Hi, looking for some upgrade advice - ill try and keep it short here.
Currently shoot with A7RIII for resolution (landscapes mainly) and A9ii for AF (mainly my 5 and 9 year old - does that count as sports?)
Don't shoot birds, weddings or sports. My kids don't stay still much it seems so that's where I enjoy the A9ii AF and the stickier eye-AF compared to my a7riii. I also like the silent shutter on the a9ii but mainly due to the saving on mechanical wear and tear not for the noise reduction. I don't shoot burst mode much so body FPS isn't high on the priority list.
Sony A1 is out my budget.
So - I have been wondering if I could sell the A7rIII and A9ii and purchase the A7RV instead so that I have both resolution and AF in the one body as while its nice to have two bodies at times it often frustrates me.
Does anyone have experience with both that can advise how close the AF is between them? I appreciate the A9ii will likely have the edge but is the a7RV "close enough" ?
I'd say that for the kind of shooting you decribed, A7RV AF should be great. Just stick to efcs/mechanical for kids being kids (running, jumping, ... ).
I own both the A9ii and the A7rV. While the A9ii has the speed at 20 fps, the A7rV still has an incredible AF system. It is extremely capable of tracking fast action, just at a lower frame rate and without the electronic shutter. The subject recognition in the A7rV is superb and extremely quick and accurate. It is more responsive than my A9ii in that regard. It sounds like it would fit your needs really well.
j4nu wrote:
I'd say that for the kind of shooting you decribed, A7RV AF should be great. Just stick to efcs/mechanical for kids being kids (running, jumping, ... ).
baumgarten0712 wrote:
I own both the A9ii and the A7rV. While the A9ii has the speed at 20 fps, the A7rV still has an incredible AF system. It is extremely capable of tracking fast action, just at a lower frame rate and without the electronic shutter. The subject recognition in the A7rV is superb and extremely quick and accurate. It is more responsive than my A9ii in that regard. It sounds like it would fit your needs really well.
Very informative, thanks for posting! Interesting observation about the subject tracking being better than the A9ii. The way I use my a9ii is by having it set to tracking: expand flexible spot set to the middle of the frame and then I basically lock on with the centre and recompose and allow the tracking to keep the subject locked. Eye AF overrides when a face is detected. I would want to be able to use the a7rV in a similar fashion for the kid stuff.
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RoamingScott wrote:
Honestly, the A7R4 is totally fine for your use case, if you want to save some money. The EyeAF is quite good on it!
That's a fair point Scott. When the a7RIV came out I decided to skip the upgrade from my a7riii figuring I would jump every second revision but the prices where they are now should definitely be considered. I will give that some thought.
Do you want, need or simply enjoy having 2 separate bodies? If you only carry one camera at a time, having the best all-in-one body may be sensible. Do you sometimes shoot your hi-res and hi-speed cameras side by side with different lenses like wide and tele? If so, then going to a single body means you'll need to swap lenses while shooting rather than just lifting up the other camera+lens. If you typically carry a single camera then going for a single uber camera may work for you.
xpfloyd wrote:
Very informative, thanks for posting! Interesting observation about the subject tracking being better than the A9ii.
in a word, no... subject recognition is a separate function from tracking, which is af that stays locked on to the subject.
the a9ii is making far more actual af measurements than the a7r5, because of the faster readout speed of the stacked sensor... the a7r5 also can't make any af measurements when the mechanical shutter is flapping around.
beyond that, lens focus motor speeds can affect tracking.
xpfloyd wrote:
The way I use my a9ii is by having it set to tracking: expand flexible spot set to the middle of the frame and then I basically lock on with the centre and recompose and allow the tracking to keep the subject locked. Eye AF overrides when a face is detected. I would want to be able to use the a7rV in a similar fashion for the kid stuff.
that's sony real-time tracking, both cameras can do it.
in terms of camera bodies, the only way that you are going to improve sticky tracking functionality with fast subject matter is with an a1, not an a7rv.
see the a7rv/a7riv vs. a9/a9ii readout speeds, it's a huge difference, the 61mp sensor is not made for shooting fast-moving subjects:
jeffbuzz wrote:
Do you want, need or simply enjoy having 2 separate bodies? If you only carry one camera at a time, having the best all-in-one body may be sensible. Do you sometimes shoot your hi-res and hi-speed cameras side by side with different lenses like wide and tele? If so, then going to a single body means you'll need to swap lenses while shooting rather than just lifting up the other camera+lens. If you typically carry a single camera then going for a single uber camera may work for you.
I do enjoy 2 bodies at times but on the flip side I sometimes get in a situation where the lens I want on the AF body is on the resolution body or vice versa and I end up having to swap anyways, I think I will be fine with one Sony body (also have a Q2 that I carry)
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osv2 wrote:
in a word, no... subject recognition is a separate function from tracking, which is af that stays locked on to the subject.
Sorry that was a typo on my part, meant to write subject recognition, not subject tracking.
osv2 wrote:
see the a7rv/a7riv vs. a9/a9ii readout speeds, it's a huge difference, the 61mp sensor is not made for shooting fast-moving subjects:
Yes, this is kind of why I started the thread. I know the a9ii has the faster readouts but wondered if for my use case it wouldn't be noticed using the slower readout and that the A7RV tracking and lock on would be good enough (my kids move fast but not sports photography fast I don't think). From the massive amount of YouTube videos I ended up watching last night I think it looks like it will do the trick nicely especially with the AI AF chip on the A7RV. Think I have convinced myself
I have the A7RV and A9.
It's true that for your described use case the RV will do great.
For very fast, erratic moving subjects my A9 still tracks better. Not a surprise because of the faster stacked sensor that is able to do more AF calculations per second.
I also have an A9 (mark I) and the A7RV. I prefer shooting my toddler and dogs with the A7RV generally and find the AF tracking more than adequate for erratic toddler movements. The subject recognition is definitely an improvement over the A9 and eye-AF works well with our newborn where the A9 struggles. On the dog for example, the A7RV will recognise the animal even if facing away from the camera whereas I'd have to point the A9 at the face to trigger any subject recognition.
Unlike one of the earlier comments, I didn't find the A7RIV adequate in the same scenarios and find the A7RV AF a big improvement over the RIV for my style of shooting.
Having said that I'm keeping my A9 as a backup and for where I want 20fps or silent shutter action shooting. For something like dogs running fast, I think the quicker AF calculations on the A9 gives it an advantage. Interestingly the A7RIV couldn't do animal eye-AF in conjunction with subject tracking. The RV and the A9 can.
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