I’m now debating my next Sony body. I do mostly landscape, including night-astro and travel. The sports I shoot are my grandchildren. The nit is I occasionally do wildlife including birds. Often this is coupled with my landscape trips. I don’t normally bother with 2 bodies while traveling, but I always do with landscape; usually the main lens on one cam, a wider zoom on the other. Money is a factor but not crucial and hence the nit. Would I be better off with a 2nd A7R6 because it’s “adequate for what I do and equivalent to my main squeeze,” or an A1ii for the enhanced AF capability — and live with the different batteries and sensor?
I have the A7rvi, A1ii, and A9iii.....Except for very specialized work, I've been grabbing the A7rvi for everything. And when the specialized need arrives, it's the A9iii. Thus the A1ii has become my high resolution backup which means I'm typically not grabbing it at all.
I assumed the A7rvi would not be fast enough for fast moving swallows catching bugs or even hummingbirds, but empirically it's doing fine with faster initial acquisition than the A1ii. Only difference I see is a slight advantage on the A1ii in keeper rate once you're tracking that bird in flight but at most it's like a 5 percent difference out of a burst. And like I said initial aquisition is faster on the A7rvi with in some cases acquisition at all (blue grosbeaks this evening embedded in prairie grass would have required me to force the A1ii to get the initial aquisition by putting a small xs spot on the bird then waiting a bit, on the A7rvi it was instant)
The airshow last weekend the A9iii was the perfect tool. So, I'd say if it's just for backup and you normally do landscapes, you might even just opt for something that fills a different niche like the A7rc compact version of the A7rv.
Jack Flesher wrote:
I’m now debating my next Sony body. I do mostly landscape, including night-astro and travel. The sports I shoot are my grandchildren. The nit is I occasionally do wildlife including birds. Often this is coupled with my landscape trips. I don’t normally bother with 2 bodies while traveling, but I always do with landscape; usually the main lens on one cam, a wider zoom on the other. Money is a factor but not crucial and hence the nit. Would I be better off with a 2nd A7R6 because it’s “adequate for what I do and equivalent to my main squeeze,” or an A1ii for the enhanced AF capability — and live with the different batteries and sensor?...Show more →
If you only shoot birds occasionally and mainly do landscape and grandkids, the A7RVI would be a better tool, IMHO. This is coming from someone who owns two A1IIs and an A7RVI. The A7RVI's slower sensor read speed and AF calculation/second may not yield as many keepers as the A1II but there are still plenty to choose from. Now, if you shoot 75% fast stuff and 25% landscape, the A1II is a no brainer, IMHO. Not sure what kind of sports your grandkids play. The A7RVI may show funny looking balls, bats, golfclubs...
For me a true backup is a second camera exactly the same as the first. Then you can copy all the setttings from the CAMSET and not have any mental issues with the differences.
I often have two different cameras and a third as a backup the same as one of the other two.
It's a good idea to rent cameras if unsure. Personally I'm awaiting the A1 III, which will almost certainly have a new sensor and use the NP-SA100.
Jack Flesher wrote:
I’m now debating my next Sony body. I do mostly landscape, including night-astro and travel. The sports I shoot are my grandchildren.
Jack, I am in your shoes. Very similar usage pattern, and I've been very happy with the A7RV for all of these use cases. But then one day I got hit by GAS and ordered the A1 II. This "upgrade" did absolutely nothing for me: my AF hit rate has been more or less the same. I guess kids/dogs running around aren't serious enough action to show off the superior sensor speed of the A1 II, and I never needed more than 5-10fps. Couldn't care less about an electronic shutter.
HOWEVER... handling two different bodies was annouing as hell. Despite being mostly identical, there was too much friction shooting with both at the same time:
1. Muscle memory. I kept trying to press the non-existing Fn button on the A7RV
2. Impossible to quickly sync all settings across cameras (camsets), so they would diverge over time in random places.
3. Post-processing was annoying because of different color profiles. Can't just copy-paste adjustments on a series of photos.
4. In your case, you'll have two incompatible batteries too.
So I went back to a single body, and if I add a second one again, it will be exact same model.
TLDR: get another A7R6
P.S. BTW I have the Nikon ZF as well, and weirdly I found shooting with two completely different bodies to be less confusing for my brain. Somehow, the moment my fingers feel the drastically different shape of the ZF, it activates different parts of my muscle memory and there's no confusion at all. But the post-processing pain is still there, so I never shoot them together. One for lightweight travel, another for "serious" work.
I really appreciate the feedback. I am leaning to a 2nd A7R6. Same body, same battery, same UI all make a lot of sense. My AF needs are not A1ii or A9iii critical.
