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Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

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zlatko

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Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
 
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Brian_Smith
zlatko said:
Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.
Click to expand...
No, but it has been suggested....
Yes -- why not a 1:1 ratio?

And a 4:5 for traditional photo sizes such as 8x10 and 16x20. As a portrait guy it would be great for my clients to see the finished crop size on the camera screen -- and an aid to me, rather than have to visualize the crop in my mind.

Come to think of it, shouldn't be that hard to let the photographer put in custom ratios for special jobs.

Gato
 
iRanN said:
This is one thing I like my Fuji, you can shoot raw in 1:1, LR6 on import knows you shot 1:1 and keeps the crop but the full size 3:2 is there if you need it.
Click to expand...
GFX works the same way one you tell it to do RAW + JPEG; I think it's great. I throw away the JPEGs. I wonder why it won't do it in raw only.

--
http://blog.kasson.com
 
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Gato Amarillo said:
Yes -- why not a 1:1 ratio?

And a 4:5 for traditional photo sizes such as 8x10 and 16x20. As a portrait guy it would be great for my clients to see the finished crop size on the camera screen -- and an aid to me, rather than have to visualize the crop in my mind.

Come to think of it, shouldn't be that hard to let the photographer put in custom ratios for special jobs.

Gato
Click to expand...
That would be nice. I like to crop in the viewfinder as I shoot so this is exactly what I do when a monitor as the final viewing destination. (I shoot 16:9 RAW). It's great that I can still adjust the crop in post or re-crop completely if I decide to print.
 
daMatrix said:
The topic starter has a point. Why the limited choice of aspect ration in serious cameras compared to the pocket camera.

My suggestion; Give the user a full choice of any aspectratio; Thus one can choose 16:9 but also an aspectratio of 11:7 . In the menu one would first set '11' and next '7' .

It may sound crazy but for those who create photos for magazines or websites it makes sense. Even a crazy aspectratio for a page marging (16:2) photo would be possible.
Click to expand...
And why stop at rational aspect ratios?

Loading…

blog.kasson.com

Jim
 
JimKasson said:
daMatrix said:
The topic starter has a point. Why the limited choice of aspect ration in serious cameras compared to the pocket camera.

My suggestion; Give the user a full choice of any aspectratio; Thus one can choose 16:9 but also an aspectratio of 11:7 . In the menu one would first set '11' and next '7' .

It may sound crazy but for those who create photos for magazines or websites it makes sense. Even a crazy aspectratio for a page marging (16:2) photo would be possible.
Click to expand...
And why stop at rational aspect ratios?

http://blog.kasson.com/the-last-word/irrational-aspect-ratios/

Jim
Click to expand...
 
zlatko said:
Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Click to expand...
It's simple, buy an RX1R II -- it offers 3:2, 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1 ratios. However, the RAW file includes everything captured by the sensor (3:2).

Really, this is a non-issue for me. I used square-format Hasselblad for years, but almost always cropped the frames for prints to 3:2 or 4:5 ratio. I also buy precut mats with those ratios.

What i would really like is a larger square-format sensor in my A7 -- no more L-brackets or turning the camera, and crop in PP as I did with the Hasselblad. I shoot all RAW, anyway...

-Ross
 
Ross Warner said:
zlatko said:
Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Click to expand...
It's simple, buy an RX1R II -- it offers 3:2, 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1 ratios. However, the RAW file includes everything captured by the sensor (3:2).

Really, this is a non-issue for me. I used square-format Hasselblad for years, but almost always cropped the frames for prints to 3:2 or 4:5 ratio. I also buy precut mats with those ratios.

What i would really like is a larger square-format sensor in my A7 -- no more L-brackets or turning the camera, and crop in PP as I did with the Hasselblad. I shoot all RAW, anyway...
Click to expand...
If you do the math on the size, the 50MP Sony sensor (e.g., in the Fuji) is really just multi-format full frame....
 
Ross Warner said:
zlatko said:
Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Click to expand...
It's simple, buy an RX1R II -- it offers 3:2, 16:9, 4:3, and 1:1 ratios. However, the RAW file includes everything captured by the sensor (3:2).

Really, this is a non-issue for me. I used square-format Hasselblad for years, but almost always cropped the frames for prints to 3:2 or 4:5 ratio. I also buy precut mats with those ratios.

What i would really like is a larger square-format sensor in my A7 -- no more L-brackets or turning the camera, and crop in PP as I did with the Hasselblad. I shoot all RAW, anyway...

-Ross
Click to expand...
Or back to the old Kodak round format and by that more lens quality + pixels kept on different aspect ratios. The wafers sensors are made on are round too (for similar optical reasons), large ones though. No aesthetic limitation in that industry.


Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
700+ inkjet paper white spectral plots: OBA content etc.
 
E Dinkla said:
Or back to the old Kodak round format and by that more lens quality + pixels kept on different aspect ratios. The wafers sensors are made on are round too (for similar optical reasons), large ones though. No aesthetic limitation in that industry.
Click to expand...
Aren't the wafers round because the Si xtals are grown in cylinders? And aren't the wafers exposed with steppers? And, in the olden >1 um days, when the wafers were small, weren't they essentially contact-printed?

Jim

--
http://blog.kasson.com
 
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Jim,

Damn it, 3 minutes too late to correct it. A wrong analogy based on the impression of the huge round Zeiss lenses used + the wafer format. In bath I thought you make a fool of yourself, the more as a son works at ASML.

Yes contact printing once and the first Philips step and repeater was a Krause one borrowed from the local label printer. The (odd) reason why ASML supports a local museum on litho printing.

They look for one now: http://www.aepm.eu/machines/krause-step-and-repeat-machine/

Met vriendelijke groet, Ernst
700+ inkjet paper white spectral plots: OBA content etc.
http://www.pigment-print.com/spectralplots/spectrumviz_1.htm
 
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Another one here who wishes A7 series cameras supported 1:1 aspect ratio. I have a RX100mII, a a6000 and a a7II, and it's kind of funny that the smaller, cheaper camera of the three can do it but the other two can't. It's a bummer, I tend to compose my shots for 1:1 (I happen to love that format) and it's very hard even using the square grid. So much easier on the RX100mII.

I just don't understand why that's not an option, seems to be something pretty straightforward through firmware update.
 
Also on the A6500, it is an option that is absent. Seems strangely idiotic, and has given me pause for switching systems.

May be a curiosity for some, but for the majority of my product photography, square is the standard ratio for all the images in print or web catalogs, and it's just another annoying step to perform on hundreds of images in Lightroom when it should be set and forget on the camera.

As has been noted, composition without seeing the bars on the side to help maximize usage of a square ratio makes things more difficult than they need to be.
 
I get your point of your need.

But if you want a particular color filtering, an easy way is to add a color filter, yes?

What if I want a heart-shaped crop? But I don't want to have to remember to do it in post?

Why not construct a masking filter that constricts the frame to the 1:1 you desire?

Or a heart shape, etc.......

Then you could build a simple macro to crop all the images that obviously were taken with a masking filter in front of the lens?
 
You could do that (although I doubt it'd work unless you really know how to build one), but you shouldn't have to. Sony already offers this "feature" on their RX series, which makes it even stranger.
 
zlatko said:
KennyXL said:
zlatko said:
Can any of the A7 series be set to shoot with a 1:1 square aspect ratio?

The A7R II would seem to be the ideal candidate for a square format option as it offers so much resolution that square photos would still be very high in megapixels. However, I didn't see 1:1 mentioned in the specs.

Thanks in advance for any replies!
Click to expand...
I just checked on my a7s and the only 2 settings for aspect ratio are 3:2 and 16:9. Wouldn't it be a trivial matter to just crop to 1:1 aspect ratio? I realize it's an additional step, but it's not uncommon for users of this line of cameras to post-process anyway. Doing it after the fact also gives you some flexibility in case you didn't get that framing quite right.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply! Yes, cropping to 1:1 is trivial. However, seeing the composition as 1:1 is not trivial. Offering 1:1 in the viewfinder, either as an overlay or with blacked out sides, would be a wonderful aid to composition when one wants a square image.
Click to expand...
Shooting with the camera in "Portrait" orientation might be one solution. That would ensure that you were framing the sides to your satisfaction, while leaving plenty of sky and foreground for flexible cropping to produce the desired 1:1 result.
 
mdcromer said:
jlabate said:
In regards to post cropping to 1:1, that is much too clumsy for my workflow. I'll shoot on a card with several hundred images, some that are 1:1 but also some with other aspect ratios. This can take place over days or even weeks. I use my other brand camera to do this as when I open the images in Bridge or Lightroom, the images are shown in the ratios they were made. There is no way I could remember what I had intended if this wasn't the case and why I don't use my Sony's.

Like I said, I've been harping on this for years. I was shocked when I used my first Sony and discovered there were no optional aspect ratios as I had had experience with other manufacturers' cameras and they all offered them.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3494987#forum-post-51541019
Click to expand...
The RX100M2 allows 1:1 ratio (presumably the other RX100 models too).
Click to expand...
Correct, the RX1Rii has 1:1. For my A7ii I just use grid lines to get a 1:1.

--
Instagram @cjgent
 
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One thing is for sure, if cameras would switch to square sensors, then utilisation of area from the same image circle will increase by 8.3%! :)

( if you fit 3:2 rectangle and square into the same image circle, area of square is larger by 8.3%)
 
antst said:
One thing is for sure, if cameras would switch to square sensors, then utilisation of area from the same image circle will increase by 8.3%! :)

( if you fit 3:2 rectangle and square into the same image circle, area of square is larger by 8.3%)
Click to expand...
Really? It seems like an even bigger difference. I'm too lazy to do the math, but I'd like to see yours...
 
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