SONY A7

vipgraphx · Dec 23, 2013

slow231 , seems we are in the same boat, what you said in your last paragraph made complete sense. When I go to family functions first thing is hey Rich is here can you take pictures and email them to me. Even my mother expects that I attend all family gatherings with my equipment and snap away. Like you said you lose the social part thats for sure. When I sold off my nikon gear and started using my iphone a few months ago it was great because I had a legit excuse not so take pictures. Everyone else could do the exact same thing as me with their phones. Now what ever camera I stay with Nikon or Sony I will most likely assume responsibilities as the family photographer hahahahaha.

Its sucks not to have a local sony store around to test out. Best buy does not carry it at all and the other two local camera shops don't either. One does not even sell sony only Nikon and the other does but this A7 is not on their agenda just yet.

Somewhere deep in side I do have a feeling though that this camera would be camera that would be fantastic to own and a little feeling in my stomach says get this camera jump ship you will not be disappointed :sexywink:

Just playing with the NEX 6 has been very fun...I really like the focus peaking and fine tune focus after auto focus...This is really really cool. I believe this is something that the Sony A7 offers as well. Plus the tilt screen is way cool something that nikon should have but doesn't....

slow231 · Dec 23, 2013

damn didn't think about sony stores! just called one they have one available... let's see if i can convince the wife to go battle mall traffic.

vipgraphx · Dec 23, 2013

I almost drove up to Phoenix today after my last post but, decided not to rush out. The camera shop was closing in a few hours and it takes me about 2.5 hours to get there. I may order one through best buy and have it shipped. IF it does not work out for me I could always take it back with no 5 hour round trip drive back and forth to Pheonix.

Let me know if you end up with one and how it goes.....I am eager to hear.

DiskoJoe · Dec 23, 2013

After using Sony gear for many years I have come to the following realizations.

The gear is really nice if not as nice as any offering from canon or nikon in respects to quality of the output you can achieve.

The quality is even better if you buy the zeiss offerings for lenses.

The resale will not be as good as canon or nikon but you will probably be able to sell gear quicker, Sony shooters are a pretty tight knit bunch.

The braketing sucks. Why the **** can they not make it auto bracket in whole step increments, I mean come now Sony!!!

Sony live view is quite an amazing thing and much better than what I have seen with other systems.

Focusing could be faster but that wont really effect what you tend to use it for as much.

minicoop1985 · Dec 23, 2013

DiskoJoe said:
The resale will not be as good as canon or nikon but you will probably be able to sell gear quicker, Sony shooters are a pretty tight knit bunch.

This is absolutely true. I've only run into one Sony/Minolta Maxxum thing I've been stuck with: a Maxxum 7000 with a plastic mount 28-80 lens. I did get rid of them eventually.

vipgraphx · Dec 24, 2013

Fellas drive up to Phoenix this morning and played with this a7. All I can say is WOW. Needless to say I driving home with it.

Cant wait a it to really get into this camera. This thing is rigged full of features and that new auto eye focus is soooo cool.

slow231 · Dec 24, 2013

awesome! what lens(es) did you get with it? and of course after you've shot with it a bunch, let us know how it compares to the d700.

Derrel · Dec 24, 2013

Yeah, let us know how you get on with it. I'm most interested to hear what you have to say **after** the "new wears off a little bit", ya' know? Yeah, did you get it with the 28-70mm f/3.5~5.6 zoom?

vipgraphx · Dec 25, 2013

Darrel and Slow231, I purchased the kit with the 28-70, I called around Pheonix and these cameras are selling like hotcakes and most camera shops did not get any of the available lenses and those that did, did not get a lot of them. I thought that this 28-70 would be ok for now to test since it was few hundred more and without a lens what good is the camera, plus I was eager to shoot. In the store the 28-70 really looked very good and impressive!! I think it will end up being a great vacation lens to have in the bag.

I will test more in the next few days and see where I am at. I still feel that the NIKON 7100 has very very impressive IQ and I am hoping that this A7 will surpass that IQ as I really like the features in it.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!!

More to come Soon

robbins.photo · Dec 25, 2013

I guess what I'd be most interested in learning is how well the EVF stands up to a prolonged burst. The systems I've owned with EVF did fine shooting one or two frames but any time I used them in burst mode there would be a very noticeable lag while the EVF updated. Not a huge drawback for shooting portraits or landscapes but for action photo's it left a lot to be desired, so I'm very curious to see how good the EVF is on something like an A7

vipgraphx · Dec 25, 2013

Well the EVF is waaaaaayyy better than the NEX 7 and NEX 6. Its really close to looking in a DSLR its that clear as far as burst I will have to test that but I need a much faster memory card. I am using an older Scandisk Ultra 15mbs and a Transcend SDHC class 10 card. I think I need a much faster card right now I am noticing that it seems to be a little slow writing to the memory card. I will pick a faster card up tomorrow and see if it helps.

vipgraphx · Dec 27, 2013

please see my prosumer review

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/sony/347899-new-a7-sample-pictures-prosumer-review.html

DiskoJoe · Dec 30, 2013

I would have sprung for the a7r. Of course with the way I shoot no low pass filter is really handy. Maybe not so much for your style.

vipgraphx · Dec 30, 2013

A few reasons I chose the A7 over the A7r

1) Probably about 99% of the time for I would be fine with 24mp and is all that anyone really would need 36mp is probably over kill
2) Less noise at higher ISO with the A7 which means a cleaner image...
3) New hybrid auto focus system...why spend so much money and not get the newer auto focus, I plan on using this to take videos as well where this really will help...
4) Faster Flash Sync Speed
5) Faser continuos shooting
5) The price difference of $600 did not justify NOT getting the newer Hybrid auto focus over the 36mp and no optical anti-aliasing filter..( I can always sharpen photos if needed later in photoshop or lightroom)

In real world use you probably will not see much difference in IQ one over the other....so that extra $600 can pay for almost the cost of the 35mm 2.8 zeiss lens

I chose the A7 kit because the camera shop I had to drive to did not have any lenses to use unless you got the kit. Other wise I would have gotten the A7 body with the 35 or 55 zeiss lens.

vipgraphx · Jan 4, 2014

Wanted to show straight out of the camera JPEG no processing and kit lens.

DSC01013 by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

I think the bokeh is pretty creamy and the image is nice and sharp....Have not had to much time this week to really play around with it. I would like to order a flash so i can do some portraits of the kids. So far just been no flash with what ever light source is around and its not bad but I know could be way better with some fill flash.

Outside on screened in back porch. My youngest playing with his dog.

zion_misha by VIPGraphX, on Flickr

I was pretty impressed with this shot. IT was on New Years Eve my boys were outside playing with sparklers in the dark. This is the shot I was able to take. Not the most sharpest but it was hand held in the dark with just the sparkler light.

ZION sparkler by VIPGraphX, on Flickr