Need help deciding which camera to purchase

[jtomb1510]

So I am fairly new to professional grade cameras as I've been using my 3Ti for about 6 years now. I primarily shoot landscape/wildlife and fun little shoots with my kids and I do some for my friends and family as well as some action shots at my kids' sporting events. I am by NO means a professional but I am comfortable behind the camera. I've been debating for several months on upgrading to a better, professional grade, camera but I am torn between three models. I've done a lot of research on them but I just can't decide so I am wanting to get some outside opinions. The three models I'm looking at are the Sony a7r3, the Sony a9, and the Canon 5d mark iv. Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[greybeard]

Choose the one that feels the most natural in your hands. Image quality between these 3 cameras is really negligible.

 

[jtomb1510]

Choose the one that feels the most natural in your hands. Image quality between these 3 cameras is really negligible.

Well to be honest I'm really leaning towards one of the Sony's so they are pretty much identical in feel. My biggest concerns between the two is that the a7r3 has higher MP which I've read is better for landscape and portrait but the a9 has a higher fps in electronic shutter mode so it would better for sports. Would the 8 fps in uncompressed raw be ok for just junior high and high school sports? I'm not going to be shooting pro sports or anything.

 

[Gary A.]

Yes. Eight FPS is absolutely fine.

 

[Derrel]

So I am fairly new to professional grade cameras as I've been using my 3Ti for about 6 years now. I primarily shoot landscape/wildlife and fun little shoots with my kids and I do some for my friends and family as well as some action shots at my kids' sporting events. I am by NO means a professional but I am comfortable behind the camera. I've been debating for several months on upgrading to a better, professional grade, camera but I am torn between three models. I've done a lot of research on them but I just can't decide so I am wanting to get some outside opinions. The three models I'm looking at are the Sony a7r3, the Sony a9, and the Canon 5d mark iv. Any advice or personal experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

What, no Nikons? No Fujis?

 

[jtomb1510]

Thanks guys. Much appreciated

 

[photoflyer]

I made a move similar to yours moving up from a T5. I thought about that 5D mark iv. I opted for the 6D Mark II. Being a newer model it had some features that the 5D Mark 4 did not have. I decided to apply the thousand dollars that I saved to a lens. I got a 70 - 200 f 2.8 and the 2X teleconverter. No regrets.

 

[Jeff15]

Always buy the bet you can possibly afford.....

 

[ac12]

One thing to consider is WEIGHT.

A FF camera and FF lenses are usually significantly heavier than a crop camera and lens.
This depends on specific models, as my crop D7200 is very close to the weight of a FF D750. A crop D5400 is significantly lighter than my D7200. The FF D850 is significantly heavier than my D7200. The mirrorless is likely lighter than the dSLR.
Also some lenses are not available in a smaller and lighter crop version, so you have to get the bigger and heavier FF lens.​

Sports is tricky. Day games are easy, is is the low light sports are where the problems are.
At my local HS:

• Varsity FB, soccer and lacrosse are night games under lights.
  
• Basketball, volleyball and badminton are indoor gym.

Both night games under lights and indoor gym are low light fast action sports, which will tax your gear.
Until I got faster glass, I was shooting both at ISO 12800 with the 18-140/3.5-5.6 lens wide open at f/5.6.

FAST glass is the best solution to both, but are NOT cheap. Price out the 70-200/2.8 and 24-70/2.8 lenses, and you will see what I mean.
Sigma has an 18-50 f/2.8 at about $350, but this is a crop camera lens, not FF.
Alternatively a body that will do HIGH ISO reasonably well.
For the gym, FAST primes of about f/2 will work, but are restrictive in that you can't zoom.

My kit for my crop body D7200 shooting HS sports is:

• day games:
  • 18-140 f/3.5-5.6. This is a great general purpose day time lens. This lens is marginally too slow for night games.
  • 75-300 f/4-5.6. This lens was a good match for my 18-140 but too close to the 70-200.
    • A better lens for my kit is the 100-400 or 200-500. But these lenses are significantly more $$$ and bulkier than the 70-300 class lenses. And when you get into these larger and heavier lenses you almost need to use a monopod.
      
    • I use the LONG lens for tennis (because of the restricted shooting location) and baseball/softball.
• night games: 70-200/4 (This was a compromise. The f/2.8 lens was 2x the weight and 2x the cost of the f/4 lens).
  • The 70-200 would also be my choice for FF cameras.
    
  • The other lens that I considered was the FF 24-120/4.
• gym: 35/1.8 and 50/1.8
  • Sigma makes an 18-50/2.8 which IMHO would be a better gym lens than the primes.

Note

1. I am shooting a 1.5x crop camera.
   1. So a 200mm lens on my crop camera is equivalent to a 300mm lens on a FF camera.
2. I am shooting on the field and court floor, not from the bleachers. The closer distance affects my lens selection.
   1. If you are shooting from the bleachers, you need to look at longer lenses than what I use, especially for the field sports (football, soccer and lacrosse).

Finally, dSLR vs. mirrorless.
Focusing:

You need to check the reviews for the cameras for FAST sport focusing.
In general, mirrorless do not focus as FAST as dSLRs for FAST sports.
The newer/higher end mirrorless are much better than the older/lower end mirrorless. "I think" the Sony A9 matches the dSLRs, but you need to check the reviews.​

Battery life:

Battery life of a mirrorless is significantly less than a dSLR.
I have no idea about the Sony, but my Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark 1, under continuous/heavy use, will drain a battery in about 4 hours.
This is OK for a single game, but depending on the sport, if you shoot VJ + Varsity, it could empty 1 battery and require a switch to a 2nd to finish the 2nd game. And the basketball 'quad' (JV boys+girls, + Var boys+girls, total of 4 games), will definitely need 2 batteries.
For comparison, I can easily shoot TWO DAYS on a single battery with my D7200 dSLR. So I never had to carry a spare battery to shoot a game.
This will carry into your personal life. I just came back from a vacation where I used THREE batteries a day (avg 4hrs heavy/continuous usage per battery) , and had to charge those three batteries overnight.​

 

[Solarflare]

So the OP apparently has already decided to go Sony.

I wish him well. Sony is a great way to lose weight. Mostly in the wallet.