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

Redspider said:
Weather poor but with a Black 5 on the mainline I had to take some photo's. The first photo is at a foot crossing and the loco passing at 70mph. Sony A7CR and Tamron 17-28. The second photo was using the Sony 7CR with the trusty Sony 70-350 and I caught the navigator reading Bradshaws guide. :LOL:

44871 Black 5. 06.04.24 by Andy Williams, on Flickr

44871 Black 5. 06.04.24 by Andy Williams, on Flickr
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Excellent shots of a fantastic loco, I’ve seen her myself a few times but I always seem to end up on footbridges or on the station platform.
I love the low point of view with those.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Redspider said:
Weather poor but with a Black 5 on the mainline I had to take some photo's. The first photo is at a foot crossing and the loco passing at 70mph. Sony A7CR and Tamron 17-28. The second photo was using the Sony 7CR with the trusty Sony 70-350 and I caught the navigator reading Bradshaws guide. :LOL:

44871 Black 5. 06.04.24 by Andy Williams, on Flickr

44871 Black 5. 06.04.24 by Andy Williams, on Flickr
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Nice, the wide angle works well. Is there a way to find out when and where Steam Locos are running or is it a bit of pot luck?
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Excellent shots of a fantastic loco, I’ve seen her myself a few times but I always seem to end up on footbridges or on the station platform.
I love the low point of view with those.
Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you. I have also seen her a few times. I have evening photo's at Cheltenham station, and some at Swanage where I was lucky enough to be invited onto the footplate. Next weekend we have a Black 5 at Cheltenham on Saturday, (Maybe this one again) and after an overnight stay, it is being double headed with another Black 5. The tour lasts a week and cover a lot of the UK, so you may be able to catch a Black 5, maybe this one, near you.
 
Redspider said:
Thank you. I have also seen her a few times. I have evening photo's at Cheltenham station, and some at Swanage where I was lucky enough to be invited onto the footplate. Next weekend we have a Black 5 at Cheltenham on Saturday, (Maybe this one again) and after an overnight stay, it is being double headed with another Black 5. The tour lasts a week and cover a lot of the UK, so you may be able to catch a Black 5, maybe this one, near you.
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Wow the footplate experience must of been amazing.
Thanks for the info I will definitely check it out.
 
Does anyone have ff and apsc E mount? Back in the A mount days I had A900s plus an A77 for wildlife, mostly due to the better AF.

Mirrorless wise I've always been ff (A7iii, these days A9) but A6xxx crop up in classifieds every now and again and wonder if the crop sensor is worthwhile? I'm assuming an A7Riii or latter would be better - resolution for equivalent cropand can still use for landscapes. Or are there other approaches people have where there a role for apsc?
 
Tricky01 said:
Does anyone have ff and apsc E mount? Back in the A mount days I had A900s plus an A77 for wildlife, mostly due to the better AF.

Mirrorless wise I've always been ff (A7iii, these days A9) but A6xxx crop up in classifieds every now and again and wonder if the crop sensor is worthwhile? I'm assuming an A7Riii or latter would be better - resolution for equivalent cropand can still use for landscapes. Or are there other approaches people have where there a role for apsc?
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I have an A6000 as my 'travel camera' - with the 16-50, 55-210, 35 & 50 f/1.8 OSS lenses. The whole kit fits in a fairly small shoulder bag, and is fairly lightweight.
My main camera is my A7iv, which I have the 200-600G fro, plus a range of A-Mount lenses via the LA-EA5 (I also still have one of my A900's, I traded in the other when I got the A7iv).
They're obviously quite different camera in terms of capabilities, but for when I'm off on holiday, and want a camera for family shots plus some decent general images of where we've been, the A6000 does well. Given the fairly compact nature of even the A7iv, it's the lenses that really make the difference in terms of small / light, rather than the body.
 
Tricky01 said:
Does anyone have ff and apsc E mount? Back in the A mount days I had A900s plus an A77 for wildlife, mostly due to the better AF.

Mirrorless wise I've always been ff (A7iii, these days A9) but A6xxx crop up in classifieds every now and again and wonder if the crop sensor is worthwhile? I'm assuming an A7Riii or latter would be better - resolution for equivalent cropand can still use for landscapes. Or are there other approaches people have where there a role for apsc?
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My last a-mount body was the A77ii which I used in tandem with A7 for a while for the same reasons as you i.e. for wildlife.

Unfortunately there isn't an equivalent in E-mount. The closest is the A6700 which still doesn't have all the features that an A77ii line had. It has a single card slot, 1/4000s shutter limitation, and relatively low megapixels.
With A77ii you got 24mp with 1.5x crop (at a time when the highest FF megapixels on a-mount was 24mp). You only get 26mp with 1.5x crop on A6700. You can crop from an A1 to get 22mp or from an A7rv to get 26mp.
Canon do 32mp APS-C and Fuji 40mp both of which provides a lot more digital reach than Sony APS-C bodies.

My suggestion is to get an A1 instead of having multiple bodies. You could pick up used ones for £3.6k-ish last I checked. It can basically "do it all".
Or if you don't mind the blackout and 8-10fps then get the A7rv (which is what I did)
 
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nandbytes said:
My last a-mount body was the A77ii which I used in tandem with A7 for a while for the same reasons as you i.e. for wildlife.

Unfortunately there isn't an equivalent in E-mount. The closest is the A6700 which still doesn't have all the features that an A77ii line had. It has a single card slot, 1/4000s shutter limitation, and relatively low megapixels.
With A77ii you got 24mp with 1.5x crop (at a time when the highest FF megapixels on a-mount was 24mp). You only get 26mp with 1.5x crop on A6700. You can crop from an A1 to get 22mp or from an A7rv to get 26mp.
Canon do 32mp APS-C and Fuji 40mp both of which provides a lot more digital reach than Sony APS-C bodies.

My suggestion is to get an A1 instead of having multiple bodies. You could pick up used ones for £3.6k-ish last I checked. It can basically "do it all".
Or if you don't mind the blackout and 8-10fps then get the A7rv (which is what I did)
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^^^ pretty much this.
 
The handling puts me off most of the A6xxx line as I prefer having two near top of camera wheels rather than using the vertical back wheel. Also aren't the A6xxx limited to a max shutter speed of 1/4,000? If they are using wide apertures in good light is going to require an ND.
 
My boy has an A6000 - I think I could get used to it size & certainly weight wise! I think the lack of front & rear dials though would be a pain for me. I'm not sure if a good number of the aps-c lenses have aperture rings or not?
 
Hi all, going back to my question the other week regarding a telephoto zoom lens for Sony I have whittled my choice down to the Sony 200-600, my only concern now is attaching this to my peak design tripod. I’ve been reading up on this and notice the lens foot is not arca Swiss.
Am I right in thinking I could just attach my peak design plate to the lens foot and clip it into the tripod this way? Or am I going to need some other sort of plate/attachment?
Many thanks for any help.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all, going back to my question the other week regarding a telephoto zoom lens for Sony I have whittled my choice down to the Sony 200-600, my only concern now is attaching this to my peak design tripod. I’ve been reading up on this and notice the lens foot is not arca Swiss.
Am I right in thinking I could just attach my peak design plate to the lens foot and clip it into the tripod this way? Or am I going to need some other sort of plate/attachment?
Many thanks for any help.
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Yep, you can just use your peak design plate (y)
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all, going back to my question the other week regarding a telephoto zoom lens for Sony I have whittled my choice down to the Sony 200-600, my only concern now is attaching this to my peak design tripod. I’ve been reading up on this and notice the lens foot is not arca Swiss.
Am I right in thinking I could just attach my peak design plate to the lens foot and clip it into the tripod this way? Or am I going to need some other sort of plate/attachment?
Many thanks for any help.
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You can get a 3rd party foot for it that's arca Swiss compatible
Cost me like £25 off Ebay and it's better than the original for usability
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all, going back to my question the other week regarding a telephoto zoom lens for Sony I have whittled my choice down to the Sony 200-600, my only concern now is attaching this to my peak design tripod. I’ve been reading up on this and notice the lens foot is not arca Swiss.
Am I right in thinking I could just attach my peak design plate to the lens foot and clip it into the tripod this way? Or am I going to need some other sort of plate/attachment?
Many thanks for any help.
Click to expand...
You can also buy replacement tripod feet - there's one in classifieds here, though I went for a cheaper one via Aliexpress as I wanted a hole to put a peak design loop thing for straps. Strongly recommend, much better than the Sony one. I don't understand why they keep producing them without arca Swiss.

FYI, the 200-600 is incredible. Love my one, and have a 1.4x TC pretty much permanently attached. The 2x loses a lot of image quality (and needs A9 or A1 I think for AF given the aperture), but no issues with 1.4x.
 
Tricky01 said:
You can also buy replacement tripod feet - there's one in classifieds here, though I went for a cheaper one via Aliexpress as I wanted a hole to put a peak design loop thing for straps. Strongly recommend, much better than the Sony one. I don't understand why they keep producing them without arca Swiss.

FYI, the 200-600 is incredible. Love my one, and have a 1.4x TC pretty much permanently attached. The 2x loses a lot of image quality (and needs A9 or A1 I think for AF given the aperture), but no issues with 1.4x.
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That’s very encouraging, I am considering the 1.4x tc too, I’d also ruled out the 2x, the aperture you end up with using it put me off straight away but I do think the 1.4x will come in useful.
 
My first foray across to the dark side of Sony and a few questions please. I have for many years been a micro four thirds and Nikon shooter. I don't intend on replacing my Nikon Z FF system any time soon, but TBH, I've become more and more out of love with my Micro four thirds system and am considering switching from that system across to Sony APS-C ( think the OM-1 MK II was the final straw that broke the camels back on that front).

My main reasoning is that I'm doing more and more video work (just personal stuff on holiday etc), and whilst my OM-1 is decent(ish), it's not brilliant for Video AF and unless you are shooting H265 10 bit, OM-log 400, and 24/25FPS, the output can be quite soft with smaller details poorly resolved), and I've missed quite a few opportunities due to the camera struggling to focus in movie mode (in photo mode it's brilliant). So, I've recently been shooting more and more lately with my tiny little Sony RX100 VII, and it's AF and tracking in both photo and video mode is mind blowing in comparison, and despite the files from the RX100 only being 8 bit 4.2.0, they look amazing to my eye in comparison to the OM-1. I thought about the new Panasonic G9 II, but to be honest, if I'm going to go to the bother of changing bodies, I want something that's smaller and lighter and more of a vacation / holiday package rather than my main at home wildlife etc package (which my Nikon Z9 and Z8 do just brilliantly).

So I've handled the new Sony A6700 and it feels quite nice in the hand and is surprisingly smaller and lighter than the OM-1. So to my questions please (as I know nothing about Sony)

1. Does anyone have this body and use it for the scenarios mentioned and can comment on if it's as good as it's reported to be ?

2. I understand that you have 4k up to to 60P oversampled from 6k and it's supposed to look fantastic - is that the case ?

3. Does the single card slot worry anyone (I've not had a camera except the RX100 with a single card slot in years) ?

4. What would a nice pair (or trio) of general purpose lenses for this body. They don't need to be the latest and greatest F1.4 or F2.8 units as like I say, the camera will typically be used as a go anywhere lightweight package (or a B Roll camera). I was thinking about the Sony 10-20 PZ lens for wide angle, the 18-135mm as a general purpose walkabout lens, and (possibly) the 70-350 OSS as a lightweight telephoto option. However as I know nothing about Sony lenses I'm not sure of the optical performance of these and if they are decent enough or not ?

5. Is the relatively low res (2.36mp) viewfinder a deal breaker or OK ?

Sorry for so many questions, but would appreciate any assistance from the group before I pull the trigger.
 
Sootchucker said:
My first foray across to the dark side of Sony and a few questions please. I have for many years been a micro four thirds and Nikon shooter. I don't intend on replacing my Nikon Z FF system any time soon, but TBH, I've become more and more out of love with my Micro four thirds system and am considering switching from that system across to Sony APS-C ( think the OM-1 MK II was the final straw that broke the camels back on that front).

My main reasoning is that I'm doing more and more video work (just personal stuff on holiday etc), and whilst my OM-1 is decent(ish), it's not brilliant for Video AF and unless you are shooting H265 10 bit, OM-log 400, and 24/25FPS, the output can be quite soft with smaller details poorly resolved), and I've missed quite a few opportunities due to the camera struggling to focus in movie mode (in photo mode it's brilliant). So, I've recently been shooting more and more lately with my tiny little Sony RX100 VII, and it's AF and tracking in both photo and video mode is mind blowing in comparison, and despite the files from the RX100 only being 8 bit 4.2.0, they look amazing to my eye in comparison to the OM-1. I thought about the new Panasonic G9 II, but to be honest, if I'm going to go to the bother of changing bodies, I want something that's smaller and lighter and more of a vacation / holiday package rather than my main at home wildlife etc package (which my Nikon Z9 and Z8 do just brilliantly).

So I've handled the new Sony A6700 and it feels quite nice in the hand and is surprisingly smaller and lighter than the OM-1. So to my questions please (as I know nothing about Sony)

1. Does anyone have this body and use it for the scenarios mentioned and can comment on if it's as good as it's reported to be ?

2. I understand that you have 4k up to to 60P oversampled from 6k and it's supposed to look fantastic - is that the case ?

3. Does the single card slot worry anyone (I've not had a camera except the RX100 with a single card slot in years) ?

4. What would a nice pair (or trio) of general purpose lenses for this body. They don't need to be the latest and greatest F1.4 or F2.8 units as like I say, the camera will typically be used as a go anywhere lightweight package (or a B Roll camera). I was thinking about the Sony 10-20 PZ lens for wide angle, the 18-135mm as a general purpose walkabout lens, and (possibly) the 70-350 OSS as a lightweight telephoto option. However as I know nothing about Sony lenses I'm not sure of the optical performance of these and if they are decent enough or not ?

5. Is the relatively low res (2.36mp) viewfinder a deal breaker or OK ?

Sorry for so many questions, but would appreciate any assistance from the group before I pull the trigger.
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Why not buy a Panasonic G9ll? It’s excellent for video, and you can use your M43 lenses.
 
Partly because of size. If I do change away from the OM-1 it will not only be for Video performance but also size and portability (see below)

 
Sootchucker said:
1. Does anyone have this body and use it for the scenarios mentioned and can comment on if it's as good as it's reported to be ?

2. I understand that you have 4k up to to 60P oversampled from 6k and it's supposed to look fantastic - is that the case ?
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Sorry do not have the body myself... but all reviews since A6500 days say its one of the sharpest 4K output, so I imagine it'll look good as far as sharpness goes.

Sootchucker said:
3. Does the single card slot worry anyone (I've not had a camera except the RX100 with a single card slot in years) ?
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Doesn't necessarily worry me a huge lot but I'd suggest backing up cards as soon as possible like at the end of the day.
Then again I only shoot for personally, not professionally. So if my card dies, I lose max one day of shooting and there are no law suits etc.

Sootchucker said:
4. What would a nice pair (or trio) of general purpose lenses for this body. They don't need to be the latest and greatest F1.4 or F2.8 units as like I say, the camera will typically be used as a go anywhere lightweight package (or a B Roll camera). I was thinking about the Sony 10-20 PZ lens for wide angle, the 18-135mm as a general purpose walkabout lens, and (possibly) the 70-350 OSS as a lightweight telephoto option. However as I know nothing about Sony lenses I'm not sure of the optical performance of these and if they are decent enough or not ?
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70-350mm is one of my favourites lenses, there is nothing like it on any other mount. Its relatively small, really sharp at long end with really good AF.
I'd shoot Sony APS-C just for this lens! used it as my travel lens for a couple years on my FF bodies (in APS-C mode of course).

10-20mm f4 is very good too.... once again nothing like it on any other mount :)

As for primes I suggest looking at sigma f1.4 lenses - 16mm f1.4, 23mm f1.4, 30mm f1.4, 56mm f1.4. The 16mm is a bit big but the rest are small lenses.
There's also Sony's 11mm f1.8 which I had and is a bargain in terms of performance to price, and the 15mm f1.4 G looks good too and lot smaller than sigma 16mm f1.4.

And there are of course a plethora of smaller f1.8-f2 FF primes from samyang, sigma, sony which will all work on APS-C

for normal zooms I'd pick up a Sony 16-55mm f2.8 if you can afford it, if not 18-135mm is good and so is 18-105mm f4 PZ for video work.
There is also a sigma 18-50mm f2.8 thats really small and good enough for 4K work but doesn't review so well on high res APS-C sensor like on Fuji XT5.

Sootchucker said:
5. Is the relatively low res (2.36mp) viewfinder a deal breaker or OK ?
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not for me, could be for you. I suggest trying it.

if I were to make a video centric kit with A6700 myself my choices would be - Sony 10-20mm f4, 15mm f1.4 G, 16-55mm f2.8, 70-350mm and Sigma 56mm f1.4
 
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This is one of the reasons I don't take much notice of the Northrups, with this screenshot he says he doesn't see any difference in sharpness :thinking: Now don't get me wrong, you'd never going to pixel peep to this extent, but just the fact he can't see a difference is a bit 'worrying' for a reviewer.

Screenshot 2024-04-10 at 08.39.58.jpg
 
Have we had a Sony Spring Cashback Promo yet this year? What months do we normally see cashback promos?
 
snerkler said:
12-24's too heavy and I want a zoom ;)
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It ain't that heavy. :p Although it weighs heavy on the aul bank balance. :ROFLMAO:

Did you not say before you only use your 16-35 at 16mm?

Am sure the new toy will be nice, I looked at it myself before grabbing the 12-24.

I am still wanting that Laowa 10mm though.
 
f/2.8 said:
It ain't that heavy. :p Although it weighs heavy on the aul bank balance. :ROFLMAO:

Did you not say before you only use your 16-35 at 16mm?

Am sure the new toy will be nice, I looked at it myself before grabbing the 12-24.

I am still wanting that Laowa 10mm though.
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No, I use it at 16mm the most but do use the full zoom range.
 
snerkler said:
No, I use it at 16mm the most but do use the full zoom range.
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you have the 20-70mm to cover rest of the range. Viltrox 16 would give you f1.8 and save £££ in your bank balance.
That's what I did anyway.

Having said that I am not keen on the viltrox metal build. yes it feels good but when I was shooting in Finland in the arctic cold, the lens body was literally frozen. I had to later wipe/scrape the ice off it and then make sure water didn't stick around. Sony GM lenses' composite material (and also samyang's) didn't freeze the same.
I am just a bit skeptical now taking it out again in sub-zero though shooting night sky was the main reason for me buying it.
 
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