Just an unsolicited promotion of the a6700. I am primarily a Leica SL user these days, but confess I hate carrying even 2 lenses around because of the weight.
On a just-completed trip to Barber Motorsports Park near Birmingham, AL I decided to buy a very small ILC to take pictures of the racing action (which Isaias ruined) and the Barber Motorcycle Museum (which it did not). This was the annual BMW Motorrad event and vintage bike race.
I have never owned a modern-era Sony digital so was a little anxious over buying it the day before I left. No problem at all. I bought it with the Sony 16-55 f2.8 and the Sony 50-350.
I was very pleasantly surprised at the speed and output of the camera. My initial take is I would be happy to use this camera for virtually anything. IQ, metering and autofocus are all terrific. Just goes to show you that we (me included) get caught up in the MP and latest full frame gear craze, but this camera is wonderful.
FYI, if you haven't been to Barber, it's the world's largest motorcycle museum (has over 1,000 motorcycles on display and another several hundred in storage) on 5 floors. Absolutely spectacular facility built by the recently deceased George Barber. Just a few snaps of bikes included below. Unedited except for resizing. They aren't meant to be fine art - I am an avid bike rider and motorcycle history buff, so these are for my scrapbook.
I agree, it’s an excellent camera. I think that the only reason it doesn’t get as much attention was that the A7CII and A7CR came out very soon after its release. A relative lack of apsc lens development has also steered more people to the full frame options when they are looking for a compact body.
Yes, agree on lenses. I did notice however that Sigma is coming out with a 50-150 f2.8. That, combined with the other Sigmas and Sony lenses is enough for most needs I think. I used the Sigma trilogy of primes when I had a Leica CL and they were pretty good.
I didn't get to try out video at the track (though I am not much of a video guy) but some testing tells me it's pretty good too.
I looked at the A7CR and C II but with a 24-70 2.8 they are still sizable as a package. You can't have everything, but I am very happy with the a6700 so far. I am still interested in the CR - we'll see.
I just bought an A6700 for 830nm Infrared conversion, also bought a Sony E 10-20 f4 and FE 28-60 to use with it. I won't have the camera back for another 2 weeks. Hope the 10-20 works with with it. I know the FE 28-60 is great with dark IR because I used it for IR before.
The A6700 with Sigma 17-40 f1.8 DC Art is my camera for non-photography focused travel. I may also throw in my Sigma 10-18 and/or Sony 70-350 - it all fits in my sling bag.
That new 50-150 is really nice to see. I can't believe it's taken so long for anyone to come out with a f/2.8 70-180 equivalent since a 70-200 is considered such a necessity for so many photographers.
I have both the a6700 and the A7CR. The a6700 has been more of my everyday camera and the one I take when I'm going to be doing something a little risky on the motorcycle and I want a camera in my tank bag.
APSC has indeed come a long way. About the only thing it can't do as well as FF is render as shallow a DoF; and the other nits are there's also a bit more visible ISO noise and a bit less cropability on average. But end of day, a lot of excellent images can be made from the smaller form factor cameras and lenses.
My bigger nit and as mentioned above, is there are now a handful of FF bodies that aren't much larger than APSC equivalents. While the FF lenses are larger, APSC lenses can still be used on these FF bodies, so the final size isn't as big a hurdle. I recently moved away from APSC for travel and adopted a smaller FF A7CR body and a few smaller FF f4 zooms like the 20-70/4 which is quite versatile for travel, but that's me and I respect the attraction of the 6700 line for others
Jack Flesher wrote:
APSC has indeed come a long way. About the only thing it can't do as well as FF is render as shallow a DoF; and the other nits are there's also a bit more visible ISO noise and a bit less cropability on average. But end of day, a lot of excellent images can be made from the smaller form factor cameras and lenses.
My bigger nit and as mentioned above, is there are now a handful of FF bodies that aren't much larger than APSC equivalents. While the FF lenses are larger, APSC lenses can still be used on these FF bodies, so the final size isn't as big a hurdle. I recently moved away from APSC for travel and adopted a smaller FF A7CR body and a few smaller FF f4 zooms like the 20-70/4 which is quite versatile for travel, but that's me and I respect the attraction of the 6700 line for others ...Show more →
Yeah, you can crop the cr to the same resoultion, but you don't get the smaller overall size, the better grip, the significantly lower cost, plus, even with the cr in crop mode, faster silent shutter clear time, faster, more sticky tracking, and a faster ultimate frame rate. The cr can get a great landscaper, but, if you're trying to track things that move quickly, I'd rather have the 6700.
I have a A6700 but no A7CR to compare it to. Today there are quite nice lenses for the Sony APS-C cameras especially from Sony, Sigma and Viltrox. With the Sony 18-135 it offers a lot of imaging capability in a small and light package.
In some cases a 60mp FE body can allow a more versatile use of lenses, e.g. the Tamron 50-300 can be used at 50mm in FE mode or at 300mm in APS-C-mode. On longer trips my A7R IV with lenses (already chosen for moderate weight) is still to heavy for me next to the general luggage und picknick stuff.
My really small APS-C-camera is the A5100 with SG Image 25mm.
