Play memories App on A7R3?

I wonder if they are going to disable adding Play Memories apps on the A7R3 like they did the A9. This would a number since I love the smooth reflections app and there is nothing out there short of an ND filter that can replace it.

That should read "This would be a BUMPER if they do that...

I hope they do remove the PlayMemories infrastructure altogether, and then realize all the gaps that will leave behind, and then work to re-incorporate those missing features in a better UX form using the native camera operations and menus for tighter integration.

According to a DPreview editor, there is no PlayMemories App ecosystem on A7Riii.

Pretty unfortunate - as a landscape photographer, I used a few apps like Smooth reflection, Timelapse and the touchless shutter quite a bit.

I was really hoping they would improve upon this ecosystem and open it to the developers, instead, they retrograde and remove the most forward thinking feature from their new iterations. Disappointing.

Thanks for the info!! Very disappointing, I guess it's back to ND filters and color shifts.

Has Sony said why in any capacity? The phone remote control the A9 has looks pretty trimmed down in comparison to the Playmemories remote control app after it was updated a year or so ago. I don't think even touch-to-focus is implemented on the A9 remote functionality, while it works on the R/SIIs (and presumably others).

This does suck, but at least they kept the ability to control with the phone. That would have been a dealbreaker for me as I use that feature all the time on vacations.

Smooth reflections, digital filters, star trails etc. - I have them all on my A7RII. Never used them beyond figuring out (the very convoluted) interface. What exactly do they do for you that you cannot do yourself in post with an editor of your choice? Multiple exposures blending is a piece of cake with Affinity Photos for e.g., there's even a video tutorial on how to do it. I bet you you'll have a better result too that in-camera, and with less aggravation over the built-in app's horrible UI.

I find the Smooth Reflections app very easy and seamless and creates one raw file with up to 246 combined images. It creates a very nice long exposure without some of the color shifts, noise and overheating seen with using an ND filter. It also saves a lot of work combining them in post and storage space.

onever said:

Smooth reflections, digital filters, star trails etc. - I have them all on my A7RII. Never used them beyond figuring out (the very convoluted) interface. What exactly do they do for you that you cannot do yourself in post with an editor of your choice? Multiple exposures blending is a piece of cake with Affinity Photos for e.g., there's even a video tutorial on how to do it. I bet you you'll have a better result too that in-camera, and with less aggravation over the built-in app's horrible UI.

Click to expand...

From my perspective, it was more the possibilities and direction that that app subsystem could have taken (less about current implementation).

The Smooth Reflection app was really good - saved me from spending on ND filters, the Timelapse app was good - I did not have to carry an external intervalometer, and I can go on about how better the whole thing could have been made (direct social network uploads? complex multiple exposures? Long Exposure calculations using inbuilt light meters? and a whole lot!)

There is nothing that cannot be done externally, but carrying less and being able to do more without needing an external device for every little thing is liberating.

Sony is regressing if they do not have the subsystem itself (forget about improving it or opening it up to the developers!)

Sid911 said:

Sony is regressing if they do not have the subsystem itself (forget about improving it or opening it up to the developers!)

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Sony has missed a huge opportunity by not opening the app store up to 3rd party developers. They had the right idea years ago when they created the PlayMemories App store, but they never followed through with it. What could have been a game changer was never allowed to flourish.

I use the Smooth Reflections app as well. Its very good. I have used the time lapse app briefly. I wasn't able to upgrade it as the site enforces you to have the latest camera firmware which for me would mean the worse star eater firmware than what I have on my camera.

A shame, that's a step backwards and a consideration for me against upgrading.

Greg.

This is a very annoying step back, just like removing PPs from the A9. Sony really need to stop doing this. They should have improved and expanded PlayMemories, not killed it. Smooth reflections and HDR were really useful aps, giving you single in camera RAWs with messing around with ND filters.

I dont understand why Sony keep doing this, but it is making me less inclined to stump up the money for the upgrade.

christopher cove said:

I wonder if they are going to disable adding Play Memories apps on the A7R3 like they did the A9. This would a number since I love the smooth reflections app and there is nothing out there short of an ND filter that can replace it.

Click to expand...

I hope there will be some engineer at Sony with enough charisma to talk sales guys into implementing a proper, advanced, flexible, user-definable "engine" for the camera.

I'm thinking of a PC/Mac app that one could attach camera to and define "rules" on how the camera should operate in any given situation, or write custom "functions" that could be activated via a "Fn" button.

Function could look like:

function timelapse (number-of-frames, interval-seconds):

do-times (number-of-frames) {

capture-frame()

wait(interval-seconds * 1000)

}

You get the idea. If they would supply all the primitive functions like capturing the frame, setting ISO, shutter speed, aperture, maybe even moving focus points or stacking multiple RAW files, all that, and let us write custom functions based on that, sky would be the limit.

Rules could be simpler:

- IF ISO mode = auto AND ISO > 3200 AND FOCAL-LENGTH <= 50 THEN SHUTTER = 1/50

- IF mode = memory-1 THEN raw-compression = off

In other words - instead of having apps that live on top of the camera system, bake apps inside and make them first-class citizen.

Once that would be available, there's only one small step to having an online repository where users could be uploading their functions/rules for others to use.

Yeah, I know, I can dream

agreed, slow apps, loose all button mappings, and strange menu system

but the one app i used and loved alot was the timelapse

which also was the only intervalometer

at least now we can charge via usb C and plugin a proper intervalometer

but it really bewilders me, compare it to nikon d850, which comes with a built in intervalmoeter

why cant sony add something like that? to not include one really gimps users who need one, in this day and age when most cameras have that ability, sony after all these years still can't get that right.

Sid911 said:

According to a DPreview editor, there is no PlayMemories App ecosystem on A7Riii.

Pretty unfortunate - as a landscape photographer, I used a few apps like Smooth reflection, Timelapse and the touchless shutter quite a bit.

I was really hoping they would improve upon this ecosystem and open it to the developers, instead, they retrograde and remove the most forward thinking feature from their new iterations. Disappointing.

Click to expand...

This is really disappointing, it has been missing on A9, and now on A7rIII! I used the time lapse app for shooting sunrise and sunset when travelling. Because of A9 does not have the app, I need to at least carry one more camera A7rII for doing this!

Incredibly disappointing, and I don't get the reasoning behind it.

I love the hardware of my Sony cams but the software side of things is unbelievably frustrating. In this case it seemed like Sony was on the verge of something truly great if they had opened the app store up to devs. Imagine all the amazing functionality we would have gotten, and Sony would have made a killing with their cut of all the app sales.

But instead they sat on it, then killed it completely. WHY?

Opportunity missed. Hopefully someone will step up and fill in the gap.

I have 2 A7rII's and one will be going and one of the reasons I will be keeping the other and not changing it as well is to keep the use of the smooth reflections app

So, I was watching Tony Northrop’s review today and Chelsea said something about it... and Tony said it was not implemented in the samples... but that he talked to someone and it would be in the new cameras.

Drew1house said:

So, I was watching Tony Northrop’s review today and Chelsea said something about it... and Tony said it was not implemented in the samples... but that he talked to someone and it would be in the new cameras.

Click to expand...

It make more sense to keep having the Play Memories App on the A7rIII while the A7r and A7rII both have them.