Sony FF mirrorless MkII

[MJP]

The Sony A7II will be out shortly. Ergonomics look better.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2014/11/20/sony-a7-ii-surprises-with-worlds-first-5-axis-image-stabilization-in-a-full

WOW! They've done it. 5-axis in-body stabilisation . . .

Now for the big news. A pro-grade mirrorless is on the cards . . .

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-a9/

I've promised myself I'll wait two more generations down the line before upgrading.

[vaultdweller0013]

One other point, the stabilization works with ALL lenses, included all adapted lenses, by allowing you to manually specify the focal length in the body if needed.

I was a little concerned that Sony might drop A-mount, but now that there is stabilization in the E-mount bodies, it is less of an issue, assuming they take adapting a-mount to e-mount seriously, which I'm thinking they will as they are promoting the ability to adapt 3rd party lenses as a feature of e-mount.

[MJP]

One other point, the stabilization works with ALL lenses, included all adapted lenses, by allowing you to manually specify the focal length in the body if needed.

I was a little concerned that Sony might drop A-mount, but now that there is stabilization in the E-mount bodies, it is less of an issue, assuming they take adapting a-mount to e-mount seriously, which I'm thinking they will as they are promoting the ability to adapt 3rd party lenses as a feature of e-mount.

Having always shot Pentax, I've taken in-body shake reduction for granted and yes it covers any lens you stick on the thing, but it's not as good a stabilised lenses. So if you shoot longer tele's it's best to use the lens stabilisation and turn in-body SR off. Apparently?

Regarding adapters, I've been in touch with DEO-Tech to see if they're going to produce more AF adapters, specifically a Pentax-K to E-mount. They seem keen to add to the success of their Contax G adapter.

The A7r needed some serious bugs ironed out, it's by no means a perfect or even a good camera in my opinion. AF (especially in low light, ghastly), shutter slap, ergonomics, battery life, all not good (glad I got mine at a huge discount) . . . but Sony are getting there I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wM_5nROeaw

[vaultdweller0013]

One other point, the stabilization works with ALL lenses, included all adapted lenses, by allowing you to manually specify the focal length in the body if needed.

I was a little concerned that Sony might drop A-mount, but now that there is stabilization in the E-mount bodies, it is less of an issue, assuming they take adapting a-mount to e-mount seriously, which I'm thinking they will as they are promoting the ability to adapt 3rd party lenses as a feature of e-mount.

Having always shot Pentax, I've taken in-body shake reduction for granted and yes it covers any lens you stick on the thing, but it's not as good a stabilised lenses. So if you shoot longer tele's it's best to use the lens stabilisation and turn in-body SR off. Apparently?

Regarding adapters, I've been in touch with DEO-Tech to see if they're going to produce more AF adapters, specifically a Pentax-K to E-mount. They seem keen to add to the success of their Contax G adapter.

The A7r needed some serious bugs ironed out, it's by no means a perfect or even a good camera in my opinion. AF (especially in low light, ghastly), shutter slap, ergonomics, battery life, all not good (glad I got mine at a huge discount) . . . but Sony are getting there I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wM_5nROeaw

I don't think the in-body vs. in-lens has ever been that thoroughly tested in the real world, but I will admit that I haven't researched this a lot. Outside of a couple of Sigma lenses on a-mount (maybe k-mount as well) there hasn't been a way to do a direct apples to apples comparison. However, as you said, the in-lens is supposed to be better for long telephotos, but in-body is supposed to be better theoretically because it can do 5-axis stabilization (I think most lenses are 2 axis, pitch and yaw, but at best could only be 4 axis, since the in-lens can't compensate for roll from a theoretical perspective since they are symmetric around that axis).

At least for native e-mount, the body will disable the pitch and yaw in-body and use the in-lens for this and the in-body for the other axis. One would wonder if someone could do what is needed in an adapter to make this work for 3rd party as well.

[MJP]

Well, it's handy to have it and to achieve 5-axis SR in a body this size and on a FF sensor . . . remarkable really.

I honestly think 2015 is looking to be the year of the mirrorless. If Sony can make an a9r that has all the problems of the a7r ironed out and the performance of the big DSLR's that's it. Game. Set.

[MJP]

Something else that needs to be sorted out is flash sync speed with focal plane shutters. Both my Pentax K-3 and A7r have maximum flash sync speeds of 1/160s of a second. This is too slow to use fill flash properly in sunlight to keep a nice blurry bokeh background darker (shooting with the aperture wide open or stopped down a little bit) whilst lighting the subject in the foreground. It's also just too slow for a lot of other applications.

Leaf shutters offer 1/1000s and more, some I believe 1/8000s. This means that as a strobist you can over power the sun and create some stunning daylight work, or freeze movement using flash in applications like water droplet motion for example using a macro ring flash.

[MJP]

Possibly 21 stops of dynamic range

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/11/new-sony-sensor-may-offer-21-stops-dynamic-range-5120-base-iso

[Goshawk]

I honestly think 2015 is looking to be the year of the mirrorless.

possibly . . & i'm holding off the Fuji X-T1 now. Was playing around with one the other day & was going to go down that route, it's a lovely camera but it's still not quite there yet imo. Maybe the X-T2 in 2015/16?

Sony are really pushing the bar though . . certainly tempting, but not yet for me. I'll stick with clunking mirror boxes for now.

[MJP]

I honestly think 2015 is looking to be the year of the mirrorless.

possibly . . & i'm holding off the Fuji X-T1 now. Was playing around with one the other day & was going to go down that route, it's a lovely camera but it's still not quite there yet imo. Maybe the X-T2 in 2015/16?

Sony are really pushing the bar though . . certainly tempting, but not yet for me. I'll stick with clunking mirror boxes for now.

Yes, definitely worth waiting I think. I kind of wish I hadn't gone for the A7r so soon (although got it new for £1090).

It's getting there though.

[MJP]

I also hope they get rid of that Sony lossy RAW compression and try and get it as close to raw RAW as possible.

[MunkyBoogar]

E-mount cameras are too cramped. I will stick with my A99 until its replacement arrives next year. I have too many A-mount lenses and I have no desire to use adapters.

[sunshine51]

^^^ MB...Not to go OT too far however....Fuji's XP1 with Fuji's M mount

adaptor works very nice IMHO...and I don't care for adaptors much either!

[MunkyBoogar]

I was actually talking about the LA-EA4 that allows A-mount lenses to be used on E-mount bodies. I actually own the LA-EA2 and I use to mount my older Minolta glass on my wife's NEX3 and NEX6.

A7 line look nice but feel awkward in my hands when using ZA glass or my minolta glass. Actually I have been shooting with the vert grip since my A100/700/900 days so even my A99 feels unbalanced and awkward without the VG. I am hoping there will be a version of the A99II(or whatever is called) that has a builtin VG since this will supposedly be a pro-level camera.

Edited December 1, 2014 by MunkyBoogar