New Principal Camera for Landscape Studio and Event and Street - Sony A7r

It would be nice to pick up one camera, know it and then stay together forever. However, the evolution of cameras in the past 50 years continues to give us new opportunities that open up possibilities that move the boundaries of what we can achieve by just aiming and focussing before electronics took over so many functions, from shutters, film advance, light measurement to eventually, AF and even replacing film itself! Through the years our choices of cameras also evolved. Lenses, especially hold value, so one is free to move to a new system if one's needs are better met. So for me, selling excess Canon lenses and Cameras will allow me to capture a more detail rich scene at a lower weight. My choice is the A7r.

My first love affair was with a Kodak box camera with one roll of 120 film. This was replaced successively with cameras that provided a major improvement in precision and convenience. The Kodak Retina IIB with a 35mm lens, was to me amazing for superbly sharp images, but I realized that it couldn't perform well for portraits and took too much in for weddings and barmitzvas! So I went for the Pentax Spotmatic with a the 50mm 1.4 Super Multicoated Takamur lens and I was now capable of making dreamy portraits with just the right DOF and also get one table with 10 people sharply photographed at an event at f8.0! Somehow, I moved to Canon with the wide array of lenses and that's been my main operating world of photography for decades, not withstanding my use of a Bronica SQ for studio and LF ventures.

Ricoh, with the brilliantly simple and high quality GXR and GR compact cameras convinced me that we'd be moving away from heavier cameras unless we wanted the benefits of larger sensors of MF photography. For the last several years the GXR or the GR or both have been constant companions, relegating DSLRs to movie making, studio work and wildlife photography.

Now with the Sony A7r and just the Zeiss 55mm f 1.8 prime, I have a fine, lightweight, non-imposing system capable of detail rich prints, great dynamic range, rich color that allows many hours of shooting with no thought to the weight or fatigue!

I've added to the the Canon 20mm FD lens, the Zeiss Contax 28mm f2.0 so far.

I'll be posting my experience in this ongoing thread!

Asher

I wish I could...

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First The Caveats!

Like the Ricoh GXR and GR experience that convinced me feel that Pro photography could be accomplished with compact cameras, the Sony A7 and A7r cameras have critical drawbacks.

Shooting speed: Unlike any of the major DSLR cameras by Canon, Nikon, Panasonic or Sony, the Ricoh GXR and GR models are slow to grab focus and shot to shot is brought down by the time to record RAW files. This does not inconvenience us much in architectural, landscape or street photography, but is a drag in social or event situations. Here the Sony A7r is worse unless prefocused and in continuous shooting mode.

Noise: The Sony A7/A7r shutter is loud and seems to be from an era of a decade back, LOL! Birds who have overslept will wake up, those eating a worm with lose it and crickets will stop chirping, LOL! Also, forget about this in trying to use either the A7 or A7r for classical music photography. The silent Ricoh GXR 50mm Macro lens is what's needed or else the GR. Why Sony couldn't follow Ricoh's lead, I do not know, but this is one feature that future revisions must tackle.

Sports and Bird Photography: Forget about putting aside your Canon or Nikon gear to catch fast moving action. At this first iteration, the Sony A7r is not in this league! Don't even think of getting AF with a Metabones™ adapter, even with the more capable A7 version of the camera to reproduce the AF speed and accuracy of Canon cameras. It's just nit professional grade! Yes, one gets IS, but the AF is just too slow and inaccurate according to the MFR and reviews. However, if you are skilled at predictive focus and MF alone, then you will do fine. Skill can always make up for poor AF, but that needs to be acquired!

I have no doubt that one could do well, prefocussed to a goal line for sports, to the the water's edge for wading birds, or lions around a kill. But if there's a chase or a bird in flight, likely as not, you'll lose that shot with the A7r.

The good about MF: For weddings, with the Sony 70-200 f4.0 or the 24-70 FE lenses AF lenses, especially wide open, focus snaps into visibility and I'd be very comfortable. MF is also entirely feasible and worth considering. We can prepare well in advance for covering such events with less expensive but equally fine MF lenses, taking advantage of the superb MF capability of this camera. This is especially relevant to weddings, where each of the stages are planned, rehearsed and predictable.

Asher

Antonio Correia said:

I wish I could...

Click to expand...

I called all the camera & lens rental companies until I found just one with a single "orphan" A7r that was really hardly being rented as right now, folk still mostly rent Canon, Nikon, Phase One and the like. So I got lucky. It's a risk, but the company was reputable and I'm very fortunate!

Asher

Hi, Asher,

The A7R is clearly a seductive machine. I'm excited by your enthusiasm for it (and your objective look at its pros and cons).

At this point in your experience with the machine what can you tell us about its EVF and how how well that supports your various scenarios?

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug Kerr said:

Hi, Asher,

The A7R is clearly a seductive machine. I'm excited by your enthusiasm for it (and your objective look at its pros and cons).

At this point in your experience with the machine what can you tell us about its EVF and how how well that supports your various scenarios?

Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words, Doug!

The Sony A7/r view finder is the very best I've seen. It really makes headway in the ideal of not needing an optical viewfinder, and of course, in low light, it's superior to relying on optics as the electronics are able to boost the image.

This high resolution comes into full value when focusing manually. First the edges of objects in focus can be set to be colored. I choose red! But more importantly, as one alters the MF adjustment on the lens, the image is magnified and then one can readily achieve critical focus with anything of reasonable contrast. With the lens wide open, focus can suddenly peak and that pretty easy to accomplish.

The downside is the fact that the EVF goes dark in between shots while the image is written to the SD card. Of course, one can rapidly take successive shots in continuous shooting and that's very responsive, but one cannot follow the scene through the EVF. What I do is to pulse 2-3 shots before peak action and then I have nailed it.

I'd love them to be able to continue live view between shots, even at a lower resolution like 3 MP as that would allow one to reframe accordingly between shots.

I don't pay a lot of attention to the numbers shown on the screen, but perhaps that might become useful down the road.

Asher