For travel via a car I bring a DC to AC inverter and plug in batteries and chargers and charge batteries as I drive. If staying in a place overnight where batteries can be plugged in I would probably carry 2? chargers, the camera and extra batteries to charge. Right now I have 3 extra batteries. But, if I were to be gone for some time I would probably get 2 possibly 3 more batteries. The biggest problem though would be if you can not charge batteries at all for an extended period.
Rich
Yes. There are solutions, but why is there a problem. The Nikon Df gets 1800 shots per battery, why does the A7/R get 300 with the display off?
two biggies for me:
1: Allow to set a custom minimum shutter speed for Auto ISO.
2: Provide a plugin intervalometer shutter release for time lapse/etc… like every other serious camera for Canikon .
I know the last one isn't a firmware issue but it just seems like such a no-brainer. I know there is the phone app but it's a pain to use and I don't always want to have another screen out and on (and draining my phones battery). Some of the other issues that I agree with include:
- being able to completely shut off the rear screen (no backlighting) without giving up the ability to play back images on it.
- focus magnification without having to double tap
- changing the zoom in button to the center button like it is on NEX - I haven't been able to do this and I feel like that button layout was faster on NEX
- More bracketing options at larger values (e.g.: 5-7 at 1-2 stops +/-)
carstenw wrote:
Yes. There are solutions, but why is there a problem. The Nikon Df gets 1800 shots per battery, why does the A7/R get 300 with the display off?
Carston,
Compare the size of the batteries, the size and weight of the cameras, and of course, the A7 and A7r are mirrorless which will draw more power. By the way, I don't think that my Fujifilm X-E1 does that much better for battery consumption at this point than my A7r.
itai195 wrote:
Main thing I'd like is for the menus to be cleaned up and an option to build a custom menu or hide items I'll never use.
I'm curios. Once I have the camera set up, and my 2 memory settings established, I seldom activate the menu. With the exception of "format", and changing the status of "setting effect", what function do you change on a regular basis that's not covered by a programmable "custom" button on the camera?
my camera doesn't automatically turn off after 1 minute as i've set it up to.
then, the speed at which the focus magnification rectangle moves should be adjustable
then, as others have said, the screen should turn completely off
then, this is a biggie: auto shoot when using MF (or legacy lens) and there is maximum contrast in selected area.
maximum contrast would be defined as the peak contrast you reach in a 2-second interval while manually focusing the lens. shoot the second time the maximum contrast is reached.
carstenw wrote:
Yes. There are solutions, but why is there a problem. The Nikon Df gets 1800 shots per battery, why does the A7/R get 300 with the display off?
Mirrorless and DSLRs are two different beasts in terms of power consumption. A better comparison would be to compare battery life of the DSLR while in live view, where the sensor is actively being used for composition. Personally, I'm happy with the choice Sony made here to keep the weight down and batteries the same as NEX. Yes this does mean I have to take an active role in managing power, I cannot simply leave the power on all day long like I did with my 5D, I've had to learn new habbits.
A big bonus on this topic is the ability to charge in the camera via USB. This means I can use about any power device avaialbe, 3 party battery packs, solar chargers, my laptop, etc. to charge on the go. No its not the run all day without thinking twice like I did with the 5D... but it is a manageable compromise.
mkln wrote:
my camera doesn't automatically turn off after 1 minute as i've set it up to.
What I've learned from the NEX 6, is that you need to be careful with the viewfinder sensor. If the camera is bouncing against your body, the sensor will be toggling between viewfinder and LCD, this can prevent the camera from going into sleep mode.
kroyston wrote:
What I've learned from the NEX 6, is that you need to be careful with the viewfinder sensor. If the camera is bouncing against your body, the sensor will be toggling between viewfinder and LCD, this can prevent the camera from going into sleep mode.
From what I've seen with the A7 it doesn't matter. I haven't ruled out a setting somewhere that I've missed but I haven't found it so far.
Not a problem for anyone prepared. Why does the FX not do 5,000 images - what is the problem there? Why could I not carry fewer than 50 rolls of 120 to get 500 frames of 6x7?
The solution is that users should accept that they need to carry spare batteries and change them (takes 30 seconds) and charge them. They can always carry a different camera, but those that do lots of images on one battery tend to be 70-100% heavier and huge!
Don't even think about an RX1.
OnT, there needs to be a control to call up the LCD with a button press, for dominant EVF users. The a99 does this already.
kroyston wrote:
Mirrorless and DSLRs are two different beasts in terms of power consumption.
Exactly, so why stick it with such an anemic battery? Sure, you can carry a bagful of batteries, but a bigger battery would just have been much better.
grahamb3 wrote:
With the exception of "format", and changing the status of "setting effect", what function do you change on a regular basis that's not covered by a programmable "custom" button on the camera?
I like the Nikon approach of being able to create a user definable menu having those items one uses frequently. On the Sony the Fn button presumably is their answer to this, but not all things may be entered there. I wish I didn't have to dive deep into menus just to reach Format Card; being one top level choice on a user menu would be very nice... I use format card frequently enough that I appreciated the two-button quick access routine on the D800.
To the list above I'd put the Viewfinder | Monitor | Auto menu.
Turning "off" the rear display is at least a little helpful in not lighting up the area when working in the dark, but being able to shut it off easily and completely via a toggle button would be nice.
Mostly I shut the camera off rather than let it time out. Hopefully the on-off switch has a high MTBF.
RobCD wrote:
From what I've seen with the A7 it doesn't matter. I haven't ruled out a setting somewhere that I've missed but I haven't found it so far.
Ok, I left the Remote Ctrl option set to On which prevents the camera from going into power save mode. It's probably in the manual but I didn't look .
Uncompressed raw. Can't believe that didn't get mentioned until the second page. "Uses [legit number of bits] on areas that require smoother gradients and [wastes our time with bullshit] on areas that don't" is garbage. It's JPEG with the settings not baked in. Yes, that counts as raw. But it also counts as garbage.
One of several ways that, despite the price, this is not a pro or even prosumer camera but a full frame NEX. Not what I wanted at all. Oh well, at least they didn't use the NEX menu interface.
carstenw wrote:
The half-stop thing is a conundrum. I set my camera to half stops, then realized that it would only affect some of the settings, but not others, and switched it back.
Thanks, I forgot to mention that that setting needs to affect shutter, aperture, and ISO rather than just the first two.
BenM wrote:
Ability to remap zoom on image review to any other button but C2.
Yeah, give us the ability to map it to the backwheel center button exactly like it is on the N7, then let rotating said backwheel scroll in and out like on the N7, the front wheel can still jump from shot to shot at similar magnification, and the backwheel's cardinal points can still move within the image.
Then, let us assign Live View Display settings ON/OFF to either a physical control or at least the shortcut menu, idem for the APS-C area crop thingy. Other than that I'm pretty pleased with the camera's UI, but those three points, especially the playback zoom issue, are totally annoying.
grahamb3 wrote:
I'm curios. Once I have the camera set up, and my 2 memory settings established, I seldom activate the menu. With the exception of "format", and changing the status of "setting effect", what function do you change on a regular basis that's not covered by a programmable "custom" button on the camera?
Graham
Live Display settings ON/OFF to toggle between available light and flash/studio shooting
APS-C area crop, to toggle betwee ON, Auto and OFF depending on lens you're mounting during a shoot
Format card
Among others, but those are the three that immediately come to my mind...
Fix the auto sensor so that it doesn't mistake the shirt/belly as an eyeball and switch to the viewfinder...even though one is shooting with the screen.
grahamb3 wrote:
I'm curios. Once I have the camera set up, and my 2 memory settings established, I seldom activate the menu. With the exception of "format", and changing the status of "setting effect", what function do you change on a regular basis that's not covered by a programmable "custom" button on the camera?
Graham
I haven't actually tried to set up the custom memory settings yet. Is it possible to switch exposure mode while you're dialed into a custom setting? I noticed there's an entry for it in the function menu, so I assume that's what it's for.
The main reason I'd like to customize the menu is for functions that I don't use frequently enough to make a custom setting for, but still use frequently enough that I want quick access without having to remember which of the couple dozen submenus it's located under. For example, the setting to toggle exposure preview in the viewfinder is one such setting.
How can they call it RAW if the files are compressed by 40%?
Actually RAW files are highly compressable, but compressing photos in-camera on the fly, before saving to the memory card, requires a very fast processor in order not to affect shutter lag or continuous shooting perfromance too much.
I think the RAW files are indeed losslessly compressed in the A7/r. My guess is Sony's fast processor can afford to compress the RAW files in-camera, while the Nikon D800 can't.
