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

Well I've just had an amazing massive unexpected surprise, my wife is wanting to buy me a used/grey A1 for my joint Wedding Anniversary and Birthday present, to say I'm shocked is an understatement :eek:

I'm thinking used like new so that I'm guaranteed to have it for my kingfisher experience next week. My question is will I be OK using my 280mb/s read 250mb/s write SD cards? I'm not someone that fills the buffer and therefore am not concerned how quickly it clears. Also, transfer speed to my computer is just fine for me using the SD cards.
Looks like we'll likely find out together as my A1 is sat at Clifton cameras waiting for my 600mm F4 to turn up. I've gone with an integral 1tb SD card to start with as the cfexpress type A cards are just daft. £1200 for a 640gb card is day light robbery.

Exascend have released some larger capacity NAND chips for the type A which should hopefully push the costs down but I couldn't justify blowing such a large amount of money when I could buy both teleconverters for less...

My primary use case is birds so I'm hoping the camera can write to the card if I use short bursts. Its quite rare to require more than 5 seconds of burst anyway
 
Looks like we'll likely find out together as my A1 is sat at Clifton cameras waiting for my 600mm F4 to turn up. I've gone with an integral 1tb SD card to start with as the cfexpress type A cards are just daft. £1200 for a 640gb card is day light robbery.

Exascend have released some larger capacity NAND chips for the type A which should hopefully push the costs down but I couldn't justify blowing such a large amount of money when I could buy both teleconverters for less...

My primary use case is birds so I'm hoping the camera can write to the card if I use short bursts. Its quite rare to require more than 5 seconds of burst anyway
600mm f4, nice (y)
 
Well I've just had an amazing massive unexpected surprise, my wife is wanting to buy me a used/grey A1 for my joint Wedding Anniversary and Birthday present, to say I'm shocked is an understatement :eek:

I'm thinking used like new so that I'm guaranteed to have it for my kingfisher experience next week. My question is will I be OK using my 280mb/s read 250mb/s write SD cards? I'm not someone that fills the buffer and therefore am not concerned how quickly it clears. Also, transfer speed to my computer is just fine for me using the SD cards.
I'm looking forward to hear how you find it compared to the A9 II
 
I'm looking forward to hear how you find it compared to the A9 II
I honestly don't think there'll be a massive difference, but I'm hoping in specific circumstances the benefits are worth it such as:

Smoother/none slideshow EVF in slow shutter panning
Better animal eye AF (obviously birds will be better)
Use of flash with electronic shutter
Lossless compressed files
And of course the extra resolution when I want to crop

I'm interested to see what the 9 million dot EVF is like too (y)
 
Does anyone know where I can get a comprehensive user manual pdf for the A1 from please as on the Sony site you only have the small 88 page version or the web version.?With my A7R IV and A9 II I was able to download circa 260 page versions that had useful info such as what settings would cause the camera to shoot in 12 bit rather than 14 bit, and which settings would require you to use compressed vs uncompressed such as frame rate.
 
Does anyone know where I can get a comprehensive user manual pdf for the A1 from please as on the Sony site you only have the small 88 page version or the web version.?With my A7R IV and A9 II I was able to download circa 260 page versions that had useful info such as what settings would cause the camera to shoot in 12 bit rather than 14 bit, and which settings would require you to use compressed vs uncompressed such as frame rate.

LINK to the help guide which is a lot more comprehensive (500 odd pages) ... download link in corner of page.
 
LINK to the help guide which is a lot more comprehensive (500 odd pages) ... download link in corner of page.
Thanks, that's what I meant by the web version. I have downloaded that but the 'normal' one is more iOS and OS friendly and so ideally would like it in that format
 
Guys any of you go to Caldwell or Oulton Park. Season starts soon and happy to hook up if you’re nelly no mates and share my potted meat sandwich’s I sometimes go alone but makes it an easier decision. If like minded people are there
 
Guys any of you go to Caldwell or Oulton Park. Season starts soon and happy to hook up if you’re nelly no mates and share my potted meat sandwich’s I sometimes go alone but makes it an easier decision. If like minded people are there

I quite often go to Oulton (as its 5 miles from my front door!) though I often go on Friday afternoons when they are testing (see circuit calendar) - its free to get in then :)
 
Guys any of you go to Caldwell or Oulton Park. Season starts soon and happy to hook up if you’re nelly no mates and share my potted meat sandwich’s I sometimes go alone but makes it an easier decision. If like minded people are there
I usually get to one or both of those circuits a couple of times a year. It’s a bit of a trek from Teesside, and I only live around 15 mins from Croft Circuit, so I tend to be selective with the events I come down for.

Cheers,

Simon.
 
Guys any of you go to Caldwell or Oulton Park. Season starts soon and happy to hook up if you’re nelly no mates and share my potted meat sandwich’s I sometimes go alone but makes it an easier decision. If like minded people are there
I sometimes go, but my usual is Donington as it's the closest. I have been looking at going to Oulton Park again this year though.
 
UPS is saying my A1 is estimated to arrive by Friday, that would be some speedy delivery if true :eek:
Always been impressed with the delivery from Panamoz, they can get a package to my door in 4 days from China but Royal Mail make me wait over a week :mad:
 
UPS is saying my A1 is estimated to arrive by Friday, that would be some speedy delivery if true :eek:
Hope it is, mine was quick as ordered Friday and delivered Tuesday but UPS emailed and said delivery due Monday, then Weds and had final email Tuesday morning a couple of hours before delivery. Sure it will be delivered before you need it next week though.
 
Hope it is, mine was quick as ordered Friday and delivered Tuesday but UPS emailed and said delivery due Monday, then Weds and had final email Tuesday morning a couple of hours before delivery. Sure it will be delivered before you need it next week though.
Would be cool to get it Friday as I’m away for the weekend and could take it with me, but yeah as long as it’s here by Tuesday that would be great.
 
So back to this question, I assume I'm going to be OK with SD cards for my needs? CFexpress are silly expensive :oops: :$
I've got 5 CF cards for the A1. They are definitely quicker but I'm not convinced it matters much in real life shooting and I mostly shoot sport. If a player is running to me celebrating I suppose I could fill the buffer but I don't think I have yet. The images get on the card quicker so I dare say you can view them quicker but it is very marginal gains. I just picked up the type A cards when I saw a bargain. Got lucky last month with two 80GB cards for 100 quid from a guy moving back to Leica from an A1. I pretty much only use Sony Tough cards for my 2 main bodies. The remote will get Sandisk cards and the spare whatever is left. I hate changing lenses so I end up taking 4 bodies with me to a game. The usual sports set up of 400mm, 70-200 a wide angle on a remote and often a 24-70 at my feet if players celebrate near me. You will love the A1. It reminds me of the D850 when I first got it. That camera was the first one that I thought could do everything well. The A1 just does that so much better. Hope it arrives on time and gets you the images you want
 
I've got 5 CF cards for the A1. They are definitely quicker but I'm not convinced it matters much in real life shooting and I mostly shoot sport. If a player is running to me celebrating I suppose I could fill the buffer but I don't think I have yet. The images get on the card quicker so I dare say you can view them quicker but it is very marginal gains. I just picked up the type A cards when I saw a bargain. Got lucky last month with two 80GB cards for 100 quid from a guy moving back to Leica from an A1. I pretty much only use Sony Tough cards for my 2 main bodies. The remote will get Sandisk cards and the spare whatever is left. I hate changing lenses so I end up taking 4 bodies with me to a game. The usual sports set up of 400mm, 70-200 a wide angle on a remote and often a 24-70 at my feet if players celebrate near me. You will love the A1. It reminds me of the D850 when I first got it. That camera was the first one that I thought could do everything well. The A1 just does that so much better. Hope it arrives on time and gets you the images you want
Thanks for the info, I’m going to stick with the SD cards and see how I get on (y)
 
Maybe not. But I've spent the past 8 years in AF-S and recompose or manual focus with the A7 ;)

I didn't realise it was in C hence I was doing my normal and the centre point was focusing not on the car :)
Yep, I've been there and done that. Obviously I shoot a combination of moving stuff and static stuff and swapped between AF-C and AF-S and every now and then would forget. People kept telling me to shoot with BBF but I tried it and it wasn't natural so went back to my old style. However since moving over to Sony I decided to give BBF another go and I've not looked back since, it now feels more natural than the 'traditional' way and as a result I can just stay in AF-C all the time. On the very rare occasion I've shot manual I've used the switch on the lens.
 
I sometimes go, but my usual is Donington as it's the closest. I have been looking at going to Oulton Park again this year though.
Ping if u go to Donington Snerk it’s about 2 hours from me so prob same as Caldwell I’ll try pop along
 
Both race tracks are 4 hours + away from me, I would love to try a bit of bike racing.

Thruxton is about the only one near .... anyone been there?
Yes, won a competition to shoot the BTCC there :banana:
 
Both race tracks are 4 hours + away from me, I would love to try a bit of bike racing.

Thruxton is about the only one near .... anyone been there?
I did a day at Thruxton last summer. It was the vintage race weekend and reasonably quiet, though it’s difficult to avoid busy backgrounds there.
 
Yep, I've been there and done that. Obviously I shoot a combination of moving stuff and static stuff and swapped between AF-C and AF-S and every now and then would forget. People kept telling me to shoot with BBF but I tried it and it wasn't natural so went back to my old style. However since moving over to Sony I decided to give BBF another go and I've not looked back since, it now feels more natural than the 'traditional' way and as a result I can just stay in AF-C all the time. On the very rare occasion I've shot manual I've used the switch on the lens.

I'm currently (since the above early mistake!) in BBF and AF-C right now on the Riii and it's just a case of getting used to it again. I used to shoot BBF on the 5D2 but that was pre 2014ish!
 
I did a day at Thruxton last summer. It was the vintage race weekend and reasonably quiet, though it’s difficult to avoid busy backgrounds there.
I think that's true of most racetracks tbh that's why I like the slow shutter pans to blur it all out (y)
 
The first thing I do on any cameras I get it switch to AF-C and BBF.
 
Thanks, it's only about an hour away from me and looks to have a few decent race events I can go to.
I quite liked Thruxton as there's a lot of fence free viewing (at least there was when I went in 2019) and there are parts where you can get really close, i.e. you only need something like a 24-70mm. For example this was shot at 40mm on Olympus so 80mm FF
P5180281 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr



Here's a link to my album. I'd love to have the experience again now as I believe my photography has moved on since then.
 
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