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

Well, I’ve made the first step to leave the apple universe today. I’ve been researching my options to replace my 2012 iMac for the last year or so. The high cost of replacing with one of the latest models and lack of future self upgrade options looks like it will push me back to a PC. My work had upgraded our laptops recently and that was also a factor as I wont be logging in via my iMac anymore and will need a screen to work from home comfortably. I guess I could still look at the iMac mini but it feels like a PC would be a better bang for buck option.

eBay listing 264539863865
 
Just bought a used Sigma 16mm F1.4 for my Sony A6300 for £280, hoping it shows up tomorrow.

Only have the 35mm F1.8 OSS at the moment but I like as an all rounder but struggling indoors as there is only so far I can move back!

Sharpness on the Sony is not as good as I was hoping but hoping the Sigma is better, reviews suggest it’s sharp so may swap the Sony for a 30mm Sigma if they are better lenses.

We have a newborn (7 weeks) so just started experimenting with video of him, footage seems to be great so far. Using iMovie for editing.
 
Just bought a used Sigma 16mm F1.4 for my Sony A6300 for £280, hoping it shows up tomorrow.

Only have the 35mm F1.8 OSS at the moment but I like as an all rounder but struggling indoors as there is only so far I can move back!

Sharpness on the Sony is not as good as I was hoping but hoping the Sigma is better, reviews suggest it’s sharp so may swap the Sony for a 30mm Sigma if they are better lenses.

We have a newborn (7 weeks) so just started experimenting with video of him, footage seems to be great so far. Using iMovie for editing.

The 16mm is very sharp, it's also excellent for video, I had the Sigma 16,30,56 for my A6400 when I had it, they were all excellent.
 
Well, I’ve made the first step to leave the apple universe today. I’ve been researching my options to replace my 2012 iMac for the last year or so. The high cost of replacing with one of the latest models and lack of future self upgrade options looks like it will push me back to a PC. My work had upgraded our laptops recently and that was also a factor as I wont be logging in via my iMac anymore and will need a screen to work from home comfortably. I guess I could still look at the iMac mini but it feels like a PC would be a better bang for buck option.
As long as you like the OS there's no doubt that PC's are much better value for money. Apple aren't front runners anymore, you only have to look at the iPhone for proof of that, yet they still charge crazy money, especially MacBook Pros. That being said, unless windows sort the OS out I can't see me leaving Apple. Since Windows 7 it's just gone downhill imo.

I do still like the ease of the Apple ecosystem though.
 
I have found that the main problem with Windows are the constant driver updates that Microsoft seem to think are necessary. There is obviously a need when there is new hardware coming out but these updates often cause massive instability to older machines that have been functioning very well previously although not everyone experiences these problems.

I run both a Mac OS machine and a Windows 10 PC side by side simply because there are things that one will do and the other wont but I have switched off driver updates on the PC and it's as stable as a rock now. It's not ideal and it's expensive obviously but bitter experience in PC instability in the past has lead me here. The Mac is rock solid of course:LOL:
 
What about its cost compared to an actual Apple Mac?

I wasnt commenting on the value of pc vs mac but the spec for the money. If people want/need to use an Apple they'll pay for it, Apple resale value tends to much better than other products.
 
As long as you like the OS there's no doubt that PC's are much better value for money. Apple aren't front runners anymore, you only have to look at the iPhone for proof of that, yet they still charge crazy money, especially MacBook Pros. That being said, unless windows sort the OS out I can't see me leaving Apple. Since Windows 7 it's just gone downhill imo.

I do still like the ease of the Apple ecosystem though.

from a personal point of view, I would never go back to a Windows machine since I bought a MBP a few years back.

I have Windows for Work as they enforce it but having the choice, I would be Mac.

Our household is fully Apple though, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple TV’s (x3). Everything just works seamlessly and I love it. Wife and I can share iTunes purchases, photos and files etc, I just couldn’t go back to Android or Windows, never.

I bought Sonos for the same reason, everything just works.
 
I'll never go back to osx until they improve their sluggish performance and price and reliability of there hardware.

I have used Osx for like 3 or 4 year's for work and pleasure and ditched them 3 years ago.

Tried Windows and it was s lot better than Apple. I then tried Linux for half a year now and windows is still better
 
I have found that the main problem with Windows are the constant driver updates that Microsoft seem to think are necessary. There is obviously a need when there is new hardware coming out but these updates often cause massive instability to older machines that have been functioning very well previously although not everyone experiences these problems.
If you think PC updates are annoying, try owning a PS4 it seems to want to update one thing or another every other time I turn it on :banghead:


from a personal point of view, I would never go back to a Windows machine since I bought a MBP a few years back.

I have Windows for Work as they enforce it but having the choice, I would be Mac.

Our household is fully Apple though, iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, Apple TV’s (x3). Everything just works seamlessly and I love it. Wife and I can share iTunes purchases, photos and files etc, I just couldn’t go back to Android or Windows, never.

I bought Sonos for the same reason, everything just works.
Yep, they are great for this.
 
I'll never go back to osx until they improve their sluggish performance and price and reliability of there hardware.

I have used Osx for like 3 or 4 year's for work and pleasure and ditched them 3 years ago.

Tried Windows and it was s lot better than Apple. I then tried Linux for half a year now and windows is still better
You must have had a duff setup, sluggish and unreliable are not things I associate with Apple from my experience.
 
It's a lovely sunny day here. It's not totally clear as there's a bit of haze in the distance but overall it's a nice day and it'd be a lovely day for a long walk. We're still self isolating though and when I mentioned walking to the shops my sister got miffed so we're staying home.
 
You must have had a duff setup, sluggish and unreliable are not things I associate with Apple from my experience.
I beg to differ in regards to there crap keyboard.

I think they have tweaked it now but it took them a God awful time to fix it...

I'm quite a hardcore user in my system, windows seems to be the only os that can handle my workload smoothly.

I even gave Linux ago and still am.waiting for there New os update on Pop os.

I'll never go back to osx ever until they sort out performance and hardware customisation and costs.

You can't just slap on extra ram on your MacBook Pro like I'm about to do in my Linux laptopIMG_20200418_223541.jpg
 
It's a lovely sunny day here. It's not totally clear as there's a bit of haze in the distance but overall it's a nice day and it'd be a lovely day for a long walk. We're still self isolating though and when I mentioned walking to the shops my sister got miffed so we're staying home.
You're allowed to go out once/day for exercise (y)
I beg to differ in regards to there crap keyboard.

I think they have tweaked it now but it took them a God awful time to fix it...

I'm quite a hardcore user in my system, windows seems to be the only os that can handle my workload smoothly.

I even gave Linux ago and still am.waiting for there New os update on Pop os.

I'll never go back to osx ever until they sort out performance and hardware customisation and costs.

You can't just slap on extra ram on your MacBook Pro like I'm about to do in my Linux laptopView attachment 275788
Ok the keyboard thing was a mistake, but they did fix it eventually. My computers get a lot of hammer too. You've obviously had a different experience to me, but on the whole you don't see sluggish and unreliable as a general complaint (y)
 
My second job in computers was with Systime computers in something like 81/82 and Unix was quite new then. I thought it was god awful and I hated it. AT&T sold it to Novell, I hated Novel too. That was in the days when a 386 tower system with a 100mb hard drive was state of the art. I remember some version of Unix on Apricot MCA pc's, it was always causing problems as users used to turn them off not shutting them down correctly and it screwed the operating system up. Awful.
 
Yes but we're being watched by well meaning and helpful sis.
To be fair walking to the shops 'for the sake of it' ins't allowed, but going out for a nice walk to en joy the sunshine is. We've already been out walking Betty this morning,
 
My second job in computers was with Systime computers in something like 81/82 and Unix was quite new then. I thought it was god awful and I hated it. AT&T sold it to Novell, I hated Novel too. That was in the days when a 386 tower system with a 100mb hard drive was state of the art. I remember some version of Unix on Apricot MCA pc's, it was always causing problems as users used to turn them off not shutting them down correctly and it screwed the operating system up. Awful.

Crazy how far things have come since the 80s. I’m a bit younger than you so my first computing job was on a help desk, still had Windows NT for the 13k user estate, even that seems ancient now but really wasn’t that long ago!

Currently a Network and Voice engineer so spend most of my time doing VOIP stuff, currently trying to migrate from LDAP auth to Cert based Auth for our Softphone users. Learning about SAML SSO which is a little out of my comfort zone!
 
To be fair walking to the shops 'for the sake of it' ins't allowed, but going out for a nice walk to en joy the sunshine is. We've already been out walking Betty this morning,

We haven't been out for weeks now. The furthest I've been is next door to shove a shopping list and money through the letter box. I think I'm coping the best in our house :D but I am getting stressed as I can't get on with stuff.
 
We haven't been out for weeks now. The furthest I've been is next door to shove a shopping list and money through the letter box. I think I'm coping the best in our house :D but I am getting stressed as I can't get on with stuff.
That’s a shame, are you in the vulnerable category then?
 
I beg to differ in regards to there crap keyboard.

I think they have tweaked it now but it took them a God awful time to fix it...

I'm quite a hardcore user in my system, windows seems to be the only os that can handle my workload smoothly.

I even gave Linux ago and still am.waiting for there New os update on Pop os.

I'll never go back to osx ever until they sort out performance and hardware customisation and costs.

You can't just slap on extra ram on your MacBook Pro like I'm about to do in my Linux laptopView attachment 275788


I tried to play Warzone on my Win 10 pc yesterday but got a DirectX error.

I think my GT8600 graphics card needs an update :)

They're bloody expensive now though.

GT1060 Super would do me but £200?

Hmm
 
As long as you like the OS there's no doubt that PC's are much better value for money. Apple aren't front runners anymore, you only have to look at the iPhone for proof of that, yet they still charge crazy money, especially MacBook Pros. That being said, unless windows sort the OS out I can't see me leaving Apple. Since Windows 7 it's just gone downhill imo.

I do still like the ease of the Apple ecosystem though.

I‘ve loved the iMac until now but the problem is replacing it. Apple have made it as hard as possible to make small future future upgrades such as RAM or put in a newer larger hard drive. If I were to get a newer iMac I’d need to think about both what I need now and in the future. Charging £500 to upgrade the SSD to 1TB or £600 to add 32GB RAM to the 21.5 inch iMac takes the overal price up to £2549 and that’s without any processor or graphics upgrades. the cost and lack future hardware upgrades are two of the reasons I’m looking at every option. The other reason is I now need a monitor for my works laptop to work from home. It makes sense to have one monitor that I can connect to the works laptop and my own computer. There is a chance I may not fully leave as I could pick up a mac mini or a MacBook Pro if I can find the right spec at a good price second hand but well specced are usually few and far between.

I like the reliability and how everything from iPad, iPhone, MacBook to iMac has workEd seamlessly for the last 7 years.
 
Crazy how far things have come since the 80s. I’m a bit younger than you so my first computing job was on a help desk, still had Windows NT for the 13k user estate, even that seems ancient now but really wasn’t that long ago!

Currently a Network and Voice engineer so spend most of my time doing VOIP stuff, currently trying to migrate from LDAP auth to Cert based Auth for our Softphone users. Learning about SAML SSO which is a little out of my comfort zone!

Interesting stuff.

My first job in computers was with CDC when I was 21 so that'll be 82. I remember 10 and 20mb HDD that formatted down to half that after the bad tracks had been mapped. At Systime one thing I was fixing was SMD drives and it took two of us to pick the 20 or 30mb ones up. I think it was the 40mb one was permanently mounted on a trolley.

I did work on some stuff that didn't have a processor, it was all gated through logic and Texas Instruments 74 series chips ruled. I remember the cct diagrams for one thing had a page full of flip flops and people use to tear their hair out trying to work though them.

Other interesting stuff I remember include the ISL DRS 20/50's which I was told was the first network system that really worked, and Comart Communicators. Happy daze :D
 
That’s a shame, are you in the vulnerable category then?

I'm looking after a 91 yo with many issues. I have asthma due to using solder containing rosin in my computer days and coughed just about non stop for 10 years, it doesn't cause me any issues in daily life now and can run all day and not get out of breath etc but I tend to suffer when I get chesty things. Mrs WW has one of those weird blood disorders that only some ethnic groups get. Thankfully sis decided to do all the shopping so we can isolate.
 
The old mac vs p.c argument is funny. :ROFLMAO:

For many years I always had mac's, starting around 1990 when we got our first computer at home. From memory the first one we had was the Macintosh colour classic, over the years I also had:

iMac G3
iMac G4
Power Mac G4
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro
G4 cube
Mac Mini
iMac
iBook
Powerbook G4
Macbook
Macbook Pro

I wouldn't consider using them now though the last iMac and Macbook Pro I had at the time getting sold on some years ago. I used to love how reliable and fast they were especially when at the time programs like Photoshop etc. ran much quicker on a Mac than they did on Windows.

That all changed after Leopard and the software became much more buggier and unreliable, the hardware also stopped being anywhere near as good in terms of cost vs performance around the same time. I don't think it is any coincidence that they became much more popular with the general public around this time due to the success of the iPhone. With the "newer" Apple kit we had several serious hardware failures, mainly logic boards.

I then switched to Windows, in the end however it did come down to cost when I checked the price for the specification I wanted for the equivalent hardware I wanted at the time there was over a £2000 price difference between the two and I just couldn't justify it as the advantage wasn't there any more.

Been a happy windows user since, can't say I have ever had any major issues either. When we had Mac's we upgraded every 3/4 years and have pretty much done the same with the windows kit. I guess you could say that the Apple stuff fetched a bit more used when it came time to move it on but it was also much more expensive in the first instance so there wasn't really a difference there either. The costs of ownership for the windows stuff was still less.

My wife still likes Apple stuff and she has one of the last gen iMac's still, but she tends to use one of our Dell laptops more often now as the iMac is a fair bit slower. Me, my wife and my kids do all have iPhones and iPads but I couldn't ever see us buying another Apple computer again.
 
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The old mac vs p.c argument is funny. :ROFLMAO:

For many years I always had mac's, starting around 1990 when we got our first computer at home. From memory the first one we had was the Macintosh colour classic, over the years I also had:

iMac G3
iMac G4
Power Mac G4
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro
G4 cube
Mac Mini
iMac
iBook
Powerbook G4
Macbook
Macbook Pro

I wouldn't consider using them now though the last iMac and Macbook Pro I had at the time getting sold on some years ago. I used to love how reliable and fast they were especially when at the time programs like Photoshop etc. ran much quicker on a Mac than they did on Windows.

That all changed after Leopard and the software became much more buggier and unreliable, the hardware also stopped being anywhere near as good in terms of cost vs performance around the same time. I don't think it is any coincidence that they became much more popular with the general public around this time due to the success of the iPhone. With the "newer" Apple kit we had several serious hardware failures, mainly logic boards.

I then switched to Windows, in the end however it did come down to cost when I checked the price for the specification I wanted for the equivalent hardware I wanted at the time there was over a £2000 price difference between the two and I just couldn't justify it as the advantage wasn't there any more.

Been a happy windows user since, can't say I have ever had any major issues either. When we had Mac's we upgraded every 3/4 years and have pretty much done the same with the windows kit. I guess you could say that the Apple stuff fetched a bit more used when it came time to move it on but it was also much more expensive in the first instance so there wasn't really a difference there either. The costs of ownership for the windows stuff was still less.

My wife still likes Apple stuff and she has one of the last gen iMac's still, but she tends to use one of our Dell laptops more often now as the iMac is a fair bit slower. Me, my wife and my kids do all have iPhones and iPads but I couldn't ever see us buying another Apple computer again.

Same experience, same solutions (y)
 
I LOVED Mac's in the 90's, liked them in the 2000s, but owning one from 2009 was very disappointing, with buggy software and unreliable hardware - my experience matches the above. The thing that stopped me buying Apple was inability to upgrade MacBook pros, which made adequate spec too expensive to buy outright.
 
So many computers!

When I was in computers the house was full of them, maybe 20+? mostly little ones at some points but in the last 20+ years I'm only on my 3rd lap top, my 1st tablet and I've only ever bought two phones. I have two smart phones at the mo but one of them hasn't got a sim card and both were given to me.
 
So many computers!

When I was in computers the house was full of them, maybe 20+? mostly little ones at some points but in the last 20+ years I'm only on my 3rd lap top, my 1st tablet and I've only ever bought two phones. I have two smart phones at the mo but one of them hasn't got a sim card and both were given to me.

I get a new phone every 12 months because we trickle them down.

I upgrade and my missus gets my old phone, my eldest gets my wife’s old phone and my youngest gets my eldest old phone. My youngests old phone gets binned or given away.
 
You must have had a duff setup, sluggish and unreliable are not things I associate with Apple from my experience.

Do you recall our conversation a couple of days ago? The Macbook I had required a mobo replacement due to a common fault, but the guys in the Apple store (RTB only - no onsite with Apple) gave me a difficult time and warned I'd be charged £70 if the fault couldn't be replicated by their technicians, even though we'd produced the fault in their store.
 
Beautiful day here. Not a cloud in the sky. The complete opposite of yesterday. We've just done a 3.5 mile circular walk to drop my brothers birthday card off and have a chat with him and see his expectant wife - jeeez she's ballooned quickly! - and call in to get some dog food from the pet store. My other half had to get out, first 'walk' we've been on which is surprising as we normally walk miles every weekend.
 
I‘ve loved the iMac until now but the problem is replacing it. Apple have made it as hard as possible to make small future future upgrades such as RAM or put in a newer larger hard drive. If I were to get a newer iMac I’d need to think about both what I need now and in the future. Charging £500 to upgrade the SSD to 1TB or £600 to add 32GB RAM to the 21.5 inch iMac takes the overal price up to £2549 and that’s without any processor or graphics upgrades. the cost and lack future hardware upgrades are two of the reasons I’m looking at every option. The other reason is I now need a monitor for my works laptop to work from home. It makes sense to have one monitor that I can connect to the works laptop and my own computer. There is a chance I may not fully leave as I could pick up a mac mini or a MacBook Pro if I can find the right spec at a good price second hand but well specced are usually few and far between.

I like the reliability and how everything from iPad, iPhone, MacBook to iMac has workEd seamlessly for the last 7 years.
Yeah the cost of new ones is crazy. To get a 21.5" iMac with equivalent specs to my MBP you'd be talking £3k, and if I wanted the new MBP with slightly upgraded specs it would be over £4k :eek:
I'm looking after a 91 yo with many issues. I have asthma due to using solder containing rosin in my computer days and coughed just about non stop for 10 years, it doesn't cause me any issues in daily life now and can run all day and not get out of breath etc but I tend to suffer when I get chesty things. Mrs WW has one of those weird blood disorders that only some ethnic groups get. Thankfully sis decided to do all the shopping so we can isolate.
Ahh, sorry to hear about all that. Definitely makes sense to self isolate then. I can only hope you have a nice garden to sit in (y)
The old mac vs p.c argument is funny. :ROFLMAO:

For many years I always had mac's, starting around 1990 when we got our first computer at home. From memory the first one we had was the Macintosh colour classic, over the years I also had:

iMac G3
iMac G4
Power Mac G4
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro
G4 cube
Mac Mini
iMac
iBook
Powerbook G4
Macbook
Macbook Pro

I wouldn't consider using them now though the last iMac and Macbook Pro I had at the time getting sold on some years ago. I used to love how reliable and fast they were especially when at the time programs like Photoshop etc. ran much quicker on a Mac than they did on Windows.

That all changed after Leopard and the software became much more buggier and unreliable, the hardware also stopped being anywhere near as good in terms of cost vs performance around the same time. I don't think it is any coincidence that they became much more popular with the general public around this time due to the success of the iPhone. With the "newer" Apple kit we had several serious hardware failures, mainly logic boards.

I then switched to Windows, in the end however it did come down to cost when I checked the price for the specification I wanted for the equivalent hardware I wanted at the time there was over a £2000 price difference between the two and I just couldn't justify it as the advantage wasn't there any more.

Been a happy windows user since, can't say I have ever had any major issues either. When we had Mac's we upgraded every 3/4 years and have pretty much done the same with the windows kit. I guess you could say that the Apple stuff fetched a bit more used when it came time to move it on but it was also much more expensive in the first instance so there wasn't really a difference there either. The costs of ownership for the windows stuff was still less.

My wife still likes Apple stuff and she has one of the last gen iMac's still, but she tends to use one of our Dell laptops more often now as the iMac is a fair bit slower. Me, my wife and my kids do all have iPhones and iPads but I couldn't ever see us buying another Apple computer again.
Mountain Lion was great for me, then they did get a little 'buggy' after this (nowhere near as windows from my experience though), but since high Sierra when they changed the whole way the OS and Macs work (I'm not clever enough to understand it but apparently it was a massive overhaul) then they've been great again,.... from my experience.

But there'll always be arguments over which is best, just like Canon vs Nikon, and iPhone vs Androids. TBH I couldn't give a hoots, and always get what works best for me (y).
Do you recall our conversation a couple of days ago? The Macbook I had required a mobo replacement due to a common fault, but the guys in the Apple store (RTB only - no onsite with Apple) gave me a difficult time and warned I'd be charged £70 if the fault couldn't be replicated by their technicians, even though we'd produced the fault in their store.
I don't tbh, but that's nothing new for me :LOL: But that's crap tbh, and like anything there's always going to be a few bad apples and someone getting poor service :(
 
The old mac vs p.c argument is funny. :ROFLMAO:

For many years I always had mac's, starting around 1990 when we got our first computer at home. From memory the first one we had was the Macintosh colour classic, over the years I also had:

iMac G3
iMac G4
Power Mac G4
Power Mac G5
Mac Pro
G4 cube
Mac Mini
iMac
iBook
Powerbook G4
Macbook
Macbook Pro

I wouldn't consider using them now though the last iMac and Macbook Pro I had at the time getting sold on some years ago. I used to love how reliable and fast they were especially when at the time programs like Photoshop etc. ran much quicker on a Mac than they did on Windows.

That all changed after Leopard and the software became much more buggier and unreliable, the hardware also stopped being anywhere near as good in terms of cost vs performance around the same time. I don't think it is any coincidence that they became much more popular with the general public around this time due to the success of the iPhone. With the "newer" Apple kit we had several serious hardware failures, mainly logic boards.

I then switched to Windows, in the end however it did come down to cost when I checked the price for the specification I wanted for the equivalent hardware I wanted at the time there was over a £2000 price difference between the two and I just couldn't justify it as the advantage wasn't there any more.

Been a happy windows user since, can't say I have ever had any major issues either. When we had Mac's we upgraded every 3/4 years and have pretty much done the same with the windows kit. I guess you could say that the Apple stuff fetched a bit more used when it came time to move it on but it was also much more expensive in the first instance so there wasn't really a difference there either. The costs of ownership for the windows stuff was still less.

My wife still likes Apple stuff and she has one of the last gen iMac's still, but she tends to use one of our Dell laptops more often now as the iMac is a fair bit slower. Me, my wife and my kids do all have iPhones and iPads but I couldn't ever see us buying another Apple computer again.

I think it depends what you do on it.

Spec for spec you can usually get a Windows machine for far less than a Mac, I doubt most people would try and argue against that. I know my MacBook likely cost 1.5-2x the same spec Windows laptop but for me, having everything work seamlessly is worth the additional cost. I edit photos and videos on my current 2018 MacBook Air and sure, it could be a bit quicker at times but its never bothered me.

What I love about it is that if I take a picture on my iPhone, its available on my MacBook to use without me needing do anything. I can then just grab the MacBook without worrying about how much battery I have more often than not because it lasts hours and hours. Open the lid and stick my finger on the reader, boom.....I can be going within seconds. I can buy stuff on iTunes, watch some on the MacBook then go upstairs to the bedroom to watch the rest on the Apple TV. Its slick, its quick for the average user and it just works seamlessly and that's which I pay the extra.

My work laptop is a HP G6 so i7 with 16GB of RAM and its not slow when in use but I just don't enjoy using it, even with an SSD its about 3x the time to boot up compared to the MacBook and trying to sync files via things like Onedrive is a faff, I save them on the laptop and they just never seem to sync quickly enough to my phone or other devices. Plus the battery on the laptop is about half the MacBook meaning I have to carry a charger round if I go out.

Its what works best for you but even my Wife who had no interest in Macs now grabs mine to use instead of her own Windows laptop as she can get what she needs done quicker than it takes her Windows one just to get to the point its functional
 
I had a daft half hour yesterday.

I thought I'd sell my Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 and get the 35 and 50mm f1.2's. That'd give me a really compact f1.4 but with wild bokeh at f1.x in some circumstances and quality 35 and 50mm f1.2's to add to my excellent 50mm f2. And then I thought I was being mad as 40mm isn't radically different to either 35 or 50 and I should stick with what I've got. I might.
 
I love IOS, if Windows licence is worth £20, I am happy to pay £100 for Mac OS. I just like it more.

Most people compare between windows and macs concentrate on like for like spec on paper only. What they always leave out are

1 - Size
2 - Noise
3 - Design
4 - Build quality
5 - OS/UI
6 - Software
7 - Apple support, actual physical store you can go into, if you had to
8 - iPhone/MBP/iPad ecosystem integration.

Are those worth £0 and not worth consideration?

I look beyond cost of a CPU off a shelve vs Apple cost, I look at the overall cost, user experience. A PC might be £2,000, the same Mac might be £3,000. But I am still using my iMac. Cost me £2,000 in late 2012. Almost 8 years and I haven't formatted it once, still runs just the same.

I would be on my 3rd PC rig had I been on windows, that was the regularity that I was changing up window machines before switching to Apple, I used to format every year minimum to keep it running smoothly. A PC might be £2,000 out of the gate, but over 8 years I would be £6k down. Right now, I am still only £2,000 down...saving myself £4,000, or at minimum, I would have at least upgraded once since, call that £2,000 saving.

lr35cFS.png


I'd love to know those who uses Windows, how old is their main machine. I bet 99% of them are newer than 2012.

There is one downside with getting an iMac which I will rectify next time, it is when I upgrade, I retire the entire machine including the screen. It is good and bad, but I would love to keep the screen, so next machine is probably be Mac Mini + e-GPU with my own screen.
 
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Well, I’ve made the first step to leave the apple universe today. I’ve been researching my options to replace my 2012 iMac for the last year or so. The high cost of replacing with one of the latest models and lack of future self upgrade options looks like it will push me back to a PC. My work had upgraded our laptops recently and that was also a factor as I wont be logging in via my iMac anymore and will need a screen to work from home comfortably. I guess I could still look at the iMac mini but it feels like a PC would be a better bang for buck option.
Don’t do it !!
 
We are all apple in this household. Bought a refurbed mac mini (2.6 GHz quad core, 16GB ram, 1.12 TB fusion drive) in 2015 and coule not be happier with it after having windows pcs for 30ish years. It’s quiet and other than upgrade the OS have never needed to do anything and it runs Luminar 4 and Lightroom pretty speedily.
 
Could I have some lens help please ?

I have the folllowing for my A7r iii -
Samyang 18mm f2.8 - it’s a keeper as it’s sharp, tiny and wide.
Samyang 35mm f2.8 - again a keeper as it’s tiny and sharp and I like the focal length.

I also had the 28-70 but it was front focusing :(
Do I try another 24-70 or go for the much more expensive 24-70 f4 or even more expensive Tamron 28-75 ?

The problem is that I like a lightweight kit and to me the 2 lenses above aren’t exactly light weight.

I could make it all prime set up and buy something like the 55mm but not sure how much I would use it ? And due to the dust issue I don’t want to keep swapping it over all the time !

thanks
 
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