Pius Sullivan wrote:
You did a fair evaluation on the BEAF between the R5 vs A1 then you proceeded to elaborate on other issues with the R5.
What are some of the pitfalls of the A1 or lets just say point of failure for the price range. I can think of a few so you must be more aware then I what they are.... (You can add to the list)
EVF blackouts whilst in sunny environments.
Battery drain is very fast.
IBIS issue. IBIS takes 5 second to stabilize when the camera is moved from hanging on its strap to pictures / video taking position.
Lens Release button...
Yes...my post was addressing the OPs interest in the R5 after a brief outing with it. The OP already has the A1 and was regularly participating in the early threads as we waited for the release of the camera. I'm sure he knows by now what limitations or issues the A1 has.
To address your list:
1) EVF blackout is an issue. With some position management and forethought it can be avoided but for sure it needs to be fixed.
2) Battery drain is poor in my opinion compared to previous Sony cameras I owned. The R5 was the second worst camera I owned for battery drain. The A1 battery drain can be greatly improved if one is okay setting a short PowerSave time like 10s or 1min. I prefer not to set a short one as I prefer to just keep it out of PowerSave and have it instantly respond. Most days I get into the 2nd battery on A1 and also did so on the R5. However, I get further through the 2nd A1 battery then I'd be through on the 2nd R5 battery. Anyways....at the end of the session I charge up two batteries via USB-C on either. So really no difference in actual use. If one shoots longer days then a 3rd A1 battery may be needed more often than a 3rd R5 battery. Thankfully even when my A1 battery is at 1% it doesn't start crippling my FPS Although to be fair to the R5 in ES it also doesn't cripple the FPS based on battery %.
3) IBIS issue is for shorter focal lengths and certain lenses according to the video I watched. I've never noticed it with long lenses. I will try to remember to look for it next time I'm out...but if I haven't noticed it yet I doubt my lenses are affected?? At least with A1 I can use OSS/IBIS for BIF where as with the R5 I had to shut both off when panning BIF as they constantly fought each other.
4) Lens release button position is a huge positive for me. I've always regarded that right side placement to be far superior to left side placement when trying to quickly switch TCs or lenses out in the field. Especially when I don't have a place to put the camera/lens down due to a slope or mud etc. I have to deliberately reach under the lens with my middle finger to access the button when I want to. I've never once in 3 years found my finger accidentally resting on the button and worried that I might accidentally push it and release the lens. I also don't recall anyone complaining about this over the many years of Sony MILCs other than TN (most likely to garner the clickbait and create controversy where it doesn't really exist in order to drive traffic).
Douglas L wrote:
On Sunday I shot 5843 pictures with my A1 at an airshow (spray and pray at its finest, ), the battery still showed 50% when I was done, no EVF blackout at all this time with the sun behind my shoulder, but it happened a dozen times a week ago when I was shooting hummingbirds, with the sun at similar position relative to me.
Curious as to what your PowerSave start time is set to? Also what refresh are you running the EVF at (60, 120, 240)?
I certainly can't get that many shots over an entire morning for the way I shoot. But I run my PowerSave at 5 or 30mins so it is rarely PowerSaving. I also do a lot of just sitting looking through the EVF, often with AF engaged, dancing dots, just waiting for things to happen so I bet shooting like that make my battery drain a lot worse than others may experience.
arbitrage wrote:
Curious as to what your PowerSave start time is set to? Also what refresh are you running the EVF at (60, 120, 240)?
I certainly can't get that many shots over an entire morning for the way I shoot. But I run my PowerSave at 5 or 30mins so it is rarely PowerSaving. I also do a lot of just sitting looking through the EVF, often with AF engaged, dancing dots, just waiting for things to happen so I bet shooting like that make my battery drain a lot worse than others may experience.
When shooting bird I also do a lot of sitting with AF engaged, which also means the lens stabilization is also engaged for a lot of the time whether I'm taking photos or not, and I always assumed that's one of the biggest drains on the battery. Sometimes I'll go through almost an entire battery for just a few hundred shots.
Yep, that's my impression as well. It's not the actual taking of a picture that drains the battery, but the camera simply being "on". I always check the timestamp of my first photo and the last one to see how many photos I took and how long I was actually using the camera...
wordfool wrote:
When shooting bird I also do a lot of sitting with AF engaged, which also means the lens stabilization is also engaged for a lot of the time whether I'm taking photos or not, and I always assumed that's one of the biggest drains on the battery. Sometimes I'll go through almost an entire battery for just a few hundred shots.
j4nu wrote:
Yep, that's my impression as well. It's not the actual taking of a picture that drains the battery, but the camera simply being "on". I always check the timestamp of my first photo and the last one to see how many photos I took and how long I was actually using the camera...
That's not new. You can take just about any camera and pop off 1000-1500 photos in 30 min during a sports game, but it's also possible to have it on during an 8 hour hike and need to swap batteries after 200 shots.
arbitrage wrote:
Curious as to what your PowerSave start time is set to? Also what refresh are you running the EVF at (60, 120, 240)?
I certainly can't get that many shots over an entire morning for the way I shoot. But I run my PowerSave at 5 or 30mins so it is rarely PowerSaving. I also do a lot of just sitting looking through the EVF, often with AF engaged, dancing dots, just waiting for things to happen so I bet shooting like that make my battery drain a lot worse than others may experience.
I brought two spare batteries with me so I was shocked the first battery still had 50% juice left after more than 5000 shots. I followed Laslo's suggestion to set the power saver at 10 seconds, the view finder is at Hi, not Hi+. For airshows, I only lift the camera to my eye when I see the plane/planes coming. basically there is no "looking through the EVF to wait for something to happy". Very little chimping also, the only time I chimp is to check if I got the vapor cone in the shot or if I capture the moment the two jets crossing each other, like the pictures below, other than these I wait until I unload the files to my computer.
Douglas L wrote:
I brought two spare batteries with me so I was shocked the first battery still had 50% juice left after more than 5000 shots. I followed Laslo's suggestion to set the power saver at 10 seconds, the view finder is at Hi, not Hi+. For airshows, I only lift the camera to my eye when I see the plane/planes coming. basically there is no "looking through the EVF to wait for something to happy". Very little chimping also, the only time I chimp is to check if I got the vapor cone in the shot or if I capture the moment the two jets crossing each other, like the pictures below, other than these I wait until I unload the files to my computer....Show more →
Great shots. Thanks for sharing your settings. Seeing your settings and how you shoot makes sense as to how you had much better battery life than I typically do.
The few times I did do a morning with Power Save at 10s my battery life improved dramatically. And certainly if you don't spend time chimping or watching/waiting via the EVF then battery life should be pretty good.
1bwana1 wrote:
The big one is that the a1 is missing Canon's innovative hand warmer feature that has become so popular with winter wildlife photographers.
This is combined with Canons unique coffee break timer which is set off when you have to shut down so the camera can cool off.
Canon also pays attention to fatigue factor. It slows the camera down as the battery charge gets lower. So both the camera and photographer don't "burn out".
Cannon also has a special rolling shutter feature to add a unique look to images. You can spot a Cannon action shot immediately because of this.
Seems like Sony has fallen behind in so many ways......Show more →
The most important feature for a camera would be turning on when you need it...
Seems they both have inhibitors for heat protection.
I don't see it over heating when it does not turn on...
as for leaning lines we have manual shutter at 12fps... has Sony cracked 10 yet?
Nice shots Doug. I will be going to my first air show in late August at Pocono Raceway. Based on what I see, from you and others, I will be taking my 200-600 with me instead of the 100-400. If I can do half as good as you, I will be very satisfied.
Laslo
Douglas L wrote:
I brought two spare batteries with me so I was shocked the first battery still had 50% juice left after more than 5000 shots. I followed Laslo's suggestion to set the power saver at 10 seconds, the view finder is at Hi, not Hi+. For airshows, I only lift the camera to my eye when I see the plane/planes coming. basically there is no "looking through the EVF to wait for something to happy". Very little chimping also, the only time I chimp is to check if I got the vapor cone in the shot or if I capture the moment the two jets crossing each other, like the pictures below, other than these I wait until I unload the files to my computer....Show more →
Pius Sullivan wrote:
The most important feature for a camera would be turning on when you need it...
Seems they both have inhibitors for heat protection.
I don't see it over heating when it does not turn on...
as for leaning lines we have manual shutter at 12fps... has Sony cracked 10 yet?
Yikes Pius! Does your R5 not turn on sometimes? Maybe a firmware patch will fix that for you.
Hogan's take on those that own one. Stick to the R5.
I agree enjoy it, it is a great camera, and a pretty good toaster too.
Considering a Canon R5 — no question the A1 takes things further than the R5 does, but the question is how much further. Not enough to make this anything other than about the lenses, in my opinion. If you've got EF-S lenses you like, then choose the R5. If the mirrorless lens choice looks better with Sony to you, consider the A1.
Conclusion:
That said, I repeat what I wrote in the first paragraph in this section: the Sony A1 is the best all-around mirrorless camera you can buy. It performs extremely well as either a pixels camera or a speed camera, which pretty much only the Canon R5 can also make a real claim to. Thus, the Sony A1 currently stands nearly alone in terms of top mirrorless cameras.
So, I can understand that you are content with your 2nd place camera. That is a great showing.
But, it reminds me of once having the wind taken out of my sails by a 2nd place. In 1996 when driving a Porsche GT3 class car at the biggest and most difficult sports car race in America, the 24 Hours of Daytona, we came in 2nd. We were all very happy and celebrating. The team crew chief that year was a gruff old guy named John Williamson. He gathered us around and grumped, "I don't know what you guys are so happy about. Second place is just first loser, you guys should have won this one."
Silence from the team. I never did win Daytona, but did manage a 3rd another year. I am still happy with the second place no matter what John says.
So should you be with your 2nd place camera I guess?
I did manage to try out an R5 yesteryday. I tried some BIF as they flew by some telephone poles. I didn't get a copy of the files to share results here. But this is a pretty good sketch of what it looked like:
///////////////////// -0- //////////////////
You would think they would be able to get straight poles these days wouldn't you?
Laslo Varadi wrote:
Nice shots Doug. I will be going to my first air show in late August at Pocono Raceway. Based on what I see, from you and others, I will be taking my 200-600 with me instead of the 100-400. If I can do half as good as you, I will be very satisfied.
Laslo
Thank you Laslo. You are too kind! The Thunderbirds started a new routine this year after 40 years. Some of the formations are much tighter, 18" wingtip to wingtip, just like what the Blue Angels have been doing for years. I think I am okay with jets but my panning skill sucks big time for prop. planes. Also when it's bright, I have to shoot at F20 in order to get 1/200 second shutter speed for prop. motion.
Definitely the 200-600 over the 100-400. Even 600mm isn't long enough sometimes. But 200mm can be too long sometimes if you want to include the long smoke trails in your composition.
Anyway, I am getting way off the topic. I am sure the Canon R5 can make wonder photo too, but the A1 gives me 50% higher probability of getting THAT shot (30 FPS vs 20 FPS), if the EVF doesn't go black.
Pius Sullivan wrote: as for leaning lines we have manual shutter at 12fps... has Sony cracked 10 yet?
As long as you've got about 50 batteries along with you to keep the 12FPS which seemed to disappear at the most random charge levels I've ever seen. One day it drops to 9FPS at 38%, the next it drops at 78%...no rhyme or reason....just typical Canon shenanigans.....
arbitrage wrote:
As long as you've got about 50 batteries along with you to keep the 12FPS which seemed to disappear at the most random charge levels I've ever seen. One day it drops to 9FPS at 38%, the next it drops at 78%...no rhyme or reason....just typical Canon shenanigans.....
I don't know what it is, but you always seem to have problems, I have been using the R5 since its been around and never have any issues with batteries, the photo quality is 2nd to none... No leaning lines in my photographs.... my biggest problem is to many shots in focus.. . I shoot the same subjects as you, don't see any quality difference and I do it for less money...
Pius Sullivan wrote:
The Canon R5 can swing both ways....
Fortunately as a Sony shooter I haven't had to rely on a mechanical shutter that scares away my subjects since 2017 and still verticals are vertical while panning .
randomguy wrote:
Fortunately as a Sony shooter I haven't had to rely on a mechanical shutter that scares away my subjects since 2017 and still verticals are vertical while panning .
Just need to work on your panning, will save you lots of money...
(You can add to the list)
Although to be fair to the R5 in ES it also doesn't cripple the FPS based on battery %.
