The trusty Nikon had served me well over the last 9 years or so. Firstly the picture quality was great being a full frame camera and I managed to take it to many places with me over the years - Peru, Europe, Asia. So many fond memories of the camera.
In saying that, technology has come quite far over that time and lots have improved. Image quality and dynamic range in the photos, autofocus (like Eye AF) and not to mention mirrorless full frame cameras has certainly seen huge moves over the last 9 years where technology is at the point where I see it as being quite mature. I have never been fond of being the earliest adopter of technology, especially in areas of limited use. But all these things are large step ups from what and where we have come from over this time. In my latest camera acquisition, I decided to give Sony a go, having show with Nikon pretty much these last 9 years. I did do a lot of research on this and thought I should outline why I decided to go with Sony this time around.
Firstly, I really enjoyed my older cameras, but did feel like I was missing out on new functionality, such as WIFI, video functionality (let alone 4K), live view and focus peaking.
1) Mirrorless - weight, size and live view.
We have seen mirrorless around for some time, and Sony was really forging ahead over the last few years in this field and established themselves as having very good full frame cameras as well. Over the years, the weight of the sturdy DSLRs as well as significant improvements in phone cameras has meant I have often opted for the convenience of my phone over the DSLRs and often were left sitting in my dry box. In addition, I felt I was missing out on live-view to compose my shot and settings real time. Short trips as well meant I was carrying a fair amount of size and weight on trips and was thinking about how I could make this easier.
2) Autofocus
The new cameras and mirrorless, have great autofocus. Covering a very large area of the screen as well as Eye AF in the Sony. One of the most annoying and frustrating things for me is missing focus - because nothing can be done about it in post processing. Being able to track subjects across the frame rather than just the centre of the frame is very nice.
Also, autofocus on these cameras is quick - less missed shots and high burst rates!
Shots of people, portraits - it's awesome to have some of the algorithm take some of the hard work out of it and just nail the autofocus. Most manufacturers in mirrorless have it or at least it's coming (e.g. Nikon). Perhaps also my eyes are not what they used to be! Clearly it is something shooters are looking for these days.
3) Video
Video is something which interests me, but I have not gotten into as yet. Earlier years saw implementation compromises in the Nikon DSLRs, so I did hesitate. But now that 4K is quite prevalent, I would be keen to capture footage now!
4) In body image stabilisation
Interestingly, Sony offers IBIS which is great for older lenses. While not all mirrorless cameras offer it, definitely helpful for someone like me with some shakey hands! Lots of image blur is unrecoverable in post as well.
5) Dynamic range
The new cameras have such good dynamic range - just as good as the DSLRs which have closed that gap up substantially
6) Adapting lenses
I gave this quite some consideration. As we all know, good glass is never cheap. But mirrorless has opened up a market for a variety of old lenses to be used on the cameras via adapters, mainly due to the shorter flange distance to the sensor. Which is great as I won't necessarily need to get rid of all my old glass, as I still have film camera around. Some even offering autofocus!
So why Sony, given I have been a longer time Nikon shooter?
Sony has been leading the charge in full frame mirrorless. From the research I had done, their latest cameras have taken great strides in improving their mirrorless cameras. While I had a friend who has churned through the Sony a7i it was the Sony A7iii which really got my attention.
Better battery life than previously. Very good autofocus. Two card slots. And by virtue of being earlier in the game, and the gamut of lenses (native) and adapters around.
In addition, there were two swing factors. While Nikon had come out with their Z6/Z7 cameras, from all accounts, autofocus was not there yet and the FTZ adapter meant that I couldn't even use all my lenses with autofocus, given I have a few AF-D lenses. Being a younger system also meant it was still getting onto Eye AF, autofocus was good, but not quite on pair, and not as many native lenses (if I went down that path).
Flowing from that, the second big one for me was that Sony (wisely) has decided to open up their mount information to third party manufacturers. This incentives them to make good glass for their system with pretty much all the functionality, rather than having to reverse engineer the information. This frustrated me from with the Nikon F mount, as there was good glass out there from other manufacturers, but they were never as optimised on the F mount.
If Nikon had come out with a better FTZ adapter that allowed AF-D lenses and with better autofocus then the decision may have been harder as there is still some very good glass from Nikon.
So I bought an adapter for the Sony which allowed me to also use my Nikon lenses on the Sony body with Eye-AF. Third party of course, but works.
Of course the Sony is not all a bed of roses. I knew that it may not have as good weather sealing and ergonomics (menu system is definitely a bit challenging to navigate with nested options), but I felt that it was still worth it with the above. Lenses coming from Sony are not cheap, but I feel that the adapters and third party lens manufacturers are at least coming up in that sense. Sony also has an adapter for their alpha FF cameras, so that's also an option as well.
In a way, I am excited to try this new setup. New camera - new tips, new menus and ergonomics to figure out. But hopefully some nice photos to come out!
Sample photo below of some food - straight out of camera!
