p.1 #1 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
I'm seeking some advice on a second body. I'm currently using an 85GMii with my Sony A1 for the majority of my sports photography work. I also own a 35mm Samyang 1.8 but the lens has weak AF so I only pull it out for miscellaneous things or random gigs.
I will be purchasing a 300GM 2.8 later this month and hot swapping lenses throughout some pro sporting events (basketball, beach volleyball, tennis). Obviously swapping on one body has a lot of limitations, and as I start getting more paid gigs I am planning on getting a second body so that I could use the 300 and 85 without needing to swap. To that end I'd want some advice.
Some candidates include the A9iii, another A1, or the A1ii, but I know that Sony has recently released the A7V and A7RVI but I'm not aware of how they stack up for sports. Budget is not a limiting concern as I've been able to find enough work to pay approximately half the cost of my current setup in one year, and I'm comfortable breaking even in a 3-5 year window (sports photography is a creative outlet and hobby for me that happens to bring in some money).
With the 85 I'm a big cropper in photos, but with the 300GM I'm not sure how that will change. For sports I don't really feel like I'm missing a lot with pre-capture but I've never had it so I can't tell. What are some scenarios where pre-capture is absolutely necessary?
Thanks for taking the time to read and I look forward to your thoughts.
p.1 #2 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
A9iii. I was just photographing adult ultimate frisbee over the weekend and 60FPS was outstanding. I had the A1ii in the bag and never took it out. Precapture allows you to shoot fewer shots and get the critical moments. I'm not convinced I need 120FPS, but the difference between 30 and 60FPS is palpable (I shot both) and when I went to 60FPS I was just nailing the timing on action. I'm looking at the 100-400GM f/4.5 as a field sports lens. I rented the 300GM and honestly I just don't have the skill to shoot an erratic field sport with a long prime. I need a zoom because I'm not a pro!
p.1 #3 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
I see a significant difference between the AF speed / accuracy between my A7RV and my A1. I'll never be going back to anything less than 120 af calculations per second. Everrrerrrrr. That said, I've seen seasoned sports pro's way better than me (a total amateur) tout the ability of the A7V and A7R6 af... Idk. If money is no option, snag a used a9iii or a1ii. Or rent a new A7R6.
p.1 #4 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
Newenglandrocks wrote:
A9iii. I was just photographing adult ultimate frisbee over the weekend and 60FPS was outstanding. I had the A1ii in the bag and never took it out. Precapture allows you to shoot fewer shots and get the critical moments. I'm not convinced I need 120FPS, but the difference between 30 and 60FPS is palpable (I shot both) and when I went to 60FPS I was just nailing the timing on action. I'm looking at the 100-400GM f/4.5 as a field sports lens. I rented the 300GM and honestly I just don't have the skill to shoot an erratic field sport with a long prime. I need a zoom because I'm not a pro! ...Show more →
Oh yes I've shot ultimate before and its hard to catch a release with all the pump fakes. I imagine it only gets worse when you get to the pro level, and I anticipate being able to shoot UFA matches next season so this is helpful.
p.1 #5 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
If you're a pro, you should be rocking two identical bodies. The benefits are too numerous to list them all, but the top ones for me would be the muscle memory utilization, camsets, and the consistent post-processing pipeline. I tried shooting with the A1 II and A7RV side by side, but kept cursing my life choices because of those reasons, especially the added post-processing complexity.
p.1 #6 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
old-gregg wrote:
If you're a pro, you should be rocking two identical bodies. The benefits are too numerous to list them all, but the top ones for me would be the muscle memory utilization, camsets, and the consistent post-processing pipeline. I tried shooting with the A1 II and A7RV side by side, but kept cursing my life choices because of those reasons, especially the added post-processing complexity.
That's a good point. I believe the A9iii and the A1 have very similar bodies. If I recall the A9iii has the C5 button, and a flip screen, but the dials and settings are mostly all in the same spot (I could be very wrong). What post-processing difficulties are there?
p.1 #7 · Second body to pair with A1 primarily sports
Lethimcook wrote:
That's a good point. I believe the A9iii and the A1 have very similar bodies. If I recall the A9iii has the C5 button, and a flip screen, but the dials and settings are mostly all in the same spot (I could be very wrong). What post-processing difficulties are there?
The muscle memory for me extends past the button positions. For example, the "grabbiness" of tracking AF modes and subject recognition timing weren't the same across those two bodies. The EVF responsiveness differed too. The A7RV, being slower, required a few milliseconds of a lead time when shooting fast action. All buttons, despite being the same, weren't in exactly the same positions, for example C1 and C2 were slightly off and I sometimes wouldn't hit one of them exactly the right way, missing the shot. You lose the ability to shoot without thinking, the feeling of the camera becoming the extension of your body. Sorry to repeat the beaten stereotype, but it's true: these little things are compounding detractors.
When it came to post-processing, I had a bunch of Lightroom/ACR presets for the A7RV, which I had acquired first. The presets were built on top of Adobe Color base profile, and yet they didn't produce the same result when applied to the images taken with the A1 II. The delta was quite small for images exposed under sunlight, but artifically lit scenes looked very different despite WB normalization. And finally, Sony's own camera profiles for their RAW converter (and their Adobe's camera-matching counterparts) didn't look the same either.
Some may say "first world problems". But when you come back home from a long photoshoot with thousands of images to process, these papercuts add up fast.
