Sony A7r : The Downsizing Saga - DPChallenge Forums

12/18/2014 09:11:11 PM · #101

Actually, the lighter the camera is, the more you need mass in the tripod to keep things steady. That can be accomplished by hanging a weight on the tripod, though.

In further news, the transition is basically a fait accompli now: the 16-35mm Zeiss lens was delivered today, the 7D is gone, Penny's got an a7 and a couple lenses coming, and ALL the Canon lenses are on the block now basically. They've been listed in Craigslist, so if anyone's interested get moving :-) The 5d2 is available, also.

Message edited by author 2014-12-18 21:11:31.

Garry

Canon EOS-7D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/18/2014 09:18:39 PM · #102

How's Penny liking the A7?

12/18/2014 10:12:02 PM · #103

Originally posted by Garry:

How's Penny liking the A7?

It's on oder from B&H, it and the lenses will arrive Monday. I'll see if we can't do a comparo :-)

12/19/2014 01:10:22 AM · #104

I'll be very intrested to know how the 16-35 performs Bear.

12/22/2014 11:57:37 PM · #105

Originally posted by jagar:

I'll be very interested to know how the 16-35 performs Bear.

It seems to be an excellent lens, less barrel distortion at 16mm than the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8, which is an excellent lens. There's the f/4 vs f/2.8 tradeoff, but the Sony's stabilized, which helps a lot. I'm happy with the tradeoff. I started with the Sony>Canon adapter from Metabones and the Canon mounted, but that was SO bulky, quite a bit heavier, and the adapter protruded, messing of the mounting of a tripod plate. We'd seen the Zeiss/Sony 16-35 at the Sony store and loved it, but we were only buying the one lens there and the 24-70 was the obvious choice. Let me dig up something simple I shot with the 16-35...

Message edited by author 2014-12-23 00:24:47.

Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical MF Wide Angle - Black

12/23/2014 01:00:24 AM · #106

Silly me doesn't know how to see the full sized image ?

Paul

Leica SL

12/23/2014 03:44:35 AM · #107

Looked at an A7 yesterday and here's the trouble. When it is in manual selection of focus points mode I can easily roll the focus selector around using the four pad buttons, but use too much pressure and the central button gets pressed changing the mode of the function, the pad buttons are now changing the white balance! Infuriating, I now have to go back in to the menu to be able to continue shooting as I would like.

A question for those who own any of the A7 variants - is there a work-around?

Thanks

Paul

12/23/2014 05:59:52 AM · #108

Go into custom key settings on the second page set right button to focus area, left button to drive mode, down button to focus settings and center button to focus magnifier, like this if you are doing what I thing you are doing all you acidently change is the size of the focus spot. The white balance thing used to happen to me so I changed it, once you get used to giving small impulsions instead of leaving your finger pressed on there it's no longer an issue, doesn't happen to me any more at all.

Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical MF Wide Angle - Black

12/23/2014 06:03:31 AM · #109

It is not the center button you are accidentally pressing its the outside ring that you accidentally turn while pressing.

Paul

Leica SL

12/23/2014 06:07:39 AM · #110

Thanks John

Goodness! I didn't even notice the ring!

Can it be prevented? Is there a more elegant and uninterferable way of 'pickling' focus points?

Thanks

Paul

Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/1.7 Aspherical MF Wide Angle - Black

12/23/2014 06:23:58 AM · #111

Not sue Paul, I'm happy just leaving mine on flexible medium spot and moving it about. If I'm using AF the first thing I do when I see a scene is move the box to where I want it, I do this when getting into position and before bringing the camera upto my face.

Paul

Leica SL

12/23/2014 06:40:15 AM · #112

I can see how that would work John. For me, I'm think about my model work, how I would get the focus on the eyes, especially when I'm using narrow depths of field. Also - it's about spot metering, does the spot metering follow the focus point? Having said that I often default to manual exposures for backlit subjects even with my 5D3.

Tiberius

Samsung Galaxy S22, S22+, S22 Ultra

Panasonic Lumix G 14mm F2.5 ASPH

12/23/2014 07:29:35 AM · #113

Very interesting saga! I even went to Sony shop and played a bit with the cameras. Luckily I am still happy with my 6D and the lens I have.

I'll be watching this thread

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/23/2014 09:36:01 AM · #114

Originally posted by Paul:

The Sony's have Face Detection and as part of that eye detection. That might be a faster way to work if it seems to work reliably. (I tested an A6000 for a while, and that did work well.)

The new A7ii is supposed to have better autofocus than the A7.

The way Sony cranks them out, I presume there will be a newer A7Rii and eventually a A7S too.

I'm shopping but torn myself. I really want to move to a smaller system and I love the using the EVF on my FZ1000...and I want great landscape capability, but also I am tired of noise in the pictures at higher ISOs (which isn't bad but is amplified by processing unless you use noise reduction which I don't like). I was thinking about the Fujis, though their ISOs are 2/3 stop exaggerated, and its a bit of a step down to 16MP for landscapes. But they do seem to have the best high ISO performance, short of an A7S. One interesting thing about the Sony's is that you could always buy the A7S as a low noise machine, the A7R for landscapes, and share lenses in between. But I was looking at DPReview last night and the A7's don't seem to have ISO noise levels even as good as their Nikon sensor-siblings. (I thought the A6000 was very noisy too).

What's your end-user take on noise levels Bear?

12/23/2014 10:46:16 AM · #115

Originally posted by Neil:

What's your end-user take on noise levels Bear?

a7r noise seems to be better than 5D2. Haven't checked out the a7 yet, just came last night and Penny's taking it slow :-) This one's ISO 3200 with the a7r, for whatever that's worth...

I certainly have no complaints in that regard.

12/23/2014 10:47:10 AM · #116

Originally posted by jagar:

Silly me doesn't know how to see the full sized image ?

It seems that we can't do that anymore now that we have auto-resizing for 1200px images :-(

ETA: just talked to Landon, it's an inadvertent consequence of the size change, he'll fix it for us possibly as soon as tonight.

Message edited by author 2014-12-23 11:06:44.

12/23/2014 11:24:29 AM · #117

Both my A7 and A7r have better high ISO than the fuji X pro that my partener now uses. The other day I accidentally shot for a whole morning in town on the A7r at ISO 3200, there was hardly any difference in quality in my opinion.

Paul I'm always on multi metering mode, seems to be fine for what I shoot.

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM

12/23/2014 11:46:26 AM · #118

One thing I find really useful on the Sony is the possibility to set the AF/MF button to control hold, like this I'm always in AF but all i have to do is hold the button and I'm in MF, for me it falls perfectly under my thumb and I use it all the time, I also set the peaking level to high, that really helps. the AEL button is set to toggle but I hardly ever use it.

Cory

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV

12/23/2014 12:28:13 PM · #119

Originally posted by jagar:

The RX1 is cool like that too, half-press in DMF mode will first AF, then give you MF control with a center-zoom (location adjustable) for fine adjustment. Works darn fine.

12/24/2014 11:28:49 AM · #120

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Originally posted by jagar:
Silly me doesn't know how to see the full sized image ?

It seems that we can't do that anymore now that we have auto-resizing for 1200px images :-(

ETA: just talked to Landon, it's an inadvertent consequence of the size change, he'll fix it for us possibly as soon as tonight.

It's FIXED! Yay, Langdon!

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

12/24/2014 11:45:01 AM · #121

The quality looks great Bear, if I were to buy a zoom lens that would be the one. If they come out with a longer bright prime I could also be tempted.

Spork99

OM System OM-1

12/24/2014 03:15:45 PM · #122

I tried the A7 at the camera store today. It's a lovely camera, and if I traded in my 5d mkII along with some accessories, I could get the A7 and the Metabones adapter for EF lenses for very little additional cost. I'm just not sure I could get used to the electronic viewfinder though. Did any of you who have made the switch, or were considering it, have the same reservations? Any regrets?

I do plan on keeping my EF lenses because I shoot a lot of 35mm film using an EOS 3.

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/25/2014 09:15:06 PM · #123

Originally posted by Spork99:

Personally, I love the electronic viewfinder in my FZ1000. It may be my eyes, but I like it better than an optical one with one exception. Seeing colors. You just don't see the full color dynamic when you are looking at fall leaves-at least in my FZ1000. Don't get me wrong...the colors are great...just not as great as the real world. But there's no substitute for seeing the exact exposure right in the viewfinder, and it's easier to review pictures for me in the viewfinder without pulling the camera away, or when the ambient light is bright.

I can't speak for the Sony Alphas. I was relatively happy with the A6000 viewfinder...it wasn't as good as the FZ1000 I think, but it was fine. And I'm sure the A7 is worlds better.

Neil

Fujifilm X-T30

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

12/25/2014 09:29:19 PM · #124

Incidentally, I'm really thinking of going full time mirrorless.

The problem I have is I don't see a "definite" choice for me.

The A7 series is smaller and lighter than my D600 or D7100, and the lenses are a bit smaller, but as soon as you go tele, they're still pretty darn big.

I've seriously considered the Fujis--photos really seem to pop. I think they have nice color and "pop" in the pictures I've seen with their lenses, but then when I realize the focal lengths I like, they just don't cover it with zooms. I want a 24-70, or 24-100+. Their FZ lens starts at 27. (They do have a 24-70 equivalent from their lower lens line). I also like having a superzoom as a walkaround sometimes. The 28-300 is a very nice lens on the Nikon D600, but it's really pretty heavy. The 18-200 is a great lens and pretty good sized on my D7100. No equivalent to that on the Fuji.

I would consider the A7mII series though if they had a nice superzoom as well as a great ultra-wide zoom. Not yet, though I see one on their roadmap.

It would be interesting to hear if there's a downside in the EVF to using APS-C lenses on the A7. I know the resolution is lower when you do, like the Nikon. It's a nice feature on the Nikon, but I find using a cropped lens on a FF sensor makes for a poor OVF experience.

Does anyone know....does the A7 EVF look as good (and fullsized) when you are using a crop sensor? Or is it show a partial sized picture?

If it's as good, then the A7's would be nice because you could opt to use the crop-based lenses to reduce weight when travelling, especially for telephoto lenses (and even a superzoom.)