Few question for a thrilled new Sony guy (A7iv)

[Maxim 2401]

Hey guys!
Hope you all doing well.

I wanted to ask seceral questions about nu recently bought A7iv, first time with a sony cam and it is a totally new world for me.
Hope you can help out a fellow alpha shooter

1. when I put on my lens (Sigma 1.4 E mount), the locking part was tough, I had to apply some power (on my canon 80D, it was butter) - is it normal?
2. When I put an SD card in the 1st(upper) slot, again, there was a slight resistance (the 2nd slot is more smooth) - is it normal?
3. My camera version is 3.0. Should I update to 3.2? I tried and it got stuck for more than 30 minutes... had to remove the battery to abort the update. How can I do it with the creator app (or any other way) with minimum damage?
4. Is RAW the best format for high res pictures and how do O transport them to my computer/Ipad via app/wifi without losing quality?

If you have reached so far, thank you for reading

P.s. - this is card I got. I hope it is good and fits:

 

[iamdlewis]

1. Is RAW the beat format for high res pictures and how do O transport them to my computer/Ipad via app/wifi without losing quality?

It depends on how you feel about post processing. RAW files will give you the most flexibility in terms of making adjustments and recovering shadows/highlights but it does add time to getting an image from camera to sharing. My suggestion is that you shoot in RAW+JPEG and see what you think of how the JPEGs looks (don't forget you can use "Creative Looks" to add preset adjustments to the JPEGs).

Those SD cards will work fine.

 

[AlphaWorld]

I think on the A7 IV the upper slot is able to take both SD and CFexpress type A cards. Those slots have a wider section that the SD cards slide into, and a narrower section for the thicker CFeA cards. If you don't line the SD card up with the wider part of the slot it can take a little fiddling to get the card to go in. Also, you probably already know, but SD cards go in with the label facing the front of the camera (most cameras take the cards with the label facing the back).

RAW is the most flexible format. You have a much larger range of adjustments possible - setting colour temperature, and applying a tone curve. I prefer to work with RAW, but some people prefer JPEG for simplicity. Note that the A7 IV also supports HEIF (a new format that was intended to replace JPEG) - I'd recommend not using HEIF because it's not widely supported yet - you might have trouble showing people your images.

My preferred way to move images from the camera to the computer is by card reader - take the card out of the camera, put it into a card reader, and copy the images. You can also transfer them by plugging the camera in using a USB cable (basically, using the camera as a really expensive card reader!). Wireless transfer has limits - I think by default it transfers a reduced resolution JPEG only - it's not really meant for transferring an entire shoot.

Sometimes a third party lens can be a bit harder to attach the first time (I don't know why, but it happened to me with a Voigtlander and with a Tamron - both times, the second time was much easier).

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

The mount seemed stiffer to me when it was new. Now a year old, lenses are a lot easier to twist.

Don't be a raw snob! These cameras take beautiful jpegs. Sometimes I spend ages processing a raw only to realise that I've made it look like the camera jpeg, lol. You can be a lot more creative processing raw. You should certainly try. There are times, for instance when an indoor pic with weird lighting has ruined skin colours, that raw processing can fix it more easily and with a better-looking result. Also, those pics where you do have both deep shadows and bright highlights: raw is your friend. But it is not The One True Way, lol.

I use free software on a Linux PC. I can tweak a pic in GIMP quite fast, much faster than in darktable, my chosen raw developer/processor. I actually enjoy the raw processing more: I get much more involved with the picture.

See which route suits you and your pictures.

There's a lot to learn about the camera. I really recommend Buch's book (or Friedman's) and watching a heap of youtube videos, especially about the autofocus and exposure metering. It's highly complex, but once you get the hang of it for the stuff that you take, it can be incredibly simple. Best point and shootI've ever had

My preferred way to transfer pics to computer is to plug in a USB-C cable and treat it as external storage. No other equipment required, no fiddling with taking the cards in and out.

 

[Maxim 2401]

It depends on how you feel about post processing. RAW files will give you the most flexibility in terms of making adjustments and recovering shadows/highlights but it does add time to getting an image from camera to sharing. My suggestion is that you shoot in RAW+JPEG and see what you think of how the JPEGs looks (don't forget you can use "Creative Looks" to add preset adjustments to the JPEGs).

Those SD cards will work fine.

Thank you for replying, I'll try RAW and JPEG.

 

[Maxim 2401]

I think on the A7 IV the upper slot is able to take both SD and CFexpress type A cards. Those slots have a wider section that the SD cards slide into, and a narrower section for the thicker CFeA cards. If you don't line the SD card up with the wider part of the slot it can take a little fiddling to get the card to go in. Also, you probably already know, but SD cards go in with the label facing the front of the camera (most cameras take the cards with the label facing the back).

RAW is the most flexible format. You have a much larger range of adjustments possible - setting colour temperature, and applying a tone curve. I prefer to work with RAW, but some people prefer JPEG for simplicity. Note that the A7 IV also supports HEIF (a new format that was intended to replace JPEG) - I'd recommend not using HEIF because it's not widely supported yet - you might have trouble showing people your images.

My preferred way to move images from the camera to the computer is by card reader - take the card out of the camera, put it into a card reader, and copy the images. You can also transfer them by plugging the camera in using a USB cable (basically, using the camera as a really expensive card reader!). Wireless transfer has limits - I think by default it transfers a reduced resolution JPEG only - it's not really meant for transferring an entire shoot.

Sometimes a third party lens can be a bit harder to attach the first time (I don't know why, but it happened to me with a Voigtlander and with a Tamron - both times, the second time was much easier)

Thank you very much for clearing these points

 

[Maxim 2401]

The mount seemed stiffer to me when it was new. Now a year old, lenses are a lot easier to twist.

Don't be a raw snob! These cameras take beautiful jpegs. Sometimes I spend ages processing a raw only to realise that I've made it look like the camera jpeg, lol. You can be a lot more creative processing raw. You should certainly try. There are times, for instance when an indoor pic with weird lighting has ruined skin colours, that raw processing can fix it more easily and with a better-looking result. Also, those pics where you do have both deep shadows and bright highlights: raw is your friend. But it is not The One True Way, lol.

I use free software on a Linux PC. I can tweak a pic in GIMP quite fast, much faster than in darktable, my chosen raw developer/processor. I actually enjoy the raw processing more: I get much more involved with the picture.

See which route suits you and your pictures.

There's a lot to learn about the camera. I really recommend Buch's book (or Friedman's) and watching a heap of youtube videos, especially about the autofocus and exposure metering. It's highly complex, but once you get the hang of it for the stuff that you take, it can be incredibly simple. Best point and shootI've ever had

My preferred way to transfer pics to computer is to plug in a USB-C cable and treat it as external storage. No other equipment required, no fiddling with taking the cards in and out.

Thank you
The camera is really complexed. The canon was much easier but it only motivates me to learn my sony better and improve. I see great potential in shooting with it, hoping to explore all of it's options.

Say, should I try and update to 3.2? Is it important or can I stay with my 3.0 version?