Trek of Joy

A mockup from Nikon Rumors. A few things stand out from the teaser that I like - two top dials, the grip that looks to be taller than Sony's (my pinky curls under the grip without the extension) and the grip appears to be a little further from the lens mount so hopefully its not as tight with fatter lenses. Also that 24-70 in the new teaser image looks quite large, I'm betting it'll be good. Lastly, Thom Hogan is saying to FX cameras at launch followed by two DX cameras down the road. Chris

The rumored specs have listed 5-axis for quite some time. If Fuji can do it, I'm willing to bet Nikon can too. Chris

Have you ever been on a safari in Africa? Or to a place like Katmai National Park in Alaska for bear watching? 400mm is the perfect sports lens, but its on the short end of wildlife glass. Lots of people are carrying around 500/600mm lenses, body size is irrelevant. Most have the big guns on monopods anyway. Eventually we'll see something longer than the 400 in E-mount. Until then people are adapting Canon lenses with great results. I'm getting ready to buy a Sigma 150-600/MC-11 to dip a toe into wildlife shooting. I'll be using it on my a7III. Chris The drawback with CIZ is the fact you lose the ability to move your AF point or track subjects. Long glass gives you some seriously shallow DOF, the magic of Sony's newer AF cameras is their ability to stay locked onto a subject, even against busy backgrounds. CIZ is a nice feature, but you lose AF precision for critical work.

Current EOS-m stuff isn't going anywhere, even if they just keep the Sony strategy of cranking out new bodies with few additions to the already sparse lens lineup. Canon claims to be #2 in mirrorless - and that's without any high end stuff. They've just been reported to be #1 in Japan eclipsing Olympus, again with pedestrian offerings from an enthusiast standpoint. CaNikon and even Sony will keep APS-c because that's where the volume is, look at Amazon's best sellers - its all cheap plastic DSLR's with kit zooms. Sony says the a6000 is its best selling ILC ever. That's the entry point into ILC's or what casual shooters call a 'real camera'. Plus I'm willing to bet Nikon does a mirrorless version of the d500 after the FF cameras are released, something for the crop sports/wildlife shooter - a market I'm surprised Sony has always half-assed with the a6300/6500. Chris

IMO part of the 'shortage' is the fact that Nikon's production capacity is being slowed by tooling to build the mirrorless body. Side note, Nikon issued a presser today about the new camera, note the mention of an adapter: Nikon Corporation (Nikon) is pleased to announce the development of a full-frame, Nikon FX-format, mirrorless camera and NIKKOR lenses featuring a new mount. The mirrorless camera and NIKKOR lenses that are in development have enabled the pursuit of a new dimension in optical performance, with the adoption of a new mount. The mirrorless camera is the result of Nikon's advanced optical and manufacturing capabilities gained through over a century of heritage, as well as superior image-processing technology. The expertise built up through the development of Nikon's digital SLR cameras has also critically contributed to this development. With this new mirrorless camera and NIKKOR lenses, we are committed to providing photographers with the ability to capture images that are richer and more vivid than ever before. Additionally, a new mount adapter is being developed for the new mirrorless camera. This will work with the NIKKOR F mount lenses that are part of the Nikon digital SLR system, adding to the variety of choices for photographers.

I prefer the a7III for stills as well, the AF is better in every situation I've encountered - especially fast action and low light. For stills - in terms of detail - there's very little difference, but the a7III has a significant edge in terms of DR and noise (it has the same advantage over the NX1 and every other smaller sensor). At base ISO the Sony will have a lot more information in the shadows/highlights - about 1.5 stops. At 6400 the files are so clean its amazing. Face/eye detection are next level, as is the 93% sensor PDAF coverage - once it locks on to something it can track it across the entire frame, the Fuji can only track reliably in the middle portion of the frame. The three smaller primes are gems - the 28/2 (sharp in the center, a little field curvature - at faster apertures keep your subject in the center), 55/1.8 (super sharp, great bokeh, lots of CA) and 85/1.8 (cheap, sharp and nicer bokeh than the Batis IMO). The new Tamron zooms looks great as well. I have the f/4 zooms, the 16-35 is a stellar UWA - its my most used E-mount lens, the 24-70 ranges from ok to good depending on the FL you're shooting and the 70-200 is a workhorse. I'm going to swap my 24-70 for the Tamron as soon as I can find one, its the hottest lens around right now. The Samyang 35/1.4 looks like a winner too and its just $500. I have one on the way, the 35/1.4 is my workhorse for event shooting. The number of 3rd party lenses will expand much faster now that CaNikon are getting into mirrorless since they can build them for multiple mounts. Fuji's lenses have slowed to a crawl since they're focusing on the GFX, only 3 new lenses between now and 2020. There have been about two-dozen E-mount lenses released in the last couple years and that pace isn't slowing. The new Sony body fixes a lot of the ergo issues compared to earlier models. Its not without flaws, Sony went cheap with the LCD and single UHS-II card, they stripped out app functions like time-lapse and have not replaced them - with Fuji that and focus stacking is built-in. People complain about menus, but once you get it set up you rarely need to go menu diving anymore. You can assign custom functions for both stills and video modes, along with the Fn menu - everything else you frequently use can be added to a "My Menu" so you don't have to search dozens of menu pages. I like shooting with Fuji except its IBIS still has that jerky-ness in video that Fuji hasn't fixed, its AF is a generation behind Sony's, and the DR with stills can never catch the larger FF sensor in the a7III. The ISO dial fell off one of my XT2's as well, a lightly used body with less than 5k clicks, had to replace the entire $210 top plate. Grrr... I was all set to get the XH1, but after using one for a short time it just didn't offer enough over my XT2 to upgrade. After using the new Z battery with the a7III, I'm not spending top dollar for another small battery camera, Fuji really shot themselves in the foot not putting the GFX battery in the XH1, that and the XT100's tilt LCD were major blunders that made it a no buy for me. If you use Adobe to edit stills, Sony's color got a real shot in the arm with the new color profile from the update earlier this year. Plus you can now easily apply LUT's to stills, Eterna with Sony's raws. Love it. I've been a faithful Fuji shooter for awhile now, but the future for enthusiast cameras is clearly FF, especially if you shoot a lot of stills since CaNikon is entering that space in the next few months. Tamron, Sigma, Tokina, Samyang and Zeiss are all making AF lenses for the E-mount and many others are doing MF lenses. Plus you can adapt Canon glass. Its just a more versatile system with all the adapter options and such. Smaller sensors can't compete with the DR or the resolution. With Fuji you have one sensor and nothing else for years until the next update. With Sony you have options, APS-c/FF, absolute speed, high resolution and so on. Personally I'm going to be moving on from my Fuji system, the a7III and recent Sony lenses like the 85/1.8, 24-105, 12-24, and 100-400 has all but killed Fuji for me. Cheers Chris

What about Pentax? Kidding. Canon bashing is a sport here, but I've said it all along, a good mirrorless offering from CaNikon will put a big dent in Sony's sales. Nikon is targeting enthusiasts and most rumors point to Canon doing the same - so they're both targeting the a7's. They don't have to win the spec wars, good ergos and great AF along with the best from their current sensors will slow the migration to Sony. We know Canon can do mirrorless AF, and Nikon had the first hybrid AF with the 1 series a full 7 years ago. The various Canon AF adapters only exist because so many are using Canon glass with Sony bodies. Give those people Canon colors/menus/ergos - plus a 35//2 that they miss on Sony bodies and you have a hit. Detail's that Sony ignores because there was no competition, but makes a camera much more useful - like fully articulating LCD, functional touchscreens (the 5d4's is so much better), time lapse/focus stacking functions and so on will be what separates them from Sony. Nikon has shown they can crank out lenses at a pretty fast pace, focus that output on the Z mount (or whatever its called) with a fully functioning adapter to make it easy for DSLR shooters to add a mirrorless body to their kit and the monopoly Sony's enjoyed will come crashing down pretty quick. I keep seeing comments like "why would anyone buy into a system with only 3 lenses over Sony," but what people seem to forget is that the number of DSLR shooters is still many times greater than mirrorless, and a lot of them simply don't want to leave the CaNikon ecosystem or give up CPS/NPS. Also, I know they hate to tip their hand, but a roadmap of the lenses planned for the first year or so would help for early adopters. Show off the next 10 lenses in the system after launch and people will buy in, all that's needed in the first year or so is the zoom trinity and reasonably fast primes in the 24/35/50/85/135 fl's - that covers a lot of ground. Switching systems is hard and costly, especially if you're invested in lots of high end glass. Once the Nikon 45mp body is announced, keep an eye on used Sony bodies - I'm betting the number of a7r3's will spike, meaning good deals for bargain hunters. I've seen barely used copies on Fred Miranda for under $2400, I bet they hit $2k when pre-order fever starts on the Nikon. These are good times, the bar will be raised across the board with competition from the big 2. Chris

Oops that correct, I shoot a ton of stills so I 'm always in Manual mode - its just become second nature for me. I have the punch in on the AEL button I video mode. Chris

Check your settings, in MF or DMF mode mine magnifies when I turn the focus ring to the first zoom stage, then I hit the magnify button for more zoom. Chris

Smart move on Nikon's part to beat Canon to the mat. They've said the focus was with things like ergos and AF, other than the gargantuan mount it doesn't look any larger than the Gh5. Looks like they've learned from the Sony junkets too, get max attention from bloggers and youtubers for preorder hype. The next few months are really going to shake things up, should be interesting. Chris

You can order one, but the cool dude with the Ferrari and sunglasses won't tell you the price. The comment threads on Newsshooter are awesome, the exact opposite of what someone trying to break into a highly competitive market should be doing. He should sell the Ferrari and hire someone to handle the PR/marketing. Chris

I may just go ahead and pull the trigger. Just picked up Andrew's Pro Color and I liked "Totolo-Vision" on the a7sII, a profile shootout is in order. I'm camped out in Arizona right now, daily highs are touching 110f where I am, not exactly 'get out and shoot' weather. Cheers Chris

Those look good. How's the Leeming profile with greens and reds in the wild? Chris

If reliable AF is a must have, it seem like Canon or Sony is your only choice. FS5mk2 as the A-cam and various a7's for B-cam and gimbal/stills work seems to fit the bill well. For AF needs with gimbals and high IQ stills - the a73 is pretty tough to beat. The new FS5 seems to cover the rest of your needs. Sony has really upped its game with all of the lenses released over the last couple years. Congrats on the shifting/expanding business. Cheers Chris

Great job, congrats. Chris

I bought the Lilliput A5 since my Sony's and Fuji's don't have a forward facing LCD. Only tinkered with it in test shots, but so far I like it. With the skinny Sony battery its not unwieldy on top of the camera. The bigger Sony batteries will run it all day. Found a seller on Ebay that had it ad $149 shipped obo. I offered $135 and they accepted, three days later it was in my hands. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lilliput-A5-5-1920x1200-8bit-4K-HDMI-DSLR-Camera-field-monitor-F970-LP-E6-Plate/263676993363?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 Chris

I shoot with the battery grip a lot since my pinky wraps under the grip. The Sony grip extension is perfect in feel, just kind of pricey for a small piece of plastic and a tripod screw. I'm ordering this 3d printed knockoff: https://www.shapeways.com/product/3RS4675J9/sony-a7iii-a7riii-a9-grip-extension Chris

Just bought the a7III, decided to give V4 a shot. Going to try and head to the beach to shoot crowds in some harsh mid-day sun. Thanks. Chris

This looks great for the price, I don't need a monitor often, but on occasion I do and the price is right. Just ordered one to use with the a7III and XT2. Chris

Perhaps you can edit your original post to reflect more specific criteria? You didn't mention color NR before. I think if that's what you're looking for, your options are fairly limited. Affinity has an iPad app, but its $20. They claim its a full blown photo editor, but I've never tried it to see. https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ipad/ Chris

Snapspeed edits raws and its free. Haven't used it since the latest LR mobile update as I have the $10/mo photo plan, so I can't speak to the latest version. Chris

If you're just shooting for fun, don't care about 4k, the a7II is a great option IMO. I'd get it over the original a7s just for the IBIS and 24mp stills. The a7II skips lines, so its not as sharp as the a7s, but IBIS is a difference maker. Noise starts to creep in at 6400, 12800 is worse, but with a f/1.2 lens you should be able to keep ISO's down. Used prices (looking at Fred Miranda's buy/sell board) are in the $700 range, the a7rII's have bottomed around $1300-1400. I just sold mine for $1425 and that included the Meike battery grip, a few extra batteries and a couple chargers. That difference almost gets you the 40/1.2 - which looks like a great lens, I want one too. The a7rII's video is pretty mushy at all FF resolutions, but the 40 gets a little long in s35 mode where the video is much better. Cheers Chris

That's a tough one since the GH5 doesn't have capabilities like Canon DPAF or even Sony a7III-level AF. The tradeoff for hit or miss AF in the GH5's is compressed raw and things like a built-in mic jack eliminating the need for mic module add-ons. Personally - I'm eyeing one to shoot a doc and possibly some ENG style promo videos for a major brand. I'll take the IQ and flexibility of raw over the GH5's AF. If I don't like it, the fallback is the GH5s and a Ronin-S. As always, YMMV. Chris

One thing to remember too, at least here in the US, patents last 20 years - so the patent on the Canon and Nikon mounts have long since expired. The E-mount is still protected, you can't sell an E-mount camera here without licensing it from Sony. That's certainly a contributing factor as to why we haven't seen any E-mount cameras outside of Sony. Canon and Nikon no longer have such protections, anyone can build a camera with their mount. Chris

Hopefully they push out a few review copies, the deep learning engine sounds pretty forward thinking along with h265, 10-bit, 120fps and such drops the hammer on everything below the FS5. The E1 got a lot better after the big FW update, I'm sure the same will happen with the E2 - but it needs to be polished out of the gate or it'll be doomed to bad press and the discount bin next year. If I had $1750 to throw around, I'd get one to tinker. Hopefully they've learned from the E1, and aren't pushing out an unfinished product in order to beat the Pocket 4k to market. I think the E1 would have been a bigger success if the initial release was as good as the current version. Chris