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

Oh, just a thing on the A7 v the III.

It may be my imagination or just the lighting at the time but the III seems to be more accurate on exposure and WB than the A7. I've been out with it a couple of times now and the amount of post capture alterations seems to be down v the A7.

Or is it my imagination, or the lighting? I suppose shooting them side by side should give a clue.

A7III and Sony 40mm f2.5 @f11.

DSC00212.JPG
 
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Is the A7III a new purchase? I must have missed the big news, how are you getting on with it?

I've not used the camera but it's certainly not hard to believe the A7III would be better able to better handling exposure and WB although I do find it can vary scene to scene, some elements in a scene can catch a camera out.
 
JohnMcL7 said:
Is the A7III a new purchase? I must have missed the big news, how are you getting on with it?

I've not used the camera but it's certainly not hard to believe the A7III would be better able to better handling exposure and WB although I do find it can vary scene to scene, some elements in a scene can catch a camera out.
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Yes the A7III is new. My A7 died so I bought the III and then decided to disassemble the A7 and see if I could resurrect it (I had nothing to lose) and luckily I did so I now have two Sony's. I want to use the III for a while to get used to it and then my plan is to maybe take the two out when I can manage the extra bulk and weight, maybe with my 40mm f2.5 on one and 24mm f2.8 on the other. That'll save changing lenses on Saltburn beach in a gale.

I think the III does shade the A7 for overall image quality and definitely at higher ISO's although as Toby mentioned previously I do wish that lower than 100 ISO's could be included in auto ISO. Seems odd not to include this. I have to say that I prefer the feel and handling of the A7 but that's hardly surprising as I've had it nearly 11 years but it's early days and using the III over time I may warm more to it. I am missing the AE/MF switch and button from the A7 but I've gained a joystick so it's swings and roundabouts.

I went for the III over the IV because of the tilt v articulated rear screen as I thought sticking with the tilt would mean less culture shock :D I also reasoned that more MP with the IV wouldn't be of any real use and when I first looked at the A7 all those years ago I would have been happy if it matched my Canon 5D for image quality when in reality it just blew the Canon away so I knew I'd be happy with anything newer than my A7.

Oh, and I've gained eye rather than having just face detect. I haven't had change to play with it yet but I'm hoping it'll detect an eye or at least a face when it's smaller in the frame than the A7 can cope with. My Panasonic MFT cameras are much better than my A7 for this and I'm hoping the III improves on the A7, closes the gap or even betters MFT here.
 
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woof woof said:
Oh, just a thing on the A7 v the III.

It may be my imagination or just the lighting at the time but the III seems to be more accurate on exposure and WB than the A7. I've been out with it a couple of times now and the amount of post capture alterations seems to be down v the A7.

Or is it my imagination, or the lighting? I suppose shooting them side by side should give a clue.

A7III and Sony 40mm f2.5 @f11.

View attachment 428916
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Sony have improved their WB over the years, although I still think it can be off at times.
 
snerkler said:
Sony have improved their WB over the years, although I still think it can be off at times.
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I'm sure but is there a camera that gets WB right all the time? I don't know but I doubt it and then I suppose there's the question of what its right? Right as decided by an algorithm written by someone else or a team? I sometimes do almost agonise over what is "correct" and what I think looks best for me. The eye dropper helps but I think preference has to come into it.
 
There's a vid on the rumor site...

Jordan Drake says it feels like Canon is years behind Sony when it comes to sensor development – sonyalpharumors

www.sonyalpharumors.com www.sonyalpharumors.com

...in which they touch on Canon being possibly years behind Sony in sensor tech and whilst I can accept that as someone who's just bought an ancient by todays standards A7III and was happy enough with his even more ancient A7 I do think it's worthwhile thinking about our own realistic needs although wants can push things further :D

I think if I was looking at Canon the lenses might put me off more than any technological inferiority but I can see how people might want cutting edge kit even if in reality they may not need it.
 
woof woof said:
I'm sure but is there a camera that gets WB right all the time? I don't know but I doubt it and then I suppose there's the question of what its right? Right as decided by an algorithm written by someone else or a team? I sometimes do almost agonise over what is "correct" and what I think looks best for me. The eye dropper helps but I think preference has to come into it.
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No, none get it right but I often find that Sony don't get the tint right. I've sometimes considered a grey card and manually setting the WB but in truth I just can't be bothered :LOL:
ancient_mariner said:
FWIW many Sony lenses royally mess up colour anyway, with a strong cold cast. ;)
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Are Sony lenses cool or are other lenses warm? ;) My preference is cool and I often do cool my shots further in post :oops: :$
 
woof woof said:
There's a vid on the rumor site...

Jordan Drake says it feels like Canon is years behind Sony when it comes to sensor development – sonyalpharumors

www.sonyalpharumors.com www.sonyalpharumors.com

...in which they touch on Canon being possibly years behind Sony in sensor tech and whilst I can accept that as someone who's just bought an ancient by todays standards A7III and was happy enough with his even more ancient A7 I do think it's worthwhile thinking about our own realistic needs although wants can push things further :D

I think if I was looking at Canon the lenses might put me off more than any technological inferiority but I can see how people might want cutting edge kit even if in reality they may not need it.
Click to expand...
I wonder how many people care though, I'd imagine most will just buy it because it's Canon and it has features they like? Canon have been behind in sensor tech for many many years, it's nothing new (y)
 
snerkler said:
No, none get it right but I often find that Sony don't get the tint right. I've sometimes considered a grey card and manually setting the WB but in truth I just can't be bothered :LOL:

Are Sony lenses cool or are other lenses warm? ;) My preference is cool and I often do cool my shots further in post :oops: :$
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I like my shots neutral to a little warm depending on subject. I've found the 55 a little cool and the 24-105 to be almost blue. Others in the lineup have a reputation for coolness, although the 50 f1.2 GM is quite neutral.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I like my shots neutral to a little warm depending on subject. I've found the 55 a little cool and the 24-105 to be almost blue. Others in the lineup have a reputation for coolness, although the 50 f1.2 GM is quite neutral.
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I can’t remember what the 24-105mm was like now tbh, the 50mm f1.2 and 35mm f1.4 GMs certainly don’t need a lot of tweaking, neither does the 20-70mm.

The only times I really struggle badly with WB is motorsport, but that’ll be a combination of shooting through a fence and using ND filters. For all the praise B&W and Firecrest get they’re still not neutral imo, especially 4 stop and higher.
 
snerkler said:
I wonder how many people care though, I'd imagine most will just buy it because it's Canon and it has features they like? Canon have been behind in sensor tech for many many years, it's nothing new (y)
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When I thought about buying my first DSLR Canon were ahead of Nikon so although I'd had a Nikon SLR for decades I went with Canon. Since the days of the original 5D have Canon been ahead? I don't know but I do remember Nikon creating waves with the D700 so maybe it was around that time that Canon lost their lead and arguably have never got it back unless maybe in very niche areas. That's a long time to be (arguably) behind the curve but Canon loyalists do seem to be very loyal. How long they can rely on that I don't know. Maybe forever as other marques have clearly lived off past glories and on reputations made a long time ago even when current products are (again arguably and in some ways) clearly not competitive.

As I've said before, I really don't care if I own a Sony made in Thailand or a Canon made in Japan (or wherever.) If there was a British option that would enable more people to be employed in the UK and more to be paid into UK infrastructure and services then that'd tempt me but there isn't so brand loyalty to these companies largely operating outside of the UK isn't really a thing for me.
 
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woof woof said:
When I thought about buying my first DSLR Canon were ahead of Nikon so although I'd had a Nikon SLR for decades I went with Canon. Since the days of the original 5D have Canon been ahead? I don't know but I do remember Nikon creating waves with the D700 so maybe it was around that time that Canon lost their lead and arguably have never got it back unless maybe in very niche areas. That's a long time to be (arguably) behind the curve but Canon loyalists do seem to be very loyal. How long they can rely on that I don't know. Maybe forever as other marques have clearly lived off past glories and on reputations made a long time ago even when current products are (again arguably and in some ways) clearly not competitive.

As I've said before, I really don't care if I own a Sony made in Thailand or a Canon made in Japan (or wherever.) If there was a British option that would enable more people to be employed in the UK and more to be paid into UK infrastructure and services then that'd tempt me but there isn't so brand loyalty to these companies largely operating outside of the UK isn't really a thing for me.
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I'm not brand loyal or care where things are made either and always go for what's best for my needs. However, in regards to sensor tech I would imagine people who care about this when buying a camera are in the minority. Yes on forums like this people care how much dynamic range there is or how good the noise handling is, but I'd imagine 'in the real world' people don't care and probably don't even know about these things.

Where it really came apparent to me just how little technical stuff photographers know was watching the Great British Photography Challenge hosted by Rankin. There was a 'finalist' on the show who, when photographing skateboarders in a tunnel, couldn't work out why her photos were dark and someone had to explain to her that she needed to open the aperture of the lens to let more light in. I kid you not :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
snerkler said:
I'm not brand loyal or care where things are made either and always go for what's best for my needs. However, in regards to sensor tech I would imagine people who care about this when buying a camera are in the minority. Yes on forums like this people care how much dynamic range there is or how good the noise handling is, but I'd imagine 'in the real world' people don't care and probably don't even know about these things.

Where it really came apparent to me just how little technical stuff photographers know was watching the Great British Photography Challenge hosted by Rankin. There was a 'finalist' on the show who, when photographing skateboarders in a tunnel, couldn't work out why her photos were dark and someone had to explain to her that she needed to open the aperture of the lens to let more light in. I kid you not :eek: :eek: :eek:
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To be fair, part of the premise of Rankin's show was to enable folk on it to learn about photography and photographs and develop skills and themselves. They weren't expert photographers in the first place.
 
Bodian said:
To be fair, part of the premise of Rankin's show was to enable folk on it to learn about photography and photographs and develop skills and themselves. They weren't expert photographers in the first place.
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All these shows are designed to help people learn for sure, but not the basics. I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong, that they were selected based on their great portfolios, which in itself assumes that a fair understanding of photography already exists. Granted we can't all know everything, but something as basic as understanding exposure and how the 3 variables affect this should be a given.

However, whether this is true or not, her portfolio was impressive and it just shows that she, and I would expect many, don't give two hoots about the technical aspect of a camera. I only get interested in this to compensate for my lack of photography skills :LOL:
 
snerkler said:
All these shows are designed to help people learn for sure, but not the basics. I believe, but correct me if I'm wrong, that they were selected based on their great portfolios, which in itself assumes that a fair understanding of photography already exists. Granted we can't all know everything, but something as basic as understanding exposure and how the 3 variables affect this should be a given.

However, whether this is true or not, her portfolio was impressive and it just shows that she, and I would expect many, don't give two hoots about the technical aspect of a camera. I only get interested in this to compensate for my lack of photography skills :LOL:
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It's amazing how good the iPhone has become. ;)
 
snerkler said:
.....

Where it really came apparent to me just how little technical stuff photographers know was watching the Great British Photography Challenge hosted by Rankin. There was a 'finalist' on the show who, when photographing skateboarders in a tunnel, couldn't work out why her photos were dark and someone had to explain to her that she needed to open the aperture of the lens to let more light in. I kid you not :eek: :eek: :eek:
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They also got to use their own cameras most of the time (there were a couple of challenges where they were all given identical cameras to use), and the skateboard one had even Rankin appear surprised at just how good the images the guy with a Sony A7iii could get as he could use much higher ISO than anyone else.
 
Hi all I’m hoping you can help and save me having to open a new thread for what will hopefully be a simple question.
I’ve just upgraded to a new laptop for photo editing and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have an sd card slot built in, I’m just wondering with regards to card readers are they all much the same or is it one of those things your better off paying extra for?
I’ve shortlisted a couple including a sandisk one from Amazon, I’m currently only shooting to a couple of sandisk extreme pro sd xc cards which are fine for my needs at the moment and I don’t use the cf cards at all in any of my cameras.
Any advice will be very grateful.
Many thanks
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all I’m hoping you can help and save me having to open a new thread for what will hopefully be a simple question.
I’ve just upgraded to a new laptop for photo editing and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have an sd card slot built in, I’m just wondering with regards to card readers are they all much the same or is it one of those things your better off paying extra for?
I’ve shortlisted a couple including a sandisk one from Amazon, I’m currently only shooting to a couple of sandisk extreme pro sd xc cards which are fine for my needs at the moment and I don’t use the cf cards at all in any of my cameras.
Any advice will be very grateful.
Many thanks
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You don't need to pay a lot, just make sure it's UHS-II compatible (y)
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all I’m hoping you can help and save me having to open a new thread for what will hopefully be a simple question.
I’ve just upgraded to a new laptop for photo editing and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have an sd card slot built in, I’m just wondering with regards to card readers are they all much the same or is it one of those things your better off paying extra for?
I’ve shortlisted a couple including a sandisk one from Amazon, I’m currently only shooting to a couple of sandisk extreme pro sd xc cards which are fine for my needs at the moment and I don’t use the cf cards at all in any of my cameras.
Any advice will be very grateful.
Many thanks
Click to expand...
In addition to UHS-II compatibility, make sure it's USB-3 (I suspect most are now, but worth double checking).
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
One option I’m looking at is usb c.
Would this be an issue at all? I’m thinking will it slow down the transfer rate?
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USB-C is the way to go if your laptop has USB-C ports.
USB-C (A & B, micro etc) is the physical connector type. USB 3 or 4 or whatever number itself is version of the standard, and generally speaking USB-C is capable of supporting the latest and fastest standards of USB.
 
I haven't used a card reader for years. I just plug the camera into the pc and drag the files across.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
Hi all I’m hoping you can help and save me having to open a new thread for what will hopefully be a simple question.
I’ve just upgraded to a new laptop for photo editing and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have an sd card slot built in, I’m just wondering with regards to card readers are they all much the same or is it one of those things your better off paying extra for?
I’ve shortlisted a couple including a sandisk one from Amazon, I’m currently only shooting to a couple of sandisk extreme pro sd xc cards which are fine for my needs at the moment and I don’t use the cf cards at all in any of my cameras.
Any advice will be very grateful.
Many thanks
Click to expand...

I usually just plug the cameras in tbh. Have done for years.

But I do have an Amazon SD/MicroSD which I use for the drone.
 
nandbytes said:
USB-C is the way to go if your laptop has USB-C ports.
USB-C (A & B, micro etc) is the physical connector type. USB 3 or 4 or whatever number itself is version of the standard, and generally speaking USB-C is capable of supporting the latest and fastest standards of USB.
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That’s brilliant, thank you. I wasn’t aware of how the different numbers worked with regards usb.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
That’s brilliant, thank you. I wasn’t aware of how the different numbers worked with regards usb.
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yeah its confusing because people use the version numbers and letters interchangeably.

you can treat the letters/alphabets i.e. USB-C, USB-A etc are for physical interface itself (though that's simplifying it a little)
and the numbers i.e. USB3.1 or USB4 are for the version of the USB standard i.e. for its upgraded transfers speed and connections (also simplifying it a little)
 
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An evening trip to Whitby. A7III and Sony 40mm f2.5.

Piers.

1-DSC00233.jpg

Bikini Girl.

1-DSC00236.jpg

Light fading fast now.

1-DSC00259.jpg

I've never been here at this time before, 21:14, so have never seen the streets so quiet.

1-DSC00280.jpg

Again people seemed to want to talk to me. I met some... I don't know how olds, relative youngsters anyway possibly from Colombia or Venezuela or somewhere South American. One was absolutely stunning in looks and figure and another chubby but super cute and super polite and dressed in an England shirt.

I did 5 panorama / stitches. This is just two pictures. I think the one with the most pictures in it was 18.

1-Pan-3.jpg

Might as well post these too, the second is the 18 picture stitch.

1-Pan-2.jpg

1-Pan-4.jpg
 
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Morning all - very excited ALL THE GEAR AND NO IDEA post - A7RII arrived yesterday - only my second proper camera, my first mirrorless, first full frame, first macro-ish lens.....etc, etc... got offered a very friendly deal from a pal so have gone all in... Can't wait to learn how to use it and hopefully take some nice photos!!

https://flic.kr/p/2q57cLk
View: https://flic.kr/p/2q57cLk
 
bullinachinashop said:
Morning all - very excited ALL THE GEAR AND NO IDEA post - A7RII arrived yesterday - only my second proper camera, my first mirrorless, first full frame, first macro-ish lens.....etc, etc... got offered a very friendly deal from a pal so have gone all in... Can't wait to learn how to use it and hopefully take some nice photos!!
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OOH. New Toys! :D

What are the lenses?

Are you keeping your other gear?
 
bullinachinashop said:
I'll sell the Nikon unless anyone in my family wants it to mess around with

Lenses - I need to work it out - I'm not sure yet... As I said... All the gear!!
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What lenses did you get with the Sony?

Can't recommend any vids but I do recommend thinking about what you want to program the buttons to do and what you want in the custom menu.

Good luck with it :D
 
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