July 20, 2020
Update, Upgraded to SONY A7R IV.
During this transition to mirrorless cameras, I have decided to hedge my bets and support both the Nikon Z6/Z7 as well as the SONY A7X cameras. While an expensive proposition, my feeling is that either one will be a “winner” for me. I have come too far with Nikon to give up now. Plus, SONY is likely to lead from a spec standpoint, which I value. Canon could be an alternative but my experience with the brand and its cameras has not been great. Not bad, just not great. So no real compelling reason to switch to them.
I should point out that there is, in fact, a third camera brand which I support - Fujifilm X100V. This is a one-off unique camera ideally suited to street photography. I have had great experience with the older X100F so it was a natural that I upgrade. Notes on this camera can be found here: FujiFillm_Cameras.
Comparing the SONY A7R IV to the Nikon Z7:
On the surface, these cameras are very similar:
1. Similar physical size
2. Similar electronic displays (SONY has higher res viewfinder, Nikon has higher res LCD. Nikon has a top LCD)
3. Similar image resolution (SONY - 61MPix, Nikon - 46MPix. On the surface this seems like a big difference, However, in practical terms, this represents approx. 15% increase in resolution which is hard to distinguish. Further, Nikon has lossless compressed files, SONY has lossy compressed or un-compressed (huge) files. Call it a wash
4. Surprisingly similar button layout and customization options (more on this later)
5. Both have similar IBIS capabilities
6. SONY is arguably better at AF / Eye detect / tracking etc. Nikon has made some improvements but I expect SONY has targeted this as an area of competitive advantage (and launched the A9 to prove it).
7. Similar price and cost of lens options.
So where would I use one over the other:
1. SONY may be better for Landscape photography with higher resolution, Pixel shift. On the other hand, Nikon has auto focus stacking.
2. SONY may be better for action shots with better AF tracking and (slightly) higher fps. On the other hand, if long lenses are needed, Nikon has the advantage
3. Both cameras will be good for portraits but I’d choose Nikon since I have a better range of lenses (ex. 200mm f/2) and better support of studio lighting and flashes.
4. Nikon has a smaller “brother” - the Z6. So for situations where I would want a backup camera or go with a “2-camera” solution to avoid changing lenses, (travel?) Nikon has an advantage.
5. On the surface, SONY seems to have better connectivity capabilites for remote control and transferring wirelessly to the iPhone. This will be an advantage for travel photography.
6. If I want to capture the highest quality digital “negative” with the intent of making very large prints, I’d probably go with SONY. On the other hand, If I want to make panoramas using tit/shift lenses, the Nikon has the solution.
Summary:
SONY: Serious landscapes, action (short-med lenses), travel
Nikon: Portraits, travel, anything requiring a long lens
As I said, the cameras are very similar so personal preference and mood will be the deciding factor.
Update July 27, 2020
I have been doing a series of tests to assess the characteristics of the camera plus compare it with the Z7. This section will report on the results of these tests.
During this project, I took a diversion and wanted to see if the camera would work with the Commlite F-SONY adapter. I got a bit of a scare in trying to connect the 7R IV to the Commlite adapter. I decided to upgrade the firmware on the adapter to 7.0. After the upgrade, the camera/adapter combo started to rattle alarmingly. The only way I could stop it was to remove the battery. While confirming my distaste for adapters, it also concerned me that I may have done some damage to the SONY camera. So, I have embarked on a series of more intensive tests to make sure everything is OK
Here’s an on-going summary.
1. Normal camera operation. Everything seems OK. Exposure, AF, WB, focus modes all operate as expected. Subjectively, the picture quality with assorted lenses looks OK but more objective tests need to be done
2. IBIS seems to be effective. Will report in detail later but it looks like 3-4 stops of stabalization is about right
3. Eye AF seems to work well
4. I also set up the camera with Image Edge on my iPhone. After some fiddling around I was able to transfer images from the camera to the phone. More on this here
5. Checked tethering with Capture One. Works OK although there’s a bit to learn on how to use this software effectively
Tests & Results:
1. IBIS vs No IBIS (comparing the SONY and Z7)
Both camera claim 4-5 stops of image stabalization so I would expect similar results, adjusted for different image resolutions.
Both cameras were set as follows:
Nikon Z7, NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8 @70mm, 1/4sec f/5.6 ISO 100 - Handheld
SONY A7R IV, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70mm, 1/4sec f/5.6 ISO 100 - Handheld
First the Nikon results:
Note: all images are relatively tight crops of the full-sized image in order to show the effects.
No IBIS:
IBIS:
The SONY results:
No IBIS:
IBIS:
For this set of circumstances, you can see the performance is pretty well identical.
The next set of tests looked at the effectiveness of IBIS with shutter speed. In general, the rule of thumb is that the shutter speed should be at least 1/(2 X focal length) to achieve a sharp image handheld. With a 60Mpixel camera, I think this is a bit too generous and would expect to see some motion blur at this shutter speed depending on how good I can hand hold the camera.
Below is a comparison - SONY A7R IV, IBIS vs NoIBIS for 70mm @1/160sec:
Note: all images are relayively tight crops of the full-sized image in order to show the effects.
IBIS:
No IBIS:
Pretty well no difference.
Next 70mm 1/10sec:
IBIS:
No IBIS:
Here you can see the difference confirming (in this case) approx. 5 stops of stabalization.
2. Comp image quality w/ Z7, up-res’d to 100Mpix (using the same 85mm Batis lens)
3. Lens tests - Sigma 35mm f/1.2, SONY 24mm f/1.4, Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8, Voigtlander 50mm f/2, Tamron 24-280mm f/2.8
Tamron 70 -180mm f/2.8 Di III VXD
https://www.tamron-usa.com/product/lenses/a056.html
This a compact, lightweight telephoto lens. I’d bring it along as an accessory on trips when I choose to use the SONY camera.
Performance is good - a little “soft” wide open but acceptable. Fast AF. Seems to use the IBIS effectively (no lens stabalization). On the SONY A7R IV, the combination is definitely “lens-limited”.
Found that AF is most reliable if you can use the spot-M setting. Eye-AF works well.
Good for portraits, street photography, some landscape but beware of atmospherics at long range. Not enough reach for typical wildlife unless close up. Also, can focus down to 10.6” (70mm, MF) which makes it interesting as a macro lens.
https://www.tamron.jp/en/support/guide/closeup.html
4. Pixel Shift - 4 & 16 images
5. Eye AF for portraits
6. Flash & lighting
7. Accessories - battery grip and other things
8. Set-up - aligning menus and custom options between SONY & Nikon
9. Tracking AF in assorted AF modes
SONY A7R III Notes:
Experience with auto-foocus (April 17, 2018).
Up to this point I haven’t used the camera much but I intend to take it on an extended trip to Europe. I wanted to test the camera and lenses, primary for sharpness and AF performance. I set up back-button AF in AF-C mode as recommended. I started with the Batis 18mm f/2.8. I was dismayed to find that AF was not consistent from shot to shot, particularly around f/8. My first thought was that this is the aperture where the camera transitions from PDAF to CDAF. However at smaller apertures to f/8, I wasn’t having the same problem. I tested other lenses - 16-35mm, Batis 85mm and found that only the 85mm was consistent in AF. I re-tested with the camera set to AF-S and the AF consistence got much better. All the shots were “at distance”, that is, the focus area was a small part of the total scene (Spot-M). Also, the focus target had low contrast (deliberately) in the scene. With the 85mm lens, there was much greater magnification and thus a better target. I’m not sure what to make of this issue. I don’t recall having this issue with the A7R II although the A7R II did a lot more focus “hunting” at f/8 and smaller. At this point, my recommendation is to stick with AF-S for static scenes and AF-C for scenes that include some movement and/or use wide apertures, below f/8.
On back-button focus, it feels like this is no longer a benefit since the pdaf focus points cover nearly all the image and with the joystick it's pretty easy to change the focus poins to where you'd like it to be. As a result, I have changed to focus back to the half-shutter press.
Summary:
For generally static scenes over full range of apertures (ex Landscapes):
Focus Mode - AF-S (camera stops down to widest aperture to capture focus, so be aware of focus shift issues)
Focus Area - Flexible Spot: M (or S)
Menu 1 - 6/14 (AF2) - AF w/ Shutter - On (don’t need to use back button AF)
Menu 1 - 6/14 (AF2) - Set Face Prty in AF - Off or On. Personal preference
For scenes with some movement, change to AF-C. Everything remains the same.
Custom Buttons:
Other notes on usability experience.
1. The buttons on the rear of the camera are too exposed and easy to hit unintentionally. I found that if the camera strap caused the camera back to hit my body (butt), it could hit the "Fn" button and basically re-arrange the camera settings from one shoot to the next. The obvious remedy is to turn the camera off between shoots but the start-up time is too long.
2. I was able to set up the camera strap so the the camera faced downward over my shoulder thus protecting against the "Fn" issue. However, since I had selected the "AEL" button to "Focus magnification", I found it too easy to inadvetantly hit this button (too close to where my thumb hold the grip) and find myself in magnification mode. This is frustrating since it takes a couple of presses to get back to the normal AF screen. I subsequently changed the assignment of the custom buttons and set the AEL button to “Eye AF".
3. Overall the buttons get in the way. Big problem.
Use of Face Detect and EYE AF.
There’s more to this than meets the eye (no pun intended)
In it’s simplest configuration, pick the following settings:
1. Focus Mode AF-C
2. Focus Area WIDE
3. Face Priority in AF ON
Look through the viewfinder. If the camera finds a face it will surround it with a white box. Half press on the shutter release turns it into a green box. You are now focussed (somewhere) on the face. Press the EYE AF button (center button on the control dial by default) and a small box should appear on one of the eyes. Keep pressing while pressing the shutter and you should have a perfectly focussed eye. Note that you can focus on the eye without needing to focus on the face. Thus once you have the small green square over the eye, go ahead and presss the shutter. You will notice, in AF-C mode, that you can move the camera around and the Eye AF will follow the eye.
But, what if the Focus area is Flexible Spot which is more common?
First, while Face detect will find the face in the image it will only focus on the face if the flexible spot is also over the face. If the flexible spot is not over the face, then focus will be on the flexible spot. However, independent of the face detection if you just press the Eye AF button. the small square will find an eye, independent of where the flexible spot is placed. In this case, the eye AF has priority over the flexible spot. Confused yet?
Even more interesting is that if you are in AF-S, you can still get Eye AF. Independent of whether face detection is on, press on the Eye AF button and the camera will find an eye, if there is one. It will show the familiar small green square, briefly, to indicate that focus on the eye has been acquired.
With these results it seems like Face Priority in AF has marginal value except when you want to just quickly “grab” a face and you have enough depth of field to not care about focusing only on the eye. Plus, if there are multiple faces in the shot face detection just gets in the way. So, right now, I’d suggest setting face detect to OFF as the default. Here are my recommended settings for general photography, including portraits:
1. Focus Mode AF-S or AF-C. Use AF-C if the main subject is moving around but be careful because it works best at wide apertures and is not as (consistently) accurate, in general, as AF-S
2. Focus Area Flexible Spot. Set the target focus point using the joistick
3. Face Priority in AF OFF (unless you want to grab a quick face shot and don’t care about focusing the eye
Now, if you want to take a shot just using Flexible spot, go ahead, nothing more to be done.
If you want to focus on the eye, press the Eye AF button to acquire the desired eye and go ahead and shoot.
On customization of buttons and selecting menu options.
The way I look at customization of the UI, I see three levels:
1. Custom buttons. These are used while shooting and need to address the things that you might need to change while shooting, on the go. This would include:
AF/MF toggle
MF magnification
Focus Mode
Focus Area
Silent shooting on/off
Eye AF
ISO
Drive mode (maybe?)
Changing / resetting focus position (joy stick)
2. Use of the "Fn" button for set-up customization - quick setting before shooting, kind of like a "check-list":
Steady shot on/off
Face detect for AF
Send to phone? - This is done in Playback mode
Image type (RAW, Jpeg, etc)
Peaking level
Focus Mode
Focus Area
Silent shooting on/off
ISO
Drive mode
Format memory card
wireless flash
Metering mode
3. Use the "Menu" button to access everything else - probably should not go there unless willing to spend a good amount of time browsing around trying to find what you're looking for.
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SONY A7R III Archive:
Jan 15, 2018
Using Nikon Lenses.
See comments on non-native lenses for the A7R II.
This seems a strange place to start my commentary on the A7R III but I just happened to decide to test out the new Commlite CM-ENF-E1 PRO adapter (with V6 software). I have always been interested in seeing if these adapters can really work reliably because it would allow me to share lenses between my SONY sytems and my Nikon systems. In truth these adapters have a bit of a bad rep all the way from not focusing correctly to excessive battery drain to "bricking" the camera. So I approach this exercise with caution, especially since I have a brand new A7R III.
My general philosophy is as follows:
Prime lenses - only use SONY (or Zeiss) E-mount primes with the A7R III in order to achieve the best image quality. These include:
Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8 FE (manual focus)
SONY/Zeiss 35mm f/1.4
Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2FE (Manual Focus)
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 FE
Mitakon Speedmaster 50mm f/.95 (manual focus)
All that is missing is a good 50mm AF lens (which I don't find particularly useful) and an ultra-wide angle lens (like 14mm which maybe I should get in the future.
Zoom lenses - focus on telephoto lenses since I don't have any in EF-mount and they are quite expensive. This implies that for all "long reach" needs I would try to use Nikon glass with the Commlite adapter. We'll see that this is a bit of a mixed bag.
Specialty lenses - I want to use the Nikon PC-E 24mm f/3.5ED tilt/shift lens on the A7R III since no equivalent lenses exist for the EF-mount. Also, I really like the Nikon 105mm f/1.4 lens for portraits. While the Batis 85mm f/1.8 native lens does a great job, I'm thinking the nikon lens could actually be superior (to the D850) on the SONY due to eye-AF, no need for calibration with the camera and for IBIS. I also have a manual focus Zeiss135mm f/2 Sonnar which I'd like to use on the SONY to get the advantage of IBIS.
Here are the results of my testing:
A point of note is that with the original 1.0 camera firmware, I could not get the Commlite to work. Upon upgrading to 1.01, I was able to perform the testing successfully. This does raise the question of whether Commlite needs to upgrade their firmware to fully support the A7R III. Righrt now, their website only lists the A7R II and the A9
Here are my conclusions:
PC-E 24mm f/3.5 T/S - works just fine as a manual focus lens. The adapter transfers EXIF data so that the aperture can be adjusted from the camera. I tested image quality (panorama from front window in our SF apartment) and the quality was similar to Nikon. While IBIS (Steadyshot) is enabled, Im not sure how usefull it will be since most applications will use a tripod. I did notice some exposure errors when in “A” mode. In a three image panorama sequence, the first image was over-exposed by +2 stops. The EXIF data did not reflect his. Need to invesstigate further.
105mm f/1.4 - Works OK, IBIS is enabled. Center AF works fine but off-center AF is limited to +/- 2 PDAF sensor steps and AF requires high contrast to work. Eye AF works in the center and off-center to a limited extent. Needs further experimentation
Zeiss 135mm f/2 Sonnar - Works as intended. IBIS is enabled.
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 - This lens is usually used for landscape applications. AF is limited to +/- 2 sensor steps, IBIS works
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 (latest version) - seems to be the best supported lens of the lot. Focus is fast across the range of PDAF points, eye AF works. IBIS is disabled and the lens VR takes over. Looks like this works OK. Needs further verification.
Nikon 24 -120mm f/4 - workhorse lens which I don't have an eqivalent for in SONY. AF works with the usual +/- 2 steps limitation. Since it's a VR lens, IBIS is disabled. However, VR seems unreliable. Not sure this is going to be that useful
Nikon 70-200mm f/4 - Same AF limitations (+/-2), IBIS disabled, VR seems to work. Would prefer the f/2.8 version
Nikon 300m f/4 - Same AF limitation (+/-2), IBIS disabled, VR seems unreliable. Give it a miss
Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 - not fully supported, slow AF. Pity.
Overall, i think the most useful lenses are the 24mm PC-E, 105mm f/1.4 (with limitations), Zeiss 135mm f/2, Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 (with limitations), Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8. Even with these lenses, I'd only use "in case of emergency" since this testing didn't do much to improve my confidence that the Commlite adapter is a solid, reliable solution. In particular, my experience with the Sigma 50mm was scary in that the camera started to vibrate, even after I had turned it off. I needed to remove the battery to reset things. And, this is a lens that Commlite has on their compatibility list. Uncertainty over whether Commlite has fully tested with the A7R III is another source of concern.
As of Jan 15, I was informed by Fotodiox that they also have a new version of their adapter (re-badged version of the Commlite). They have offered to replace my old version free of charge so I'm eager to give this a try. I would be surprised, however, if the results are any different. I will also keep an eye on when Commlite uodates their website to show A7R III support. Latest - got the Fotodiox adapter, seems to be identical to the Commlite.
Note: it appears that in order to take advantage of IBIS with non-native lenses, the Steady shot setting should be set to manual and the focal length of the lens entered manually.