Chasing Aurora with the A7s
Why I don`t use DSLR cameras (Enrique Pacheco).
Should we really hate Sony ? (Dear Susan).
We pair the new Sony 35mm f/1.4 FE Zeiss Distagon with the A7 II for an initial gallery sampling (Imaging Resource).
The Sony A7 MkII ILCE-7M2 Review – Hand Held Video (Soundimagesplus).
Zeiss 50mm f2 Loxia review at ThePhoBlographer.
Sony A7r with the Canon 11-24mm f4 : Ultra-wide angle on a high megapixel setup (Josselin Cornou).
Sony A7m2 with Samyang 14mm f2.8 (SonyAlphaForum).
Vytas: “Some news for Sony A7 owners – proof positive that it is definitely worthwhile to upgrade to A7II if you are a night shooter. The two photographs below were taken of the same scene, lens, aperture, iso, etc. The first one was with an A7 and shows the nasty green goblins of flare, whereas the second one with an A7II is perfectly clear! All my night photos are flawless now, and while the A7II has the same sensor as the A7, the A7II has nevertheless definitely improved the overall quality of my photographs through better AF and IBIS.
A7 Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72914878@N04/15852608288/
A7II Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/72914878@N04/16037278864/”
Boon: “I’ve recently posted about the Sony A6000 and images of my Yorkshire terrier running in the field and of a Red Kite bird-in-flight with the Sony A6000 and FE 70-200mm lens.
http://myphotojourney.co.uk/rosie-in-the-park-sony-a6000/ And http://myphotojourney.co.uk/bird-in-flight-kite/“
31 Responses
For and against articles are so canned. I can list plenty of reasons why I don’t shoot mirror less (Although I do). Here you go:
1) Fly by wire sucks and most of them are just that.
2) Your forced to compose with the camera on. For serious work, DSLR’s offer a better experience when taking a “wait for it” approach to wildlife and street photography.
3) Bigger camera equals better ergonomics, chunkier dials and larger buttons. Less fiddling around
4) Focusing- mirrorless not there yet. Not even close when it comes to rack focusing.
5) Vintage lenses are over rated. Canon, Nikon and third party manufacturers offer enough lenses already to choke a horse in these mounts.
6) DSLR’s are at the Zenith of their performance with “complete” systems. No waiting for anything.
7) DSLR’s keep getting lighter. Everything keeps getting lighter!!
8) EVF data is over rated and more a cost cutting measure for manufacturers moving forward.
9) Canon and Nikon pro support. Ok, canon.
10) Wake up time, dual card slots yet to be on Sony mirror less, yada yada yada.
1. lenses from other manufacturers also use electronic manual focus. I.e canon 85mm f1.2.
2. Really….you shoot street scene and wildlife with your camera off…
3. Nonsense
4. So all those cinema cameras and focus pullers using EVF have got it wrong?!?
5. What does that have to do with mirror-less…….Nothing
6. DSLR are at the peak of their technology…but at the same time that has become a dead end…
7. You just answered your own point…everything gets lighter.
8. EVF data?? what?? Yes mirror-less technology give you more bang for your buck..correct
9. Sony also has Pro support.
10. Am yet to need a dual card slot yada yada yada…I guess because I don’t shoot jpeg.
Ever shot weddings or other events and your card had a failure? Happens from time to time and to mirror raw files is important. I still like OVF and the DSLR ergonomics when shooting for longer stretches. The D750, for example, is just right. Fits my hands better with much more comfortable button layout. So far, the A7x series is not replacing my Nikon D810, D750 or D4 bodies in performance. I have the A7ii for backup and will use the new 28mm for wide angle shots or in good light with the 55mm. Let’s see what the A9 brings us.
So dslr is a dead end ? For whom? I guess for Sony because Sony loves to do it the easy way to make money
Not by convincing the customer (it’s too tough),
but by forcing him (it’s easier) take it or leave it.
But when sony will see that making real cameras is not easy then they drop it and focus on the sensors and all Fanboys will face the truth.
“but by forcing him (it’s easier) take it or leave it.” lol forcing what? nobody forcing you or me to throw away our dslr, for us customer it’s good to see variety of option in the market.
I’m just trying to show that you can do these for and against quite easily, but they never stack up. It’s all about who’s pulling the facts. Yes, I actually do use my camera off a lot for wildlife (not A7 of course). If I’m birding there are lengthy times of just waiting. But I”m constantly checking my composition, etc. through the viewfinder. Composing through the viewfinder without having to turn the canera on shouldn’t be under estimated. This works in numerous situations.
And yes, to a degree, it is nonsnese! That’s the whole point. I’m tired of lists from “pros” trying to tell you why they switched. It’s more about user preference than any real advantage.
1. Fly by wire indeed sucks, but most modern gear out there is exactly that, mirrorless or DSLR. Draw.
2. True, but I’d like to see how many people actually compose before turning on their DSLR. This is more of a plus in specific environments, such as -30C where you want to save the battery. And it is mitigated by the lack of control of aperture on some lenses (Canon, for example).
3. No. Weight is an essential part of ergonomics.
4. No. Same as 3., bad generalization. Mirrorless with EVFs are way better for MF.
5. Vintage sense are underrated. Cannon may offer enough lenses, but at what price?
6. True. But what comes after?
7. Including mirrorless.
8. How is a live histogram overrated? That’s probably one of the most useful tools that came with digital. Or, focus peaking? Zoom focus? Level?… all of these and some others are very useful tools.
9. Now Sony too.
10. Agreed, but that’s just two small points. Can’t count in the yada.
Live histogram is only partly useful, unfortunately (as is histogram on DSLRs), as it is generated out of JPGs, not true RAW data. That would be really useful to decouple Preview JPG from RAW to be able to properly ETTR. UNIWB is possible, but the greenish previews on the lcd look ugly.
Partly useful in and of itself. Agreed. Same goes for the light meter though. However, as an additional tool to judge what you are getting, I stand by what I said – probably one of the most useful tools that came with digital.
LOL. So true!
>Why I don`t use DSLR cameras (Enrique Pacheco).
Once again, this guy presents EVF / absence of moving mirror as an advantage of mirrorless cameras, though you DON’T need a mirrorless camera for that. Sony A77 / A99 use an EVF just fine.
And then again with the bogus size advantage. It’s due to the FE’s slow lenses, not due to the mirrorless design!
It’s like all those articles are written by the same person…
In my opinion this is a lousy propaganda to convince the Dslr loyalists to spend (waste) the money for a mirrorless system without one good reason and with all your gear changed over night from native to poorly adapted.
So you go out and slowly but surely put in more money to build up a native system ones again. That’s called “refreshing a fed up market”. Nobody cares a dime for improving photography, it’s only about making money. Unlinited iso, unlinited speed, unlimited size, but nobody cares about what you like in your toolbox.
Times are long gone. The amount of picture are rising yes, but The art of photography is disappearing.
“it’s only about making money”
Unfortunately, whether you like it or not, this is a simple unavoidable truth. Certainly we would all like a company to provide us with perfect cameras and lenses that have cost hundreds of millions to develop and manufacture, yet sell them for 10 dollars each. It simply can’t happen! They produce tools which allow people to take pictures. No more, no less. That they have to make money doing so is self-evident.
Your idea that camera manufacturers have any bearing on the ‘art’ of photography is also misplaced. In fact, I would think that those involved in producing cameras are passionate about doing so, but they can’t afford to ignore economic realities or sheer physical limitations.
That they have given us the quality of products available should make us grateful. If we choose to use them with little thought, or effort, that is certainly not their fault.
I don’t expect lenses for 10 bucks. I know very well how much work is put into this things.
What makes me angry is simply the fact that Sony puts all the work into e-mount telling us it is innovation and can’t be done using A- mount.
No 36 mpix, no A88, no futher A-mount lenses.
A77II Is still the best camera AF wise of the bunch.
In the end E-mount will be a clone of A-mount with the difference we had to waste money to copy our A-mount system in E-mount. But guess what, it won’t happen. I keep my A-mount. If sony will provide further A-mount nice, if not there are other ways to take pictures.
Whether we like it or not, or whether we agree with it or not, Sony has to make decisions based on economic grounds first and foremost.
Perhaps they felt that it would have been too expensive to try to compete directly following the DSLR route, or that the future was almost certainly going to be mirrorless, so it was better to put most investment there.
Yes, I would love for them to have had a bottomless pit of money to keep everyone happy, but they don’t.
Personally, I don’t think their cameras are perfect by any means, but I do think they are on the right track.
Did I have a bucketload of A mount? Yes (pretty well everything from 16mm fisheye to 300mm f2.8). Did it cost to switch? Damn right it did! Am I angry about it? Not in the slightest.
For me it is important when I’ ve to repay for things I already own and which are still great.
That happens only because
somebody has decided to hook some canikons and change mount-diameter.
Mirrorless works easy using a A-mount body but can’t adapt Canikon on it! Think about that.
Canikons are still more important for Sony then its loyal A-mount base.
For Sony these loyalists will behave like lemmings, they will jump if they are told to do so.
Nobody who talks about DSLR means Sonys SLT. So, did you really misunderstood what Enrique was trying to say? Or did you just wanted to misunderstand?
Did you even read my comment? It’s not about the name of the article, it’s about its content.
Simply because SLT is not an option for Canikons it doesn’t mean it does not exists.
In the world of “Sony is charming Canikon user” you are right.
There is only DSLR vs.Mirrorless.
But the world of Sony is not that focused – SLT was a valid alternative in the past years (to drive money out off their loyalist pockets) and still is a better alternative in many ways.
It is not an alternative for Canikons with a bunch of spricy lenses to adapt and looking for a innovative change in their workflow.
If Canon or Nikon would have the drive in innovation like Sony nobody would care less for the A7-series.
They should add a remark on all these articles:
“This is a Commercial-Article aimed for Canikon user only. Not intended for A-Mount user, especally for those who know about SLT already.”
The fact is they try to convince with the statment
“hey this camera is a POS but I choose it over every other camera only because it’s a Sony.
It is “innovative” and cares for a not finished product which implies an investment of $4k+. After all I love half backed things!”
The article shows what Sony is doing with Photography . It will never improve for the customer, it will always innovate to attract the interest and therefore destroy the serious market of photography. Everybody will end up using a smart watch / smart glasses to take picture. If and only you are aloud to use this things in public spaces. If like to use a Dslr you have to go to b& the antic shop around the corner , thats the innovation we’re talking about.
Nice work Göran! Love it.
The Vytas comparison of the A7 to the A7II seems flawed. The A7 exposure is 30 seconds at F/11, 400 iso whole the A7II is 10 seconds at F/11, 400 iso. Why the longer shutter speed? Did lighting conditions change?
And I didn’t notice at first that the shots were taken more than two months apart.
A 10 second exposure of the lighting in that photo is easily enough to test whether there are any problems with sensor reflections.
I also doubt the time period between the two photos will prejudice the results!
I am not so sure. Since the sensor is the same and all other parameters are the same (aperture, iso), the exposure speed difference means that the scene taken with the A7 must have been at least two stops darker. The difference might be irrelevant for flare, but according to this guy:
http://digital-photography-school.com/night-photography/
“Notice the green lens flare in the top corner – this may have been
avoided by removing the filter or having a faster shutter speed. The
jury’s out. This was a 30 second exposure at f/22.”
All I’m saying is the test does not prove what is claimed and could be misleading.
I’ve seen other tests that show the same result, less ghosting with the A7II for night shots.
The sound imageless video on a7 II video simulation was totally shot by an ex 70s porn DOP
Beautiful images, tough to find and even tougher to make.
What this pacheco guy really means: I use Sony and mommy says I am special…
Looking at this emaciated guy, a real pro camera would crush his puny frame…
I’m really sorry, that your mom didn’t say that to you, but that is really no excuse to make jokes like a 5th grader.