p.160 #1 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
juan_amores wrote:
Hi, Anybody has used a flash on the camera for portraits? What model?
I like to know your experience and comments.
Thanks!!
Sony HVL-F43M on the A7. Worked excellently. Pretty well balanced. Used for both direct shots and bounced. Very good results and the A7 seems to work better with flash than most cameras I've tried (outside Nikons).
p.160 #2 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
juan_amores wrote:
Hi, Anybody has used a flash on the camera for portraits? What model?
I like to know your experience and comments.
Thanks!!
You've received a number of responses to your enquiry, hope you won't mind me adding mine
I'm a relatively new comer to Sony's digital still imaging system, hence the need for a number of additional compatible devices.
One of which is a decent flash and being accustomed to Nikon's flash system (one of the best) I expected a compromise.
After looking at what Sony has to offer, ended up with the HVL-F43M.
Having used it about month now, although it is bulky and lacks a number of features, I'm pleasantly surprised on how well it works with the A7r.
Frankly, there are a number of things that do bother me, such as; the display - when turning on its illumination and viewing the screen a few degrees above the horizontal angle it becomes unreadable, the "Lock" and "Release" lever - I invariably do it the wrong way causing the shoe to come lose, no external synch connector - only wireless will cause some issues, no external battery connector - limits the number of shots to what the batteries in the flash can handle, to mention a few.
Again, as long as these shortcomings won't limit ones shooting, I can safely say it's worth acquiring.
Cheers
p.160 #3 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
fungz0r wrote:
For FE 35 owners, anybody actually able to use the autofocus and nail focus consistently on the first try? It takes me somewhere around 3 to 4 tries depending on light conditions to achieve focus. I've been switching it to manual on low light to focus because it takes way too long to autofocus.
To be honest I'm actually finding the autofocus performance on the A7R with both the 55mm and 35mm FE lenses to be pretty hit and miss and inconsistent. I've learned over the last few days not to even bother taken pictures of my daughter with this camera. Even if she's relatively still I'm still getting a very low keeper rate.
The eye AF system is great, when it works, which is about 65% of the time. I have concluded that the A7R, for portrait work, is great for adult portraits and when you get focus right the IQ is unreal. But for pictures of my daughter I find this camera even more frustrating than I used to find the X-E1.
I can imagine for landscapers the AF won't be an issue, but taking pictures of people with this camera is frustrating in anything other than perfect lighting.
p.160 #5 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
ct8282 wrote:
I can imagine for landscapers the AF won't be an issue, but taking pictures of people with this camera is frustrating in anything other than perfect lighting.
I would not give very high praise for autofocus in landscape usage, at least focusing to subjects 20-50m (60-150feet) from camera. I have got slightly miss-focused shots in those scenarios quite often. For closer landscapes/nature shots (2-10m/6-30feet focus distance), there also have been cases where focus has not been exactly correct. As far as I understood Lloyd reported some miss-focuses as well.
For the angry fanboys, who of course get pist off any negative comments: since I started shooting using only live view/EVF I have not miss-focused more than 5 shots of every 50000 shots. I do not tolerate any miss-focused shots. Tolerance for miss-focused shots might be higher for those who have been using autofocus on SLRs.
p.160 #6 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Well fingers crossed that sony has some firmware update that makes focusing much better, because that is really my only problem with this camera so far
p.160 #7 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Yeah, same here. The focussing situation needs to be improved.
Whilst the AF on the X-E1 was slow and did hunt in low light, at least it was spot bollock perfect regardless of which AF point you used. I plan on picking up the X-E2 at some point and I suspect it'll get used a lot more than the A7R, certainly until Sony sharpen up the AF performance anyway.
p.160 #8 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
ct8282 wrote:
To be honest I'm actually finding the autofocus performance on the A7R with both the 55mm and 35mm FE lenses to be pretty hit and miss and inconsistent. I've learned over the last few days not to even bother taken pictures of my daughter with this camera. Even if she's relatively still I'm still getting a very low keeper rate.
The eye AF system is great, when it works, which is about 65% of the time. I have concluded that the A7R, for portrait work, is great for adult portraits and when you get focus right the IQ is unreal. But for pictures of my daughter I find this camera even more frustrating than I used to find the X-E1.
I can imagine for landscapers the AF won't be an issue, but taking pictures of people with this camera is frustrating in anything other than perfect lighting....Show more →
If the subject is still, the light is decent. My keeper rate is very high with AF. I seldom miss shot, unless my kid's eyes are not on the same focus plane, then, the camera could pick back one instead, but I won't complain with that.
General speaking, I am satisfied with AF for stuff not moving. For moving, I use AF-C but putting focus on AEL button, seems workable as well.
Edit: the key is isolate focus from shutter. Because of poorer design of its shutter, associate focus with shutter in a hurry is a recipe to get fuzzy shots.
p.160 #9 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Toothwalker wrote:
And the weight of that thing is?
Might as well put a DSLR in my bag.
hehe its not very heavy, id say a little heavier than an average smartphone. i love it, walked around NYC for 8 hours today, sat down to eat lunch in the middle of it battery back to full (also charges my iphone, so worth it for me)
p.160 #10 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
zhangyue wrote:
If the subject is still, the light is decent. My keeper rate is very high with AF. I seldom miss shot, unless my kid's eyes are not on the same focus plane, then, the camera could pick back one instead, but I won't complain with that.
General speaking, I am satisfied with AF for stuff not moving. For moving, I use AF-C but putting focus on AEL button, seems workable as well.
+1
I am finding the AF with the FE 55 and 35 to be very good in normal lighting. When I set to flexible point, centre only, and place the square on the near eye, I have had about 95% success for portraits. There is no forgiving with the FE 55 if you miss, and in low light just toggle to MF. I find the AF on the A7r faster and more accurate than with the RX1/r.
p.160 #11 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
In a funny way, the a7r is 'back to the future' with a vengeance - not only is it reportedly scratchy regarding AF (I wouldn't know), it is also fabulously compatible for super quality, older manual focus lenses. I understand the FE 55 is easy enough to manually focus, good as that puts it higher up the desirability scale.
The usage of MF lenses also simplifies the user experience control and menu-wise, and is very enjoyable in a very hands on way. It is a real one percenter camera, cutting edge technology that works best with traditional lenses used traditionally, but with state of the art electronic focus aids - aids that no other maker is within a bull's roar of in full frame.
It is much more popular with really experienced photographers than the less-experienced who mostly come from a background where the camera simply 'must' do everything they want it to before it gains their consideration.
Those needing always fast AF, always accurate AF and many frames per second should really look elsewhere and understand that cameras vary widely in what they do best.
p.160 #13 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Well, well,
Is the FM site going to have the flavour of DP review?
I agree with Philip, this camera is a gem that rewards those that are willing to use this camera the way it needs to be used. Friends of mine that have recently bought their first SLR cannot use this camera, it is not ever going to be something that they can use. The Nikon D800 is much easier to use as a high end point and shoot.
I felt that this camera was akin to the higher end FM2 Nikon for the professional, rather than the FE2: more for the enthusiast (in the days of film)
p.160 #14 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
dovey wrote:
Well, well,
Is the FM site going to have the flavour of DP review?
I agree with Philip, this camera is a gem that rewards those that are willing to use this camera the way it needs to be used. Friends of mine that have recently bought their first SLR cannot use this camera, it is not ever going to be something that they can use. The Nikon D800 is much easier to use as a high end point and shoot.
I felt that this camera was akin to the higher end FM2 Nikon for the professional, rather than the FE2: more for the enthusiast (in the days of film) ...Show more →
You are correct. When I need speed I pick up my D4 and feel like I'm cheating as it does all of the hard work in fairness.
But when I want aboslute IQ and my subjects are older and able to hold still I pick up the A7R. Still prefer the files from the Fuji X-Trans cameras if I'm honest simply because the B&W JPEGs sooc are absolutley incredible and require minimal PP. The files from the Sony are astonishing however, but I have to work with them more.
p.160 #15 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Yesterday at the airport I had the opportunity to play several minutes with the A7.
Differently from my NEX-6, I found that the histogram temporarily disappears while I am changing the shutter speed in M-mode... maybe this has been already discussed in the last 160 pages, but I would like to know if there is a way to prevent this behaviour of the camera.
p.160 #16 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
unravel wrote:
hehe its not very heavy, id say a little heavier than an average smartphone. i love it, walked around NYC for 8 hours today, sat down to eat lunch in the middle of it battery back to full (also charges my iphone, so worth it for me)
p.160 #17 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Long way to go before reaching DPR standards fortunately, and even then there are fantastic image threads here at FM, indicative of the talented individuals that frequent the forum. People have different opinions...which is much more informative than an echo chamber, right?
Speaking of DPR this mis-statement rang a bell:
'I think the a7r resolve more detail and has wilder lens option the the 645D and the d800'
Who can argue, a lot of lenses put on the a7r are certainly wild, lol.
What came up in this DPR thread from a user complaining the a7r did not match his Pentax 645D for big enlargements (quel surprise!) was a link to a DxO sensor comparison, showing the a7r to have it all over the MF camera:
A stop more raw performance (SNR); significantly better tonal range; 1.5 stops more DR and better colour across the ISO range; and finally you can use it above ISO 1600...
For a camera user interested in large landscape prints, it's easy to see why he was investigating the a7r.
p.160 #18 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
philip_pj wrote:
Long way to go before reaching DPR standards fortunately, and even then there are fantastic image threads here at FM, indicative of the talented individuals that frequent the forum. People have different opinions...which is much more informative than an echo chamber, right?
Speaking of DPR this mis-statement rang a bell:
'I think the a7r resolve more detail and has wilder lens option the the 645D and the d800'
Who can argue, a lot of lenses put on the a7r are certainly wild, lol.
What came up in this DPR thread from a user complaining the a7r did not match his Pentax 645D for big enlargements (quel surprise!) was a link to a DxO sensor comparison, showing the a7r to have it all over the MF camera:
A stop more raw performance (SNR); significantly better tonal range; 1.5 stops more DR and better colour across the ISO range; and finally you can use it above ISO 1600...
For a camera user interested in large landscape prints, it's easy to see why he was investigating the a7r.
I saw that thread. The problem with it was the user's contention that the A7r was "flawed" because Sony is using a lossy compressed algorithm that was causing "noise" and that Sony needed to fix this ASAP.
p.160 #19 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
philip_pj wrote:
In a funny way, the a7r is 'back to the future' with a vengeance - not only is it reportedly scratchy regarding AF (I wouldn't know), it is also fabulously compatible for super quality, older manual focus lenses. I understand the FE 55 is easy enough to manually focus, good as that puts it higher up the desirability scale.
The usage of MF lenses also simplifies the user experience control and menu-wise, and is very enjoyable in a very hands on way. It is a real one percenter camera, cutting edge technology that works best with traditional lenses used traditionally, but with state of the art electronic focus aids - aids that no other maker is within a bull's roar of in full frame.
It is much more popular with really experienced photographers than the less-experienced who mostly come from a background where the camera simply 'must' do everything they want it to before it gains their consideration.
Those needing always fast AF, always accurate AF and many frames per second should really look elsewhere and understand that cameras vary widely in what they do best.
^^^ +1
For my needs Sony A7R was a natural transition from D800E. Is A7R perfect? Nope, but it can setup and worked on to be a fantastic piece of photo hardware.
Honestly, I almost returned it after first two days. Menu and default functions of some buttons drove me crazy. C’mon, you touched it by holding or letting it swing on your neck and ISO, WB and other functions were changed instantly. At the end Sony’s highly customizable functions worked as intended; I removed all functions from the control wheel dial assigning ISO to C2, Shot Result Preview to C1, AF/MF button to Focus Magnifier, etc. All dials are locked now and all are very easily adjustable if needed.
The rest was easy. Sony RMT-DSLR2 Wireless Remote works for me much better than wired remote on D800E. All menu functions, 2sec., 10 sec., no delay shutter release, ISO, f/s, etc. can be changed without physically touching already set and focused camera, which is a big plus for me.
Last missing piece arrived on Friday. RRS plate for A7/R fits perfectly well. The plate nicely covers entire bottom part of a camera adding protection, extra rigidity, mass and, perhaps, contributes to reducing unwanted vibrations.
So, my setup is completed. AA-less A7R appears to be slightly sharper and definitely lighter than D800E, it works with most alt lenses and no more dusty mirror chambers or dust specs on pentaprism. My D800E found its new owner already.
