Professional use of Alpha 7 II

[www.polopower.co.uk]

Anybody using a Sony for professional sports work I shoot equestrian events both indoors and out and am looking to replace a couple of Nikon D3s.

One thing that I like about the alpha 7 is that I can actually put a focussing spot in the corner of the image, which I can't do with either Nikon or Canon, but I am concerned about battery life I normally take 1000 images in a day and that has gone up to 1750 on one occasion this year.

Also of course there is the problem of how robust they are. My Nikons look new despite the hammering that they are getting.

What is the estimated shutter life - Nikon are quoting 150K for most bodies, 400K for the D4's

Anybody using the adapters with fast "A" lenses? From what I can see although I may be wrong I would lose the majority of my focussing points, I need to use the 70-200 f2.8 in order to reduce depth of field and get enough light.

Finally there is the problem of servicing and repairs how do they/you compare to NPU membership?

[www.polopower.co.uk]

OK, so nobody can answer all my questions, how about answering a few, even one answer would help, PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pascale_F]

Hi there,

If no-one can answer your query here, it would be best to get in touch with the Sony Sales team for a chat. You can reach them on 0207 365 2413 or sales.gb@shop.sony-europe.com. You can also use the Sales contact form or the Professional sales contact form

Best wishes,

Pascale_F

[www.polopower.co.uk]

Many thanks, however  I tried and they were unable to answer, it was Sony on the Facebook page who suggested "the Community" and having phoned sales last week I am still awaiting a call back. I am really surprised that Sony are not more helpful, as a professional working out and about I am seen by loads of people, thus I would be a walking advertisement. 

[Portmixus]

Sorry, was on a fair in the weekend, so couldn't check the community 

There are currently over 10 FE lenses foor the A7-series, but most zooms are "only" F4...You can use A-mount lenses through an adapter but AF is at best on par as the Sony A65 or other entry and mid-class cameras from Sony as it uses the same AF module (it means 15 AF points of which 3 are cross type and all clustered in the middle).

The reason why I don't really like using an adapter is the fact that you lose one of the coolest features of mirrorless cameras: the ability to put your AF poin anywhere. With the adapter, you are back in SLR hometown 🙂

Sony is investing heavily in E-mount so we will be seeing some beautiful products in the future!

[Portmixus]

About the battery, mirrorless cameras consume a lot of battery, it's not a strongpoint. But a battery is small and cheap...not really an issue.

You can extend your batterylife dramatically by disabling Wi-Fi (using airplane mode)!

[www.polopower.co.uk]

Many thanks, that is a great help. In simple terms based on what you have said I beleive that I should do nothing now but wait until some new lenses come out and then decide if they meet my requirements.

Regarding the use of WiFi., as a simpleton I have always beleived that in order to improve range one needed a decent aerial hence the stubby stick used on the Nikon WT-4. I confess that I had not considered using WiFi., however if I were, I would need a range of 100m or more, admitedly this would normally be over open ground, would this work? I note also that one can switch off WiFi, but according to the manual this switch off is only temporary, can it be disabled permanently, if I were not able to use it at any time I would want to disable it in order to save battery life.

[Portmixus]

Yes indeed, I would wait a bit and see how Sony E-mount improves over this year if you want to make a complete switch. But if there are lenses you already like (especially the primes), then you could add it to your existing setup and make a smooth transition. Fast zooms and a long tele is lacking in the E-mount system, but Sony is putting a lot of effort into it! The existing primes are simply great...even for the (heavy) price.

If you put a Sony camera in airplane mode, Wi-Fi (and NFC) is disabled permanently. It can be used for remote shooting but there is some lag on it (and it depends very much on the device you use). I have tried an RX10 to see how far the Wi-Fi goes, it was at least 20m, but the refresh rate lacks badly making it of no use at such distances. But again, every camera can be slightly different and it also depends on your smartphone. The Wi-Fi and NFC is particularly useful for transferring pictures to your smartphone/tablet and to a lesser extent transferring pictures to your laptop (have only tried it once, a "long" time ago...putting your SD-card in your laptop/pc is just as easy and much faster  )

[www.polopower.co.uk]

Thanks, I would not want to  have to elect the switch off WiFi every time I used the camera.

If I were to use WiFi, it would be to transfer images back to a computer operator based in a nearby office, they would then be able to retouch the images ready for viewing by clients virtually immediately. I have thought of using a router with a high gain aerial they are like satellite dishes, very directional, this should increase the range albeit at the expense of being tied to one area. This would avoid the operator having to make card runs.

It is a shame about the lack of suitable lenses, I cconfess that I'm not sure what Sony are doing, are they going to drop the old range of SLR's and concentrate on the Alpha 7 range or continue with both? My understanding was that they were attempting to compete with Canon and Nikon, I see the Alpha 7 range competing with the crop sensor models from them, however both Canon and Nikon have made their lenses for the pro lenses fit the crop sensor bodies Sony have not unless you count on the adaptor which you have already stated cripple the work done to create the Alpha 7 bodies.

[Portmixus]

Interesting comment, and a valid remark. I can only give you my opinion, I don't have a crystal ball unfortunately. 

Sony is heavily concentrating on E-mount and FE in particular. But even Sony don't have infinite resources and choices have to be made I guess. The A7 has been a successtory so far but people are complaining that Sony does not have enough FE lenses. 

So, Sony reacts by putting a lot of effort in the development of FE lenses and keeping the momentum of the A7 success. As a consequence, people are complaining that all energy goes to FE and not enough to APS-C E-mount... 

To make things worse, people -understandably- complain about the lack of A-mount support. Except for the A77II (which is by the way a great camera price-performance wise), the A-mount cameras are dated. But as we saw the A77II appear, I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing an A99II this year! (hopefully  )

Don't forget: Sony announced a few updated Zeiss and G lenses for A-mount. Nothing really new, but making excellent lenses even better by modernising them is also worth mentioning. There are no really serious gaps in the A-mount, IMHO. And we've already seen a couple of updated lenses in recent years. 

Bottomline: FE is the "smallest" system at the moment, but perhaps Sony's biggest camera succes so far. Therefore putting all energy into FE is somewhat warranted IMHO. E-mount also benefits from the FE development as you can use FE lenses without a problem on E-cameras.

A-mount is certainly not dead, but perhaps the least you can say is that it is maybe in hibernation mode lens-wise?  

A new entry-level A58II or something else below the A77II...that's something I'm more worried about 

Sony has waaaaaaaaaay too many A-mount lenses to drop that ball anytime soon, if ever?