Sony A7 camera experiences

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wallace
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Joined: Mon 01 Sep 2008, 4:32 am

Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by wallace »

I am toying with the idea of buying an Alpha 7 but curious to know of anyone uses one for aviation photography, (apart from Penpusher's Duxford posts,) especially fast moving aircraft.

Good low noise at high ISO would suit me but I don't know how the auto focus performs with panning shots. I may rent one to find out for myself...

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Pen Pusher
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by Pen Pusher »

I don't use the A7's for air show photography. The longest lens I have for the A7 bodies is the E-mount Sony 70-300mm and auto focus is very, very fast and no hunting but not really a long enough lens for air show photography. Have tried the Sony A-mount 70-400mm and Tamron 150-600mm on the A7rII using the Sony LA-EA3 Lens Adapter but found the auto focus drops down to fast and can hunt a bit in less than ideal lighting conditions and no where near as fast if using a native E-mount lens. Also the battery doesn't seem to last as long using the lens adapter. No idea what the Metabones adapters, for using Canikon lens, are like.

Not sure it's worth the cost of getting the new E-mount Sony FE 70-200mm f2.8 GM OSS telephoto zoom plus Sony 2x Teleconverter for the amount of air show photography I do.

As an aside, I use for my Bimbles at Duxford an E-mount Tamron 18-200mm on my a6300 CSC and as the camera uses the same auto focus system as the A77II, auto focus is very, very fast and no hunting. Slap on a Tamron A-mount 28-300mm lens with the Sony LA-EA3 Lens Adapter and auto focus again drops down to just fast and again can hunt a bit if the lighting isn't ideal.

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wallace
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by wallace »

Ah, I always thought you used a A77, the A6300 is a very capable camera and well regarded.

Some say the A-mount is all but dead but it still lives so long as someone makes adapters.

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Heidfirst
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by Heidfirst »

:dunno:
Pen Pusher wrote: on my a6300 CSC and as the camera uses the same auto focus system as the A77II, auto focus is very, very fast and no hunting.

the focus systems on the A6300 & A77 II are very different.
The A77 II uses a separate phase detect af module with 79 points (15 cross), the A6300 uses a hybrid system comprised of on-sensor phase detect (425 points) & contrast detect (169 points)).

Charmed0ne
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by Charmed0ne »

I've not used an a7 before for an airshow, this will be my first time.
I'll be using the same lens I've used before and it's worked for me.
That's the Sony 70300 G series lens.

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BrawlerO
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by BrawlerO »

I’ve started to experiment with an A7iii and 70-300. Looking forward third party e-mount versions of a 100-400 or 150-600 to increase reach though. Still using my Nikon gear as primary use.

cg_341
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Re: Sony A7 camera experiences

Post by cg_341 »

Isn't there an EF- to E- mount adapter from Sigma?

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