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Archive 2017 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Steve Spencer
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

pasblues wrote:
My experience so far with the Sony A7RII is that the big files are nice but it's a very slow system to use compared to the Nikon. What are your reasons for wanting to switch?

I recommend renting before you buy or buying only the minimum and then reselling if you don't like the Sony. It's a totally different system than Nikon and a steep learning curve.

When I switched from Nikon, I did so over a period of several weeks/months. I carried both Fuji and Nikon, keeping my 70-200mm f2.8 VR as I tried out a couple of Fuji X camera...Show more →

Sorry, but I have to add to what I feel are a couple of misleading points in this post. First, obviously the Fuji controls are not more like a DSLR than a Nikon DSLR. Second, the Fuji APS-C cameras do not have better high ISO capabilities than FF 35mm Sony files. It is quite the opposite Sony FF 35mm (and all FF 35mm files from the last 3 years) have quite noticeably better high ISO capabilities than Fuji APS-C files. Third, although the Fuji XT-2 is a fast and responsive camera, it is not nearly as fast and responsive as the Sony A9, so keep in mind the comparison above in not to a Sony A9, even though it is discussed as Sony. The Sony A9 also has 2 card slots, and a bigger battery than the Sony A7 series cameras. So the Sony A9 addresses many of the issues raised in the post above, but it is a much more expensive camera.

Oct 17, 2017 at 11:09 PM

kshimz
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

I did this switch right before wedding season started for me this year. I don't regret it one bit. I started off with the a7RII, 24-70 GM, 85 GM, 70-200 GM, and adapted my Nikon 105 macro. Yes, I was fortunate enough to sell my Nikon gear within 2-3 weeks, so my transition wasn't too hard. 3 weeks after I got my a7RII, I sold it for the a9. Honestly, one of the best decisions that I've made. I've noticed a substantial amount more keepers than what I was getting on my D810. I recently updated my lenses to the 35mm f/1.4 ZA, 85 GM, and 70-200 GM. It did take some time getting everything, including flashes, triggers, camera plates, etc so keep that in mind.

If you decide to switch, now that wedding season is coming to an end in about a month or two. I would recommend the a7RII, or an a9 (if it's within your budget) as your main camera, and possibly an a7II or a6500 as your backup. Buy lots of extra batteries if you don't get an a9, at least 5 extra. Let's wait an see what Sony announces tomorrow and next week. New technology arriving and price drops! =D

Oct 18, 2017 at 12:00 AM

pasblues
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

The Sony A9 is 3X the price of the Fuji and 99% of wedding photographs won't make it past a 5x7. What I said was that the Fuji is more like a Nikon in its controls setup. Everything is out where you can get to it quickly. That focus point toggle is critical to me. I was a Nikon shooter and found the Fuji controls much more like what I was used to than the Sony.
Getting one Sony A7RII for large file portraits is what I did. It doesn't perform as well in low light as the Fuji, though. Not even close.

Steve Spencer wrote:
Sorry, but I have to add to what I feel are a couple of misleading points in this post. First, obviously the Fuji controls are not more like a DSLR than a Nikon DSLR. Second, the Fuji APS-C cameras do not have better high ISO capabilities than FF 35mm Sony files. It is quite the opposite Sony FF 35mm (and all FF 35mm files from the last 3 years) have quite noticeably better high ISO capabilities than Fuji APS-C files. Third, although the Fuji XT-2 is a fast and responsive camera, it is not nearly as fast and responsive...Show more →

Oct 18, 2017 at 12:13 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

pasblues wrote:
The Sony A9 is 3X the price of the Fuji and 99% of wedding photographs won't make it past a 5x7. What I said was that the Fuji is more like a Nikon in its controls setup. Everything is out where you can get to it quickly. That focus point toggle is critical to me. I was a Nikon shooter and found the Fuji controls much more like what I was used to than the Sony.
Getting one Sony A7RII for large file portraits is what I did. It doesn't perform as well in low light as the Fuji, though. Not...Show more →

Actually what you listed in reasons for switching from the Nikon was that "the control were more like a DSLR." I suspected you meant the controls were more like a DSLR than a Sony camera, but that isn't a reason for switching from Nikon. Obviously the controls of a Nikon DSLR are more like the controls of a Nikon DSLR than the Fuji controls, so as good as the Fuji controls are, and I am not disputing that, if you want Nikon DSLR type controls then the Fuji controls aren't a reason for switching from Nikon to Fuji.

Note I also acknowledged explicitly in my post that the Sony A9 is much more expensive than any Fuji APS-C camera. That would certainly be a serious concern to almost everyone who was considering the two camera. I fully acknowledged that as well. I am not sure what you are saying about the Sony A7r II not performing as well in low light. Perhaps you are referring to AF and with certain lenses the A7r II does have challenges with AF in that it focusses with the lens stopped down and that has been a problem noted by a number of people. The problem was alleviated with some lenses and to a certain extent with a firmware update that allowed the lenses to focus at wider apertures but only if you shot with the preview of settings turned off in the viewfinder. Perhaps you will find this issue alleviated at least to some extent if you update the firmware and turn preview settings off. In any event, the actual noise that you see in the files at high ISO should be a little more than a stop better with the A7r II (if you equalize print size) than with the Fuji camera, so what it seems you may be talking about is really a low light AF issue and not a high ISO issue. The files from the A7r II handle high ISO very well, but you are correct people have had issues with the low light AF. Keep in mind, however, that again the A9 has dealt very well with these issues. It handles low light AF very very well and also has files that handle high ISO very very well, so it is not a matter of Sony not being able to do low light AF, but one specific camera that has very specific issues and it has them with certain specific lenses.

Oct 18, 2017 at 05:36 AM

pasblues
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

"Actually what you listed in reasons for switching from the Nikon was that "the control were more like a DSLR." I suspected you meant the controls were more like a DSLR than a Sony camera, but that isn't a reason for switching from Nikon."

Yes. That's what I meant. And I agree it's not a reason by itself for switching from Nikon - which is why the first thing I said was that I wouldn't recommend switching from Nikon for what he does. Buying tools depends on what a person wants those tools to do. It also depends on budget and the other things listed...not the least of which is weight and size. It's all tied together.

Oct 18, 2017 at 12:17 PM

pasblues
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

What are using for backup to the A9?

ryuemura wrote:
I did this switch right before wedding season started for me this year. I don't regret it one bit. I started off with the a7RII, 24-70 GM, 85 GM, 70-200 GM, and adapted my Nikon 105 macro. Yes, I was fortunate enough to sell my Nikon gear within 2-3 weeks, so my transition wasn't too hard. 3 weeks after I got my a7RII, I sold it for the a9. Honestly, one of the best decisions that I've made. I've noticed a substantial amount more keepers than what I was getting on my D810. I recently updated my lenses to the...Show more →

Oct 18, 2017 at 12:29 PM

kshimz
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

My brother's a7S II. Not the greatest for photography, but it beats having to buy another body. The a9 hit me deep in my pockets =P I just use it for some details, candids, cocktail hour, etc. The AF is not that great to be completely honest, so I keep it in AF-S center point AF and recompose. I was going to jump on the a7II, a6500 or their upcoming successor, but I'm not shooting weddings and events anymore so having a backup is longer necessary.

pasblues wrote:
What are using for backup to the A9?

Oct 18, 2017 at 01:20 PM

Ken_Cravillion
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

I shot the entirety of last year's weddings and the beginning of this years with a pair of A7RII's. They can certainly handle weddings every weekend but you're going to give up dual cards and have at least 5-6 batteries for each camera. And be prepared for 100+GB of pictures every weekend. Lol.

If you can swing it get A9's for the dual card capability and tons better battery life. The files are more manageable too. Oh, and the AF is miles better that the A7RII. I roll with dual A9's and an A7RII.

For lenses my staples are the GM 16-35, 35mm 1.4Z, 50mm 1.4Z, 85mm GM and Sigma Art 135mm (with Metabones adapter). I have a ton of other Sony lenses at my disposal for backup and redundancy too.

I also have the B18, B25, 90M, 24-70GM, 70-200GM, 12-24G and Canon 200mm. Those don't get much use.

Oct 18, 2017 at 05:10 PM

VilleK
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Whoah! A lot of great discussion! I try to answer tomorrow when I have time

Thanks guys!

Oct 18, 2017 at 05:26 PM

philip_pj
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Great info, Ken. thanks.

Oct 18, 2017 at 06:45 PM

pasblues
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Ken's setup for Sony is the only thing that would entice me - and makes sense if you have $30K+ to invest and bookings to justify it.

I have a hard time justifying spending that kind of money when the Fuji XT2 does what I need for these kinds of jobs.

$30K+ vs. less than $10K.

Edited on Oct 19, 2017 at 12:21 AM · View previous versions

Oct 18, 2017 at 09:01 PM

xterra07
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Rent the body and a lens or 2 for a week. After the initial novelty excitement of first day or 2, review the photos, then try low light. Like before sunrise when A7R II won't autofocus at all. And it's hard to manually focus. If you get past that, and all photo reviews go well, that's the camera for you.

I was curious about A7R II for a year or 2, finally tried it, loved it....... to a degree. Forget about action or really low light (there can be exceptions like knowing the infinity focus from the scale). Long Canon lenses 400mm+ used with a converter may have infinity focus issues. You will need 6 batteries if you shoot a lot. Other than that, I love it

. It's different, and I don't like change, but good different. The only way to know is try it

Oct 18, 2017 at 10:20 PM

Frogfish
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

xterra07 wrote:
Like before sunrise when A7R II won't autofocus at all. And it's hard to manually focus. If you get past that, and all photo reviews go well, that's the camera for you.

Thats absolutely wrong. Sorry.

How can the A7rii be hard to manually focus ? I shoot a lot in the evenings / night (my preference, given one) and never have an issue focusing with my MF lenses (V15, Lox21, V35), never.

Oct 19, 2017 at 03:52 AM

chez
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Frogfish wrote:
Thats absolutely wrong. Sorry.

How can the A7rii be hard to manually focus ? I shoot a lot in the evenings / night (my preference, given one) and never have an issue focusing with my MF lenses (V15, Lox21, V35), never.

I shoot landscapes with my A7R2 during times when it is very hard to see, pre-dawn and long after sunset. I have no problems achieving focus using my manual focus lens.

Oct 19, 2017 at 07:11 AM

pasblues
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

Another consideration is Sony lens QC. I ignored this as irrelevant to me until I got a bad copy of a 55mm f1.8ZA and read more and more threads on people having decentering issues with Sony lenses and the words "bad copy".

I've never heard of the term "bad copy" until I encountered Sony lenses. That's frustrating. These things aren't cheap. Sony needs to get their act together on QC. I can't understand the devotion to Sony lenses as long as "bad copy" is a reality.

Oct 19, 2017 at 10:34 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.2 #16 · p.2 #16 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

pasblues wrote:
Another consideration is Sony lens QC. I ignored this as irrelevant to me until I got a bad copy of a 55mm f1.8ZA and read more and more threads on people having decentering issues with Sony lenses and the words "bad copy".

I've never heard of the term "bad copy" until I encountered Sony lenses. That's frustrating. These things aren't cheap. Sony needs to get their act together on QC. I can't understand the devotion to Sony lenses as long as "bad copy" is a reality.

If you really care about this issue you should look at the lens rental blog posts on variability of various lenses. They have at least 10 copies of a lot of lenses and this let's them test how variable those lenses are. Every manufacturer has some lenses that are quite variable across the copies and hence there are some "bad copies." Every manufacturer has some lenses with quite low variability across copies (i.e., bad copies would be unlikely). There are some general trends.
Zooms especially across their range are more likely to have higher variability than primes. This is probably the biggest trend. If you are worried about "bad copies," then you probably don't want zooms with only a few rare exceptions, or said another way if you get zooms you may have to worry more about getting one that doesn't perform well in certain ways.
Sony as a company has quite a few lenses including some primes with pretty high variability, but the difference between Sony and other companies is much smaller than the general difference between zooms and primes.
Zeiss as a company has very low variability in their lenses, but this is at least in part because they don't make any zooms.

Oct 19, 2017 at 10:46 AM

Frogfish
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p.2 #17 · p.2 #17 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

pasblues wrote:
I've never heard of the term "bad copy" until I encountered Sony lenses.
Is anyone supposed to take this remark seriously ? Can I get a pass to this utopia you live in ?

*ex-Pentax (2 yrs) & Nikon (5 yrs) user who had up to 40 lenses at a time (inc. Sigma and Tamron as well as Pentax & Nikon).

BTW independent testing/polling has shown that the probability of an issue with a piece of camera equipment (camera or lens) is between 5-7% regardless of manufacturer.

Oct 19, 2017 at 11:19 AM

notherenow
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p.2 #18 · p.2 #18 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

VilleK wrote:
Hi there!

I've been thinking of switching my Nikon gear for Sony because of the EVF and stabilization.

My current Nikon gear consists of the following lenses:

Nikon 20/1.8 G
Nikon 28/1.8 G
Sigma 35/1.4 ART
Sigma 50/1.4 ART
Nikon 85/1.8G
Nikon 70-200/2.8G VR2

And now I would like to get something similar for Sony (maybe 70-200 is not required).

The number one thing I want to have is reliability. I don't want to attend in any lottery regarding getting bad copies.

Any suggestions for the lenses? It seems that nobody has anything bad to say about Batis 85/1.8, so I'm probably getting that. But what other lenses you would suggest?

28/2...Show more →

I would rent a camera and couple of lenses and see if it is for you.

With all your current gear I would need a very compelling reason to switch mounts and more so because Nikon isn't the best mix with Sony (not like Canon where you can just add a body and keep all your lenses and cameras and just use the Sony camera AS a Canon one and then add E mount lenses as required).

Sony makes very different cameras in FF E mount. My choice is the A7s (though I am still loving the first version) as there isn't another camera from anyone I would want for low light/high ISO but as an old amateur, I would be happy with any of them for different reasons.

I am done with DSLRs (used Canon, Pentax and Nikon) for the most part and have been very happy using Sony and have had greater reliability with Sony than some others.

I think if you found Sony WAS for you professionally, the choice for me would be between an A9 and maybe a APSC A6### as backup or more likely for me,a A7Rii and an A7s (1 or ii) for video and low light (I think it is a great photography camera in any light but shines after dark as long as you are not printing huge).

Lenses can come expensive or cheap(er) I would take the FE 85 1.8 and a second lens maybe used in place of the Batis 85 (I have the FE 85 as I only had that amount of money available but I am glad I did).

The Sony Zeiss 55 1.8 has stopped me looking at other normal lenses and the ones I have left are mostly unused now or kept for my second system.

My favourite lens is a Canon manual focus TS-E and for me at least it is BETTER (easier) on my A7s than on current Canons.

I am not so sure you should switch simply down to cost and it will be a different experience I think but maybe rent or try an older camera to see if it suits.

Oct 19, 2017 at 12:59 PM

newtophoto
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p.2 #19 · p.2 #19 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

how does one decide on a wide angle? i am thinking about going to sony. there seems to be so many options such as the newly released 12-24, 16-35, batis 18/28, loxia 21, etc.

Oct 19, 2017 at 01:36 PM

philip_pj
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p.2 #20 · p.2 #20 · Thinking of switching Nikon to Sony. What lenses?

I suggest you first think hard about exactly what you want in focal lengths as that is the biggest factor unless you are FM grade fussy, lol.

If you value using a range of FLs above all else, its got to be a 12-24 or 16-35 zoom. Same I believe if you want really wide as these are fortes of wide zooms, excepting off-brand wonders like the Laowa 15/2. So if you plan to shoot say 16-22mm choice is easier.

Other factors enter the picture (incl price). Two Zeiss primes taken together are small and still light. If IQ is paramount and faster apertures matter (wides do surprisingly good bokeh these days and are legitimate low light lenses), that argues for primes, like Sony's FE 28/2. It's so personal. Good luck - we all need it, and be assured your tastes will very likely change over time and as your subject matter changes. But research and reflecting are better than asking others in a forum, as they generally merely give their preferences. You'll never find perfection except in rare instances. Being happy to work your existing gear has a lot going for it, new needs often emerge slowly over time.

Oct 19, 2017 at 06:12 PM

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