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

[woof woof]

I moved over from Fuji this year - sold a lot of fuji cameras and lenses and decided that I just wanted one camera and one lens. I bought a Sony A7Cii and 28-60 zoom and so far I've been very happy with just that. It captures most of the images I want and is easy to carry around. So, yes I use just a standard kit zoom. I'm used to film cameras and to be honest, I just don't want many of the bells and whistles of modern digital cameras. However, I agree that the A7Cii floppy screen is irritating and wish it was just a normal up/down sscreen

I keep trying to manage with a zoom but I think I've got stuck in a groove.

 

[pmac]

I just can not imagine selling my integrity so cheaply. Just goes to show how little some people have.

I like reviews as there are no camera shops within easy distance so good ones are a source of information. I do find though that they very often miss the more basic information I'd like which if provided could save me a wasted day.

That’s just the social media life now, they are now all selling worse than their integrity

The two I prefer to watch are Gerald for the actual technical stuff and I do like Pierre T lambert. Though not really reviews he just goes out and shoots a lot of street stuff using the gear.

 

[woof woof]

That’s just the social media life now, they are now all selling worse than their integrity

The two I prefer to watch are Gerald for the actual technical stuff and I do like Pierre T lambert. Though not really reviews he just goes out and shoots a lot of street stuff using the gear.

I like Gerald and Manny too but I often find that it's the little things that matter to me that aren't covered.

I do like the reviews on Phillip Reeve but my confidence in them was shaken by their reviews of some lenes which I've had which clearly had significant issues which they failed to identify including the Artralabs and their fantasy aperture markings. How anyone can "review" kit like that and not mention serious issues is beyond me unless of course they happy to take the money and keep their mouths shut.

 

[xibinim]

just got my wife to check the Chinese retailer she uses . 17000 yen/£1700
as expected shockingly over priced here

Any details ?

I'm on a A7iii, still got plenty of years left in it but I definitely have the upgrade itch.

 

[woof woof]

A while back there were stories about foreign bought cameras not having an English language option. Does that still happen?

 

[xibinim]

Under £2k on grey far more reasonable and tempting, let's hope it will come true.

 

[pmac]

Under £2k on grey far more reasonable and tempting, let's hope it will come true.

Sry that price was slightly wrong, it was £1955 roughly, I was using the older exchange.
its also mainland china using the Jing dong (JD) app which is only in Chinese and you need Chinese payment methods.. though they do ship to the UK.
cotswold are £2240 which will have a warranty

 

[nandbytes]

He can be funny sometimes. I think I'm getting old and grumpy though as I find most reviewers annoying these days, even those I used to like

Same here, I have mostly stopped watching camera reviews.
I haven't watched many even for A7V, the only one I have watched fully is the petapixel one.

I still watch the lens reviews for ones I am interested in. I like Sigma lenses in general these days. Even ones I wouldn't buy like 200mm f2.
But I am mostly watching reviews to see some samples more than sharpness tests.

 

[xibinim]

Sry that price was slightly wrong, it was £1955 roughly, I was using the older exchange.
its also mainland china using the Jing dong (JD) app which is only in Chinese and you need Chinese payment methods.. though they do ship to the UK.
cotswold are £2240 which will have a warranty

Thank you. Think the £250 more would be worth it for peace of mind, less faff. Selling my A7iii could then drop it to £1600-£1750. The temptation meter is sky high.

 

[snerkler]

I just can not imagine selling my integrity so cheaply. Just goes to show how little some people have.

I like reviews as there are no camera shops within easy distance so good ones are a source of information. I do find though that they very often miss the more basic information I'd like which if provided could save me a wasted day.

I always say that I wouldn't sell my integrity but I guess it depends on how much and to what extent you're losing your integrity. For example I dabble in producing music and I'd sell myself to the devil and produce Gangnam Style 2 if it made me millions

I like Gerald and Manny too but I often find that it's the little things that matter to me that aren't covered.

I do like the reviews on Phillip Reeve but my confidence in them was shaken by their reviews of some lenes which I've had which clearly had significant issues which they failed to identify including the Artralabs and their fantasy aperture markings. How anyone can "review" kit like that and not mention serious issues is beyond me unless of course they happy to take the money and keep their mouths shut.

I've really gone off Manny tbh, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is but he comes across overly sincere to the point it feels false if that makes sense.

Same here, I have mostly stopped watching camera reviews.
I haven't watched many even for A7V, the only one I have watched fully is the petapixel one.

I still watch the lens reviews for ones I am interested in. I like Sigma lenses in general these days. Even ones I wouldn't buy like 200mm f2.
But I am mostly watching reviews to see some samples more than sharpness tests.

The petapixle ones are some of the better ones to be fair, and I don't mind listening to him.

 

[nandbytes]

I've really gone off Manny tbh, I'm not quite sure exactly what it is but he comes across overly sincere to the point it feels false if that makes sense.

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

 

[snerkler]

I wonder when we'll hear about the new 100-400mm's. It's a shame that the variable aperture version is predicted to be a G lens rather than GM lens, seems a step backwards.

 

[pmac]

I wonder when we'll hear about the new 100-400mm's. It's a shame that the variable aperture version is predicted to be a G lens rather than GM lens, seems a step backwards.

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

 

[f/1.2]

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

Wouldn't be too sure about that.

 

[woof woof]

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

Models? Meh.

I may be wrong but I like him and he has had issues and is trying to deal with them.

 

[snerkler]

easy way to make money, some will buy the fixed regardless of the price or name, which will likely be substantially more.
does it really make that much of a difference anyway. the 16/20/40/16-25/24-50 all seem to hold up as well as any GM equivalents or even surpassing them in ways.

Some do in terms of sharpness (I've never seen any surpass), however the GM's have better more reliable AF (from my experience), better coatings and more pleasing bokeh. The 100-400mm GM was around £2300 at launch IIRC, I'm guessing the 100-400mm f4 GM will be £5k minimum meaning a 100-400mm f4-5.6 GM II would be a viable cheaper alternative imo.

Of course the original 100-400mm still stands up well so maybe Sony don't feel that they can upgrade it enough to warrant bringing a new one out and so looking at a more budget friendly version. I'd love a 100-400mm with the form factor of the 70-200mm f2.8 GM II but I think that's pie in the sky stuff

 

[xibinim]

Is anyone actually listening to him? I thought most people watched his videos for the models....
thumbnail of A7V review is total clickbait.... you'd probably need to post it with "NSFW" tag here

Hahaha that thumbnail is insane, definitely knew what he was doing.

 

[LeeRatters]

24GM vertical panorama


*** by Lee, on Flickr

 

[addicknchips]

Morning. I think I recall reading here at some point about af issues with the a7r4 paired to the 200-600? If so, is this still the case, or have there been any FW updates to fix it? TIA

 

[nandbytes]

Morning. I think I recall reading here at some point about af issues with the a7r4 paired to the 200-600? If so, is this still the case, or have there been any FW updates to fix it? TIA

yeah this was long time ago, i am sure if it was ever proven, at least when i owned the combination the exact nature of the issue was inconclusive.
I had two A7Riv bodies in tandem (and been through 3 of them in total). they all performed/behaved in the same way.

 

[noneforit]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

 

[LeeRatters]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

The 20G is a lovely lens

 

[pmac]

Just purchased a Sony 20mm F1.8 as something wider than my Tamron 28-75mm for my A7iii

Seems to get positive reviews and I use the camera for video sometimes and this would be ideal

Got it for £509 from Cotswold Cameras which I know are grey but have used them before without issue.

Found a couple of used examples on Ebay for sub £500 and turns out both were grey anyway so may as well take the punt and buy new for a similar price to used

It’s a stellar lens. You won’t be disappointed.
I bought it due having the 28-75 also

 

[pmac]

How does pre capture actually work?
Does it eat into the fps/ buffer?
If with the a7v I have it set at 30fps pre capture does that mean I only get the remaining 2/3rds of a second at 30fps before it slows to 10fps(25 shots if the buffer is 55 raw)
Or is this not included in the 30fps/ buffer count?

 

[snerkler]

How does pre capture actually work?
Does it eat into the fps/ buffer?
If with the a7v I have it set at 30fps pre capture does that mean I only get the remaining 2/3rds of a second at 30fps before it slows to 10fps(25 shots if the buffer is 55 raw)
Or is this not included in the 30fps/ buffer count?

That's a very good question, and not something I've thought about. Pre-capture does use the buffer so I can only assume that using pre-capture will reduce the time you can shoot at 30fps before the buffer fills. My understanding is that the A7V can shoot 30-35 frames at 30fps before the buffer fills. This would suggest that if you set precapture to 1s you've already filled the buffer and so it would shoot at the slower frame rate straight away. Seems a bit daft to me

Edit: There seems to be a lot of conflicting info online regarding the number of shots before the buffer fills, however the majority say 30-35 frames with lossless compressed and around 95 with compressed raw. That's really interesting as the A1 can only shoot 30fps with compressed raw, if you use lossless compressed or uncompressed it drops to 20fps.

If I had the A7V and wanted to use 30fps I'd use compressed raw so you can get around 95 shots, so 30 precapture and 65 'normal'.

Edit 2: Even the A1 II can only shoot compressed raw at 30fps. I'm guessing the extra megapixels is the main culprit because the the A9 III can shoot lossless at 30fps, and I believe even at 120fps.

 

[pmac]

That's a very good question, and not something I've thought about. Pre-capture does use the buffer so I can only assume that using pre-capture will reduce the time you can shoot at 30fps before the buffer fills. My understanding is that the A7V can shoot 30-35 frames at 30fps before the buffer fills. This would suggest that if you set precapture to 1s you've already filled the buffer and so it would shoot at the slower frame rate straight away. Seems a bit daft to me

Edit: There seems to be a lot of conflicting info online regarding the number of shots before the buffer fills, however the majority say 30-35 frames with lossless compressed and around 95 with compressed raw. That's really interesting as the A1 can only shoot 30fps with compressed raw, if you use lossless compressed or uncompressed it drops to 20fps.

If I had the A7V and wanted to use 30fps I'd use compressed raw so you can get around 95 shots, so 30 precapture and 65 'normal'.

Yeah that’s what confused me . I wasn’t sure if that was most the buffer used already just on pre capture.
It is 35 frames also not 55, I did think I had read and said before 1.1sec continuous so that would be it pretty much used up before even taking a shot and then your at 10fps until the buffer clears. Seems kind of pointless in a way.
Is it Also locked at 10fps for third party or slightly higher?

 

[snerkler]

Yeah that’s what confused me . I wasn’t sure if that was most the buffer used already just on pre capture.
It is 35 frames also not 55, I did think I had read and said before 1.1sec continuous so that would be it pretty much used up before even taking a shot and then your at 10fps until the buffer clears. Seems kind of pointless in a way.
Is it Also locked at 10fps for third party or slightly higher?

It does seem pointless using pre-capture if you want to shoot at 30fps lossless, but as I said I'd use compressed anyway. I experimented with the A1 between lossless compressed and compressed for motorsports and wildlife and I couldn't see any difference in all honesty. Maybe if you completely messed up the exposure you'd be able to recover it better with lossless, but with an EVF you shouldn't be getting the expsure that wrong You do see a tiny difference between the two when shooting high DR landscapes though.

I would imagine 3rd party lenses are restricted to 15fps like they are on the other Sony bodies.

 

[ancient_mariner]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

 

[trevorbray]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

That’d be my thought. It’d always be saving the time you’ve programmed for.

 

[snerkler]

Perhaps when you start shooting at 30fps the pre-capture images are just dumped from the buffer to make space for the planned images?

But then you won't get the precatpure images so what's the point of having precapture in the first place?

 

[snerkler]

That’d be my thought. It’d always be saving the time you’ve programmed for.

As I understand things it only keeps them in the buffer, they're not written to the card until you press the shutter which means that at 30fps lossless compressed the buffer would already be full at the time of pressing the shutter

 

[snerkler]

I've sent the following question to Sony, I'll update when I get a reply.

"I have a question regarding the pre-capture, buffer and frames per second.

As I understand it the A7V can shoot lossless compressed raw at 30fps, and in this setting you will get approximately 1 second (30 frames) worth of shooting before the buffer is full and the frame rate slows.

If I set precapture to 1 second at 30fps in lossless raw I assume this would mean that the buffer is full as soon as I press the shutter button and so you will immediately get a slower frame rate, is this correct please?"

 

[snerkler]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

 

[nandbytes]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I don't read it as such at all.
Sony is ahead in most aspects apart from video which it isn't bad but it just doesn't shoot RAW. But canon supposedly overheats doing it.

With Sony you have full 14-bit RAW, better image quality, better pre-burst, you can use matched SD cards.

The battery ratings are CIPA rating and it's accurate to CIPA standards.

But I do wish they'd upgrade that mechanical shutter from last decade to shoot more than 10fps.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

Lower demand higher price.

 

[nandbytes]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

View attachment 469430

thinking about this I am actually surprise Sony have "only" a partially stacked sensor.
I do wonder if they have done the bare minimum to keep up with the competition.

you can get used A9II with fully stacked sensor for nearly half the price!
I understand that's used versus new.... but I kinda feel they could have gone stacked by they just haven't bothered.

 

[snerkler]

I don't read it as such at all.
Sony is ahead in most aspects apart from video which it isn't bad but it just doesn't shoot RAW. But canon supposedly overheats doing it.

With Sony you have full 14-bit RAW, better image quality, better pre-burst, you can use matched SD cards.

The battery ratings are CIPA rating and it's accurate to CIPA standards.

But I do wish they'd upgrade that mechanical shutter from last decade to shoot more than 10fps.



Lower demand higher price.

I know Canon’s fast shooting is only 12 bit but in the real world I’m not sure you can tell between 12 and 14 bit.

I must admit I read the R6 III as having a partially stacked sensor. Not having blackout free shooting is a big minus. How’re they getting such fast sensor readouts with a non stacked sensor?

 

[snerkler]

thinking about this I am actually surprise Sony have "only" a partially stacked sensor.
I do wonder if they have done the bare minimum to keep up with the competition.

you can get used A9II with fully stacked sensor for nearly half the price!
I understand that's used versus new.... but I kinda feel they could have gone stacked by they just haven't bothered.

It’s more likely a cost issue, I would assume the A7V would be around £3500 with a fully stacked sensor which would cause a lot of complaints.

 

[nandbytes]

I know Canon’s fast shooting is only 12 bit but in the real world I’m not sure you can tell between 12 and 14 bit.

I must admit I read the R6 III as having a partially stacked sensor. Not having blackout free shooting is a big minus. How’re they getting such fast sensor readouts with a non stacked sensor?

They drop the bit rate and dynamic range.
Like they did the same on R5 and R6ii. It has a massive penalty on dynamic range.

R6iii is supposedly better but not sure how much.
Z6iii also takes a big hit to dynamic range, so does S1ii but with Panasonic in mechanical shutter mode you do get higher DR unlike on Nikon.

Yet to see full dynamic range graphs for R6iii and A7V.... so the jury is still out i guess

 

[trevorbray]

As I understand things it only keeps them in the buffer, they're not written to the card until you press the shutter which means that at 30fps lossless compressed the buffer would already be full at the time of pressing the shutter

But. You’d have the decisive frame.

 

[pmac]

Interesting comparison. I don’t know how others see this but it appears as though Sony are slipping ever so slightly when compared to Canon, except battery life. If the chart’s correct the battery life of the Canon is appalling.

I’m not sure why the LUMIX is so expensive.

View attachment 469430

Yeah it does feel this way.
I don’t know if they are behind or they are just the new canon and love crippling cameras so they don’t encroach on the tier above.
As much as I’ve had GAS for the a7V it does seem like they picked some bad/strange choices.
30fps for 1 sec( only native glass too)
Video choices were way behind(needed or not, it’s not a great look)
Same EVF
Though if they had offered these improvements there be zero need for an a1.

I don't read it as such at all.
Sony is ahead in most aspects apart from video which it isn't bad but it just doesn't shoot RAW. But canon supposedly overheats doing it.

With Sony you have full 14-bit RAW, better image quality, better pre-burst, you can use matched SD cards.

The battery ratings are CIPA rating and it's accurate to CIPA standards.

But I do wish they'd upgrade that mechanical shutter from last decade to shoot more than 10fps.



Lower demand higher price.

I thought u Cant get the full 30fps when using an SD card. The way Jared explained it was you need to have no redundancy if you want 30fps.
But I may be wrong