Newenglandrocks
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old-gregg wrote:
1. Compactness. Finally we have a modern digital equivalent of the original Leica M philosophy. Everything Sony makes tends to be smaller and lighter. This is especially important with glass.
2. Sony-made lenses. I do not know what happened behind the scenes. Maybe Sony, being a giant company, simply hired all the best lens designers. I see Sony glass as srème de la crème, something like what Leica and Zeiss used to be during the film era. And it's not just optical quality, it's build quality and variety too! You have tiny G-lenses for compactness, then you have optical perfection in the form of GMs, etc.
3. Superior sensors. There are 3 sensor manufacturers. Sony is about 5 years ahead of everyone else, and they don't let competitors use their best sensor tech. I am an IQ whore and I simply cannot tolerate the situation of not owning the best sensor on the market. It doesn't matter that all this extra resolution and dynamic range is more than I need. I won't be able to sleep unless I have them.
4. Great software [1]. I need a good native RAW converter, tethered shooting, and a mobile app. Sony and Canon can do software. Others can't. This also results in the leading auto-focus performance, and most importantly, it will always be class-leading. Sony can afford https://ai.sony/ while others can't.
5. Lens selection. My favorite 3rd party E-mount lens brand is Voigtlander, which offers more lenses for the E-mount than anyone else, except only M.
6. And finally, ergonomics. Sony, along maybe with Fuji, has recognized that press+hold+rotate ergonomics while staring on a stupid top LCD is mega-retarded approach from the early 2000s. They brought back proper aperture rings, they gave us a great selection of dedicated buttons and dials, and made them infinitely customizeable. Yes, it takes some adjustment. Yes, setting up a new camera requires effort. But once you overcome your lazy, you'll have a hard time using the retro-ergos of other brands.
[1] Clarification: actually, all software created by camera companies is utter shit. But Sony's shit is still 3x better than others, so within the realm of shitty camera software it's definitely great....Show more →
This summarizes it for me as well. Thanks for writing it up!
But in the end with Sony, you have a system that enables maximum creative flexibility. Limitations on what you can photograph for 99% of Sony shooters including myself are with our personal capabilities and not the system.
Here is one example: The 100GM macro paired with the A9iii makes it extremely fun and easy to do run-and-gun BIF. The “B” being “bee” and not bird. You can shoot at 120FPS with a 1 second precapture, extend working distance and magnification with a 1.4TC and get all this with greater stabiilization, flash sync at any shutter speed, all at a size and weight that is meaningful smaller than competing systems. This is technically impossible with the competition due to a combination of body AND lens tech deficits. If I shot (bigger) wildlife and was building a system from scratch, I’d take a hard look at Nikon due to their excellent line of telephoto glass, but for everything else, Sony has a multitude of advantages across many areas.
I’d like to add that I feel ergos are quiet underrrated, because with the same body and lens combo, you can shoot “Fuji slow” and slowly dial in the exposure triangle or sports photographer fast when the pace of the action is high. The high level of customization gives me a lot of confidence when shooting in a variety of scenarios since I can quickly make the camera do what I want without menu diving and keep focus on the subject I am shooting.
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