What are sony A7x's really like?

I didn't get on with the a7 ergonomics, found the auto iso implementation flawed and high iso performance worse than that of my 6D. I also didn't enjoy shooting SLR lenses on it which were simply too big and bulky for a small system.

I would assume the experience with native lenses is better however. I've moved to Fuji (brilliant with native lenses) for most purposes and kept my 6D to use with manual and longer lenses.
 
Which fuji and lens you went for?
 
What it like AF speed and 6400 ISO possiblyn12800
 
rookies said:
What it like AF speed and 6400 ISO possiblyn12800
Click to expand...

For Fuji? AF is fine in decent light, reasonable in low light. ISO 6400 is nice enough as the X-Trans sensor has a really pleasing noise profile. ISO 12800 is an extended setting and a step too far, however with the fast primes available I've not needed it anyway :)
 
I'm working up to buying a 6D and 24-105 to replace my 650D and 17-55. I shoot a bit of everything but my favourite stuff is low light gig photography. I do long exposure and lightpainting too, and some landscape and portrait but what I really want is better images at higher ISO. Should I consider an A7? I also shoot full manual a lot...am a bit concerned about ergonomics etc on the Sony...
 
The problem with Fuji is ISO6400 isn't really ISO6400 its about 4200 in comparison to other manufacturers. The raw files are kinda mushy because they are baked in camera. The positives are great jpg output, excellent skin tones and very good handling with nice native prime lenses.

I never liked my a7 much but I'm amazed by the output of the a7S. It is miles ahead of Fuji's x trans.
 
landwomble said:
I'm working up to buying a 6D and 24-105 to replace my 650D and 17-55. I shoot a bit of everything but my favourite stuff is low light gig photography. I do long exposure and lightpainting too, and some landscape and portrait but what I really want is better images at higher ISO. Should I consider an A7? I also shoot full manual a lot...am a bit concerned about ergonomics etc on the Sony...
Click to expand...

If ergonomics concern you then it's like most cameras, you may like it, you may hate it. Try it first.
 
Hard isn't it Ian. Which one u leaning toward at moment. As going sell my canon gear for sony
 
manualfocus-g said:
For Fuji? AF is fine in decent light, reasonable in low light. ISO 6400 is nice enough as the X-Trans sensor has a really pleasing noise profile. ISO 12800 is an extended setting and a step too far, however with the fast primes available I've not needed it anyway :)
Click to expand...
How do you find your 6D for low light, I know it's meant to be better than the 5Diii. Do you get nice images at night with ISO6400? Night shooting is what I mostly do so it was a no brainer that I included the 6D in my options for my upgrade to FF. I just haven;t asked many questions about it because I borrowed my sisters for about a week over Christams, I just can't find my pictures from it just now to check the high ISO ones.
 
rookies said:
Guys from What the A7 II like compare to the S and R?

I know S is the king for Low light
R is MP

what the A7 II

Also what is AF like on these for still shots/? I would of that Tracking won't be as fast as a 5D MKiii
Click to expand...

The A7II is an update of the A7 with changes to the grip, shutter button placement and in body IS.

When the A7 and A7r came out I went for the A7 as I thought that 24mp would be enough for me coming from Canon 20D and 5D. I didn't think that I needed 36mp and I still don't think that I do. The A7 also has electronic first curtain shutter.... what that means I don't really care :D but it makes the shutter a smidge quieter :D

I find the AF perfectly ok. People on line seem to whinge and wine but I don't have a problem but I don't use tracking and I'm happy with just one focus point. On the plus side there's no front / back focus or micro adjust silliness.

Ref. the earlier comment about the 6D being better in low light. This comparison site...

http://snapsort.com/compare/Canon-EOS-6D-vs-Sony-A7

...says "The 6D has a slight edge (0.1 f-stops) in low noise, high ISO performance" which I personally doubt is significant in the real world and there's also the question of noise reduction smearing v detail retention and I believe that the Sony is better than the Canon in that regard. I'd take the A7 and it's greater dynamic range (2.1 stops according to the link above and 10% better image quality, whatever that means and 20% more detail captured with the A7 too again according to that site.) over the 6D any day of the week. Actually another reason I'd not go for a 6D is that I like shooting with wide apertures and the 6D has a max shutter speed of 1/4000 which means using ND's or being limited to f2.8 or smaller whereas the A7 will shoot at 1/8000 and allows me to shoot with a 50mm f1.4 at f1.4 in good light.

If I had to go for a DSLR these days I'd go Nikon, Canon are too far behind the cutting edge these days IMVHO and although a lot of things wont matter in the real world IMVHO the extra dynamic range of the Sony chips does matter and Canon just can't compete with Sony and Nikon on DR..

One massive plus for me with the A7 and other mirrorless systems is that manual focus is a breeze and if you have the time for focus manually I think it's the way to go as with the magnified view it's like shooting macro at a distance and you can pick your point of focus more accurately than any auto focus system can. AF is fast and it'll focus on something but with manual focus and a magnified view you get to chose exactly what the point of focus is. AF just can't match that.

The A7 is the best cameras I've ever had and I'd have to have a gun put to my head before I went back to a Canon DSLR or indeed any conventional DSLR.
 
twist said:
Yup, its superb.
Click to expand...
I suppose to overcome the low pixel count if you want to print big you could always do a panorama. Obviously this can't be done all the time but if you're doing landscapes, night shots etc then it's possible.

The low MP is why it's so good in low light, can;t have everything lol :(
 
Last edited:
twist said:
@jonneymendoza Another killer feature of the A7S is completely silent shutter option, as in no noise at all. None of the other A7 models have that.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes and yes.

One thing that has been repeated many times on line is that A7 series cameras have a noisy shutter. I've never found it to be a real world issue outside of places I wouldn't use any camera that made a noise and in fact I prefer the sound of my A7 to the sound my 20D used to make. That was a loud camera and always made me think of an anvil landing in a tin bath, I often cringed when shooting. In the real world I don't think the sound of my A7 is an issue unless in situations where I wouldn't use any noise making camera.

I agree that a silent shutter is a major plus and I'd love my next top end camera to have that ability. My GX7 has it.

As I've said a few times on this forum, if the A7s had been out at the time I got my A7 I'd probably have bought the s. 12mp always seemed enough when I had my 5D and the reported image quality up to very high ISO setting plus the ability to shoot without making a sound are very persuasive things... :D
 
Last edited:
woof woof said:
made me think of an anvil landing in a tin bath
Click to expand...

LOL.

I was using my A5100 to shoot video the other day and I thought Id take stills while that was filming, obviously the clanking of a shutter wouldve been bad, then I thought.... silent shutter :D
 
twist said:
@jonneymendoza Ive checked and...

A1 @ 12mp = roughly 125ppi
A2 @ 12mp = roughly 175ppi
A3 @ 12mp = roughly 245ppi
Click to expand...

I hope that you mean MP. A milli-pixel is a bit small ;)

My Leica M8 has only 10MP but I can barely tell the difference between a full frame print A3+ print from that camera from a full print from the A7 and both are capable of exhibition quality prints. The great virtue of a larger sensor seems to be in flexibility and cropping capacity.
 
Advice please:

I want to do some time lapse photography and find the battery life of the Sony A7 very limiting.

Mains ac power isn't generally available on location so I wonder if any forum members have experience of alternative ways of extending the operational time.
 
Cap'n Bill said:
Advice please:

I want to do some time lapse photography and find the battery life of the Sony A7 very limiting.

Mains ac power isn't generally available on location so I wonder if any forum members have experience of alternative ways of extending the operational time.
Click to expand...

 
The first thing to spring to mind is to turn off wifi.

*** Edit *** Or, better still, use that thing :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top