Tuesday, July 28, 2020

New Cameras - will I buy them?

As I mentioned previously, I am planning on ditching the A-mount as new technology emerges, leaving my A99ii in the dust. For example, I really enjoyed using the A9ii's video AF to track a dancer walking up the stairs towards the camera. It wasn't perfect, but definitely a thousand times better than what the A99ii could do with its locked aperture at 3.5.
To be honest, the perfect camera for me right now is the 45MP Canon R5. A bit expensive, but it has everything I would want from an A99iii if Sony ever made one. Not too many megapixels, but enough to crop if needed. Sony came out with a 63MP camera, the A7rIV, but that one would just waste disk space for me. 
That means that Sony doesn't currently make a camera that is perfect for my needs. I actually don't mind the overheating of the Canon R5 as the A99ii also overheats and I learned to live with it. I don't do a lot of long form videos and will just shoot 1080p 24p if I need to, a format that would work fine for most of my clients.
So why wouldn't I but a camera that is somewhat expensive but perfect for my needs? Unfortunately there is no converter/adapter from A-mount to the Canon RF mount, so I would have to but all new lenses, accessories and cards which would prove too expensive. Even just switching from A-mount to E-mount I might have to buy two adapters totaling around $500.
The good news is that I upgraded my editing workstation, so it's ready now for bigger photos in case I do decide to get the A7rIV. All my internal drives are now SSDs and I have more RAM too so I'm ready for non-choppy 4K editing.
I really like the improvements in the A7sIII that just came out. They changed the menu system! That's really great as even after four years with the A99ii I still struggle with its outdated menu system. That said, as I am transitioning into more video work, I still mostly need a solid hybrid video/stills camera with the ability to crop. Some of my clients still need to print a large A3 (or equivalent) size album for which even a 24MP camera might not be that great if you need to do any cropping.
As wedding season is practically non existing right now due to COVID-19, even with more money coming from my current documentary editing gig, I will hold off buying a new camera. All I want is for Sony to create a better camera that is exactly like the one I have but with much improved AF, video and menu system. If they don't, I will probably settle for the A7rIV at some point.

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