MrSMW

Plus actually has a grip! I am sure that I will be more than happy with my S9 in it’s intended role when it arrives, but if choosing a system from scratch, I’d probably go Sony and have the ZV-E1 as my lightweight & portable run & gun to unit. I am not the biggest Sony fan in the world, though have used them for video previously and shoot stills now with an A7, but out of all the full frame brands, they easily have the most compact options, bodies and glass, so if that is of importance or a priority…

Could be the glass but might have been the VND which he also changed? I had the 20, 35, 65 and 90 f2’s and never experienced any issues with any of them. Even sharper and with more character than the Lumix f/1.8’s, nicely tactile and with aperture rings. Loved them, nicest primes I ever used. I would go back to them over the Lumix primes in a heartbeat except for one factor and that it is was my insistance on trying to wrestle primes to work for my needs when I needed zooms. If I could, for sure I’d run the 20 + 65 combo indoors and the 35 + 90 out. But sadly I cannot!

I know, they are French, they do it deliberately, but not to put French subtitles on English language movies intended for English speaking audiences because it's highly distracting. They don't put English subtitles on French language movies... Now I don't mind subtitles on TV and watch a lot of foreign language stuff on Netflix such as stuff from Scandinavian countries, Poland, Germany and France because it's unwatchable otherwise, and dubbing, yeah, just no!

And they work brilliantly because this was my approach for the first half of this year, - adapted E Mount glass on Nikon bodies...except there is one potential flaw and that is the lack of in camera lens correction. Sony bodies correct for it, Nikon bodies do not. It has not been a major issue with stills though sometimes, even with lens profiles in Lightroom and some manual adjustment, it has been impossible to truly straighten certain things and a bit of hard cropping is the only option. With video though, it would be a bigger concern. AF and image quality though, superb and it's my opinion, Nikon image quality is nicer than Sony image quality with your typical hybrid camera. And ultimately, it means that Nikon Z users have access to more glass than Sony E Mount users. But I have switched to Sony for stills because ultimately, I did not want the niggles of lens distortion and the AF is as good as it gets and those 2 factors counted for me on the basis that the image quality difference is negligible. Actually, regarding the latter, the image quality of the 61mp Sony files is better than that of the 24mp Zf files, but the Zf is better in low light. Without question.

I'd be more interested in a 35mm. The only real weak(er) links in my current armoury of lenses is I don't have anything faster than f/2.8 zooms which is fine for 95% of what I do, but after dark, I probably could do with something faster. On that note, they are big(ger) and heavy, but still under my self-imposed 'a lens cannot weigh more than 1kg' limit, I am most interested in a pair of Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8's because they are available in L Mount for my video needs and E Mount for my stills needs. But I have run out of funds for this year, so aaaaaargh 🤪

I am somewhat nostalgic for that but the reality for me is that the experience these days is a bit shit. Living in France and being a native English speaker, I want to see movies in their original language, ie, English and they do show them, usually one night a week in VO, - version originale…but insist on putting French subtitles which makes viewing painful. The places are usually pretty empty and one time we were the only people there. I think that was Napoleon, the last we went to see. You can purchase a few over-priced, very limited choice snacks, but we bring our own. The picture quality always seems trash and that combined with the subtitles, just kills it for me. It may be different outside of rural France but for the time being at least, I’m not going no matter what the release is and these days, it comes out on rental very soon after.

Obviously you don't live in France where it's so shite, I've stopped going. It is no longer 1976. 52" 4K screen with surround sound and the kitchen next door is the way to go. Plus a pause button so you don't have to go in an empty popcorn carton. But seriously, last few movies I went to see, they looked MUCH better at home. Though as above, this may be a 'living in rural France' thing...

All these things comes back to the same thing…which is a different thing for each individual. I’m not necessarily looking for ‘the best’ but rather what works best for me within certain parameters, the principle one being cost. Not just cost vs return, but actual cost. If the financial side was not part of the equation, like most, not only would I be using different stuff, I’d probably have a different career! It all comes down to need vs compromises we’re willing to make in the end with the wrapper being money.

Yes and no I think. Can it get better? Probably yes, but at what level and how does it relate to how it’s displayed? So yes, good enough in 99% of cases 99% of the time as they say. I moved to a Sony A7RV for stills and does it produce better images than the Nikon Zf or Z6ii or the S5ii, my most recent stills cameras? Yes, but only very slightly. Where is it noticeable? In editing. On my website or social media? God no, no one would. So why bother? Professional pride and craft. I KNOW and for me, that is reason enough. Plus, as they say, it’s in the details which alone, are rarely if ever noticed, but if you can improve everything by 1% every year, it all adds up and keeps forward momentum as a whole. A tiny bit more DR, a tiny bit more detail, a tiny bit more more pleasant bokeh, a tiny bit more stabilization etc etc etc, - it all adds up and makes a subtle but actual difference.

We’re getting closer…

Are the overheating times on this thing an issue? I don’t know and I’m not really the market for it anyway…but then I thought that initially about the S9 and have one on preorder… Do Sony care or not care about this? Don’t know the answer to that either other than the cine-line cameras have cooling don’t they? The S9 will be the first FF camera I have had without it and we’ll see how it goes but I ‘think’ it’s not going to be a problem for my use case which is typically 150+ 10 second clips over a 12 hour period. For any kind of video work with Sony, I don’t think I’d look at anything less than an FX30 today. Had the ZV1 previously and had overheating issues as I did with the RX100V but not the RX100ii.

Which is similar in stills photography when folks ‘state’ that film is better than digital. Hmmm, I come back from a typical wedding weekend with around 3500-5000 shots to cull and I am far from the spray & pray approach. Let’s call it 3600 on the low end which is 100 rolls of film. 100 rolls is at least €25 each for purchase and processing, so €2.5k compared with €0 for digital. Ah, but the tools are cheaper! Ah, but you can charge more for film photography! Grow up and enter the real world of business 🤪 So stills or video, I am someone who does not need the latest and greatest just because it is the latest and greatest and that is the purchase decision and I might choose a vintage lens for a certain aesthetic, but a simple reality is that the more modern the tool, the more likely it is to make our (business) lives easier. Whether that be autofocus, stabilisation, DR, or even just things like start up speed. Not every new tool is the best tool, but for business users especially, better tools do make for better work. All other factors being equal. So yes, I’ll take 12 stops of DR over 10 which I’d have taken over 8, every day of the week thanks, just as I appreciate the latest firmware on the S5ii that finally allowed me to ditch the gimbal forever. Some progress actually is good!

Valid point and put me off all Sony cameras until the A7RV. Anything under 2.1 is not great IMO and reckon even that of the S9/S5ii is a bit cheap as someone who works off the rear LCD stills and video. S1H was/is MUCH better. Another point against the new Sony and another point to the Lumix. Plus because I bought one, I have to favour it 😜

I don’t know about ‘always’ because 5 years vs 50 years vs 5000 years… But for the foreseeable future as in our lifespans, changes because there is always change, but probably not to the extent that some think. I believe this to be the case because although ‘progress’ continues to accelerate, there is only so much we can take, ie, it cannot simply increase exponentially. And then there is retro/analogue or whatever we wish to call it, but even that gets updated because to some, ‘retro’ is stuff from just a few years back which others of us, might think of as not far off being current. So AI I think will continue to play a part and increasingly so, but at the same time, I don’t think the sky is falling in. Well not completely. Or at least for some time yet… Please not if there is a god, until I’m done. Thanks. If you exist and are listening/read comments on this forum. And if you truly are omnipotent, you surely do? Or have someone do? Because you must because just reading that volume of shit on YouTube comments must take up a heck of an amount of time. Appreciate it.

A bit of a blunder to say the least, but more so trying to convince us a manual focus only f8 lens was something that has been demanded. Maybe on Planet Thargon 9, but not on this one. L Mount has some really great primes but is really lacking in compact full frame fast zooms, mainly at the longer end. The case for this thing though is are you invested in the Sony ecosystem or the Lumix one, or starting from scratch? If L Mount, of course you would not much care but otherwise, you might very well give it a go. Plus also, if we're being 'fair', the S9 is full frame and this Sony isn't, so if you stick the Sigma APSC 18-50mm f2.8 on it (the S9), it puts things back in favour of the S9 for me. That Sigma lens also works on the Sony. Decent release I'd say. I'm waiting for my S9 however 😉

I’m from the future and know so.

Real world, I agree and that there probably isn't much in it. I can see a difference though between the Zf/Z6III and the A7RV. I am talking stills here as I said above. I use Lumix for video so this is purely stills. And good news (for anyone that is interested!) and that is the A7RV passed and is now my 'Z6III'. DR-wise, compared with the Nikon's, there is a noticeable increase. We're not talking massive margins because there aren't any, but noticeable. Image quality-wise, barely anything, but it's there. I had ZERO issue with what the Nikon's were providing in this regard and again, as above, I was looking to get the minimum capability spec-wise of the Zf but in a more ergo friendly body. Colour science? I'd give that to the Nikon's. SOOC they are just 'better' than the Sony. In post, the Sony files look great, but just need more work and even then, ultimately, I'd say are about 95% of the Nikon files 'colour quality-wise'. AF is a step up over the Nikon's. The Z6II easily but also the Zf and that was to be expected. My keeper rate went up by quite a bit and any misses were pretty much me getting to grips with how the Sony AF system works. Low-light is a win for the Nikon's, the Zf particularly. I expected this and may need to get one more lens with a faster aperture for lower light stuff as f/2.8 is fine with those 24mp Nikons but less so with the 61mp Sony. Ergos, the Zf is not great and the Z6II marginally better than the A7RV with base plate, but all factors considered, the A7RV with the base plate is about as 'perfect' as I am going to get for my needs balancing; weight, size, ergos. Finally, it uses my 3x Tamron lenses natively which is a good thing. Performance of them adapted on the Nikon's was pretty good, but a few lens correction issues were a bit of a nuisance. Conclusion, would I swap it for a Z6III? No...but it would not bother me if it was forced on me as the differences would be marginal, real world and that is probably the most important aspect in all these things, ie, not the on paper specs, or anyone's tests, or any other factor other than how does the thing work for you. The only issue I'd have with the Z6III is my 3x lenses not being native and that is the single biggest factor and were they, would swing it for me back to the Nikon. But as has always been my issue my preferred glass never seems to quite match my preferred bodies!! 🤪

Well the Sony A7RV gets to stay. For now at least... It was always going to be a close cal between it and the new Z6III but I think I made the right choice. Had a pretty poor first shoot experience with it the other week when it got dropped and the Tamron 28-75 was sheared off it's mount and then shooting medium raw which 'everyone' recommends turned out to be shit. All medium raw did, other than saving some storage space and make the files slightly slower to process, was remove colour & detail and caused an utter trash low light result. Don't believe everything you read on the internets... OK, 61mp uncompressed raw is overkill for about 90% of my work but there isn't another combination of body & lenses, this compact & light, with this kind of performance. DR is higher than anything I have previously used and that is a big thumbs up. Low light capability on my most recent shoot was a concern after the previous week as these higher MP cameras are not renowned for being low-light monsters, but actually, it passed muster on the basis of using DXO PureRaw which I always use anyway. I would however like a faster lens than f/2.8 for lower light stuff and though it's a brute, that new Sigma 28-45mm f/1.8 is looking mighty tempting for this purpose... Please please please Sigma, make a sibling to it such as say a 45-90mm f/1.8 and I'm set for the rest of my career. No S9 yet, - that won't be here until towards the end of the month, but the Lumix set up are not any kind of concern as they just do the business.

Hmmm, seen a couple of reports now that DR at base ISO is quite a bit lower than the previous gen sensor Zf/Z6II. This is a bit disappointing because until fairly recently, I had only one interest in the Z6III and that is it would essentially take the capability of the Zf but host it in a Z6 style body. Catches up by around 640/800 ISO or thereabouts I believe which is at least something. Any video capability was secondary to me and for my stills needs, it's gone backwards... Yes, I wanted better/faster AF, one of my criticisms of the Z6II is that it's slooooooow compared with the Zf, but the handling of the Zf is terrible next to the Z6 style body. And when a battery grip is involved, that gap increases still further. As an out and out 'sports' camera, sure, things have improved, but image quality, of which DR is a HUGE component for me, has gone backwards. Which is partly why I went to Sony and an A7RV for my stills needs. But having said that, my first job with the Sony did not go so well and after some modifications, I'm interested to see how this second job has gone. Downloading it right now and it will be make or break for this camera. If it's the latter, then I'm not sure what I will do because if the Sony is not what I needed it to be and if the Z6III possibly is not the answer I hoped it would be, so maybe the Z8 or Z9 are possibilities... We just seem to keep making a step forward and then having to also take a step back! For my needs anyway.

Priority 3, actually going out and shooting instead of staying home agonizing over which camera to buy…and then “I’m gonna hold off” for the next generation despite the latest and greatest just being launched because some random YouTuber who also couldn’t get out of their bedroom, said something about a camera they did not understand. The amount of spreadsheet procrastination some folks have… Of course, this does not happen with anyone here 😂

And in most cases, most of the time, that’s a fact. Unless you absolutely must have 120fps in 8k full frame, then yup, ‘everything else’.

I just like one camera, one lens, no bag, no choices or indecision. I love a fixed lens P&S for this very purpose but they have limitations such as “is that Mt Fuji in the background or an anthill?”

That’s me, but actually it’s considered. For video, because my cameras do not have an OLPF (except the S1H which is being replaced) I find that a 1/8th mist is quite subtle and takes off that digital edge whilst helping reduce or eliminate any moiré. For stills, the 1/8th Bloom Golds just reduce the overall contrast a little and again take off that digital edge and make the resulting files that little bit more ‘filmic’ SOOC. For me, it’s about doing more in camera in order that I have the best/a better and consistent starting point when it comes to editing. Could you spot it? Probably in lower light shots when there are visible light sources such as lamps or strings of lights etc, because there is some inevitable (and wanted) diffusion going on. But only nerds like us would spot it and my clients would simply ‘like the images’ but not be able to technically break down as to why.

It’s easily done when packing for such things.

Nah, you take whatever you want as we all do. Me, P&S at most…but it depends on the trip I guess. I’d like to go to Japan and as I am fairly sure Lumix won’t be inviting me to any camera launches, I’ll have to go at my own expense and won’t get a free camera. For such a trip, I would take something with an interchangeable lens and my perfect combo for that would be an OM-1 with the 12-40mm f2.8 so real world FF equivalent of 24-80. That’s my ideal ‘proper’ travel camera set up.