7sii compare for low light focusing?
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I think the A7S II is the low light king in terms of ISO/DR but more geared towards video usage with only a 12mp sensor, I don't think the AF is as good as the A7RII as it uses a contrast based AF system but surely it can't be that bad.
 
Nuzik said:
You mentioned it's useless in lowlight, is that because it's mirrorless and they all seem to struggle when it's somewhat darker? Do you push the ISO? I've not used one so I'm just wondering
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gadgeteer said:
Hi all. Has anyone been using the A9 for weddings? I recently got the A7r2 with a few primes to dip my toe so to speak. Overall I'm loving it but obviously there are a few drawbacks which the A9 fixes many of.

However, one area I am particularly keen to know is what the AF is like in the dark? At the moment the A7r2 is practically useless once the light is low. So for situations like night portraits or first dances, I can't really use it.
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About useless Sony A7R II in low light:

I have Sony A7R II since last April.
Bought and used around 30 lenses with it.
Only one native Sony FE lens. All the others are adapted Canon EF, vintage and one Sigma 60mm F/2.8 (Sony E mount).

With Sony FE 55mm F/1.8 almost never struggle to achieve focus. It is amazing lens for the system (even that I still have mixed feelings about the lens and considering to put it for sale here)
For example (here it achieved the focus straight away)
F 1/.8
1/30
ISO 25600
Trip to Bulgaria 14-23 March 2017 by Kalin Kalpachev, on Flickr


This is a Bus, moving towards me (slow speed) in the night. I am shooting through a glass on a double decker during the night with Sony A7R II + Sigma MC-11 + Canon EF 50mm F/1.4 (AF-C, center):
London by night by Kalin Kalpachev, on Flickr


Of course if you have moving subjects in a very low light you will struggle with lots of cameras, not only with the Sony.

With adapted lens (canon EF lenses) in a dim light situations - sometimes it struggle a bit and the focus hunts, but most of the times you can achieve a good portrait.

Hope this helps a bit.

Regards,
Kalin
 
My old Sigma lens is going off for repair and I miss it already. I hope it can be fixed, it's my most used manual lens by far and I've taken thousands of pictures with it in the years we've been together.

Fingers crossed and come bac to me soon darling :hug:
 
gadgeteer said:
I tried it with the 55mm for the first dance briefly on Saturday and gave up quickly. I then tried it again for when people were dancing and it just doesn't lock quickly enough compared with my D750's. As it's plodding along to acquire focus, people have moved.
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Not on my A7r2 and 55mm. The issue i have is only in studio when shooting above f5.6
 
I shot in low light with my 50mm f1.4 and another day with the 50mm f1.2 manual lenses and focus peaking and when looking at the results my hit rate was pretty good with only a couple of shots where focus could have been better but for a whole image viewed normally all were fine. The f1.2 is a bit dreamy, a lot actually, compared to the f1.4 but still ok. But... no one was paying me :D

Is manual focus an option?
 
chrism_scotland said:
Anyone using an adapted superzoom with an A7rii? Thinking Sigma or Tamron 150-600 type really?
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Had previously tried the tamron with mixed results with 2 different metabones adapters. First one struggled but the 2nd seemed a little better. Obviously huge lenses that are made even bigger with the adapter.
 
addicknchips said:
Had previously tried the tamron with mixed results with 2 different metabones adapters. First one struggled but the 2nd seemed a little better. Obviously huge lenses that are made even bigger with the adapter.
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Cheers Jon, not too concerned about size or even AF performance that much, thinking about some shot ideas for later in the summer and had fun with a superzoom last year, seem relatively cheap used these days.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Cheers Jon, not too concerned about size or even AF performance that much, thinking about some shot ideas for later in the summer and had fun with a superzoom last year, seem relatively cheap used these days.
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I just used it for casual stuff - but if wildlife really. Actually managed to nail a bird in flight!

The lens has quite a big focus ring if memory serves, so I found using manual focus with peaking and then pressing the shutter half way would help the af system acquire focus.

I was a big fan of the tamron lens and loved it with my d810. Preferred the button layout to that of the sigma. Cropped the hell out of one shot at the zoo and could literally see the rough of he tigers tongue.
 
addicknchips said:
I just used it for casual stuff - but if wildlife really. Actually managed to nail a bird in flight!

The lens has quite a big focus ring if memory serves, so I found using manual focus with peaking and then pressing the shutter half way would help the af system acquire focus.

I was a big fan of the tamron lens and loved it with my d810. Preferred the button layout to that of the sigma. Cropped the hell out of one shot at the zoo and could literally see the rough of he tigers tongue.
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Preferred the Tamron myself when I tried it on a Nikon, although did think the Sigma "might" be more compatible now with their own MC-11 adapter..
 
Nuzik said:
This guy says it's fine for low light https://shotkit.com/wedding-photography-camera-gear/ I'm so lost
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"fine for low light" - that's a bit of a swooping statement based on this...

"it also has a back-illuminated 42.4 mega pixel CMOS sensor and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation – an incredibly useful feature for those wedding photographers wanting to shoot handheld at the lowest possible ISOs in low light… i.e. all of us!"

Makes no comment of the autofocus abilities in low light, just that stablisation allows you to use low shutter speeds hand held, which will help keep the ISO low.

And besides, Image stabalisation is no replacement for ISO handling when it comes to moving subjects.
 
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dancook said:
"fine for low light" - that's a bit of a swooping statement based on this...

"it also has a back-illuminated 42.4 mega pixel CMOS sensor and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation – an incredibly useful feature for those wedding photographers wanting to shoot handheld at the lowest possible ISOs in low light… i.e. all of us!"

Makes no comment of the autofocus abilities in low light, just that stablisation allows you to use low shutter speeds hand held, which will help keep the ISO low.

And besides, Image stabalisation is no replacement for ISO handling when it comes to moving subjects.
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I don't want to shoot weddings. But that aside is this similar to the issues whether exergated or not from what you found with the SL?
 
gadgeteer said:
I tried it with the 55mm for the first dance briefly on Saturday and gave up quickly. I then tried it again for when people were dancing and it just doesn't lock quickly enough compared with my D750's. As it's plodding along to acquire focus, people have moved.
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The SL is contrast detection and the 50SL is a little slower to focus than the other lenses. So dancing was certainly a tricky one for me to keep up with.

I found using the wide area focusing (as oppose to single point) gave me a pretty good chance to lock onto something with more contrast like clothes - then stopped down to f2 for a little more DOF than 1.4, this worked pretty well on Saturday.
 
dancook said:
"fine for low light" - that's a bit of a swooping statement based on this...

"it also has a back-illuminated 42.4 mega pixel CMOS sensor and 5-axis in-body image stabilisation – an incredibly useful feature for those wedding photographers wanting to shoot handheld at the lowest possible ISOs in low light… i.e. all of us!"

Makes no comment of the autofocus abilities in low light, just that stablisation allows you to use low shutter speeds hand held, which will help keep the ISO low.

And besides, Image stabalisation is no replacement for ISO handling when it comes to moving subjects.
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This is something that phases me a bit with IS. I suppose taking perfect pictures at 1/6 sec is impressive but much of the world moves. I suppose all else being equal it's better to have IS than not but for me it's not a great attraction or a deal breaker and I don't think having IS or not would influence / change my buying. I'm not all that bothered about IS. Just my 2p. :D
 
Nuzik said:
I don't want to shoot weddings. But that aside is this similar to the issues whether exergated or not from what you found with the SL?
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I was just pointing out your summary was inaccurate and misleading.

The SL being contrast detection only will suffer where contrast is lacking.
 
woof woof said:
This is something that phases me a bit with IS. I suppose taking perfect pictures at 1/6 sec is impressive but much of the world moves. I suppose all else being equal it's better to have IS than not but for me it's not a great attraction or a deal breaker and I don't think having IS or not would influence / change my buying. I'm not all that bothered about IS. Just my 2p. :D
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Night shots of buildings, hand held motion blur arty shots, or taming 200mm+ lenses (which tend to have it in built) - but yes IOS is not magic, and most of my subjects move

I'd still shoot 1/250th min, most of the time - with IOS
 
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Nuzik said:
I don't want to shoot weddings. But that aside is this similar to the issues whether exergated or not from what you found with the SL?
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Wondering why you sold your Nikon before considering the strengths and weaknesses of your next system?
 
twist said:
Wondering why you sold your Nikon before considering the strengths and weaknesses of your next system?
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Wonders why you ask when I have read 4000000 million articles read posts and seems every f***ed in the world has an expert opinion.

And because I paid £1350 for a a7r2 and will get my money back easily. And ain't nothing like a full road test in the hands for a week or two than reading stuff.

I didn't use the Nikon so was sold for that reason. I still have some Nikon glass.
I fancied a sleeker body, I did look at the Leica M but ruled it out over my inability to manually focus. Didn't want the Xt2 as I just didn't like it. But I wanted mirrorless and let's be honest the a9 is what I wanted but I would be killed hung, balls cut off and stuffed down my throat if I went and bought that. ;)
 
Nuzik said:
Wonders why you ask when I have read 4000000 million articles read posts and seems every f***ed in the world has an expert opinion.

And because I paid £1350 for a a7r2 and will get my money back easily. And ain't nothing like a full road test in the hands for a week or two than reading stuff.

I didn't use the Nikon so was sold for that reason. I still have some Nikon glass.
I fancied a sleeker body, I did look at the Leica M but ruled it out over my inability to manually focus. Didn't want the Xt2 as I just didn't like it. But I wanted mirrorless and let's be honest the a9 is what I wanted but I would be killed hung, balls cut off and stuffed down my throat if I went and bought that. ;)
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That's true, partly the issue with Sony, they are really marketing the crap out of their cameras so solid info is hard to come by. Lots of self proclaimed pros and paid bloggers saying it's the b*****ks, regular faces talk more about the pitfalls though.

Agreed, get out there and use it instead of wondering. Are you just waiting for a lens or something?

Same here, want A9 but it's to much for a camera that realistically is not going to deliver much improvement to my end results.

A7rii for that money is a no brainer where the hell did you get it?
 
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twist said:
That's true, partly the issue with Sony, they are really marketing the crap out of their cameras so solid info is hard to come by. Lots of self proclaimed pros and paid bloggers saying it's the b*****ks, regular faces talk more about the pitfalls though.

Agreed, get out there and use it instead of wondering. Are you just waiting for a lens or something?

Same here, want A9 but it's to much for a camera that realistically is not going to deliver much improvement to my end results.
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It's 3.4k in digital rev apparently. Bargain. Same price as a 5d4
 
twist said:
That's true, partly the issue with Sony, they are really marketing the crap out of their cameras so solid info is hard to come by. Lots of self proclaimed pros and paid bloggers saying it's the b*****ks, regular faces talk more about the pitfalls though.

Agreed, get out there and use it instead of wondering. Are you just waiting for a lens or something?

Same here, want A9 but it's to much for a camera that realistically is not going to deliver much improvement to my end results.

A7rii for that money is a no brainer where the hell did you get it?
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Facebook someone was selling it.

I need to get some glass now I have 1k left well when my lenses sell I Will.
 
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