Ross Martin
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Steve Spencer wrote:
My general take on this camera when I compare it to the A7r V that I used to own is that you get a small upgrade in the core of what that camera did well--a very small bump in resolution and a small bump in base ISO dynamic range. It will still be the among the best (and arguably the best) FF camera for shooting things that don't move and moves slowly for genres like landscapes, architecture, macro, still life, and nature photography. I would shoot those types of things with the manual shutter and I doubt I would notice the small improvements in resolution and dynamic range much if at all, but it is still a fantastic camera for that sort of shooting.
What this camera adds is a lot more capability to use the electronic shutter and even decent video performance. With my A7r V, I never used the electronic shutter, I just kept it in mechanical shutter mode for all my shooting, but sometimes shooting silently is nice or even mandatory. For wildlife the click of the shutter can scare animals away. At concerts, for example, sometimes it is required to make no noise at all. This camera can do that sort of shooting reasonably well and when it does the viewfinder will be blackout free and present a really nice image. You will get great wildlife shots even if the animal is walking around and or hopping. You can use precapture to respond to the animal moving rather than anticipate the movement. No, it won't work well for many animals when they are going at full speed, but that will depend on the exact circumstances and it will work some of the time. For me I would appreciate that extra capability in silent shutter mode. Of course, I could still shoot that stuff (and even animals moving at top speed) with the mechanical shutter as well just subject to a less than blackout free EVF, limited fps, and a shutter that clacks and makes noise. So for that type of shooting the A1 or A1 II or maybe even an A9 or A9 II might be better. Still this camera adds significantly to the capabilities of my A7r V and that would be valuable to me and probably a bit more valuable than the small bumps in the core of what I used that camera for.
So, I would say this is a quite decent upgrade for a lot of people, but whether it replaces an A1 or A1 II depends on what you shoot. If you shoot a lot with the silent shutter and you often target fast moving targets, then it clearly isn't a replacement. If you shoot primarily still or slow moving subjects it is only a modest at most upgrade for that. If you shoot a mix of both a lot of still subjects and some fast moving subjects, it is a pretty major upgrade if you don't have a second camera like the A1 or A1 II, if you do, however, I suspect that most will want to kep that A1 or A1 II and this camera will just be a minor upgrade for shooting slower moving stuff, but as secondary camera for fast moving stuff it will be much more useful than the A7r V. I can imagine, for example, a lot of wildlife shooters who will use a two camera setup with an A1 II for capturing their targets when they are moving at their fastest (e.g., birds in flight), but also an A7r V for when the target is still or just walking or hopping around (e.g., birds hopping around in a tree) for some added cropability and or resolution.
Of course these are early days and very few people have actually used the camera. We will learn more and more people get the camera in their hands and tell us what it can and cannot do....Show more →
Steve, I find this to be a very fair, well-reasoned, and accurate assessment.
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Stacked is a pretty liberal term, which can mean adding an any additional layer to the sensor, in this case an amorphous "processing layer" that I've yet to see a compelling reason adds any utility or value to the camera. But I'll reserve final judgement until more details are hopefully released.
