Not looking for an argument but this seems a bit unnecessarily insulting to A7 owners. Toms assessment is fair and valid; I'd forgotten about the ledge and agree it was a terrible design decision. I also get his point about assigning custom functions. Both those things have gotten better on the MkII bodies. You also do see plenty of complaints about ergonomics and/or menus. You also see a huge pool of users who love the cameras. Are we all delusional? Regarding fading around with buttons in the dark, sorry but once you use the camera it becomes second nature as well. I'm actually re-learning mine at the moment after Sony added focus standard in response to users asking for better focus point selection. But it's made the camera even quicker and once muscle memory is dialed in it'll fade back into the background and let me shoot.
I have no "vested" interest in my camera. I buy and seller used and am fortunate to earn good side money shooting real estate which funds my hobby. As such, any purchase is as much a loaner as anything, be it the $100 Canon M1 or $2400 A7RII. No camera is perfect but I'm not fooling myself into liking the Sonys, I genuinely love the A7II and can't see myself switching any time soon, unless it's the A7III.
Well put Mark. I would agree that the MkII fixed many of the major issues that were so bad on the MkI version. But the Mk II was (last time I looked) AUD$4,500 in the shops in Australia.
One of my underlying issues is that a camera company such as Sony should not have made such a kluzt of a design job in the first place and then expected its devoted users to simply bin their MkI version when Sony "miraculously" fixed them in their MkII version and then put their hand out for such a steep "upgrade" price without a blush. Methinks they should have recalled their MkI bodies and crushed them whilst at the same time given a concessional price to replace them with a MkII version. That would have made me a very happy camper indeed.
So I cannot make myself spend another AUD$4,500 to replace what is should be a reasonably good camera body which should last for years. I get 5-10 years out of my dslr bodies and will probably get the same out of an A7R MkI as it is well made and works. But this means that I am stuck with a klutz (to use) camera because I refuse to fork out another substantial sum for the pleasure of getting rid of it. And of course the A7R MkIII is probably not that far away and would be another significant outlay for those that must stay up to date.
I gave up the expensive dslr body churn because of the constant recurring cost of replacement. Sony simply joined that club. My admittedly late to the party purchase of an Olympus E-M1 cost me <AUD$1,000. The Olympus is not perfect either but it is still within my personal parameters of freaked out annoyance. I use it regularly but the A7R MkI hardly ever. One of my sons on the other hand takes incredibly good images with his A7R and is not terribly bothered by its ergonomics. As mentioned before I have a very short bad-ergonomics fuse
If Sony must make great camera bodies and charge substantial prices for them then surely it is not too much to ask that they put serious thought to getting their ergonomics right before they ask people to pay for them
I suppose my biggest beef is that I hate being the Beta tester to sort out some product that I have bought that was poorly designed. That Sony made their MkII better through hordes of unpaid market researchers who actually bought these MkI things with their own money which still leaves me continuing to do just that.
I might wait a while and see what the MkIII might bring. Or even get my hands in an A9 so that I can see if I can live with the new interface long term.
My three criteria are 1) that the interface is logical and easy to use, and 2) that the camera will handle EF lenses with oem levels of performance, and 3) I am likely to be able to use the body every day for many years with an idiotic smile on my face
If I like it enough I can get over the price hurdle.
I don't need any FE lenses.
But I suggest that I am now so wedded to the M4/3 mount that it would require quite a lot of anticipated use-excitement to winkle me away from bodies that are at the very worst no more than 1/3 of the current price of an A7Rii (each).
Just added a Panasonic GX85 to the fleet at <AUD$700.
The actual body shape does not worry me but I would prefer RF style and wish that they could have made the "FF NEX" that had been widely anticipated. The NEX is much nicer to use.
GnarlydogOZ, post: 59728702"]
I like your analysis: honest. You can sit back and say it as it is without the vested interest of not saying "I admit and I am ashamed I have made of a mistake". If people would look at their cameras more honestly and be more critical of their purchases and less "I have to love it since I spent so much money on it" probably we would read more cases like yours. About Sony A7/A9 series: to me it feels designed by hipsters that want to emulated the modern Leica look (also incredibly un-ergonomic) to then make it stand out. I like to compare them to my car: a Toyota Rukus (aka Scion XB in USA): butt ugly
