Florida Man On Board

[khollister]

Sony newb, long time photographer (Nikon & Fuji) from Central Florida. I recently liquidated all my Fuji APS-C kit and went full in on a pair of Sony A7R-V's (just picked up #2 in the current sale) and a bunch of G & GM glass. Loving the new system after a bit of familiarization - still getting oriented to the huge amount of AF options available. One of the initial images with the new rig...

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Greetings from South Florida!

 

[Richard A]

Welcome aboard Keith. I'm still newish to my A7RV. Haven't had it 12 months yet but have pretty much got to grips with it.

 

[khollister]

Welcome aboard Keith. I'm still newish to my A7RV. Haven't had it 12 months yet but have pretty much got to grips with it.

I only got mine a month or so back but I'm pretty good to go aside from some AF tracking uncertainty (me, not the camera). I moved to the Fuji APS-C system from my Nikon D800's primarily due to size/weight. At the time, the Sony A7 system was pretty unattractive from an ergonomic standpoint and the lens system was not nearly as attractive as it is now.

This current switch was actually started by me almost pulling the trigger on a Fuji GFX system to use for landscapes. However, the bulk of that in addition to having to keep my crop system for other uses got me taking a more current look at FF options - primarily Nikon Z or Sony. It was the lenses that ultimately pushed me to Sony - the Nikon Z lenses are much heavier and larger than the current G/GM kit.

I am blown away by the resolution and dynamic range of the Sony, and any noise concerns are removed with the latest DXO PureRAW. I'm pretty happy with my custom button/dial config and don't miss the haptics of the Fuji bodies too much.

I am a bit puzzled on the Sony approach to stop-down AF though. I have experimented with the Aperture Drive and Live View settings and still can't figure out what's going on there. However, unless I try to AF in almost complete darkness (a more theoretical concern than practical for the most part), I just left Aperture Drive on "focus" rather than "standard" and roll with it.

 

[Richard A]

You can maximise the dynamic range and the low noise by exposing to the right (ETTR) using Zebras. I have had a Sony RX100 III for 10 years and use ETTR with that and results are perfect nearly every time. I think this is one of the best features of Sony cameras. When I decided to change brands, the huge availability of lenses and third party ones was a major reason.

 

[khollister]

You can maximise the dynamic range and the low noise by exposing to the right (ETTR) using Zebras. I have had a Sony RX100 III for 10 years and use ETTR with that and results are perfect nearly every time. I think this is one of the best features of Sony cameras. When I decided to change brands, the huge availability of lenses and third party ones was a major reason.

The only problem with the A7RV zebras is even with +9 (the highest threshold), there is still a full stop or more of detail in the raw file highlights. It would be far more useful if Sony allowed a far higher threshold for the zebras so they indicated where the raw file actually had unrecoverable highlights. As a result, I use the histogram primarily.

 

[Richard A]

I haven't found that to be the case. Anyway, I find zebras much more accurate and much easier to use than the histogram. But at least Sony gives you options so you can set the camera up to suit yourself.

 

[James9747]

Welcome!!!!