A former photo magazine editor (re)enters Sony land

[Tachikaze]

Strictly speaking, I am not new to Sony cameras. When I was founding editor-in-chief of Digital Camera Magazine years ago, Sony invited me to their initial Alpha launch and I have never forgotten the superb experience they laid out for us scribblers — so here I am, closing the loop.

Just bought a new A7II with the 70-300mm kit lens for $998. I was a Nikon guy for over 40 years, but now it is time to go full-frame mirrorless and I chose Sony for both technological and sentimental reasons.

Today the A7II arrived factory new from Adorama via Amazon well-packed along with the kit lens and a Tamron 20mm ƒ2.8. Battery needed two hours to charge completely — guess I'll need to buy myself a spare right away! System version of both camera and kit lens are current so no futzing around with Sony's installers. Took a look at the apps available from Sony and decided to pass on all of it. I don't need some clunky wireless driver clogging up my Mac and I know how to use a bloody USB cable and a SD card reader, so what's the point? Pixelmator and Photomator support the Sony raw format, so I'm all set.

Love the feel of the thing. I have pretty big hands but am having no trouble operating all the controls. Because they intimidate people and draw attention to me, I don't like lenses that stick out a mile so the compact 28-70 and the 20mm are perfectly unobtrusive. A Tamron 70-300 may be in my future at some point, but I don't really need it right now. My photography — beyond ordinary iPhone family snapshot stuff — is nearly always a landscape , an interior, a table-top shot, a guitar, or a macro close-up (the Tamron does 1:2 macro) so I think I'm covered for now.

Sold my entire 2010-era Nikon rig with three lenses to B&H and good riddance. It was a bear to carry around and way over-featured for what I do now. Nikon served me well but that was then and this is now. Back in ancient times I learned to make photos with a Nikon FM2 and a basement darkroom, so my return to full-frame is a great feeling of coming home. I shall never compute crop-frame multiplication factors again!

Looking forward to chatting with you all about this new world I have (re)entered.

 

[evacguy]

Strictly speaking, I am not new to Sony cameras. When I was founding editor-in-chief of Digital Camera Magazine years ago, Sony invited me to their initial Alpha launch and I have never forgotten the superb experience they laid out for us scribblers — so here I am, closing the loop.

Just bought a new A7II with the 70-300mm kit lens for $998. I was a Nikon guy for over 40 years, but now it is time to go full-frame mirrorless and I chose Sony for both technological and sentimental reasons.

Today the A7II arrived factory new from Adorama via Amazon well-packed along with the kit lens and a Tamron 20mm ƒ2.8. Battery needed two hours to charge completely — guess I'll need to buy myself a spare right away! System version of both camera and kit lens are current so no futzing around with Sony's installers. Took a look at the apps available from Sony and decided to pass on all of it. I don't need some clunky wireless driver clogging up my Mac and I know how to use a bloody USB cable and a SD card reader, so what's the point? Pixelmator and Photomator support the Sony raw format, so I'm all set.

Love the feel of the thing. I have pretty big hands but am having no trouble operating all the controls. Because they intimidate people and draw attention to me, I don't like lenses that stick out a mile so the compact 28-70 and the 20mm are perfectly unobtrusive. A Tamron 70-300 may be in my future at some point, but I don't really need it right now. My photography — beyond ordinary iPhone family snapshot stuff — is nearly always a landscape , an interior, a table-top shot, a guitar, or a macro close-up (the Tamron does 1:2 macro) so I think I'm covered for now.

Sold my entire 2010-era Nikon rig with three lenses to B&H and good riddance. It was a bear to carry around and way over-featured for what I do now. Nikon served me well but that was then and this is now. Back in ancient times I learned to make photos with a Nikon FM2 and a basement darkroom, so my return to full-frame is a great feeling of coming home. I shall never compute crop-frame multiplication factors again!

Looking forward to chatting with you all about this new world I have (re)entered.

Welcome and looking forward to seeing your photographs.

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Welcome aboard!

 

[alexpler]

Welcome to the forum and to Sony ecosystem.

 

[Tachikaze]

Update: I just bought a Sigma 100-400 lens from @Brownie so my Sony kit bag is complete. Can't wait to get out to the nearby frozen lake and get to work!

 

[Unframed Dave]

Welcome to the forum.

IEM does come in handy now and again. I'm on my winter migration currently and have forgotten to pack my cfa reader. The ability to directly bring photos into my phone with it is quite useful.

 

[Tachikaze]

Welcome to the forum.

IEM does come in handy now and again. I'm on my winter migration currently and have forgotten to pack my cfa reader. The ability to directly bring photos into my phone with it is quite useful.

I doubt any of that software would work on my A7II anyway, so I'm not going to even think about it.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I doubt any of that software would work on my A7II anyway

Imaging Edge should work. But not Cr'App.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I had the Tamron 70-300mm on the A7III at the time. That thing is certainly underrated and of ridiculous value too!

Not sure of your sentiment but I looked at Sony when I entered the photography world purely because I've always had Sony TV's and many other Sony products. Lucky guess I think..!

 

[Tachikaze]

Not sure of your sentiment but I looked at Sony when I entered the photography world purely because I've always had Sony TV's and many other Sony products. Lucky guess I think..!

I am also a long time Sony fan. They are the Apple of Japan. They make high quality gear with a tendency towards the proprietary. I still look at Sony stuff before any other brand in home theater products. And they make the photo sensors for every other camera brand. I wrote back in my editor-in-chief days that whoever owns the fab owns photography — and I was correct.

 

[Tachikaze]

Not so much. They make Nikon's for sure. Canon does their own, Panasonic used to be Sony but has moved away, as has OM. Not sure about Ricoh/Pentax or Fuji. Sony is doing sensors for many other industries as well, such as security and medical imaging.

Yeah my info is nearly twenty years out of date. Once the mag folded I stopped following the industry. Sony was the powerhouse back in the day, which is why I always assumed their entry into the pro camera business was so delayed. They would not have wanted to compete with their best customers.

 

[Tachikaze]

Sony's sensor division is a completely different group, solely responsible for their own financial stability. I don't think they much care who they sell to. Each buyer specs their own sensors, including Sony's camera division

I believe the optics, if you’ll pardon the pun, would have been awkward back in the early days of digital cameras had Sony competed directly with Nikon and the rest. But as I said, I’m out of the loop now so what do I know?

 

[iamdlewis]

Sony's sensor division is a completely different group, solely responsible for their own financial stability. I don't think they much care who they sell to. Each buyer specs their own sensors, including Sony's camera division.

They don't care in that they will sell to anyone but those buying need to understand that they will not be allowed to use the full potential of the sensors. You can see this with the A1 and Z8/9 in that they use the same sensors but the Nikon is limited to 45mp and 20fps raw.

I think Sony got into the camera market because they probably viewed that Canon/Nikon were dragging their feet in moving in the direction that Sony thought was the correct direction for the sensor market and saw an opening to making for money.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I am also a long time Sony fan. They are the Apple of Japan. They make high quality gear with a tendency towards the proprietary. I still look at Sony stuff before any other brand in home theater products. And they make the photo sensors for every other camera brand. I wrote back in my editor-in-chief days that whoever owns the fab owns photography — and I was correct.

Pretty awesome effort really, Sony basically forced the camera world to go mirrorless. Impressive long term business plan!

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Sony's sensor division is a completely different group, solely responsible for their own financial stability.

Maybe, but in my extremely small experience of working for a Japanese company in UK, it was explained to me: yes, these companies are entirely independent, the one that makes cranes is not the same as the one that sells insurance. But, a Japanese company group, it's family.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

but if it was kept in the family

It doesn't mean that the family is the only customer base, it means that it's the most important.

 

[Tachikaze]

Found this article from this year. Interesting. Sony owns the largest slice of the pie with Samsung coming in second. Canon and Panasonic are both players but very small.

Sony owns 42% of the image sensor market… while Canon only has 1%

Sony has a 42% stranglehold on the image sensor market, while Canon and Panasonic have less than 2% combined

www.digitalcameraworld.com

I rest my case.

 

[Tachikaze]

???





With all due respect, 42% is quite a ways from "they make the photo sensors for every other camera brand".

I was just poking a little fun. The world is coming to an end soon so who cares? I’m just running out the clock.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

I was just poking a little fun. The world is coming to an end soon so who cares? I’m just running out the clock.

Perhaps not coming to an end, but I don't think many people will be using their handful of day passes to leave their 15 minute cities so they can head out taking photos though. All good but because AI can just generate you a photo of a waterfall just like the real thing, zero camera sensors needed...

'Science' and technology, amazing!

 

[Tachikaze]

Perhaps not coming to an end, but I don't think many people will be using their handful of day passes to leave their 15 minute cities so they can head out taking photos though. All good but because AI can just generate you a photo of a waterfall just like the real thing, zero camera sensors needed...

'Science' and technology, amazing!

It does feel like we are nearing end of the line for anything but simple snapshots. I find myself unable to work myself up enough enthusiasm to take my shiny new Sony rig out in the cold and shoot anything except for our landscape renovation in progress just for documentation purposes. Shooting some indoors through — family and friends and my guitars.

I am resolved to go out and shoot this lovely wild land so close by, not thinking about how I will retouch the raw file or fiddle with color temperature or use “AI” generated background fills or any of that stuff. I just want to walk alone through the world, see something that interests me, snap off a few frames, and move on, as I did so often in olden times whenever I could get away from the often brutal demands of a career and a family. It’s a Zen state of mind my life has lacked for too many years. I bought this camera and these lenses to force me to walk out the damn door and do it.

If you see all my stuff for sale in the classifieds section of this forum, you will know I have failed.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

It does feel like we are nearing end of the line for anything but simple snapshots. I find myself unable to work myself up enough enthusiasm to take my shiny new Sony rig out in the cold and shoot anything except for our landscape renovation in progress just for documentation purposes. Shooting some indoors through — family and friends and my guitars.

I am resolved to go out and shoot this lovely wild land so close by, not thinking about how I will retouch the raw file or fiddle with color temperature or use “AI” generated background fills or any of that stuff. I just want to walk alone through the world, see something that interests me, snap off a few frames, and move on, as I did so often in olden times whenever I could get away from the often brutal demands of a career and a family. It’s a Zen state of mind my life has lacked for too many years. I bought this camera and these lenses to force me to walk out the damn door and do it.

If you see all my stuff for sale in the classifieds section of this forum, you will know I have failed.

You will not fail my brother, they are dehumanising the world. You fight them by being more human and being more connected with nature.

My latest waterfall image, my missus and I sat there for two hours waiting for the middle day light to move to the side of that rainforest. One, it allowed me plenty of time to get my prop into place at the front left of the image. Two, sitting there listening to birds and free flowing water is just the most beautiful sound in the world, two very talkative people just sitting there mostly in silence for the whole time says a lot.

Don't let the billionaire psychopaths win the war. Turn off the television, put the phone down and walk out your front door, nature is the greatest weapon against them.

 

[Tachikaze]

You will not fail my brother, they are dehumanising the world. You fight them by being more human and being more connected with nature.

My latest waterfall image, my missus and I sat there for two hours waiting for the middle day light to move to the side of that rainforest. One, it allowed me plenty of time to get my prop into place at the front left of the image. Two, sitting there listening to birds and free flowing water is just the most beautiful sound in the world, two very talkative people just sitting there mostly in silence for the whole time says a lot.

Don't let the billionaire psychopaths win the war. Turn off the television, put the phone down and walk out your front door, nature is the greatest weapon against them.

Thank you for the encouraging words. That sounds idyllic. My wife would never agree to that — you married well, brother.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Thank you for the encouraging words. That sounds idyllic. My wife would never agree to that — you married well, brother.

Marriage is just a contract to the government in disguise as religion and love. Love is a feeling between two people which serves no purpose to be 'made official' by an external entity.

Pretty strange, you've signed a contract that you love someone and if you no longer love that person you owe the system lots of money. Not a bad little win for the system!

I should stop calling Liz my missus, it's a bit misleading. Lovely woman by the way...

 

[Tachikaze]

Marriage is just a contract to the government in disguise as religion and love. Love is a feeling between two people which serves no purpose to be 'made official' by an external entity.

Pretty strange, you've signed a contract that you love someone and if you no longer love that person you owe the system lots of money. Not a bad little win for the system!

I should stop calling Liz my missus, it's a bit misleading. Lovely woman by the way...

Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments...

 

[Unframed Dave]

I've been out with my wife and camera every day for the last month.

She's very lucky to share my hobby.

 

[spudhead]

I've been out with my wife and camera every day for the last month.

She's very lucky to share my hobby.

I think you mean you are lucky your wife shares your hobby Dave, meh they all tell us they are cool with standing around watching us take shots mate

 

[spudhead]

No, I think he nailed it!

I think if I said that in hear shot of the wife she would nail me with one of the nail guns knowing my luck recently

 

[Unframed Dave]

Verity, my current wife has been by my side for over thirty years. We're both equally lucky in that, in the main, we share similar interests. The big thing we share is a love of the outdoors, other things sort of tack onto that, wildlife, travel, amatuer forestry and photography.

We were talking to an old veteran photographer in a hide the other day, and he asked Verity if she shared my hobby, she replied in the affirmative. He turned to me and said "you're very lucky", to which I replied "doesn't your wife enjoy taking photos" to which he said, " I don't want her coming along, she nags me enough at home ". At that point, I realised how lucky both of us were.

 

[iamdlewis]

I feel that this needs a change so... how about that local sports ball team? That one player did that thing that was something wasn't it?

 

[spudhead]

Dave got a shorter term than me 40th this year never a crossed word