Samuli Vahonen
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 p.119 #1 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless | |
I'm astonished about all the hype about A7(r) after shooting the battery empty two times...
I started getting frustrated to Canon/Nikon somewhere around 2009 since they did just more same, and didn't bring anything new, just always more megapixels or higher high ISO. A7(r) was finally something new to market, got also me interested (assumed better low ISO performance and smaller size&weight than 5DmkII). After the shock of rather crappy usability of A7 I actually now appreciate much more Canon/Nikon than I have done for many many years. Things which I have taken for granted since 2003 just aren't there in A7 to my surprise. Wednesday I shoot only handhold and was very disappointed, but on Thursday I feel more positive after shooting mostly from tripod. When camera is firmly in tripod, I found it's much better to use.
My operation, usability and ergonomics comments regarding A7+Sonnar T* 2.8/35 this far:
Pros...- Live view from monitor and specially EVF image quality - haven't seen how it works in good light, I have had crappy, crappier and crappiest light here and enjoyed using due to excellent live view implementation.
- Customization - buttons and operation can be customized in very many ways, much more flexible what I'm used with Canon's
- Customization - the Fn menu can be customized as one wishes
- Autofocus enjoyable to use (after setting it only to focus with center of image - all the modes where camera tries to select where to focus, it never agreed with me...). At least 2.8/35 focused very accurately and plenty fast in the crappy light I had available.
- Even I find A7 awkward to hold (see cons list below) I was able to get sharp pictures handhold&EVF 1/50s constantly, but 1/30s success rate wasn't high enough for me ever to bother again (maybe with BIG lens like 1.4/35 it might work, have to try once I get Metabones). Analyze based to JPGs, but I would assume motion blur can be seen from JPGs.
- Custom white balance implementation - excellent, easy spot setting of "gray" and assignation to one of the 3 custom WBs, and it sets it to that one into which you save the custom WB.
- White balance settings generally, I liked the menu/dialog/whatever-you-call it and previewing of WB
- 2.8/35 manual focus feeling was best I have felt from focus by wire lens, not same level as ZE/ZF/Leica but not bad either.
- Lens mounts very tightly to camera, absolute zero play in the lens.
- Wide open very small vignetting - I hope it's the sensor and not 2.8/35. I hate vignetting and it makes me avoid largest aperture of lenses.
- Weight and weight distribution with 2.8/35
- The space this combo takes when I will put it to my camera bag with all other equipment. Felt weird to use my tiny Domke shoulder bag and have plenty of room.
- 3 dials - can set shutter speed, aperture and ISO directly
Cons...- Shutter release button operation - very unreliable, many times I tried to take photo and it never took the photo (in 2s timer mode), Or took photo when I assumed I was half pressing the shutter to get rid off the focus magnification.
- Shutter release button position - awkward, hand has to be turned to angle getting index finger to button
- Sluggishness - many operations are slow and for example if camera goes to sleep waking up may takes sometimes really long (coldness MAY have contributed to this, it has been between -2C and -9C here yesterday and today, however same sluggishness can be experienced inside as well). Also it seems that it has same bug as A850, when image is writing to card you can't do anything - really annoying to see in screen that image failed and I could remove it but camera won't allow me to do it.
- Awkward size&holding in hand - I had to put camera strap to camera when I shoot close to river bank because it was very uncomfortable to hold and I actually was afraid of dropping camera. With any EOS camera I feel always comfortable to carry camera without any straps onehanded. My glove size usually is 10, so I have medium or slightly smaller than medium male hand.
- Operation of camera with gloves = impossible (tried first thin leather gloves and then very thin fabric gloves and finally gave up, and shoot barehand and when not shooting had VERY mittens which can take easily -30C to warm he fingers)
- Buttons generally - in addition to shutter button the general feeling of buttons is weird, can't get clear confirmation did I press the button or not. Some buttons (like up, down, left, right in rear bottom dial) are way too sensitive.
- Exposure bracketing for HDR shooting: As it is I can't shoot HDR with this camera without wired remote control (Sony RM-VPR1) except in summer at midday. And even with remote it's still far from optimal. Some stupid idiot has combined bracketing to same menu where timer, continuos shooting etc. are located. Due to this it's not possible to make camera shoot with 2s/10s timer automatically all 3-5 exposures at once. In addition to this one can select between "0.3EV 3 images", "0.6EV 3 images", "1EV 3 images", "2EV 3 images", "3EV 3 images". I have always found that best setting for HDR is 1.3EV 3 images or 1.7EV 3 images - this is for HDR-style what I use, which doesn't indicate to viewer it's HDR, but looks normal photo. For sure "2EV 3 images" and "3EV 3 images" are OK for the "candystore with strong colors and haloes and look like 3 year old would have lightpainted the candystore"-look. I understand that same crap has been used for years in NEX-cameras, but why in earth this crap was copied when everything else is so well customisable. For people who don't know; in Canon 5DmkII this works so that amount of bracketing can be set between 0.3EV and 2EV by user. And when shoot with 2s/10s timer in live view camera takes all 3 photos with 5FPS speed --> you can do HDRs even from moving subjects! Nikon has some more options e.g. possibility to use 5 or 7 exposures, but I'm not sure can it take the shots as quick and without banging the mirror.
- Multiconnector - if I compare this to remote control plug in Canon EOS cameras, I see very potential failure point here. And both of my 5DmkII have taken slight damage to connector even Canon implementation is much more durable than Sony's. It seems that it takes one strong pull from remote control cable and the connector is done, or even the board in which the connector is located inside camera.
- Multiconnector - internal battery charging. Even I could charge all batteries in external chargers camera still needs to be remembered to be charged from time to time due to the internal battery. If one damages the multiconnector with remote control wire on field, then there is no way to charge the internal battery ever anymore => date would need to be entered every time battery is changed and other issues.
- When viewing image one has to switch view to the histogram view with DISP to see blown parts flashing. In Canon user can setup flashing on/off so it can be seen in fullsize image without twiddling with display modes back and forth.
- EV-scale in bottom of EVF is from -5 to +5, but only -2 to +2 exposure is shown and of more over or under then it's just flashing -2 and +2 to indicate it can't show it (in M-exposure mode)
Can't comment image quality since I can't open RAW files yet. JPGs are useless for image quality estimation.
My settings:
- focus mode: manual (to AF when I want and not when camera wants...)
- live view display: setting effect OFF (to be able to focus wide open)
- disabled: lens correction, vignetting, whatever there was this kind of things
- disabled: high ISO noise reduction
- enabled: long exposure noise reduction (=black frame subtraction)
- monitor: either showing the screen with all possible settings or turned off
- DISP for finder: No Disp. Info & Level
- DISP for monitor: No Disp. Info. & Level & For viewfinder
Button assignments (I shoot usually M-mode):
- front dial: shutter speed
- rear top dial: aperture
- rear bottom dial: ISO
- AF/MF button: AF activation
- C1: Aperture preview (hoping this would do something, lens seems to be in shooting aperture all the time)
- C3: monitor on/off
- button in middle of rear bottom dial: focus zooming
Samuli
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