So 4 years ago I switched from Canon to Sony: https://heatherlarkinphoto.com/why-i-switched-from-canon-to-sony/
And then a year later I wrote a followup while I was still using the a7iii: https://heatherlarkinphoto.com/a-year-with-sony/
But three years since then is plenty of time for a followup, I think! So what’s been happening and am I still shooting Sony?
Short answer? YES. I’ve since gone from the a7iii to the a7tiv to the a7rv. The rv has the best focus system on the market of anything right now, it’s witchcraft, it’s so easy.
So my pros for the a7iii were
- Eye-AF remains utterly magical.
- Images are still sharper.
- Completely silent shooting.
- I can program totally any button to do anything I want.
- The greens are still stunningly un-yellow.
- The greens can be pulled further down than Canon could.
- Low light capability is whoa.
These things all still apply in even greater depth to the later cameras. The a7riv Eye-AF improved, but the focus system on the a7rv blows everything on the market right now out of the water. It sees humans, bird, animals, bugs, trains, cars and planes. Like.. what? And it’s all accurate. It seems ‘stickier’ too. It just tracks better and stays with the target eye better. I don’t get anything out of focus anymore unless I want to or unless it’s a bug too small for the insect focus to trigger on.
And the complaints were
- There is a delay when shooting flash in studio, especially on black. Mostly fixable with e-front curtain off.
- Sony does not record the serial number in the image EXIF.
- Grip is not comfortable for all day shooting.
- Still can’t tether directly to Lightroom.
- Adapted lenses still suck.
The delay was fixed entirely with the a7riv and again with the a7rv. It’s crazy… I barely remember this issue because it’s been so long since I dealt with it. Sony now does record the serials with the a7rv, but the riv did not. IMO the a7iii had the worst hand grip on any of the Sony models, it was seriously painful for me and the riv was a ton better. The rv has the same better grip. None of them can manage to tether directly to Lightroom and that still makes me mad, but Capture One does it really well and easily for when I need to be doing that. Adobe also doesn’t play well with Sony for editing and gets very noisy, but I can’t leave Lightroom yet. And lastly, I don’t use any adapted lenses anymore.. I’ve moved over entirely to SIGMA art lenses in e-mount so I don’t have to deal with weird adapter issues anymore except for two older macro lenses I have that were discontinued. They still have a hard time but that’s to be expected because they’re 20-year-old technology trying to talk to new fast hotness.
Gear I have now: Sony a7rv, Sigma 105mm 2.8 Macro art, Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art, Sigma 50mm 1.4 art, Sigma 70mm 2.8 Macro art, Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 art, and a few other lenses in there.
So, how do I feel about the Sony cameras I’ve used? Let’s sum up some best and worst points:
A7iii
Best: SO much sharper than a DSLR, eye-af was a game changer.
Worst: Hand grip was painful, studio flash delay literally made me cry once.
A7riv
Best: Hand grip was tons better, color science was a lot nicer too.
Worst: File sizes are huge, highlights seem to blow easier.
A7rv
Best: Focus system is sorcery, focus bracketing is great to have for macro.
Worst: No in-camera focus stacking, still doesn’t tether to lightroom, and very noisy in Lightroom.
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